'Dead. She underestimated him.' The queen held up Piro's bodice. 'Do you think we can save this, Seela?'
'Burn it,' the old nurse advised. 'Burn anything touched by his blood.'
'Of course. What was I thinking?'
'You've had a shock, dear. Send for Autumnwind. He'll have to settle the Affinity released by their deaths and ensure their bodies are properly disposed of.'
'Springdawn's death will have to be reported to the abbess,' the queen said, as she tossed Piro's bodice into the brazier and stirred it until the material caught. 'As for Valens, I don't — '
'Now we can banish Cobalt.' Piro made the connection.
'We can't confront him.' Seela put aside the wet cloth and dried Piro's shoulder. 'He's grown too powerful. Your father has named him Protector of the Castle.'
'But Valens was Cobalt's servant.'
'Cobalt will say he did not know,' the queen pointed out. 'He'll be horrified and terribly sorry.'
Her mother was right, Piro could just imagine Cobalt's reaction. 'But Valens is dead. How do we explain that?'
'I'll remove his belongings. We can say he ran away, back to Ostron Isle because he feared the Merofynians.' Seela winked at Piro. 'You know what cowards, Ostronites are. They never fight, not if they can wheedle their way out of trouble.'
'Cobalt will suspect, but what can he do?' The queen took off her woolen over-wrap and passed it to Piro. 'You'll have to run down to your chamber and put on another bodice.'
Piro tied the wrap. It smelt of her mother's favourite perfume and made her feel warm to the core. She came to her feet. 'Very well. Is there anything I can do to help?'
Seela and her mother exchanged looks.
'Wait down by the stables,' Seela said. 'Rolen still trusts you. If he comes back too soon, distract him until we can get rid of Valens.'
Piro nodded. She didn't ask what they were going to do with the renegade's remains. He would have to be burnt and the ashes sprinkled over water.
'Go by the servants' stairs,' Seela suggested.
Piro stepped over Springdawn's body and through the tapestry.
Back in the solarium she heard someone tap on the door and enter without waiting for a reply. 'Queen Myrella, I — '
Old Lord Steadfast? What did he want?
Piro peered through the chink in the tapestry.
Steadfast had stopped in the doorway, his path blocked by Valens' body. He raised stunned eyes to the queen.
'What's going on, Myrella?' Cobalt asked, his ashen face peering over the old warrior lord's shoulder.
'Thank Halcyon you've come. I was just about to send for help.' Piro's mother did not miss a beat. She crossed the room, having to avoid Springdawn's body to reach them.
'What happened?' Steadfast asked, stepping around Valens' body so that Cobalt could enter the room.
'It's terrible.' The queen wrung her hands. 'I sent for Springdawn because I'd discovered she'd taken a lover. She denied it but Valens admitted it. She took poison and he cut his throat.'
'Who would have thought?' Steadfast muttered.
Cobalt stared at the two bodies, one without a mark, the other lying in a pool of blood. Piro was impressed with her mother's ability to think on her feet.
'I…' The queen reached for Cobalt. 'I don't feel…'
He had to catch her as she fainted.
'The shock,' Steadfast explained knowledgeably, shaking his head in sympathy.
'That's right, poor dear,' Seela agreed. 'It happened so quickly there was nothing we could do. Bring the queen over here, Cobalt.'
As she indicated the day bed, Piro noticed that the bowl which had been used to wash the blood from her shoulder and arm had been returned to the stove. Would Cobalt or Steadfast notice the pink water?
'On second thoughts, Myrella won't want to be near the bodies when she wakes,' Seela muttered. 'Better bring her through to the far chamber.'
And she herded both men out the door into the larger solarium.
Piro leant against the wall, weak-kneed.
Why had Cobalt and Steadfast arrived just when they did? Cobalt's spies must have reported that the queen had sent for his manservant. Whatever Cobalt might suspect, he could not disprove her mother's explanation.
She darted back inside to grab the bowl and slipped out, heading for her bed chamber. It was the work of a moment to tip the bloodied water down the drain at the end of the corridor and leave the bowl with the others waiting to be washed.
Fifteen minutes later, dressed in a completely different outfit — she couldn't stand the thought of wearing anything that Valens had touched — Piro crossed the stable courtyard. Several of Byren's honour guard were strapping travelling kits to their saddles and mounting up.
'Chandler, Winterfall. What are you doing?' Piro asked. Yesterday, when she had delivered the news of Byren's banishment, they had seemed relieved to hear that their vows of service had been annulled.
'We're going after him,' Chandler replied, swinging up into the saddle. His tired but determined eyes met Piro's. 'Byren's loyal to the core. We refuse to believe he's a traitor and we're going to help him.'
Relief made Piro feel light. She touched his boot top, level with her face. 'I'm glad. Watch over him.'
Chandler nodded and the eight of them rode out.
Piro couldn't remember how many honour guards Byren had sworn in but only eight had stood by him. Perhaps it was for the best. Where Byren was going he needed followers who were completely committed.
Piro stayed in the stables until lunch time, by which time she was too hungry to think straight. She hadn't eaten breakfast and was going to miss lunch, and still there was no sign of her father. Knowing him, he was probably treating himself to roast beef and potatoes in one of Rolenton's rich merchant's homes. There was time for her to snatch some food. When the king came back, she wanted to be sure he saw her mother and Seela first, not Cobalt. She headed for the kitchen, begging some extra scraps for her foenix.
Settling in with him she shared her lunch. Glad of the foenix's uncritical company, she whispered her fears to him. 'So I don't know what Father's going to say when he hears Valens has killed himself.'
The foenix made a soft, sympathetic noise in his throat as though he understood.
'Piro, are you there?' Seela scurried into the menagerie.
Piro came to her feet.
Seela looked relieved. 'Your mother wants you.'
Piro dropped the last of the crumbs for the foenix and hurried over to her old nurse.
'Is everything all right? Did Cobalt suspect? I overheard him arrive,' she explained. 'Mother was so quick to invent that lovers' story.'
'It was not invention.' Seela looked grim. 'Something very like that happened not forty years ago in the Merofynian court. Still, Cobalt was suspicious.'
Piro smiled. 'Even if he is, what can he do?'
'Cause trouble. He has a gift for it,' the old nurse muttered as she hurried down a corridor. 'You've been taking your dreamless-sleep, haven't you?'
'Yes.' Piro only half-lied. 'Why?'
Seela didn't answer. Piro went to take the quickest route to her mother's solarium but Seela caught her arm, urging her to the left.
'Why are we — '
'Nightmares?' Seela asked, panting a little.
'Some,' Piro admitted. With the unistag gone the only surviving Affinity beast in the menagerie was the foenix, and he was too small to absorb much of her power, so it had been building up again. Too much dreamless-sleep made her feel listless and groggy the next day, and too little could not keep the nightmares at bay. She preferred nightmares to feeling half-alive.
'We're going to write down your dreams so Autumnwind can try to interpret them,' Seela explained. 'You were right about the threat to Rolen, even if you had the wrong source.'