A carriage rolled through the square, pulled by a pair of beautiful black horses. The crowd cheered.
The Sun Margrave exited the carriage, stern and foreboding in his armor and formal black tabard. A herald in matching black armor stepped forward, carrying the banner of the High Court, the sun in golden splendor on a black background, waving from the top of a very sharp spear.
The Sun Margrave raised his arm to greet the crowd, then took his place behind the herald. Three squires in the armor of their respective Orders stepped up as his honor guard. The Defender squire in blue and white took the position on the Marshal’s right, the Conqueror squire in red and gray on his left, and the Redeemer squire in sage and brown behind him.
I focused on the Redeemer squire. Matheo. As expected.
The horn sounded again.
The herald started up the slope, and the Sun Margrave and his escort followed. Very slowly. Very stately. If a turtle was ascending the King’s Way next to them, it would have won this race. They had a third of a mile to go, and the Sun Margrave was an older man wearing about thirty pounds of armor. He couldn’t be too out of breath by the end of it either. That would have been unseemly.
According to Solentine and my brother, if they were Cai, they would dress up as one of the royal guards, stab Jenicor, and use a morr bead to bug out. Logic said the assassination would happen closer to the top. The whole point of a public killing was to let everyone on the platforms see it in gory detail.
The procession crawled up the slope. The crowds cheered.
Of course, Cai could also hit the Sun Margrave now and use the resulting chaos to teleport away.
“Maggie,” Lute said behind me.
I almost jumped. The Magnar brothers insisted on sticking to me like glue until the ceremony was over, but somehow, I had forgotten they were there. Tzeri on Lute’s shoulder gave me the evil eye.
“If you don’t relax, you’ll fall off the tower,” Lute said.
“It will be fine,” Will told me.
We were about to watch an assassination unfold, and if it succeeded, the entire kingdom would collapse. I had given everything I could to prevent this moment. Nothing about this was fine.
A third of the way up.
A half.
Two-thirds of the way up. This was going to take all fucking day. If I got any tenser, I would explode.
The Sun Margrave’s face was serene. Here I was, safe and stressing the hell out, while he was down there, walking toward his possible death, cool as a cucumber. Not a hint of worry showing.
They reached the gates. The two guards blocked their way. The herald spun his spear in an expertly executed flourish and bellowed, “The Sun Margrave seeks entry.”
By the keep, Sauven nodded. The war horn roared again, and the guards stepped aside.
This would be the perfect moment to kill him. I held my breath.
The herald, the Sun Margrave, and the three squires passed through the gates and started across the courtyard, walking between two rows of sparsely placed royal guards.
The first pair of sentries. The second. The third . . .
The tension was killing me.
The fourth pair. The fifth . . .
I rocked back and forth.
Will took me by my shoulders and very deliberately pulled me back from the rail.
The sixth. The seventh. The eighth . . .
The guard on the right dropped his spear and lunged forward, blindingly quick. Before his discarded spear had a chance to fall, he darted past the Defender squire, a slender black blade in his hand. The poor kid had no chance to react. He just gaped as Cai flew past, arm raised for the kill.
The heraldmoved. I didn’t see him do it, but he must have, because his spear slid into Cai’s chest.
