Page 31

31

ROWAN

Finally, my efforts began to bear fruit.

I insisted on being at every meal, to the consternation of my escort. Identifying potential allies and planting seeds of doubt about the queen’s motives among the diners, I began to subtly shift the narrative, making it more difficult to discredit Nerys without ever admitting outright I knew anything about her plans. Brokering quiet alliances with those who expressed sympathies to Nerys’s cause, from a discontented noble to at least one of the palace guards.

The queen thought she’d taken my weapon, and while I dearly wished to have my sword on my belt, it was not as much a loss as she might have suspected.

Two days after quietly slipping back into the palace after visiting Seren, I left a carefully folded message in the sleeve of a servant’s tunic: a coded note meant for one of the discontented nobles I’d overheard at dinner. The next morn, the same servant hovered around me, clearly wanting to return a message but unable to do so. When I took his arm, thanking him for his service, it garnered more than one strange look, but also afforded him the opportunity to slip the reply back to me.

It was as I suspected. The queen had been unable to reach Nerys who, after being followed to her training spot in the cove, Caelum and Marek had convinced to remain at Aneri’s until the festival. So, the queen had begun to use more manipulative tactics. Her plan, it seemed, was to spread enough rumors to discredit her before the festival. The fear and uncertainty I’d begun to feel from those at the palace meant her plan had begun to work.

“Sir Rowan.” Thalon, the historian, sat across from me. I’d seen him only once since the meal with Nerys. His previously calm demeanor was noticeably absent. Opening myself to him, to the room, my suspicions were confirmed. He was nervous, rightly so if he was an ally to Nerys and not the queen, as I suspected. “These are strange times you’ve come to witness.”

I glanced at my escort, standing with a guard and watching closely.

With the alliance of the others at our table unknown to me, I could say little.

“Strange indeed. Though I look forward to my first Festival of Tides.”

“How long do you plan to stay in Thalassaria?” he asked.

It was a question I could not answer. “As long as necessary,” I said, evading the question. “So tell me…”

I’d been about to ask about the festival when a burst of anger caught my attention. It drowned out all other emotions from those around me, a new sensation that could only mean this anger was important. I searched for the source. It was easy enough. A fairly young nobleman stood, two of the queen’s agents next to him. None at my table paid me any attention as the movement was now the primary focus in the hall.

A quick glance back at my escort saw him distracted by the scene.

This noble’s anger was impossible to ignore. Aware of the risk, I stood and slipped away, knowing enough of the palace grounds by now, and following the man’s continued rage, to find him. Thankfully, most others were at the meal, and it was easy enough to follow them to a more secluded part of the palace I’d never been in before.

Remaining in the shadows, I watched as they escorted him into a chamber. When voices came from the direction we’d just navigated, I tucked myself into the alcove, knowing my escort had likely noticed me missing by now.

I’d not have much time but needed to know why this man was so enraged.

As the voices passed, I could not see them without being discovered, but a line of vision was unnecessary. That was the queen’s voice, easy enough to distinguish. Barely breathing as they moved past, I bided my time. With my luck holding out so far, there were no guards outside the door. However, it was soundproofed. I had no other option than to wait back in the shadows.

When the nobleman stormed past me, sans the guards, a short time later, I followed him. Unfortunately, he was heading back to the hall. Intercepting him before he did that was my only move. Without my dagger or sword, I had no leverage. He could as easily bring the guards down on me as not, but the chance had to be taken.

“Are you an ally to Nerys?” I said, coming up directly behind him.

The man whipped around.

“If so, come with me. And quickly.”

Without waiting for him to react, I turned left with no choice but to retrace my steps with Marek. He’d not be pleased, having his secret entrance revealed, but it was that or get caught. No doubt the palace guards were already looking for me.

“I had no notion this existed,” he said behind me. At least my gamble had thus far paid off. The narrow corridor we walked through twisted sharply, dim light barely illuminating the damp stone walls. The noble’s hurried steps echoed unevenly behind me; his breath quickened as I pressed us forward.

We emerged into a passage so tight it felt like the walls themselves were closing in. Dust swirled around the faint beam of light filtering through a crack above, and the air carried the musty scent of disuse. “This way,” I said, pressing my palm to the disguised latch Marek had shown me. The panel creaked open, revealing a spiral staircase leading into the shadows below.

