The Reinforcements
COLSAR
Rathmor Palace
They arrived before dawn.
He was already dressed. He had not slept.
He watched them come through the gates from the window. Thousands of Avanki moving through the outer courtyard.
Uralish was at the front.
He dismounted and looked up at the palace.
Beside him Syle dismounted without sound. Enovar stepped out of Syle an instant later. He looked at the palace. Then up at the window.
Colsar went downstairs.
He had been performing grief long enough that it required almost nothing now.
He wore it down the stairs and through the corridor and into the small council room where Iavis was already standing near the far wall.
He had never guarded him or attended council meetings.
Iavis typically held the responsibilities of a high-ranking soldier.
But with Asharin gone, he had suddenly been in every room with Colsar.
Colsar did not know if it was out of worry that Colsar would be attacked, or that Colsar would attack someone else.
Either way, it did not bother him.
Uralish walked in and looked at him. Then he sat down and Colsar sat across from him.
Syle sat beside his father. Enovar stood near the wall, his eyes on the door.
Uralish looked at him for a long time before he spoke. "How are you holding up?”
It was not really a question.
"I am managing," Colsar said.
Uralish reached for the flask at his belt and set it on the table without opening it. "The Avanki are stationed along the dock. I wanted them there before I came to you."
"Why the dock?"
"The Thren ships."
Colsar looked at him. He had almost forgotten that Teorin's original intent had been to take Veynar. "How many?"
"Eleven. Full complement." A pause. "They have not come ashore.
They have not engaged. They are simply sitting there with no flag raised and no communication sent.
" He paused again. "Ship is clearly from Thrykis, but whether or not this was planned as an attack from King Fyris or from someone else is unclear. "
The room was quiet.
Colsar set his jaw. "The deathmages were Yorali. I killed four of them myself. That is not something that happens by accident. Orsin sent them." He paused. "Avaneer was not acting alone either."
"You think Fyris was working with Orsin?” Uralish said.
"I think someone was." Colsar's voice was flat. "It was not Teorin." He hated saying it. "Whatever else he is, he was not behind this. I have never seen a man look less prepared for what he walked into that night."
"Teorin Rathmor," Enovar said from the wall.
"Those ships are Thren. Fyris isn't stupid enough to attack Veynar with Asharin present. He would know she held an Avanki army and that much lightcraft is enough to destroy an army of Threns easily.” He looked at Colsar.
"If it was Teorin, why would he bring soldiers here and then simply vanish? "
"Perhaps he was killed," Iavis said.
"Or fled," Uralish said. "When whatever he planned did not go the way he planned it."
"What did he plan, exactly?" Enovar said. "That is what none of us can answer."
Colsar said nothing.
He looked at the table and kept his face arranged into nothing and thought about Teorin lifting her from his arms. The way her arm had fallen. I will keep her safe, Teorin had said. He had believed it only because he had no other choice.
And yet he had not heard a word from Morrath.
"The Threns fear lightcraft," Uralish continued.
"The Avanki presence at the dock will have surprised them.
They would not have expected it and would not know how to account for it.
They will either stay on those ships until they run out of provisions or they will turn around.
" A pause. "Either way they are not a threat right now. "
"My sources tell me there were strange creatures flying overhead the Thren ships," Enovar said.
Uralish shook his head. "I heard the same, but there are none now.
Not in the capital or the surrounding lands.
Nothing since the night." He drew in a breath.
"Since the night she was lost." He opened his flask finally and took a long drink.
"When a feeder weakens, whatever creatures answer them weaken alongside.
They fade or they follow." He said the last part plainly.
"Whether that means he is dead or simply gone, I cannot say. "
The room sat with that.
Colsar said nothing. He had a brief involuntary flash of something he did not want to examine. Teorin dead somewhere and Asharin with nothing between her and whatever lived in Morrath. He put it away and kept his face still.
"Trophi," he said.
"Yes," Uralish said.
"The Avanki were redirected the night of the dinner through too many channels to be organic," Colsar said. "Someone with access to the command structure pulled them away from her intentionally. The only person with that access and that motive—"
"Is Trophi," Enovar said. "Or someone using Trophi." He finally sat down. "The why is what I cannot account for. Trophi has no obvious allegiance to anyone who gains from her death."
"Unless the allegiance is not obvious," Iavis said.
Everyone looked at him. He shrugged. "The people with the most to gain are not always the ones holding the knife."
Colsar looked at him. Then back at the table.
"Find Trophi," he said. "Quietly. I want to know where he has been since the night of the dinner and who he has spoken to." A pause. "And Rorin. His quarters were empty the morning after. His men cannot account for him."
Enovar turned briefly to look at Syle. Something passed between them. Then back at the room. "Two disappearances on the same night," he said. "Not coincidence."
Syle's hands were flat on the table and still.
Uralish drank again. Set the flask down. "There is something else."
He said it in the way that meant he had been deciding since he arrived.
"The creature sightings in Alarna have increased significantly in the past weeks.
Things coming through the outer wards that should not be able to come through.
" He held Colsar's eyes. "Alarna needs its queen heir.
The longer the throne sits empty the worse it becomes. We do not have unlimited time."
The room was quiet.
"Jularin," Enovar said. "Has anyone heard from her? Has anyone seen her?"
Nobody answered.
Syle looked at the table. Uralish looked at his flask. "Asharin was suspicious of her before she left Alarna," he said. "Syle looked into it but the creature sightings have been so aggressive it has been hard to do much beyond defend the northern wards."
"My men tell me she was last seen at the Queen Dowager's court," Iavis said. "Before the dinner. After that nothing."
"She travels," Uralish said. He did not sound convinced by his own words.
"She does not simply disappear," Enovar said. "Not without sending word."
The room let that sit.
Colsar stood.
The others stood with him. He looked at each of them.
Uralish, who had traveled with an army through likely thousands of undead on the strength of something he was not going to say here.
Syle, watching with that quality of attention that made you feel simultaneously known and unsettled.
Enovar, who trusted no one and was correct not to.
Iavis, who had been here before he was sent for and had not explained why.
"We investigate quietly," Colsar said. "We let them believe they have won.
We find out who gave the order and who carried it and then we decide what comes next.
" He looked at the door. "Veynar does not fall apart.
Not while I am standing in it." He paused.
"Veynar belongs to my daughter. That was Asharin's wish, and that is exactly what will happen. "
He walked out.
Kentan was in the corridor. He fell into step without being asked.
"You look better," he said quietly.
"I have not slept," Colsar said.
"That is not what I mean."
Colsar kept walking. "You should be protecting the children," he said.
"Yes. Part of that means making sure they have a father who has his wits about him. A father who doesn't do anything stupid."
"Stupid like what?"
"Trust the wrong person."
Colsar said nothing. Kentan kept pace. He did not say anything else. He was good at knowing which things needed to be said and which things needed only to be present.
They walked the corridor in silence.