The Savarese soldier let his smile broaden. “They make bigger targets.”
Everyone laughed for a moment, then Erlestoke frowned. “I think the colonel is right, we have to find it first. If we can’t, then we have to fall back on Ryswin’s plan and make sure the Aurolani don’t haul it off.”
Verum, the grizzled meckanshü who served as their weapons-master, crouched at the edge of the platform. “Begging your pardon, Highness, but how do we know this model wasn’t a trick of Chytrine’s? If we plan based on it, we could be running into a trap.”
“That’s a good point, so we will have to be careful. I am inclined to trust it, though, because I don’t see the Aurolani venerating our dead like this. All the information given to us was such that it would help us and yet we have nothing that, if revealed to the enemy, would help her.” The prince nodded to him. “Your caution is laudable, though, so we will be careful. We can verify the patrol routes with some scouting and, if we are fortunate, we will find our way back here to learn more.”
Ryswin jerked his head at the tiers of effigies. “I think, Highness, we might all find our way back here, by one means or another.”
“I’m sure you’re right, but I hope that in one sense you are wrong.” Erlestoke looked around and sighed. “This is an august company, but I don’t want to join it. And if we can find that fragment and steal it away from Chytrine, I think our comrades here would be more than pleased to forgo our joining them.”
23
Alexia shivered as she looked at Will. The flame of a half-burned candle flickered and shifted the shadows on the youth’s face and chest. He lay very still in the bed, with his hands crossed over his stomach, the sheets and blankets pulled down to his waist and folded neatly. Peri had seen to that, and now lurked back in the shadows between Dranae in the corner and Resolute’s brooding presence in the chair beside the door.
The wan candlelight did nothing to disguise the seriousness of Will’s condition. His flesh had an alabaster hue to it that brought into sharp relief the network of angry red veins that radiated out and up from the wound. Bandages swathed his neck, though the bleeding from the punctures had mostly stopped. Sweat dappled his brow and gathered in the small hollow at the base of his throat.
Worse than how he looked was how he sounded. His breath came ragged and wet. He would breathe in, then silence would reign for a moment before a labored exhalation. She feared each breath would be followed by silence unbroken.
Qwc sat on Will’s pillow, carefully plaiting a temple lock. The small Spritha beat his wings to cool the boy, and kept murmuring things in his ear. Alexia could catch none of the words, but she hoped they brought Will some peace. She even imagined seeing his mouth twitch in an effort to smile, and refused to admit she was just deceiving herself.
A gentle knocking came at the door and she opened it. “You came, Highness.”
King Augustus nodded. “Thank you for sending for me. No progress?”
“None. He lives but we don’t know for how long.” Alexia closed the door behind Alcida’s monarch and waved him to the chair beside the bed. “We’ve sent word out to healers, but without elven magick, we have little hope.”
At her comment, Resolute growled, “This is my fault.”
“How, Resolute?” Augustus regarded him with a serious expression. “You could not have anticipated this turn of events.”
The Vorquelf’s silver eyes became cold crescents. “But I could have. I heard him rush into the corridor. I was here, resting, right there in that bed. I knew his tread. I heard him hesitate and assumed he was playing some game. By the time he burst into the room and shouted at the arachnomorph, I should have been on my feet with Syverce in hand. I was late, seconds late. He’d been bitten before I could act.”
Dranae growled from the corner. “You did what you could, Resolute. I was in the common room below, warming myself with ale and fire. I saw him rush in, but thought him up to childishness, too. Not only did we mistake him, but we remained unaware of the theft.”
Augustus raised an eyebrow. “Theft? I had assumed the attack had been an assassination attempt.”
Alexia shook her head. “The Draconis Baron entrusted a portion of the DragonCrown to Kerrigan. Kerrigan told no one but Crow and me—though later he must have entrusted Will with the information. They hid it in Kerrigan’s room and set a trap for a would-be thief. It worked, but Will got hurt when he discovered the theft in progress. Chytrine sent one of her creatures. Resolute thinks, and I agree, it was likely a new-formed sullanciri created out of the Azure Spider.”
“It’s dead now; it doesn’t matter.” Resolute snorted, then stretched out his arms. “My failing is writ here in my flesh. All these sigils. All this magick, and not a healing spell to be found. Just one and he would be well.”
The king frowned. “What of Kerrigan?”
Alexia shrugged. “He’s missing. Lombo is searching for him.”
“And the Spritha?”
Qwc’s head came up. “Here, here, Qwc belongs here. Noplace else but here.”
The adamance in the little creature’s voice underscored the desperation they all felt. The Spritha were known to have a magickal ability to be at the very place they were meant to be, at the given time they were meant to be there. That ability did not dictate every aspect of their lives, but if Qwc knew he was meant to be there with Will, suggesting he be anywhere else was for naught.
The door opened again, this time with no knock to preface it. King Scrainwood slipped into the room and two mailed guardsmen crowded in the hallway behind him. They sought admittance, but Resolute reached out and slammed the door in their faces. Scrainwood opened his mouth to complain, but Resolute towered over him, glaring.
Augustus stood and looked at Scrainwood. “Did you bring Crow?”
The Oriosan King shook his head. “I took your request under advisement and decided to investigate myself. I brought soldiers to keep him safe.”
“We don’t need them.”
Scrainwood snorted in response to Resolute’s comment. “His current state would indicate otherwise. Had you been enough to keep the Norrington safe, he’d not be here like this, would he?”
Resolute raised an eyebrow. “And your soldiers would be more effective keeping a sullanciri out of here than they were keeping one out of your palace?”
Scrainwood’s eyes blazed with outrage. “How dare you?”
The Vorquelf continued. “Did you choose to have your son lead the Tribunal before or after Chytrine told you she was sending Nefrai-kesh to testify at Crow’s trial?”
The masked king pointed a trembling finger at Resolute. “Beware, Vorquelf, for this is my nation and I will not be impugned.”
Augustus reached out and laid a hand on Scrainwood’s right shoulder. “Easy.”
“No!” Scrainwood’s nostrils flared. “I am sick of this, I am sick of all of it. The lies, the innuendo. I am the king. Oriosa’s welfare is mine to safeguard and I need no homeless elfwhelp to suggest impropriety in things he knows nothing about. He’s fighting for his homeland, but he’s late come to all this. Had he been with us a quarter century ago, we’d not be in this fix. We would have been done with Chytrine.”
Augustus shook his head. “It is unfair and simplistic to blame this on Resolute. He could not see the future. None of us could. You could just as easily accuse me of having abandoned Norrington when I went to Okrannel.”
Scrainwood’s lip curled in a sneer. “I’ve never made that accusation, my friend.”
“No, my friend, you have not, which is why I still consider you a friend, though you sorely tax my patience.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“You know quite well.”
“Enough!” Qwc buzzed into the air and hovered there between both kings’ faces. “Go, go, go, now. Go, now, now, now. Out, out, out.”