StarCrossed. Part 24

"Easy there. My friends are very impressed with your work," he said.

"Are they?" I said. "That's fascinating, because we've had mail go out exactly once, and your report wasn't with it."

Daul's face darkened. "What -"

"What the h.e.l.ls is going on here?" I said. "If you're not reporting suspicious Sarist activity to the Greenmen, then what are we doing?"

Daul pressed close to me. "Have you brought me any suspicious Sarist activity, little mouse? I'm having trouble remembering. Let's see. Are there Sarists hiding in the woods? No. And what about these guns you promised to find? You talk big, but I've yet to see any real evidence."

I pulled away, but I could hardly protest. He was right, and I was running out of little things to string him along with.

"Enough games. I know you've been holding out on me. From now on, I want every thing you find, the moment you find it. Do you understand me?"

"That's what I've been doing!"

"Really? Then tell me what you and my brother were discussing the other morning. You looked so cozy there together in the Armory."

"How did -" I gave up. Daul already knew; telling him couldn't make things any worse. "You were right. He as much as admitted it to me."

His hand on my arm gripped tighter. "As much as? What does that mean?"

I explained what Lord Antoch had said to me, about making up for a mistake he made eigh teen years ago. Daul's breath quickened, and he stared into my eyes.

"And you're not making this up?"

"Why would I make that up? It's horrible."

"It's not enough," he said, almost to himself. "We need proof."

"Why? You're the only one who cares."

He brought his face very close to mine. "And I'm the only one who matters, to you. Remember that, little mouse."

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX.

I couldn't sleep that night, and Meri was just as restless. She kept turning over in the bed, an arc of sparks flowing over her. I stared up at the embroidered canopy, listening to Phandre snoring noisily in the other room. I knew I should be worried about Lord Antoch, but the shadows on the canopy kept shaping themselves into long black arrows instead.

"Did you ever talk to Reynart?" I whispered.

Meri flipped over and looked at me. "I couldn't. I was going to, but I got there and couldn't think what to say to him! Celyn, I don't know why those guns are down there. I trust Master Reynart, but -"

"We need more information," I said, and Meri nodded. She was so solemn and earnest, and she was ultimately at the heart of all the secrets that Bryn Shaer twined together. If her mother was planning a war, if her father was the Traitor of Kalorjn, if Daul was pa.s.sing information to the Inquisition, Meri deserved to be more than to be a helpless p.a.w.n carried along by their machinations. And I thought she'd demonstrated she could handle more, as well.

Daul had claimed his father's journal could prove that Antoch was the traitor, but whatever he'd found inside it hadn't been what he'd expected. Yet he still insisted it was true. And those rings. That d.a.m.n niggle wouldn't let up. Something was wrong there; I could taste it.

There was one place in this castle that I had never searched, one person whose secrets dictated every move I made. And there was only one person in this castle who could help me get inside those mysterious rooms. I turned to Meri. "There's somewhere we should look," I said.

"Where?" she whispered.

"Lord Daul's rooms."

She propped herself up on one elbow. "What?"

Well, I was committed now. "I'm not sure I trust him, Meri. He's definitely hiding something about his connection to the avalanche victims. We need to find out what it is." She gave a tentative nod. "He has a magical lock on his door. Do you think you can open it?"

At the word magic, she brightened. A real chance to use her powers for something that might be important. "Can we go now?"

"Now?" I said. "But it's late; he's probably in bed -"

She shook her head. "He's reading a moon chart for Yselle. I heard her tell my mother. For her sister's birthday. It has to be done at midnight or something."

I just blinked. It was completely preposterous, and try as I might I just couldn't imagine Daul tucked into the kitchens, reading fortunes for the housekeeper. "Good," I said. "Yes. Now."

Getting up to Daul's rooms was not a problem; it was getting into them that would require Meri's specialized skills. We sneaked up the stairs, keeping to the shadows along the edge of the hall, and stopped before Daul's door.

"Go on," I urged, but Meri hesitated.

"Why are we doing this?" she asked.

I stood beside the door. "He's dangerous," I said quietly. "He knows my brother, and he's threatened to - report me to the Celystra." That was all true enough, but somehow I still felt like I was lying to her.

Her eyes widened in indignation."Your brother! But -"

"I just want to make sure he's not telling the Celystra anything else, as well."

Meri set her mouth decisively and gave her attention to the lock. "This would be easier if we had any kind of a key," she said. "But if it's really just magic keeping it shut, that shouldn't matter." She looked at it, whispered to it, stroked and tapped the case and shackle. The lock's magic seemed to shudder under her fingers, but it wouldn't dissipate. Finally she stepped back. "I think it's a permanent charm. You need the original spellcaster to break it."

