As I reached for them, a loud bell began to toll close by, its peals loud and incessant, coming every few seconds. I paused, listening, counting. Five then eight then ten strikes, and then it stopped.
Freda had an anxious expression on her face. Rising, she began to pack up her cards.
“What does that bell mean?” I demanded.
“An emergency!” Aber said. “We have five minutes to report to the main hall!”
Chapter 15
Let me get my sword first,” I said, I wasn’t making the mistake again of getting sent off gods-knew-where without being properly armed.
Running back into my bedroom, I grabbed my swordbelt and buckled it on. Then I rejoined Freda and Aber, and together we hurried downstairs. Titus and Conner followed almost on our heels.
We met Locke and Davin on the ground floor. Both looked grim.
“Anyone know what the problem is?” Locke asked us.
“Sorry, no,” I said. “You?”
“No.” He turned and headed for the audience hall at a jog, Davin at his heels. Aber and I followed them.
“How often has the alarm been rung?” I asked Aber.
“First time that I know of,” he said. “It’s only supposed to be rung in the direct of emergencies.”
“Like an attack?”
He gulped. “Yes!”
We reached the audience chamber, and there Anari directed us to a small antechamber off to the left. Inside, Dworkin sat at a table covered with maps of the lands around Juniper. A soldier with that extra joint in his arms stood stiffly at attention before him. I noticed he had minor wounds on his hands and arms, and what appeared to be burns on the left side of his face.
I nudged Aber. “He’s been fighting hell-creatures,” I whispered.
Aber looked suddenly terrified. “Here?” he whispered back. “Then it’s begun?”
“What is it?” Locke demanded of our father and the soldier. “What’s happened?”
“Tell them, Captain,” Dworkin said.
“Yes, Prince.” Slowly, in strangely accented tones, the officer began his report. “We were on the dawn patrol—”
“That’s ten men on foot walking the forest line,” I overheard Davin whisper to Blaise.
“—and there was a wind blowing from the forest. I smelled fresh horse manure and knew it could not have come from our camp. No horse patrols go there. I ordered everyone to spread out, and we entered the trees to investigate. Almost immediately we came upon a small campsite, well hidden. Three devils were waiting for us with their fire-breathing mounts. They attacked and killed four of my men. We killed one, and when that happened, the other two fled. We could not catch them on foot. They seemed to vanish into the trees. Men are searching for them now, but…” He shrugged. “I do not have much hope for the finding.”
“Hell-creatures come and go like that,” I said, half to myself. “You never see their raiders—or their spies—until it’s too late, and you never find them when they run.”
Davin shot me a curious glance. “You know them?” he demanded. “How?”
“They tried to kill Dad and me the day before yesterday. I’ve been fighting them for the last year in Ilerium.”
“How can we be sure it’s them?” Aber said.
I shrugged. “How many other armies have fire-breathing horses?”
Locke said to the captain, “How long had they been there?”
“No more than two or three days, General.”
Locke turned to our father. “I must see that campsite. They fled quickly. Perhaps they left something behind.”
“A good idea,” Dworkin said, nodding. “Take Davin with you… and Oberon.”
“Oberon?” Locke asked. I heard doubt in his voice. “Are you sure—?”
I stepped forward, “As I just said, I’ve been fighting hell-creatures for more than a year now. I think I know them better than anyone else here.” Or almost anyone else, I thought, looking around the circle of faces. We still had a traitor in our midst.
“Very well,” he said with a shrug of acceptance, no taunting or baiting now, when it really mattered.
I had half expected a childish display of temper, and my opinion of him as a soldier went up a notch. A very small notch.
“Get your wounds looked after, Captain,” Locke said. “Meet us at the stables in twenty minutes. We’ll have a fresh horse ready for you.”
“Yes, General,” he said. He gave Locke a raised-palm salute, then hurried from the hall.
“The time is here,” Dworkin said softly, brow creased. “They will move against us shortly, if they are sending watchers. We must be prepared.” He looked up at us, at Locke, Davin, and me. “Be on your guard. They will kill you if they have a chance. Do not give them one!”
I trailed Locke and Davin to the stables. Now that we had a task to do, Locke moved with the deftness and speed of an experienced commander, calling for horses and a mounted squad. Grooms hurried to obey, and guards went running to the camp outside to summon the men he wanted to accompany us.
“Better add more guards to Juniper’s walls,” I suggested in a quiet voice as we waited for our horses. “Put more guards at the gates, too. Have everyone searched coming in… and going out. The hell-creatures are shape-shifters. No telling what they might try to smuggle in… or out.”
“Shape-shifters? You’re certain?”
“Yes,” I said, thinking of Ivinius, so well disguised as a human barber that he had gotten close enough to slit my throat.
“Very well. I’ll take your word on it.”
With a frown, he waved over the Captain of the Guard and gave him instructions. The man took off running a moment later.
“Extra guards,” Locke told me, “at the gate. Extra patrols on the walls. Anything else you’d suggest?”
“Just… after this, trust no one.”
He raised his eyebrows at that, but made no reply.
“Aren’t you going to ask… ?” I said.
“No. I recognize Freda’s words.”
Instead of denying it, I chuckled. “Yes. But she’s right, at least in this particular instance. A hell-creature almost killed me once by impersonating a barber. I’d hate to have the same thing happen to you.”
Locke gave me another odd look. “You aren’t what I expected,” he admitted. “You surprise me, brother.”
“This is the second time I’ve been told that since I got here.”
“Freda—?” He hesitated.
“No. If you must know, it was Aber. He expected me to be just like you, from Dad’s tales, and apparently you two don’t always see eye to eye.”
Locke shrugged. “Such is life,” he said philosophically. “There are only sheep and wolves. I have never much wanted to be a sheep.”
“As for me… I simply don’t care about our family’s politics,” I told him. “You’re all strangers… except, of course, our father.” I’d almost said Dworkin. “My only concern is keeping alive—and the best way for me to do that is to keep the rest of you alive, too. We all want the same thing, so we might as well work together.”
“Well spoken.” He hesitated. “Later, tonight perhaps, we must have a talk… just you and me, alone.”
“I’d welcome it.”
He gave a curt nod and looked away.
A private talk… I took his invitation as something akin to an apology—or at least as an admission that I wasn’t as horrible as he’d thought. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless.
Our horses had been saddled and were now being led into the courtyard. He stepped over to a handsome black stallion, about sixteen hands high, who nuzzled his palms looking for sugar. I felt a pang of envy—the stallion was a magnificent animal, and Locke patted his neck affectionately.
They had brought me a dappled gray mare, who seemed good tempered and fit. She would do, I decided, looking her over. Davin had a chestnut gelding with white socks on both front feet, full of nervous energy. The extra-jointed captain who would be leading us had another dappled gray mare like enough to mine that I couldn’t have told them apart.