Authors: Rachel Aaron
“Change of plans,” Josef said. “Step aside.”
The guard tightened his grip and held his ground.
Josef reached for the Heart, but Eli’s hand on his shoulder
stopped him. The thief leaned forward, fixing the guard with his sweetest smile.
“Listen, young man,” he said. “The prince has had a really bad morning. So either you step aside and let us take responsibility for what’s about to happen, or Thereson here lives up to his murderous reputation. We clear?”
The soldier looked from Josef to Eli and back again before he let go his sword and stepped aside in one shaky motion.
“Good choice,” Eli said as Josef slammed the door open and stepped inside. He stopped again almost immediately, eyes going wide. He felt Eli stop as well and then hastily turn away. Josef didn’t blame him. The sight was enough to turn even his stomach.
The watch room where he’d met with Finley was now slick with blood. Six dead guards lay on the floor below the windows, their necks slit at the back. Blood pooled on the wooden floor, reflecting the morning sunlight, and the smell of it was thick in the air. Around this gruesome scene stood a ring of royal guards, their faces pale and tight beneath their helmets. Medics waited at the edges, but there was very little for them to do when the patients were already dead. At the center of the room, two men stood over a wide table where a seventh dead man sat slumped over a blood-splattered pile of maps, his fine-tailored gray suit now a sickly reddish black thanks to the gaping wound at the back of his neck. Josef frowned and flicked his eyes to the men standing over the table. The one on the left in the fancy coat he recognized as his mother’s admiral, though he couldn’t remember the old man’s name. The other man also looked familiar, but Josef couldn’t place him either.
Eli, however, had a better memory. “Josef!” the thief hissed, grabbing his wrist. “That’s Tesset!”
“Who?” Josef said.
“
Tesset!
” Eli whispered again. “Council man from Izo’s, works for Sara. Powers, he’ll ruin everything.”
Josef stared at the man in question. He vaguely remembered that swarthy face and large figure standing outside the hut with Sted, the one who’d gone after Nico. He could already feel Nico fading into the shadows behind him. Eli was still tugging his arm, trying to pull Josef back down the stairs, but Josef shook his head and yanked his arm free. If this Tesset was good enough to subdue Nico, then he’d already seen them, and running would do no good. Besides, Josef had questions to answer.
The admiral looked up when he heard Josef enter, and his face went scarlet.
“Prince Thereson!” he shouted. “You are confined to quarters!”
Josef ignored him, focusing on Tesset as the Council man looked up with a knowing smile.
“Good morning, Josef Liechten,” he said. “Or Prince Thereson, I should say. I trust you’re well.”
“Well enough,” Josef growled. “What are you doing here? When did you arrive?”
“Last night,” Tesset said. “And I’m here as the Council’s forward agent to help Osera prepare for the war. Your mother welcomed me herself just before all this unpleasantness. Condolences, by the way, on the death of your cousin.”
“Keep ’em,” Josef grumbled, making his way over to the closest body. The guardsman was on his stomach with his arms splayed out in an instinctive attempt to catch himself from a fall he’d never get up from.
“Back of the neck, just like the duke’s men,” Josef said, kneeling to get a better look at the gash that severed the man’s spine. “Quick too. Poor bastard couldn’t even get his sword out.” He nodded down toward the guard’s belt where the short sword was still snugly in its scabbard.
“Prince Thereson,” the admiral said again. “Stop this at once!
This tower is controlled by her majesty’s navy. Prince or not, I won’t hesitate to lock you up if you do not return to the palace at once.”
“What?” Josef said, straightening up. “You can’t blame this one on me. Eli and I were stuck in my rooms since this morning, just like the queen ordered. Look at the blood. These men haven’t been dead more than half an hour. I was probably still being disarmed when it happened. And since it’s clear that whoever did the duke’s house did this as well, I’d say I’ve been exonerated. Isn’t that right, Eli?”
“Beyond a doubt,” Eli said.
The admiral stiffened. “When your mother hears—”
“So go tell her,” Josef said. “Later. Now, what was security like in this room?”
The old man clenched his teeth, his brow furrowing into a knot as he weighed his outrage against the presence of a prince, even a despicable one. Royalty must have won out, for the admiral’s shoulders slumped and he began his report.