Pox. "You tried," I said generously, but my voice sounded thin.

"What now?" Her fingers were hooked together at her waist, and she looked eager to do something else.

"Nothing now," I said. "We go back to bed." I pushed her toward the main stair. We had to be cautious going back past Lady Lyll's rooms; Lyll was getting used to finding me in strange places at all hours, but Meri was new to this.

I miscalculated. Meri trailed behind me down the stairs, and I stepped out into the hallway just as Lady Lyll rounded the corner, carrying a heavy journal and moving with determination toward the public section of the Lodge. I ducked back, swearing silently, waving Meri deeper into the shadows.

"Celyn!" Lyll gave me a curious look. "What are you doing up?"

"I needed to use the privy," I said. Never mind that I was fully dressed and heading in the opposite direction. I said a silent prayer that Meri would have the good sense to stay tucked tight into the darkness.

Lyll didn't believe me, I could tell that immediately. But she nodded anyway. "He's been restless all day. Maybe you can calm him down, convince him to sleep."

Relief surged through me, though I found a little s.p.a.ce to reflect that that was probably the wrong reaction. "I'll try, milady," I said. "Would you like me to use force or persuasion?"

Lady Lyll cracked a smile. "At your discretion."

Since I was now supposed to be on my way toward the stillroom and the prince, I had to turn around and walk with Lady Lyll, leaving Meri behind on the stairs and hoping she hadn't overheard that little exchange. "Where are you off to at this hour, milady? If I may ask."

Lyll consulted the timepiece she wore on her girdle, and sighed. "There's some castle business I must attend to," she said. "We've not heard back from the messenger we sent down the mountain several days ago, and he is overdue."

I felt a stab of worry. "Berdal? What do you think happened to him?"

Her expression softened. "Probably just got caught by some bad weather. But we were hoping he'd bring news we've been expecting for several weeks now."

"What sort of news?"

"Word from the Crown, regarding the representative we hope they're sending for Meri's kernja-velde. Nothing serious, but we thought we'd send someone after him, just to make sure. Lord Antoch and Lord Daul are going to ride out in the morning."

"Together?" The word squeaked out of me.

She frowned. "Of course. Celyn, what's the matter?"

I shook my head - what was I supposed to say? Don't let Antoch ride off alone with Daul? They'd been alone together every day for weeks. If Daul was planning on throwing Antoch off a mountain, he'd had ample opportunities before.

But Antoch hadn't ever confessed to treachery before.

"Isn't it dangerous on the roads? With the - bandits?"

"They'll have guards. And I expect they'll bring back some good game, as well. They've spotted some wild sheep on the hills below us. We'll have mutton stew next week!"

Now. Now is the moment to tell her. "But Daul never goes hunting," is what made it past my lips. Lady Lyll just gave a little chuckle and kept walking, while I hoped desperately that whatever guards Antoch brought with him wouldn't turn on him if Daul suddenly shouted, "He's the Traitor of Kalorjn!" into the windswept air.

We'd reached the Lesser Court doors, and Lady Lyll took her leave and went inside, followed soon after by Lord Wellyth, who gave me a brief, stately bow. I lingered, suddenly suspicious. Why would Lord Wellyth care who was coming for Meri's kernja-velde?

"What's going on?" Meri slipped up beside me, and I jumped. Blast - I was getting soft. She never would have gotten the jump on me in Gerse.

I edged to the side to let Meri peek through the crack in the doors with me. "Some kind of meeting," I said.

"They've been having a lot of those. Usually after we meet with the suitors in the afternoons - Mother makes me leave, and the others come in, and they talk there for hours."

"The others?"

"Everyone - Lord Wellyth, and the Cardom, Lord Sposa . . ."

"I want to hear what they're saying." Through the gap in the doors, I tried to see a place to sneak in and conceal myself. Was there a back entrance to the Lesser Court? I couldn't remember.

"We could try the gallery," Meri suggested. "The minstrels' gallery for the Round Court backs onto the Lesser Court, and there's a grille, so the people in the Lesser Court can hear the music."

I turned and stared at her. She was grinning. "Mother made Phandre and me polish it one day. I don't remember where you were."

I tossed up my hands. "Lead the way."