By the time we emerged from the palace, my noble was thoroughly confused. He looked up, shook his head, and planted his hands on his hips. “I’ve been to the palace many times and had no notion that entrance existed.”

Marek was going to kill me, but there was no hope for it. “Would it be too much of an inconvenience to ask it remain that way?”

“If it would not be too much of an inconvenience to ask why we are here. You are the human, Sir Rowan of Estmere?” When he stuck out his hand, our human greeting, it confirmed this man as an ally.

Shaking it, I said, “Aye. And you are?”

“Lord Gavric of Corvi.”

“I’ve been to Corvi— a coastal trade village, is it not?”

“Known for the Pearl Market and Navigator’s Guild,” he said proudly. Still suspicious, though, he waited for me to explain myself. I had but one course of action here. The truth.

“I am a friend of Nerys’s,” I said. “And know of the queen’s plans to discredit her.”

His anger, still palatable, was replaced with something else, not yet fully formed. Mistrust, maybe?

“She is a friend to my clan,” I explained. “And so, I would do anything possible to support her.”

Mistrust turned to… curiosity.

“The queen,” he faltered.

“Say it,” I reassured him. “We’ve little time before the festival.”

“The queen,” he continued, clearing his throat, “attempted to persuade me to use my influence and publicly denounce her. She knows Nerys plans to challenge her, and said it was not a legitimate claim but a threat to the throne. She painted Nerys as an impetuous, misguided child too reckless to understand the consequences of her actions, let alone the fragile peace we’ve fought so hard to maintain.”

All he said tracked with what I’d learned.

“What did you say to her?”

He frowned, his emotion shifting again to guilt. “I agreed, for fear of retribution before the festival, but I have no plans to do so. Our laws are clear, and I will not interfere with them.”

“And when you do not do as she bids?”

“I will not be at the palace to learn her response.”

“A good plan.”

Satisfied. He was both satisfied and hopeful.

“Perhaps you should not be at the palace either. The queen will not take kindly to you having slipped away from your escort. Her fears of an assassination are well known.”

“You are both lucky to have found a different sort of escort.”

I’d been trained to know when someone approached, but somehow, Marek had gone completely undetected. He was a tricky one, his emotions less evident than most.

Also, he was pissed.

“We had no choice,” I said by way of explanation. “And I cannot go back, having slipped away from my escort.”

He was either unconvinced I had no other option or did not care, because the look he gave me was similar to Lord Gavric when he was escorted from the hall by the queen’s guards.

“Let’s go.”

I questioned the nobleman on the way to Marek’s ship, one he very reluctantly allowed us both to board. Convinced Gavric had little else to share, and as confident as I could be that he had no plans to follow the queen’s instructions, we sailed to Corvi, a courtesy, according to Marek, for his loyalty to Nerys.

When the noble walked away from us, disappearing from view on the busy dock, I waited for Marek to untie and push us off. Instead, he began to tie off ropes.

“What are you doing?” I asked, already suspecting the answer. He was securing the ship to remain docked.

“What does it look like I’m doing?”

He was still angry. Fair enough.

“I could not risk getting caught.”

Marek finished, glaring at me. “He will tell others. That is no longer a secure spot for me to…”

“Aye?” I tried not to laugh as Marek screwed up his expression so it appeared less guilty. “When she is queen, you cannot continue your… less scrupulous activities. Not without putting Nerys in a difficult position.”

“‘When she is queen,’ being the operative phrase. These past two days have not gone well. Nerys is furious, not being able to leave. Whispers of her instability spread. And if men like Lord Gavric are giving credence to the queen’s rantings, I worry her challenge will not be upheld.”

I had not yet thought to ask. “Is such a thing possible? Is a legitimate challenge not within Thalassari laws?”

“Legitimate, aye. But there was a man once, well before my time, who challenged the king. All knew him to be mad and the king refused to entertain the challenge. It caused a temporary unrest, but ultimately, it was ruled that the king had been within his rights given his challenger’s state. He did himself no favors by marching into the palace, claiming the king, one well-liked and respected, was an imposter, and demanded the throne as his own.”

“None who know Nerys would believe the same of her.”

“Hence”—Marek waved his arms—“the queen’s current campaign.”

“Surely, you have a plan?”

Marek stepped onto the dock, smiling from ear to ear. “Rowan, my dear human, I always have a plan. And you are the most integral part of it.”