"Emel, if you know so much of Darmouth," Leesil blurted out, "what do you know of my parents?"
Magiere stopped before she touched him.
Everything these two said to each other was laced with poorly hidden accusations. Leesil didn't like speaking to Emel, much less asking anything of the man. Emel turned his gaze toward the ornate door beyond the archways.
"I knew of them," he said with hesitation. "I saw Lady Nein'a at a few of Darmouth's gatherings. She was often… in the company of some noble or officer."
Magiere stiffened. Emel's implication brought a low rumble of displeasure from Chap. She wondered if the dog had known of Nein'a's "duties," and she looked back to Leesil. Again, she wanted to touch him, to stop him from asking anything more that might shake what little hold he had on himself.
"The tunnel," Leesil said. "It has to be why they ran for the keep. Do you know if they escaped?"
"I do not," Emel answered quietly. "I oversaw western fiefs at the time and did not return to Venjetz until your parents were gone. By then, Paris and Ventina already hovered in Darmouth's shadow. Questions concerning Lady Nein'a and her husband were treated as impudence. No one inquired further."
Magiere slowly came up behind Leesil and laid her hand upon his back. It took a moment to speak, but she needed his help… needed him to put his questions aside for the moment.
"Start looking," she said, and felt his back swell with a slow breath.
Leesil pulled away from Magiere's touch without looking at her. There was no time for her to soften his pain. She pointed to the ornate door beyond the arches.
"Where does that door lead?"
Emel hesitated. "Darmouth's family crypt. He holds private counsels there sometimes… with certain individuals. It is locked, but no one would ever be held there."
Magiere nodded. She took one of the three doors in the long back wall. Leesil took another, and Emel the last. She found only empty cells and an abandoned room at her passage's end. She returned to the storage area as Leesil came out of his passage and shut its door.
"Some stores tucked in the cells," he said coldly. "Nothing more. The keep is being stocked up more than is normally needed."
She hurt for him every time he spoke.
Emel returned with a concerned frown. "Weapons, bundles of quarrels, and a rack of arbalests."
"Maybe Darmouth prepares for a siege," Leesil said.
Emel's silence was confirmation enough; he'd not known before now. It seemed Darmouth kept even his closest nobles in the dark, not that they couldn't see the turmoil of the province for themselves. And so much the worse if its leader suddenly died.
Magiere went to the door in the storage area's far end. The room hadn't seen use in some time. There was a wooden chair and a table with old quills scattered upon it. A tapestry hung from an iron rod across most of the back wall, so faded and worn. She couldn't make out anything of its image other than the oak leaf pattern along its tattered border. She stepped back out.
"Some kind of office," she said. "No one has used it in a long while. So now what?"
Emel shook his head. "It is time I bluffed my way onto the main level. We will try the south staircase. I believe Martin and Kerev are on night duty there, sometimes Devid, but they all know me. I can claim to be inspecting stores in lower levels. "
"Except they never saw you come down here in the first place," Leesil said pointedly.
"If asked, I will say I went down the north staircase," Emel explained. "None will be the wiser, as they will not run into the guards from that position until off duty at sunrise."
"And what about us?" Magiere asked, as she didn't care to leave Wynn's fate in Emel's hands. "We just wait here?"
"For now. Stay below the landing within hearing… in case my ruse fails."
Magiere followed Emel with Chap at her side, though she glanced back to be sure Leesil was there. His expression was as cold and emotionless as the first day they entered Venjetz.
They made their way up the south staircase, which was longer than Magiere had expected. The lower levels were deep, "when they reached a landing before a door, Magiere stayed back with Leesil and Chap some five or six steps down the stairs. Emel reached for the latch, and a frantic female voice rang out on the other side.
"Devid! Are you there?"
"He's at the bridge gatehouse tonight," answered a deep male voice. "Something you need, Julia?"
Emel froze as the woman's voice grew louder and nearer the door's other side.
"Oh, Martin," she said. "Lady Progae and Korey are missing. So is the woman locked up in the north side. Ventina found young Mikhail out cold in the woman's room, and now Faris is in a fit. He sent word to our lord and Lieutenant Omasta that the keeps been breached and then he went off on his own. He blames Devid, and I came to warn him."
The woman's words came out in a rush. Little made sense to Magiere except for the mention of a prisoner. It had to be Wynn. The voices continued, but Magiere waved Emel back down the stairs.
"We go back down," she whispered. "If Hedi and Wynn are missing at the same time, they may be together. Hedi's note said she'd try for the lower level. We need to be ready, in case they're followed."
"There's no time," Leesil said softly. "If Faris thinks the keep has been breached, that means…"
Leesil paused so long Magiere became anxious. They couldn't stand about in the stairwell, waiting to be found. He glared down the stairs.
"Byrd," he whispered.
"What of him?" Emel asked.
Magiere followed Leesil's gaze and saw nothing, but realization followed quickly. She knew what occurred to Leesil. Her voice rose almost too loud.
"That two-faced fat rat used us!"
Byrd had slipped away once they'd discovered the tunnel, but it hadn't been long enough for him to take advantage of his new information. Unless the elves had followed them from the city.
Magiere remembered the strange flashes of light she'd glimpsed as they'd left Venjetz-signals in the dark. And now they'd let the Anmaglahk in. She didn't see how the elves could pass through without notice, but it wasn't the first time one had managed such a feat, Sgaile, the one who'd come to Bela, had entered the barracks of sages without even Leesil realizing until it was too late.
"Emel, there are assassins in the keep," Leesil whispered. "Elves."
The baron paled as he too looked down the stairwell.
"Byrd has planned this for a long time," Leesil added. "I thought I could leave a warning and be gone before they made a try for the keep. But if they're already inside… The guards are too busy searching for escaped prisoners to stop assassins, even if they could."
"We cannot let this happen," Emel insisted. "No one would mourn Darmouth's death, but the raids across our borders are growing. Now he has begun stocking the keep for a siege. If the nobles and officers go into a frenzy, fighting to take his place, the province will be overrun from outside."
Leesil took a stiletto from his wrist sheath. "I know."
Magiere gripped the hilt of the falchion, squeezing it tightly until her hand ached. She hated feeling responsible for the people here. And worse was risking Leesil's life to save the man who'd maimed him in so many ways.
"Get those guards to open that door," she told Emel. "Don't bother bluffing your way through."
Chane had never been inside the keep. Straight ahead was a wide stairway leading up. To either side of its base were passages running north and south, and in the entryway's side walls were arched openings into wide chambers.
And where exactly was he to find Wynn in this place? There were too many options, and Welstiel would not be far behind once he dealt with their escort.
Chane approached the stairs. Voices came from a distance, and he stopped. Someone was in the corridor above on the next level. Two men, one louder than the other and angry. He could not tell if they were headed for the stairs. He slipped around the base of the stairs and into the small alcove at the head of the north corridor. He crouched low against the wall as he opened his senses wide.