"But I messed things up so badly!" Alaire wailed. "We were here to try to prevent a war. Now I've probably started one."
"Don't blame yourself, Alaire," Lyam said, trying to soothe him. "Sir Jehan had already made certain there would be a war before you ever arrived. You are not to blame. You simply became a convenient excuse for what he wanted to do anyway." Then he explaine Jehan's machinations.
But that left Alaire with a number of unanswered questions -- one of which was very important.
"What about Kai?" Alaire asked, hesitantly.
"They've got him now, don't they? What happened when he got to his father?"
Captain Lyam answered, not Naitachal; his face and voice completely expressionless. "He tried to explain what happened. Kai's word was against Jehan's; he had little credibility and his father, of course, didn't believe him. They put him in shackles and sent him to the dungeon. They charged him with treason, with con- spiracy involving mages sent by Althea to overthrow his father."
"The dungeon?" Alaire said, his eyes darting back and forth between his Master's and the Captain's.
"Now they're looking for me. It's me they want! We can't go off and leave Kai in prison!"
"And what do you propose we do?" Naitachal said softly. "We barely got out of there ourselves, and that was only because Captain Lyam was my jailer."
Alaire shook his head vehemently. "I don't care. We have to go back. Kai saved my life when he brought me down here."
"Which would make you about even, hmm?" Nai- tachal said shrewdly. "You saved his life, and put your own in jeopardy by performing magic; he saved yours by hiding you. The scales balance, in my opinion."
'There's nothing we can do, Alaire," Lyam said sadly. "Sir Jehan is just too powerful right now. He had the King eating out of his hands, and it would take a miracle to change that. If you go back to try to Kai, and fail, do you know what will be waiting for you then?"
"Yes, I know," Alaire said sadly. "Prison of Souls."
"You do not want to go there," Lyam replied, emphatically. "Kai's fate won't be nearly as terrible.
Trust me, his father will not deliver him to the usual fate of traitors. He'll probably be disowned and made into a slave, under Paavo. Slavery is the usual fate of those traitors who are not considered clever enough to be dangerous." He coughed, embarrassed. "Jehan will probably urge this very move on the King. He would obtain far more enjoyment out of seeing Kai shining his boots than swinging at the end of a rope."
Alaire could not imagine this.
"Kai will never serve anyone but himself," Naitachal said. "I've seen enough of the boy to make that predic- tion."
"But you're wrong," Alaire protested. "He's changed. No, really! He's not the same. When I brought him back, he saw how close he was to dying.
Something happened to him, I'm not sure what." He groped after the words he needed to describe Kai's transformation, but failed to find them.
"Which is all moot, at this point," Naitachal said.
"We can't go back. It would be the three of us against the entire Royal Guard and King's mages, an Swords. We don't have a chance against them.
Alaire slumped, and put his head in his hands. "I guess you're right But how do you plan on getting us out of here?" Alaire downed more of the tea, which helped his headache tremendously. "What's going to happen to you, Captain?"
"I am going with you, young man," Lyam said, wea- rily. "I've burned my bridges to get Naitachal here.
They'll be offering a price for my head as soon as they realize I'm gone, and who I took with me." He scratched his chin, reflecting. "I hope they don't go too hard on that boy I put in charge of guarding you."
"I'm more concerned about Erik," Naitachal said.
"They knew he was driving the carriage when we left."
"That's something I haven't told you yet," Lyam said reluctantly. "He's going with us too. You see, Erik's my son, in spite of the tale he spun for you about a teacher and the House of Lieslund. More like Hou Lyam." He beamed proudly, despite his obvious worry. "Right now, he's leaving the carriage some- where on the other side of the tavern district, to throw the Swords off, and will meet us at the dock."
Alaire looked up, surprised. "We're going by ship?"
"No other way," Naitachal said. "An Arachnean trader, by the looks of it. The problem will be getting to it. Sir Jehan sealed the docks."
"Speaking of which, shouldn't we be getting out of here?" Lyam said, standing, with a visible effort. "If we wait too long, my rank isn't going to carry much weight with anyone. I won't have a rank. Or a life."
Gallen came puffing back down the stairs, wiping sweat off his forehead. "Looks like the Swords are gone," Gallen said. "But I'd be careful. They went north, towards the palace."
"Good," Lyam said, loosening his sword in its sheathe. "We're going -- "
"Don't tell me!" Gallen said, holding fingers in both ears. "I don't want to know. Now you three, you'd bet- ter get on before someone else comes looking for you."
"My thoughts exactly," Naitachal said, he Alaire to his feet. "Are you ready?"
The movement renewed his headache, which pounded in both temples and put a tight band of pain across his brow. "As I'm going to be," he groaned in reply.
They took the dark and half-hidden secondary alleys instead of the highly visible, lamplit streets.
Lyam remained wary, leading the way with a drawn dagger, checking each shadow for a potential attacker.
The snow had turned to a thick gray mush in the al- leys. Alaire had gotten a little more accustomed to the slippery stuff in the short time he had been in Suino- men, and Naitachal, graceful as a cat, predictably had no problems with it at all.
Alaire couldn't stop thinking about Kai, and what was going to happen to him. He didn't believe Lyam's story about slavery; despite the elaborate explanation, he knew it was nothing more than a story to mak -- and possibly even Lyam himself -- feel better.
Most likely the King would sentence him to die, given the circumstances. He doubted Lyam's motives in helping them. There's something in this for him, and we don't know what it is yet.
Still, Naitachal had always been a good judge of character. Granted that he probably had little choice in the people willing to help him escape from the pal- ace, Alaire didn't think the Dark Elf would p Lyam to join them if he had any doubts abou Captains trustworthiness and veracity.
Kai was going back to try to dear me. Instead, they arrested him, and will probably execute him. And there isn't a thing I can do about it.
Logic told him there was no going back, that the only thing left for them to do was to return to Althea with what they'd learned. But Alaire found himself walking a little slower when he thought abou Prince and his fate, as if the palace was a magnet, drawing him back. If I explained to Naitachal how I felt about this -- Surely I can do something to help him! After all, I'm not what they think I am, my father is the King of Althea. Now that I think about it, Nai- tachal is technically my underling, not the other way around. If it actually came to that, if I put my foot down, pointed out that I was, after all, Althean roy- alty, would he back down and agree to rescue Kai?