I looked into his eyes and let go of the amulet.
“I don’t believe you.” I leaned forward. “You are too selfish to gamble with your life. You can’t call him off even if you want to, can you? You have no idea where he is or how he will strike.”
“You fear failure,” he said. “It gnaws at you and keeps you up at night. You will fail tomorrow, and I will savor it. Come and see me again, so I can drink in your despair.”
I got up.
“You have some time left before they kill you. Look into your own heart, Ulmar, if you’re brave enough. Come to terms with all that darkness so you can go in peace. We will never meet again. The next person to speak to you will be your executioner.”
I walked back the way I came, to where the Sun Margrave waited.
“Nothing?” Jenicor guessed.
“No. He set this in motion, but he can’t stop it.”
“Then I will have to put my faith into my armor and my blade tomorrow,” he said.
He was never the best with a blade. Jenicor was a competent fighter back in the day, but he’d been fighting a paper war for the last two decades.
“If I might make a suggestion?” I asked.
“Of course.”
“Cai of Sunder is very fast. He relies on that speed to deliver the killing blow.”
“But?” the Sun Margrave said.
“But I know someone who is faster.”
“Would they be willing to put their life on the line?”
Why do I never get to do anything exciting?
I smiled. “In a heartbeat.”
CHAPTER43
REDBERRY25
The Eagle Roost crowned the apex of Castle Hill like a battle helm, its ancient walls and towers growing from bedrock. Just to the side of the castle, a small stone spire jutted, barely wide enough to support a single slender tower connected to the main hill by an eighty-yard stone bridge. Seven stories tall, the tower was the highest building in the city, and I stood on the observation deck at its very top.
The weather had decided to comply with the celebration, and the day was glorious, all blue sky, golden sunshine, and plump white clouds hanging low above us. From my vantage point, the Eagle Roost’s vast courtyard was a square bordered by a wall, with the main castle rising on the right and the gatehouse offering entrance on the left. On the other side of the gatehouse, the King’s Way, a wide, paved street guarded by a two-story wall, rolled down the hill into the city.
Today, crowds lined the sides of the King’s Way, held back by ropes decorated with narrow black and purple ribbons. The royal guards, wearing purple cloaks and armed with spears, protected the ropes. The sun reflected from their pale gray breastplates, and their full-face helmets made them look like menacing living armor.
The Sun Margrave would arrive by carriage at the bottom of the King’s Way, then walk about a third of a mile up to the castle with his escort. He would pass through the Eagle Roost gates, cross the four hundred yards of the courtyard, and finally reach the royal perron, a long outdoor staircase, flanked by two spectator galleries filled with nobles, government officials, merchants, heads of craft guilds, and other prominent citizens.
The perron led to the top landing in front of the Eagle Keep, where King Sauven and the three judges of the High Court waited. The grand staircase had four landings besides the top one, and each landing offered two smaller galleries, eight in total, reserved for the Great Families. The closer you were to Sauven, the higher your Family was regarded. The right top platform was all blue and white, with a splash of pale yellow—Arvel’s squad. The top left platform, red and gray, clearly belonged to Bors. Everard’s black and green was all the way down, the lowest platform on the left, just above the spectator galleries.
My original plan was to be in one of the spectator galleries down below, possibly next to Solentine and therefore perfectly safe. Both my cousin and my brother had nixed that plan as too dangerous, and the Sun Margrave had offered me the tower instead. Solentine had a spyglass delivered to the house, so I wouldn’t be tempted to sneak into the courtyard, and I was putting it to good use scanning the crowd. I’d scrutinized the galleries three times now, and Silveren was nowhere in sight.
Everard was there, though. The last time I’d leveled my spyglass at him, he’d turned and looked directly at me as if he’d sensed me looking.
I did not have a good feeling about this.
I missed my run-around-at-night outfit. Today I was dressed like a lady again. At least my dress had a knife pocket in it. Solentine had offered me one of his daggers, but I’d brought the knife Everard had given me. It was familiar and comfortable, and its weight was reassuring. I still had Digi’s amulet as well. Just in case.
War horns sounded, sending a low, menacing note into the sky. I pivoted left with my spyglass.