“Security is as you see,” he said. “Six guards watching, two at the door, four in the room, and the Council’s wizard for the Relay so that we could notify Zarin the moment enemy ships were sighted.”
“Yet all are dead inside,” Eli said, silently counting the bodies. “Including the ones who were supposed to be in the hall. And they all died with their swords in their sheaths, correct?”
“Yes,” the admiral said, looking cautiously at Josef. “Sir.”
Eli grinned manically at his newfound authority. “I can see from the lack of blood trails that the bodies haven’t been moved. Combine that with the sheathed swords and we can safely assume that all the soldiers walked in here of their own volition. That means whoever did this was someone the guards knew, else they would have barred the entrance and died outside. Someone respected, for they escorted this person in and were subsequently too shocked to
draw their swords when this known, respected person turned on them.”
“Impossible,” the admiral said. “Only officers and members of the royal family can enter this room without challenge.” He said this last bit with a pointed look at Josef, which Josef ignored.
Eli scratched his chin thoughtfully. “My real question is, why the watchtower? The duke I could understand, but why here?”
“I believe I can answer that one for you,” Tesset said.
They all turned to look. Tesset had been standing quietly beside the table. Now, though Josef had not seen or heard him move, he was several feet away, kneeling on the floor. The boards there were scuffed and dusty like any well-used surface, but one spot was darker than the rest. Josef frowned and walked over, kneeling for a closer look. It wasn’t blood, though there was certainly enough of that around. It almost looked as though someone had spilled a tiny bit of water and then tried to wipe it up.
“What’s that?” Josef said.
Tesset leaned down and pressed his finger delicately against the floor. When he lifted it, something was stuck there, glinting in the light. A tiny, curving splinter of glass.
“Question still stands,” Josef said, glancing at Tesset.
“It’s the Relay point,” Tesset said. “Or what’s left of it.”
“Powers,” the admiral whispered, staring at the wet sliver of glass. “I never knew they could be broken.”
“They’re quite delicate, actually,” Tesset said, standing up and placing the sliver of glass on the table. “Sara will be extremely distraught. Relay points are difficult to make, and we are very short at present.”
“I don’t understand,” Josef said. “Why would someone break a Relay point?”
“To cut Osera off from the Council,” Tesset said.
“But, why?” Josef asked again. “Osera has ships going to the
mainland all the time. Any disruption in communication wouldn’t last past low tide. Six hours at most.”
“Six hours is plenty of time for many things,” Tesset said, pointedly not looking at Eli. “For example, if a thief were going to pull a heist, six hours would be amply sufficient to grab the goods and get away.”
“Nonsense.” Eli’s voice was equally disinterested. “No thief worth the name would break something as rare and valuable as a Relay point. Not when he can steal it, anyway. Honestly, what kind of idiot thieves do you chase?”
The admiral looked from Eli to Tesset, utterly confused. “Thieves? What are you talking about?”
“Nothing,” Tesset said. “An idle comment. Anyway, if the criminal’s objective was to isolate us, he failed.”
“How’s that?” Eli said. “Point looks pretty broken to me.”
“That it is,” Tesset said. “But Osera has two Relay points. This tower’s point was a first alert supplied by the Council specifically for this emergency. Osera’s official point is kept in the palace for the queen’s use.”
Josef set his jaw, glancing from the dead solders to the dead wizard and back again. “Admiral,” he said quietly. “Who reported this?”
The admiral blinked. “Excuse me?”
“Who found these men dead?” Josef said, his voice annoyed. “You? A guard?”
“Oh.” The admiral wiped his sweating brow. He looked as though this was all getting to be a bit much for him. “It was Princess Adela.”
Josef stopped. “Adela?”
“Yes,” the admiral said. “She had me take over here so she could go secure the Relay point at the palace.”
“Adela went to the palace?” Josef shouted.
“Yes, your highness,” the admiral said, baffled by his sudden outburst. “She thought that would be the criminal’s next target. But don’t worry, sire, I’ve yet to meet a swordsman who could get the better of your—”
Josef didn’t have time to listen, he was already headed for the door. A hundred things were clicking together in his mind: the precision of the sword strokes, the speed with which they must have been laid down, Adela circling him in the throne room, holding back. The deep sleep that he felt and she didn’t, the drugged candles and the bowl of stimulant. He glanced out the window at the castle high above them on the mountain. Even with the horse, it would take him five minutes at least to get to the back gate and another three to run to the Relay room at the top. Josef shook his head. He had no time. He had to get there now.
