CHAPTER 45
Keenan
Four days later, they arrived in the capital.
King Banri was too busy to handle a couple of prisoners immediately, but Princess Sakura convinced the guard captain to leave Keenan and Oliver in a watched guest room.
The guards searched their packs and removed anything that could be used as a weapon, then untied them and left them in a decently appointed room with their things.
After the door closed behind the guards and the princess, Oliver stood silently next to it, listening, while Keenan thanked the heavens that the guards had not considered an old tinderbox to be dangerous. But they’d also left him with a baby dragon, so he wasn’t sure what standard they were using.
After a few minutes, Oliver left the door and motioned Keenan to the middle of the room. “Do you remember our discussion in the mountains? When I first rejoined you with the princess?”
“When you told me about the circumstances of your captivity?” Keenan fiddled with the hem of his shirt; the guards had not returned their jerkins and bracers, and it wasn’t helping the unease he felt at being imprisoned, even if the cell was comfortable.
“How did you actually manage to escape that?”
The guard’s eyebrow hitched up. “Magic.”
Keenan gave him an unimpressed look, and Oliver’s lips twitched. “The queen’s men provided a distraction. I put the man watching me to sleep.” He held up a hand in explanation.
Keenan glanced at Oliver’s ears, which had been round since they left the hollow tree. “Your magic is kind of scary sometimes. You know that, right?”
“Says the new sphinx commander,” Oliver replied with a shake of his head. “I assume that’s what the tinderbox truly is. Is it not?”
Keenan stared at him for a moment. “You knew?” Then he remembered the rest of the conversation to which Oliver had referred. “Of course you did – that’s why you agreed to delay the search for Miss Liesl. But how did you know that’s what it was?”
“An old story my mother used to tell me. No one knew where it had been hidden, but many knew the creatures had disguised the sphinx as a tinderbox after reclaiming it from the Ryunic king.”
Keenan folded his arms over his chest and paced to the other side of the room. “And the queen must know as well, or at least guess. Why else would she have sent me after it?”
“That is my belief,” Oliver agreed quietly. “But you cannot give it to her, Keenan. She is not to be trusted.”
“I realize that.” Groaning, he ran a hand through his hair. “But how am I supposed to keep it from her now? I’m a prisoner in her castle. I can’t stop her from searching my belongings and confiscating it if she wishes.”
“You could command my mother to come help you escape,” Cherry creaked from her perch on the back of a settee. “If you use her name, she’ll come. And she flies much faster than your wagon.”
Keenan huffed a laugh. “I’m trying to keep the sphinx a secret, Cherry. A giant blue dragon flying up to the castle and demanding my release might be a bit of a giveaway.”
“She could be subtle.” Cherry bristled. “If she flew under the window, you could jump out onto her back.”
“I doubt she could fly that close. But I appreciate the suggestion,” he added, not wanting to offend his little friend.
Oliver crossed to the window and opened the casement. “Three stories of smooth sandstone with a few cross beams sticking out. Do you think your magic would help you climb down?”
“My what?”
“Your magic,” Oliver repeated, closing the window and turning back to him. “It is metals and minerals. If it helps you craft swords, might it create temporary hand and footholds in this wall?”
Such a thing would never have occurred to him. But then, Keenan had forgotten Cherry’s claim that he was a magic-user. “I have no idea. But climbing out of a third-story window seems like a bad time to find out that it won’t.”
“We could stack a bunch of mattresses underneath it. That way, if you fell, you would have a soft landing. Unless the stack was wobbly due to its height, in which case landing on it might cause it to fall over.”
Keenan spun toward the unexpected voice behind him. Mori stood in the open doorway, his hands tucked in his pockets under the flowing yellow cloak that all on-duty castle guards wore. He looked far too eager to help them plan an escape.
“Aren’t you supposed to be watching the door?” Keenan asked, wondering just how much the boy had heard. “Rather than fraternizing with the prisoners.”
The young guard turned his head toward the wooden door. “I am watching it. It hasn’t moved since I opened it.”
“Mori,” Keenan sighed.
“This is an unused wing; no one ever comes down here. And you lost my favorite puzzles and that book from the winter castle in an underground cavern.” He shrugged. “I know you two aren’t dangerous, so I decided to see if you were doing anything interesting.”
Keenan glanced back at Oliver, who simply raised an eyebrow and returned his attention to the Ryunic guard.
