“More to tell,” she teased, doing a little dance at the fortune she now held in her pocket. I nodded, needing to get to Rigol and then to Axe and let them know what was coming.
“The guards on the east side, near you boys’ rooms? Nowhere to be seen.”
“Vali and Axe were in the other wing,” I said, wondering just how good Ratter’s information was. If she knew they had moved last minute to Axe’s room, castle security was still nowhere near stringent enough.
But Ratter tapped her nose. “Nope. They mighta been, but now she’s in General Axe’s living quarters. I may have taken a quick trip around that way.”
“You got into the courtyard, past all the guards?” I tamped down my anger at their negligence.
“I did. I bet when the wind came up, them east guards smelled that peach crumble our queen is stirring up for you lot. They probably went into some bushes to take the edge off. I’ve heard that smell makes a man randy as a goat—”
Her voice faded as I ran toward the east gate to see if she had been right. Of course, she had been. The smell emanating from the windows on that side of the tower was faint but unmistakable. Goddess, my queen was powerful…and valuable.
Her Omega powers had provided all sorts of benefits to Rimholt already. A longer growing season, according to the farmers, and a better harvest than we’d had in decades. Couples who had been infertile for years were suddenly expecting their first children. The power that she had exhibited during the Battle of Rimholt, the golden fire that had filled us all and made our entire army invincible for twenty-four hours, had kept enemies from attacking our borders overtly, even though they all wanted to claim our Omega for their own lands.
Of course, some of our foes would settle for killing her; they worried that her powers would strengthen Rimholt, making us undefeatable. They weren’t necessarily wrong.
But, until we had all our defenses in place, all our plans to protect and defend her from all comers, she was incredibly vulnerable. For a moment, I despaired; she would draw danger every day of her life, and I wasn’t sure I would be able to protect her.
Axe’s stern visage and his enormous broadax flashed in my mind, and I thanked the Goddess for my brothers. I wasn’t the only one she could rely on.
Something moved overhead, and my eyes snapped to the disturbance. There, against the dark gray and black of the stone walls, was a slightly darker shadow.
A man. Climbing, incredibly slowly, toward a window. I automatically reached for the dart gun I kept in my cloak but stopped as the breeze shifted a flag near the top of the tower. The intruder was just at the edge of my range in the perfect conditions, but the wind picking up made the shot impossible.
If I shouted for the guards now, he would know he had been detected. He would rush to finish his task, which I had to assume was either to kill or abduct my queen. I watched the climber for a moment. If he kept moving that slowly, intent on escaping notice, I would have at least ten minutes to intercept him before he was close to Vali. I could administer a non-lethal poison by dart or blade, then take him to my dungeon and torture whatever information I needed from him at my leisure.
And then I would go after the one who had sent him.
According to Ratter, there had been two men coming to the castle, and the east gate was our weakness. I moved in the shadows, focused on finding those guards. The child had been correct again; they were in the bushes together, their clothing half-removed as if they had been making love.
But they were dead, their mouths slack and eyes glazed with the cold already. Each one bore a neat slash over the throat, the dark blood that pooled beneath them gleaming slightly in the night air.
I kneeled, pulling back a branch, and allowed the reflected lights from the courtyard’s torches to fall on the scene. The blood was still steaming; the climbing man could be the one who had killed them, or…
I heard the softest brush of leather on stone and threw myself into a forward roll, avoiding the whistling blade that came from nowhere and cut right through where my throat would have been. The bushes crackled under my weight and caught at my cloak, hiding any additional sounds my assailant made.
I had my own dagger in my hands not a second after I regained my feet, but the man had vanished.
Fuck. If he could move that fast, and hide successfully from me, he was no ordinary scout or soldier. This was an experienced spy or a Guild assassin. There was no time to wait; Vali was in true danger. I let out a series of short, sharp whistles, a signal to all the guards within earshot. We were under attack.
Two, then three, answering whistles came. Good, they would be on the lookout, and on their guard. Keeping silent, I prowled toward an iron grate set low on the tower wall, the entrance to one of the castle’s many secret passageways. The assassin would know about the spy tunnels and could already be inside.
What they didn’t know was that I had spent the past four months re-configuring the labyrinthine passageways and had made certain none of the original tunnels went where they once had, except for the ones that led into rooms I controlled. Rooms they could never exit.
I lifted the grate and slipped inside, already planning my next moves and anticipating what my enemies might do. My heart was racing; I wouldn’t be calm until I knew my love was safe.
Inside the tunnels, I climbed stairs and ladders quickly, racing the assassin who had been on the outside of the tower to the nearest window. On the way, I reached into a recessed nook where I had hidden supplies. We had never been this prepared for invasion before the battle against Verdan, but once we knew how many enemies our kingdom had gained when Vali was revealed, everyone had agreed to raising our standards. Dozens of citizens had argued to be brought into the plans, insisting that since they had helped overthrow the last invading force, they should be a part of the planning. Some of those people had dark imaginations. I smiled to think what would happen once the townsfolk laid hands on the spy aiming for Rigol.
I stepped around a narrow wall that led into a tunnel no bigger than I could crawl through and lit the four special torches we had placed in small sconces on the exterior, as a signal to the city that the king and queen were under attack. I had bought a supply of the torches from a traveling Mirrenese merchant, who mixed strange metallic powders into the oil and wax, so they shimmered and flared as they burned, drawing every eye for miles. My call to arms would raise a peasant army in defense of my king.
A moment later, I was back in the main tunnel, and after a few turns, heard soft cursing. I followed the sounds and smiled. The assassin who had come after me had found his way into one of my traps, a room with no exit.
One spy down. Now for the next.
Rigol
“Hey ho, Your Majesty.”