He hit the door to the stairs with his shoulder, slamming the poor guard on the other side into the wall. Josef didn’t even notice. He stared into the dark and shouted.
“Nico!”
She appeared before he’d finished saying her name, and Josef took a relieved breath. For a moment he’d been afraid she wouldn’t come. “I need your help.”
Nico’s pale face broke into a thin smile. That was all the answer Josef needed.
“I have to get to the palace,” he said. “Can you take me?”
Her eyes widened. “Through the shadows?”
Josef nodded.
Nico bit her lip. “I can try.”
“Try is all I need,” Josef said. “Take me to the top, if you can. The queen’s point will be in the palace watchtower.”
Nico nodded and Josef stepped forward, snatching his hand away a second before Eli’s fingers grabbed his wrist.
“I’m going,” he said before the thief could speak.
“I realize that,” Eli whispered. “But think a second, Josef. Just because she’s been drugging you to sleep doesn’t mean she’s guilty of everything else. This could all be a setup.”
Josef moved to stand beside Nico. “We’ll see soon enough, won’t we?” He looked down. “Ready?”
Nico nodded and hesitantly slipped her arms around his waist. She didn’t look at him while she did this, keeping her face tilted down so that she was hidden in the deep folds of her hood. That was the last thing he saw before the world twisted and everything went black.
Eli jumped back with a curse as Josef vanished, tripping over the top stair and right into the point of the door guard’s sword. He raised his arms on instinct, letting the guard walk him back into the watch room. The admiral was still staring at the space where Josef had been, his wrinkled face as pale as chalk.
“Before you do anything rash,” Eli said, arching away from the sword in his back, “I’ll have you know that there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.”
“Hang it all,” the admiral muttered. “I don’t care anymore. You’re all going in irons until we get this mess straightened out.”
“All is a bit much, don’t you think?” Eli said. “It’s just me at the moment.”
“Then we’ll start with you,” the admiral growled. “Tie him.”
Eli heaved an enormous sigh as two guards stepped forward to secure him. They were fastening the rope around his hands when the admiral turned to Tesset.
“I am so sorry you had to see this, Councilman Tesset,” he said. “Prince Thereson has always—”
His voice trailed off. Tesset wasn’t listening. He was standing at
the window, staring out at the smooth sea. The admiral blinked and looked as well, squinting against the morning sun, and then what little blood was left in his face drained away.
“Powers help us,” he whispered.
No one answered. Everyone, even Eli, was staring at the line of tiny dots on the eastern horizon. Far below, the water on the beach began to churn against the rocky face of the storm wall. Out in the bay, the lines of docked Oseran runners rocked against their moorings as the sea swelled beneath them, the bay’s water pushed aside by the new, enormous current flowing from the east in a perfectly straight line.
J
osef gasped as the dark washed over him. This was true dark, not just lightless, but light consuming, and so cold he felt it like a punch all over his body. He couldn’t hear anything, but he could
feel
the darkness screaming, vibrating against his skin. Panic like he’d never felt began to close over him like a sheet of ice, and he began to sink. The darkness sucked him down like a hungry mouth, screaming and laughing at the same time. Josef couldn’t even move to defend himself, all he could do was sink and wait as the darkness poured down his throat, eating everything it touched.
Just before he was consumed, Nico’s arms tightened on his chest, pulling him back. All at once, the sinking stopped, and his limbs were free. The feeling of motion was so beautiful, Josef almost laughed with joy. Instead, he clung to the familiar realness of Nico’s wiry body with everything he had.
In less than three heartbeats, the light returned.
Josef fell to the ground, clutching his chest. He felt heavy and weak, like he’d been laid up with fever for weeks, and cold like he would never be warm again. He could feel Nico’s hands on him. Her voice was in his ear, asking if he was all right. Josef nodded and
reached for the hilt of his sword. The Heart leaped into his hand, and the weakness began to fade. When he was sure he could stand, Josef pushed himself up and looked around.