Chapter 31 Isi #2
A draft slid in through the nearby archway, carrying the faint tang of wet stone from the courtyard beyond. His hand rested lightly on the hilt of his sword, his fingers tapping in an absent rhythm.
“Going for a walk?” he asked when I stopped beside him. “It rained. You might want to wear a cloak.”
“I was actually wondering if you remember a warrior from a month or so ago,” I said, and repeated Addie’s description, every word tugging at a raw place inside me.
His eyes lit with recognition almost before I finished. “Oh, yes, of course. Addie. She had the small dragon, didn’t she? Silver scales. Always kept close to her. She’s quite something, that one.”
Quite something. My sister.
“She laughs a lot,” he said with a faint smile. “Can get away with anything. Even got King Trew to—” He stopped himself and gave a small shake of his head. “Anyway. She’s well-liked. Loves it here.”
Loves it here.
There was that same phrase again. The healer had said it with certainty. Now the guard said it too. But Addie couldn’t have loved this place. She’d been promised to another court. She was murdered.
If they were all telling the truth, then what in all the fates’ names had I missed?
The guard’s mouth quirked. “Her and Fenmark are inseparable. So sweet together it makes you sick. They fell in love fast.”
My sister, in love?
I blinked at him, trying to stitch the name into the jagged picture forming in my mind. “What’s Fenmark like?”
“As tall as our king.” The guard leaned his shoulder against the arch.
“He wears a silver loop in his left ear. Has a laugh like rolling thunder, which pairs well with Addie’s.
He got a dragon tattoo. Would you believe that?
Black and silver, curling right up the side of his neck.
Got it for her and her companion, though he has a wyvern himself. Black as night, that one is.”
I could almost see Fenmark’s smile, the bright gleam of metal at his ear, the tattoo shifting over his skin as he bent toward her.
“You speak as if they’re here, but I haven’t seen them around. Where are they now?” My voice came out too thin. My mind was starting to tilt, this way and that.
Addie was dead. I’d seen her body. I wore her pendant. And yet this man spoke as if she was only away somewhere, that I might round a corner and run into her myself.
How had she ended up dead in Father’s ballroom?
The guard shrugged. “Last I heard, they’d gone on a mission together. They haven’t come back yet.”
I braced my hand against the cold stone wall to hold myself upright. “As a new warrior, I’m not sure what I’ll be asked to do. Will I go on raids beyond the border? Maybe…you know, capturing carriages, people?”
His gaze sharpened. “We’d never do anything that dishonorable. That’s a lie the other courts like to spread. You must know that.”
“I never thought so myself either, but I’m not from that region.”
The floor tilted beneath me. Everything I’d believed was coming apart in my hands.
“What kind of mission were they sent on?” I asked, barely able to think or breathe.
“I don’t know the details. You could ask King Trew.” His mouth twisted into something that was half a warning, half a smile. “If he doesn’t tell you, you’ll have your answer about whether you should be asking.”
My throat closed off, but I forced my next question through the narrowed passage. “One more thing, about the children who arrived recently. Where are they?”
“In the villages,” he said. “Safe, finally.”
Safe.
The word didn’t fit with the picture I’d painted of this court, or of my own. Confusion rattled around in my chest until it felt like my ribs were going to crack from the blows.
“Why did you say finally?” I asked.
“They weren’t safe where they lived before. You know how it is. We’re the only court that doesn’t kill those with magic.”
I swallowed hard but the thoughts jumbling around inside me wouldn’t go down. For a moment, I thought I’d vomit.
“Thank you,” I said, turning and hurrying away before he could reply.
Back in my room, I shut the door and collapsed on my bed, scrubbing my face with my hands.
“Damn,” I hissed. “Damn!”
Rising, I paced. I sat on the bed. Then got back up again, restless energy rattling my bones.
Everything lined itself up in my mind.
Addie had left home for Velmire Court, promised to their king. We’d had no word from her after she left, not that she’d arrived or that she hadn’t.
I remembered her tucking a curl behind her ear with that impatient little flick, sighing as we stood in our finest at the top of the stairs before yet another ball.
“We’ll both escape this confining life someday,” she’d whispered, her eyes glinting like she already had a plan.
Then the rebels’ name was whispered in every shadow. They were despised. Horrible people. Even accused of doing something that created the wasteland swamps themselves.
They raided across the border, and our people died.
A magical bird delivering her body to Father’s ballroom like a taunt. Everyone knew only the rebels could wield magic like that.
Father shouting that they’d kidnapped her. Murdered her.
But if the rebels hadn’t done it, someone else had.
My mind kept snagging on Fenmark. Trew’s cousin. A handsome rebel with a silver loop in his ear and a dragon tattoo on his neck he’d gotten to please her.
A mission, the guard had said. They hadn’t come back.
There was a gap here, a missing piece in the middle where all the jagged edges didn’t meet. And if I slid the wrong piece into that space…
If I’d been looking at the wrong enemy all along, then we were wrong to blame the rebels.
Had someone here actually killed her, or had someone else made it look like they had?
The thought of walking to Trew’s rooms and demanding answers shot through me.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I was out the door, my steps quick and loud in the empty corridor.
I had to ask directions to his suite, and while the woman gave me an odd look, she told me.
The wing housing his rooms was quiet at this hour, with only a pair of sentries standing in front of the double doors that led into the king’s private chambers.
“I’d like to speak with King Trewyn,” I said firmly, striding right over to stand in front of them.
One man’s gaze swept across my frame. When he grunted and his face twisted with disapproval, heat rose into my face.
“You’re one of the new warriors,” he finally said.
“I am.”
“His Majesty asked not to be disturbed tonight.” He said it in such a snooty tone I wanted to kick him.
“Tell him it’s important,” I growled. “That Isi needs to speak with him.”
The second guard didn’t so much as blink. “His orders were clear.”
I stood there, my hands clenched, flames licking across my spine. For a heartbeat, I considered pushing past them or shouting out Trew’s name, but then I’d really look foolish.
They might grab me and fling me into a dungeon, where I’d rot until Trew came with a smirk to let me out.
I bit back my growl.
“Thank you.” I spun on my heel and stalked back the way I’d come. I would find him tomorrow.
Inside my room, I made myself shuck my boots, dress in my nightshirt again, and climb into bed, dragging the blankets up to my chin.
The truth was inside this castle, locked behind guarded doors and careful smiles.
I was going to pry it out of someone, even if I had to rip this place apart, stone by stone, to get it.