Urasal
COLSAR
He remembered Teorin lifting her. The way her arm had fallen. The sound of his own voice saying it is time as though it belonged to someone else. Everything between then and now was something he had moved through rather than experienced.
The room held the twins. Saurin in the corner with Ari, Cambra with Fiorakis. Kentan stood near the door. He stopped when Colsar came through.
Colsar's legs gave out.
He did not fight it. He went down slowly, one hand catching the frame, and stayed there.
"Where is Asharin?" Kentan said. Carefully. The way you said something when you already knew the answer would not be what you wanted to hear.
Colsar closed his eyes.
"Colsar." Kentan crossed the room and gripped his shoulders. "Where is she?"
Saurin stepped forward. "Majesty, I can go retrieve her if—"
"She is gone."
Kentan went still. "What do you mean gone?"
"We were supposed to have dinner." His voice came from somewhere he did not recognize. "Her body was cold when I found her." He stopped. Drew a breath. “I—”
He stopped himself. He would not tell them about Morrath. It did not matter that he trusted them. To protect her, he would trust no one.
Kentan grew pale. "Who? How?" His voice was hoarse.
Saurin's wail split the room.
He did not flinch. He had nothing left to flinch with.
"Whoever planned this did not plan it alone. The children must stay hidden."
He dragged his hand across his face.
When she awakens she must know you were strong. That you loved her. That you protected them and everything she built, he reminds himself.
He looked at Kentan. "The children stay here. No one leaves Urasal.”
Kentan nodded. His face had gone the color of old ash.
Both women's faces were streaked with tears. Ari began to cry. Then Fiorakis let out a high thin scream that cut through everything.
Colsar looked at his daughter. He did not reach for her. He swallowed down every emotion that was rising to the surface.
If he held her he would soften. He could not afford to soften. Not right now.
I will fix this. You will get your mother back.
"I will tell them that Kentan, the children, and Asharin's body are already en route to Alarna," he said. "That they left immediately."
"A decoy," Kentan said quietly.
"Yes. My men will be in it. We will see who moves against them." He paused. “Then they return to Shalvar. They tell my father the truth. Quietly. We get more troops. Arrangements get made from there."
"What of the Avanki?"
"I do not know if we can trust them."
The room went very still.
He looked at Saurin and Cambra. "Where is Wyn?"
They did not answer immediately.
"There were thousands of Avanki in this palace tonight with one purpose. To protect their queen." His voice did not rise. "Where were they? Why was I the first person to find her? Why was no one looking?"
Kentan spoke carefully. "Nothing seemed out of the ordinary when I left.
Wyn was still there. I was returning to my rooms when I felt this.
" He held out his hand. A burn marked the palm, a raw, angry red.
"It means the ones I protect are in danger.
That is when I saw you in the courtyard fighting the Deathmages and I began to run back to them.
" He paused. "There was no assailant in the room or outside of it when I arrived.
I brought everyone here with me to Urasal. I saw nothing else."
Colsar looked at the burn.
"Wyn was called to check on Queen Asharin just before it happened," Saurin said quietly.
Colsar's head lifted sharply.
Cambra nodded. "She never returned."
The room went quiet.
"I will not allow ignorance to endanger my children," Colsar said.
"Perhaps the political divide in Alarna ran deeper than we understood.
The bond. Fiorakis being named heir. Perhaps there were those who believed she would be named heir to Alarna and acted on that belief.
" He paused. "Or perhaps none of it. Perhaps they simply did not get there in time. "
"Or," Kentan said, "they were loyal but directed elsewhere. Intentionally pulled away from her."
Saurin nodded quietly. "That may make more sense."
"Arabar can be trusted," Colsar said finally. "He will spread word of her death. Let it travel." He looked at Kentan, and in that brief glance he knew he now understood. She might be alive.
The room fell silent. Then Kentan straightened.
“There is something else,” he said. “Urasal connects to Umbrelai. Umbrelai exists within Morrath.”
Colsar frowned.
“The old nursery tunnels,” Kentan continued. “Between them and the nursery is a safe room.”
He looked directly at him.
“No one can see inside it. There is a glass wall that looks into the nursery, but from the nursery side it appears to be nothing more than a wall.”
Colsar rubbed his temple. There was too much information. Too many impossible things happening at once.
“Speak plainly, Uncle.”
Kentan sighed.
“Your children will sleep in the palace nursery. You will sleep in the safe room. It is hidden, protected, and connected to the tunnels that lead toward Morrath.”
“No one can enter or leave Morrath,” Colsar said quietly.
“Correct. The wards still hold. But the magic beyond them can be used to strengthen the room, conceal it, and protect those inside. It is not a way through the gate. It is simply the safest place in the palace if someone comes looking for your children.”
Colsar nodded slowly.
“So I sleep in the invisible warded room.”
“Yes. Because it is where you can best protect them. The room cannot be seen or heard.”
Kentan’s hand closed around his arm.
“And it is where you can reach what you need.”
Colsar looked at him.
Then he understood. The room was connected to the tunnels of Morrath.
Perhaps Asharin would find it if she recovered.
Perhaps she would one day come through those tunnels and see them waiting.
Even if he was not there, she would be able to see the nursery through the glass. She would be able to see the children.
Something small and fragile inside his chest eased.
Colsar looked at his children.
Neither Saurin nor Cambra spoke. They looked at each other once.
Then Saurin shifted Ari to one arm and pressed her free hand flat against her own chest. Cambra did the same with Fiorakis.
The words they spoke were quiet and old, the kind that did not require witnesses to hold weight.
When they finished both women's palms bore a thin line of red.
An ancient binding rite. Their lives bound to the children's. An act of loyalty.
Colsar did not need to acknowledge it. He nodded once.
Saurin met his eyes. "Go," she said. “Fix all of this.” She stared down at the children. “For them.”
Cambra said nothing. She pressed her marked hand gently to Fiorakis's back and rocked her once.
Colsar looked at Kentan. "I need a Wanderer kept here. In Urasal. One that can carry messages and provide protection should anything reach this place."
Kentan was quiet. Then he took Colsar's free hand, the opposite palm from the Urasal mark, and pressed his thumb to the center of it. The burn came quietly.
"You can only use it on one," Kentan said.
Colsar looked down at his hands.
"I know," he said.
He stood. His legs held.
He started toward the door. For a single, impossible instant, he found himself waiting for her footsteps behind him.
Nothing came. He did not look back.
He straightened.
He had work to do.