A War of Three Kings (Dying Lands #2)

34. Aldrin

Chapter 34

Aldrin

I wait with Keira on the lowest battlements to meet the others who will join us on this mission into the palace library. She looks almost unrecognizable with her glamoured appearance; her skin, eyes and hair are all shades darker, but the shape of her features is the same. It still makes unease roll through me to bring her straight into the lair of an enemy hellbent on kidnapping her.

The festival of Mabon is in full swing, despite the early hours of the morning. The wickermen have burned down to shapeless bonfires. Most of the soldiers are still in their cups, playing instruments and dancing, or sitting in groups.

Silvan joins us, then Cyprien, both folding their arms over the wall and staring out to the same view.

“Lucky jerks, still lazing about,” Drake rumbles from behind me. He double-takes when he sees Keira. “What have you done to your face?” Klara stares at her with open concern, while Zinnia grunts at me then takes her place along the wall.

I lean in close to Keira. “I told you that you were unrecognizable.”

She just rolls her eyes at us. “Not to the guards.”

“Is this everyone, then?” Edmund says as he joins us with Prince Niall and the council members.

“Yes,” I say. “Better to use a smaller group and slip under the guards’ notice.”

Edmund leads us down from the fortress to the ruined side of Fort Blackrock, where the battle took place only months ago. The earth is still rippled from the explosions, torn in places by magic, and peppered with boulders. He takes us into a discreet cave that looks like a slash within the mountain, creating fire orbs as we enter the inky darkness.

Freezing water drips from the ceiling into my hair and down my back, making me shiver. It is like sparse rain. Without thinking, I wield a moving air shield to cover the entire group and water slides off its edges. Prince Niall stares at it with wide eyes, then casts an alarmed look at me and my people. I forget the humans of the South aren’t used to casual magic.

The portal stands alone within a cavern: a twisted arch of smooth moonstone, dull and drained of magic. I stride up to it and place my hand on the frigid stone.

Prince Niall joins me, examining the plaque beside the portal. “This will lead us straight into the palace. Do you have enough fae here to activate it? We can summon priestesses if you need them as well.”

I give him a cocky smile as I pour raw power into the portal. It lights up like a beacon, the stone and the very air around it vibrating from the sheer amount of power. Thin mists roll out from the gateway.

The prince’s mouth hangs open and his face pales. He turns to the other fae, clearly realizing how much power we hold between us.

“We should move quickly,” Keira orders. She has been given the command of this expedition. “The portal on the other side will be lit up just as brightly.”

I wrap my hand around the prince’s bony arm. “I will escort you personally, Your Highness. If this is a trap—well, I won’t be very happy.” I don’t hide the threat in my tone. He visibly swallows a lump in his throat, but doesn’t resist as I tug him toward the mists.

There are twin expressions of intense concentration on Silvan and Zinnia’s faces, then the air shimmers around us.“The invisibility shield is in place,” Silvan says.

Keira marches up beside me at the front of the column. “We cross as one.”

“Aldrin,” Edmund calls out to me. “If they take my daughter, I am blaming you personally.”

“If anything happens to her, I’m not leaving the palace until it is rubble beneath my feet and she is in my arms again,” I call over my shoulder.

“Good. I expect nothing less.”

Keira leads us through the portal and that eerie place between worlds. It is a landscape of nothingness and blinding white light. I practically drag the wide-eyed prince with me, a blade at the ready in my other hand, just in case it’s needed.

We step out to the other side and no attack comes. I scan the vast space of the library, but there is no movement. We are located at a four-way crossroads of aisles that stretch as far as my eye can see, their ends engulfed in deep shadows. An upper level overlooks our position with a continuous balcony, cast in deep shadows. There are so few fire orbs here.

Guards could be hiding anywhere.

I turn and pull my magic out of the portal, closing it back down.

“We need to move fast,” Prince Niall whispers to Keira.“Academics could still be awake and in the library.”

Keira leads the way with Silvan at her side, guiding the invisibility ward around us. She turns down a wide walkway that takes us past aisle after aisle of books.