Tucked behind the musicians' seats was a fretwork panel that screened us from view but let us hear every thing from the Lesser Court with perfect clarity. Listening to the s.h.i.+ft of bodies and voices inside, I guessed there were five or six people there besides Lyll. Meri crouched beside me, trying to peer through the gaps in the grille.

"I can't see anything," she said. "Just a lot of chair backs."

"Just listen," I whispered.

"Lord Wellyth," said a warm voice I had no trouble identifying as Lady Lyll's. "If you'll remind us all where we left off last time?"

"Certainly, my lady." I heard a rustle of papers, a cough, and then Lord Wellyth's thin, reedy voice. "We had settled on the restoration of properties and council seats to exiled families, and on the relief of the Heresy Tax levied against those families - but we were still disagreed on the matters of liberation of lands claimed by the church -"

"The Celyst church," somebody put in.

Meri turned to me, her brows pulled together. I shook my head and turned back to the grille.

Another reedy cough. "Yes, well, as I was saying: liberation of lands claimed by the church in the last twelve years."

A chair squeaked angrily. "Since the Edict of Crenns? That's nothing! We must demand back all the lands the Celysts have taken since Bardolph took the throne!"

"And you know he'll never agree to that." That might have been Lord Cardom.

"Let him refuse. We're ready. The timing couldn't be more perfect, not with Bardolph sending Astilan to bully Corlesanne -"

Lady Lyll broke in. "We're not ready," she said, speaking low. "This is the path we agreed on. It will take at least another seven months to pull together enough resources for a military operation."

"Then the first thing we must address is that intolerable concession barring us from rearming." That was a woman's voice, and it sounded familiar - Lady Cardom, perhaps?

"And that will be the first thing they look for. What do you think Bardolph will do the moment you ask to put a couple cannons on those wars.h.i.+ps you build?" I definitely knew that voice: Eptin Cwalo.

"We might as well roll over and capitulate, to take your position!" cried another man. Lord Sposa, I thought.

"Gentlemen! Play nicely or go home." Lyll's voice was light but firm. Amid some squeaks and mutterings, there were reluctant grumbles of a.s.sent. "Good," said Lyll. "Lord Petr, please continue."

The debate went on, Meri and I listening as they hashed out the finer points of King Bardolph's offenses against the people of Llyvraneth, and the actions by which His Majesty might avoid an armed uprising of his subjects.

"It sounds like some kind of charter of grievances," I said. "They probably mean to present it to whoever the king sends to Bryn Shaer."

"Mother said they're not ready to go to war. But we saw all that artillery, which means -"

I nodded. "They don't think the king will agree to any of their demands."

Snow fell thickly as Daul, Antoch, and a handful of guards rode off the next morning, burying their tracks and obscuring their path down the mountain. I stood on the tower walk and watched them go, and within moments they were lost in a swirl of white.

Lyll swept us into a flurry of prep ara tions for the kernja-velde, a mere two weeks away now: final fittings for Meri's gown, elaborate rehearsals of the ritual, and endless yardage of embroidery for the ceremony. Meri had formed quite an attachment to Marlytt, who instructed her on every thing from dance steps and hairstyles to - I suspected - how best to comport her affair with Stagne. Not that I thought Meri would actually be so foolish as to tell Marlytt she was secretly seeing a Sarist magician behind her parents' backs, but if I were a young girl in need of romantic advice, I knew the one person at Bryn Shaer I would turn to.

When I wasn't pinning up hems or sampling delicacies for Yselle in the kitchens, I was keeping the prince company. Lady Lyll had con sented to a small carving knife, and Wierolf whittled halfheartedly at a lump of wood that might have been on its way to becoming a cow. I could tell he was restless, though, so to keep him from overexerting himself before his wounds were ready for sparring, I dragged a plank of wood in from the kennels, and we took turns using the knife for throwing practice. Wierolf etched a circle in the center of the board for a target. My aim was almost pathologically bad, but with the prince's coaching, I was improving. I could actually hit the wood, blade first, almost every time.

It all kept me busy enough to - mostly - take my mind off of Daul and Antoch and the missing Berdal. I did make one last, fruitless search of Lord Antoch's rooms, hoping for evidence that would prove he was or was not the Traitor. But aside from a curious door hidden behind his bed, which appeared to lead nowhere interesting, there was still nothing incriminating among his belongings.

More than anything, my fingers were itching to get inside Daul's rooms and rifle through them. I was determined to find out what he was hiding behind that charmed lock. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it, and the more I resigned myself to the fact that there was only one way to get in there that I hadn't tried yet. I was going to have to go in from the outside - up or down the side of the building.