Chapter 24 Eiri #2
“I haven’t seen him since the party. I’m sorry. I was in our room when they arrested me.”
“We’ll get details in a minute. Right now, we have to find somewhere safe before we’re discovered,” Xan cut in. “We can’t use the main hallways. Eiri stands out too much. The smartest thing would be to leave the palace, but the queen locked down the gates.”
“Do we have any idea where Syrus might be?” Eiri asked. “I want to find him, no matter… no matter what.”
Xan sighed heavily. “This is one thing magic can’t help with now. I only know one tracking spell, but I’d need something of his. His hair, a drop of his blood, something like that.”
Blood.
A flash of a memory, something so little that he’d forgotten about it almost as soon as it happened.
Sitting in Syrus’ room early yesterday morning, his husband’s pristine white jacket spread across his lap.
Crimson red thread on a spool beside him as he carefully embroidered the stali flowers onto the collar.
The prick of the needle biting into his skin when he lost his focus.
A drop of blood pooling on his fingertip and absorbing into the thread before he could stop it.
Lost in the heat of Syrus’ lips and their urgent desire, he’d completely forgotten about the tiny injury, using that same thread to finish the embroidery.
“Could you find mine?” he asked, cutting off Xan mid-sentence. He didn’t even know what the other man was saying, too lost in the insane idea forming in his mind.
“Find your what?” Xan asked slowly, eyebrow raised.
“My blood.” Eiri stood up straighter, his exhaustion sloughing off as desperate energy coursed through his body. “I bled on Syrus’ jacket, the one he wore to the party last night. If he’s still wearing it or it’s in the room with him, could you find him? It was only a drop.”
“Could you?” The same anguished hope surging through Eiri could be heard in Ellis’ voice when he turned to his cousin.
“I’ll do my best. Give me a minute.”
Xan grabbed the small pouch at his waist, dumping out the contents onto the floor and frantically sorting through them.
There were various spell components, crystals and herbs and bits of chalk and candles, all the things the mages here used to augment their magic.
Eiri had no experience with any of it, but he had to trust that Xan knew what to do.
In moments, he had an intricate circle chalked onto the rough wood of the table. Two candles sat at one end, with one more across from them, directly in front of Eiri. Two crystals rested on a bundle of herbs in the middle, carefully arranged in a way that only made sense to a mage.
“I need your blood,” Xan said, looking up at Eiri.
Eiri didn’t hesitate. He held out his hand, not even flinching when Xan grabbed a small knife and cut the end of his smallest finger, holding Eiri’s hand so the blood dripped directly onto the crystals. Eiri would willingly open a vein if that’s what it took to find Syrus.
The moment his blood hit the darker crystal, it flared to life, a dull glow that grew brighter with every drop of blood they fed it. An odd feeling grew within Eiri alongside the glow, a strange tugging sensation, a pull across the table to Xan.
“Is that blood magic?” Ellis breathed. Eiri hadn’t noticed him coming to stand beside the table, his dark eyes studying the array spread out between the two of them. “That’s illegal. How do you know that spell?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s going to help us find Syrus.”
The pull within him grew stronger, an uncomfortable ache settling in his chest as the crystal became almost blindingly bright.
“I can feel it.” Xan’s eyes widened, turning to look toward the palace. “I can find him.”
“Then let’s go.” Eiri pressed a hand to his chest over the ache. It wasn’t important. It was the least he deserved for abandoning Syrus and a price he’d willingly pay to find him.
As Xan scrambled to disassemble the spell and pocket the glowing crystal, Eiri made two silent vows.
Together, they would find Syrus. If, by some miracle, his husband lived, he would never again let his anger get the better of him. He’d never walk away with harsh words between them.
If something had happened, if Syrus was well and truly gone… there would be nothing and no one safe from his vengeance.
“I might know a way out,” Ellis said. “Follow me.” Having something to focus on seemed to help, and he rubbed at his eyes, scrubbing away the lingering tears.
“Hold this,” Xan instructed, handing a pale blue crystal to Eiri. He murmured a few soft words in old Caranish, the language of magic they used here on the continent, and Eiri felt something brush against his skin, like gossamer wings, there and gone in seconds.
“What did you do?”
“It’s a spell to encourage people not to notice you. You’re not invisible, and anyone specifically looking for you will see right through it, but it’s the best I can do while we’re moving.”
Eiri’s own magic fluttered in response to the foreign power, but it was weak, dimmed by grief and so many days away from the ocean. It wouldn’t do him any good here, anyway.
With Xan supporting him, they followed Ellis through the hallways of Lodie Palace.
The young prince seemed to somehow know which halls were deserted, leading them almost effortlessly through the maze.
Even with Ellis’ instincts, they couldn’t completely avoid other people.
The guards, courtiers, servants, and other inhabitants were scurrying around like ants fleeing a kicked nest. The entire palace was in an uproar, and Eiri heard almost as many rumors as there were people.
Every single one, though, for as wild as some theories got, had one thing in common: everyone knew Syrus’ despised raider husband had murdered him.
This is my fault.
Xan’s hold on him tightened as they walked until it was almost a hug, as though he could ward off the horrific slurs being thrown at Eiri’s name by everyone they passed.
If he’d ever wondered, even for a moment, if the people of Vaetreas would accept him, Eiri had his answer now.
By the time Ellis brought them to a halt, the words had lost all meaning, and a dull haze settled over Eiri. None of it mattered. The only thing he cared about was finding Syrus. Once he saw him, once he knew, then he could deal with everything else.