Our footsteps are mere scuffs across the stone floor, but they feel too damned loud, as do our breaths and the hammering of our hearts. Each aisle is headed by a bust of a human on a tall pedestal. My heart skips a beat each time one resolves out of the gloom and I expect to see a soldier instead of marble.

The library is musty and heavy dust irritates my nose, as though this place is rarely used. What a waste of resources, especially if it’s not open to the public.

We make a sharp turn down an aisle labeled as fae history texts. Every single tome looks brand new. None of the spines are cracked or faded. I run my hand along a row and the leather is still firm.

Silvan removes his invisibility ward from around us as soon as we all cram into that small aisle, and Zinnia forms a different kind at its mouth—an illusion that shows the aisle undisturbed. If a guard walks past, they will see the books and the wrought-iron door at its end, but not us. She can project a perfect image of a place if she concentrates hard enough.

“You should hurry,” Prince Niall urges.

I pin him with a hard look. “You wait here.”

I turn toward the wrought-iron gate as Keira breaks its wards and opens it. We follow her down a spiral staircase, each soft clang of boots upon metal making my jaw clench.

The small room below is in pitch blackness, and each of us lights a fire orb. Thick dust motes hang in the air, and it is all I can do to hold in a sneeze. The floor-to-ceiling bookshelves are crammed with texts, with many tall piles littering the floor. There is an entire cabinet of Living Memory Scrolls encased in quartz tubes, brown parchment visible within.

“We can’t take all of them,” Drake grumbles.

Keira hands out canvas bags, some with straps to loop over our backs and others for our shoulders. “The scrolls are the priority,” she states. “Scan the books and grab anything that looks important. We will only get one shot at this.”

I make quick work of breaking the ward on the glass cabinet housing the scrolls and piling them into bags. The protective tubes are heavy, but at least they are not fragile. When each bag is full, we wrap them tightly with twine to stop the scrolls from moving and clinking. Then we work on the books.

When we are carrying as much weight strapped to us as we can manage and still fight, we climb back up that spiral staircase. I am the first back up to the aisle of fake texts. I only take a few steps before I stiffen, my blood turning to ice.

A man in brown robes stands at the head of the aisle, staring at the invisibility ward. The king’s druid adviser. Zinnia is a statue right before his nose, one hand clutched to the prince and the other on a dagger.

Cyprien comes up the steps behind me, and I throw up a hand to stop him. We all freeze, standing on a knife-edge, not daring to breathe in case he might hear us.

The druid pauses for a long moment before his lips curve up at the edges and he takes a step into the aisle, through the ward.

“Ah, I thought I saw a weave of magic here that was unnatural to this world,” he says softly, triumph on his face. “I had been wondering when you would come. You can imagine my delight when you set off the triggers I had placed here.”

He glances over each of us, seemingly unfazed by the fact that we are reaching for our weapons.

The prince steps out in front of the druid, blocking his body from us, and glances back at me. “Let me talk to him.” There is a note of desperation in his voice.

“Don’t let me delay you.” The druid’s eyes connect with mine as he waves an arm at the people behind me.

“What are you doing here, Murdoc?” Niall’s voice is low and deadly. “Is this a trap you have set for us? Have you alerted the royal guard?”

Murdoc raises his eyebrows. “And why would I do a thing like that? I assume you are here to take and distribute the truths from within that cellar. We druids have been trying to achieve that feat for generations. I have been attempting to nudge you toward this misdemeanor for months now, with little comments here and there.”

Both men stare at each other.

“You won’t tell anyone that I have been here, working with these people?” Niall asks.

A hint of a smile plays on the druid’s face. “I never saw you. There is one request I will make. Leave that door unlocked and the wards down, so my order can have access to whatever texts you leave behind.”

I stalk to the druid and tower over him. “Why would you help us? You could easily raid that room, then inform the king about Niall’s deception.”