“I wasn’t serious about the mattresses.” Mori leaned in a little farther and waved to Cherry, with whom he had been quite fascinated since meeting her at the farmhouse.
“It would take too long to bring them all out unless you had a lot of help, and either the pile against the wall or the stream of mattresses leaving the castle would be noticed before you could make use of them. But it would be fun to try, wouldn’t it? ”
Keenan could only grunt noncommittally.
“What was that about magic, though?” Mori continued. “I always thought magic-users had tapered ears like the pictures of fae in books.”
“It’s a long story,” Keenan managed. “How long have you been standing there, Mori?”
“Not very. I just heard something about magic and climbing down the wall when I cracked the door open. It sounded intriguing, so I came in to join the conversation.”
“I have yet to figure out how you made it this far in the guard.”
The boy grinned. “I can be focused when I want to be. And I’m not bad with a sword.”
Keenan pulled at the hem of his shirt. Mori was probably trustworthy. But he couldn’t help them without risk to himself.
Or could he?
“Mori, do you think you could bring me a tinderbox?” Keenan asked suddenly.
Mori’s eyebrows rose. “A tinderbox? After all the trouble you just went to to get one?”
“I sought that one at the queen’s behest. But it would be very helpful if I had my own. For later.”
Mori frowned. “Sure. Should I send someone for it now, or can it wait until I finish my shift?”
Keenan rubbed his jaw. “Do you think we’re likely to be called by the king or queen before then?”
The guard narrowed his eyes, but then they lit in understanding. “King Banri is holding an audience session this afternoon. I wouldn’t expect him to call for you until that’s finished, so I’ll find what you need after I’ve been relieved.”
“Thank you, Mori.”
The young guard gave a nod, then backed through the doorway. “I’d better return to my post. This wing is usually empty, but someone might come check on me since I have prisoners.”
As the door closed behind him, Keenan turned back to Oliver. “I don’t think that was a mistake. Mori pieces together a lot more than I give him credit for.”
“He overheard our discussion,” Oliver said quietly. “If he wishes to betray us, he already has the means.”
“That too,” Keenan agreed. Kneeling by his pack, he dug through it until he found the tinderbox, carelessly stuffed back in by the men who had searched his things.
“Cherry.” He stood and met her eyes, then said very clearly, “Chuh-rih-puh. You will stay with Oliver and follow his instructions until he has safely escaped the castle. Breathe fire when he tells you to, but don’t hurt anyone or set anything on fire that’s likely to result in serious injury. ”
His hand was consumed by the pins-and-needles feeling again, and Cherry’s green eyes were ringed by a golden light for a few moments. When Keenan looked down, the yellow diamond sphinx lay in his hand again.
“That’s amazing!” the little dragon said, launching off the settee. She flew toward Oliver’s shoulder, but detoured to the floor at the last moment. “Can I breathe a little fire now? Just for practice?”
“No,” Keenan and Oliver said together.
Keenan said the word to conceal the sphinx, talking slowly and carefully. As soon as it was disguised, he held it out to Oliver. “I need you to hide this someplace safe once you’re free. I’ll follow as soon as I can, and then we’ll make a plan for finding Miss Liesl.”
Oliver stared at the battered tinderbox, but he didn’t reach out to take it. Finally, he lifted his eyes to Keenan’s. “You commanded Churippu to help me with my escape. And you speak of finding me afterward. What do you plan to do?”
“Play along.” Keenan shrugged. “If the queen simply lets us go, it will be a miracle. In that case, I’ll thank the heavens, and we’ll leave Kurowan as fast as we can.”
“And the princess?”
His chest squeezed, but he smiled through it. “There’s no prophecy. I can’t ask her to give up her crown just because a couple of weeks in the middle of nowhere made her believe that she likes me.”
Oliver stared at him quietly for a few moments.
Then he said, “I’ve been watching Prince Michael and Princess Arabella since he tracked her down at her stepmother’s home.
There’s certainly much to overcome when two people are from such different backgrounds.
But since it’s not impossible, should you not give the princess the choice instead of making it for her? ”
“It takes two people to make a marriage.” Keenan looked away. “That makes it my choice as well.”
“And you have no wish for a relationship with Princess Sakura?” That eyebrow of Oliver’s lifted several notches.
If she had been a simple girl passing his stand in the Hartford market…but she wasn’t. “I have no interest in being a prince.”