“Xan, can you get through this ward?” Ellis whispered, gesturing toward the door in front of them. Xan studied it a moment, then nodded and carefully untangled himself from Eiri, nudging him over to Ellis so he could work.
The numbness was fading from Eiri’s muscles, but he was still grateful for the arm Ellis offered him, holding on to keep himself steady.
“I’m sorry.” He couldn’t look at the younger man when he breathed the words, guilt and shame eating him alive.
“You don’t have anything to apologize for. You didn’t hurt him.”
“I should have been there. I was stupid and so angry, but I shouldn’t have walked away. Maybe things would have been different if I’d been there.”
“Or you could both be hurt or… or worse.” Like his cousin, Ellis didn’t say what that worst option was.
They all knew, but saying it would make it real.
“I’m not mad at you, Eiri. I’m mad at whoever went after my brother, and when I find them, they’ll pay for what they did.
” A quiet fury laced his words. This wasn’t a threat; it was a promise.
He felt the ward fall, another gentle brush of foreign magic, and Xan opened the door, peering around the edge.
“There are guards out there,” he whispered back to them. Slowly, likely to avoid drawing attention, he eased the door shut and turned back to them. The hallway they were in now was empty for the moment, but Eiri could hear voices not far away.
Ellis frowned, studying the door in front of them. “Guards? How many?”
“I counted at least six. Why? Where does this go?”
“That hallway leads to the old gardens. There’s an abandoned observatory beyond them. No one uses it anymore, ever since my grandmother had the new one built at the university.”
Thanks to the countless hours Eiri had spent sitting on the windowsill in Syrus’ room, staring out at the palace grounds, he remembered the old tower on the far edge of the palace. It was hard to forget a crumbling old tower with a roof made of glass.
“Well, someone is using it now. There’s no way we can get through there.” Xan paused, eyes widening. “That must be where they’re keeping Syrus.”
“You think so?”
“How do we get in?”
Ellis and Eiri spoke at the same time, words intermingling in matching desperation.
“Why else would anyone set guards on an abandoned section of the castle?” Xan swept the hallway with a quick glance, making sure they were still alone.
“We can’t get in this way, and I don’t know of any other ways to get up there.
We have to find somewhere else. Ellis? Do you know another way out of the castle? ”
Ellis blinked, and it seemed to Eiri that he had to force himself to stop looking at the door. He shook his head. “Not any way that won’t be guarded. There are secret passages; I know that much, but I don’t know where all of them are.”
“Then we need to find somewhere to hide. Or I do, at least,” Eiri said.
“You two might be alright as long as no one realizes you helped me, but I’m dead the moment they find me.
” He could almost feel the brush of the executioner’s axe across the back of his neck.
He doubted the Vaetreans would give him such a merciful death, though.
“There’s no hiding my magic from anyone who goes looking, so I’ll be in just as much trouble as you,” Xan murmured. “Let’s keep moving. There are a lot of abandoned rooms and corridors here. We just need to find one of them.”
Pulling Ellis away from the door wasn’t easy, and Eiri felt the same pull, knowing that Syrus might be up there, but they didn’t stand a chance against that many guards, plus however many more waited past those they could see.
He’d never been in this section of the palace before, but Xan seemed to know where they were going.
They were bound to run out of luck sooner rather than later, with so much chaos in the hallways, so when Xan came to a sudden stop near the intersection of two corridors, Eiri couldn’t say he was surprised.
“Where to now?” he asked anyway, on the off chance that he was worrying needlessly.
“I… I don’t know,” Xan whispered. “Everywhere we passed, I heard people. We can’t go back, but we’re too close to the courtiers’ living quarters now. There are too many guards.”
“I can try to distract them.” Ellis shrugged helplessly when they both glanced over at him. “I don’t know what else to do.”
“Is there any chance there are any courtiers who would shelter you?” Eiri knew it wasn’t likely, at least not with him in their company. Xan and Ellis stood a much better chance without him. If he couldn’t save Syrus, he could at least save Syrus’ family.
“Not likely,” Ellis murmured, shaking his head.
“We’ll have to try to get across and just hope no one notices us. We don’t have a choice.”
“If you two are seen with me, there will be no one left to help Syrus.” Eiri had to believe that Syrus was still alive. There was no other option.
“If you’re suggesting we leave you, think again. We’re in this together,” Xan hissed, his tone brooking no argument.
“Then let’s go before someone spots us. I can hear people coming,” Ellis whispered back. He’d supported Eiri as they traversed the halls, but Eiri stepped away now, locking his knees to stay upright. They’d draw even more attention if he couldn’t walk on his own.
“If we can get to the library, we may be able to hide there for at least a little bit. No one will be using it in the middle of a crisis. Don’t get separated. We’re going to make it.”
Eiri didn’t know Xan well, but he knew Xan didn’t believe his own words.
“Alright. Let’s do it.” Because what other choice did they have?
Xan met his eyes for only a moment, but long enough for Eiri to see a bleak, hopeless desperation that matched his own. Ellis was steeling himself, still determined, but like Eiri, Xan knew this was impossible. It wouldn’t stop them from trying, though.
They took one more moment, just to see if the hall would clear out against all odds, but when that didn’t happen, they had to move. Footsteps echoed up the corridors behind them, and they were out of time to stall.
Xan went first, then Ellis. Eiri took a deep breath, gathered his dwindling courage, and followed.
He made it two steps down the hallway before a hand clapped over his mouth and an impossibly strong arm coiled around his waist. He didn’t even have time to struggle before a door clicked open behind him and he disappeared from the hallway.