“And which king is that?” Murdoc asks, flicking his eyes to Niall. “Because there are two brothers who have a right to the throne of Strathia. One is enlightened and competent, and the other will be the ruin of all of us. Not to mention the third man making a grab for the crown.”

Alarmed voices ring out through the library. The marching steps of heavy boots striking the stone floor and the clash of segmented armor panels make my blood run cold.Someone has alerted the guards.

I narrow my eyes on Murdoc. The thin man would be easy to kill. I bet I could crush him with my bare hands.

“I swear it! The portal lit up as bright as a beacon, just ten minutes past!” A squeaky voice reaches us just before a small academic rushes past, wringing his hands as soldiers flank him.

Plans run through my head. Murderous plans.

We could easily kill those guards, kill the academic, then disappear through the portal, but I am loath to harm people just doing their job and being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I glance back at Keira and know I would do it anyway.

Before I have the chance to grab him, the druid slips out of the aisle and walks down the passage. If he betrays us, I am going to be livid.

I use hand motions to give silent orders to Zinnia and Silvan to erect the invisibility wards around us once more, and we step out of the aisle as a group. I need to see what is happening. To be able to react immediately.

“Give him a chance,” Keira breathes in my ear.

It takes everything within me to prevent myself from launching into the attack. She has the command here, not me.

The academic stands before the portal we opened, his short, flabby arms waving rapidly in multiple directions. “I was on the top level, up there. I had fallen asleep on my notes and a bright light woke me. The entire portal was glowing intensely,” he says in a frantic rush while the guards scratch their heads. “I swear it. The portal opened!”

My heart hammers and my fingers itch for my sword.

“I thought these portals were broken,” one guard provides.

They all turn toward the clicking of Murdoc’s footsteps down the walkway as he approaches them. It feels like they see right through our ward, staring in our direction, but none of them react to our presence.

“Druid Murdoc.” The head guard tips his head toward the stressed academic. “What do you have to say on this?”

“The portals are broken. They were damaged during the Great War and not even the fae could open them,” the druid scoffs. A hot wave of relief crashes over me. “Perhaps you should get more sleep, Stevenson. Preferably not in the library.”

“Then what did I see? You can’t say it was nothing!” The little man puffs himself up with anger.

Murdoc lets out a long-suffering sigh. “I was simply practicing a magic wield described in a text I was reading and it got away from me. The power unraveled in a flash of light. No monsters or fae are lurking in this library.” The druid pulls a guard aside, deeper into the library toward us. “If you could escort Stevenson to his rooms personally, it would be appreciated. The man has stopped taking his medication, and this isn’t the first time he has hallucinated. I want him seen safely to his bed. You may need to get a little forceful.”

Murdoc leads the guards away while the academic continues to protest. Niall lets out a long, harsh breath that I feel in my bones. Keira gives me a mischievous pinch and a knowing glance. I don’t have to kill anyone for her this night.

With painstaking slowness, we creep back to the portal, carrying our prize. We pass through it, leaving Niall behind in the palace, then close it after us.

Edmund pushes himself off the wall and stalks straight for us. “What happened? Were you seen?” he barks.

Drake and Klara both fall to the ground, laughing in uncontrolled hysterics. She slaps his arm. “I thought this idiot was going to give us away. I think that is the longest he has ever gone without talking.”

“It was a damned struggle,” Drake manages. “Especially when that druid turned up. I was ready to strangle him. You didn’t help, Klara. You were literally shaking with silent laughter.”

Keira breaks out into giggles while Zinnia gives them all death stares. “That bastard saw through my ward. How did he do it? I don’t like it.”

Edmund looks at us as though we have gone mad. Perhaps we have.

“It was a close call, but we got the books and scrolls,” I tell him.

“Which druid discovered you? Why didn’t you take care of him?” Edmund’s gaze burns into me.

Keira steps forward. “Druid Murdoc?—”

“Druid Murdoc discovered you? And you let him go?” Edmund grinds out, clearly trying to keep a rein on his temper.

“Oh, I considered ending him.” I grin at Edmund. “But I didn’t need to kill the man. It turns out he wants Niall to become king.”