“A solid third of them,” Peter answered.
Ian looked up in surprise. Robin had not been asking him about the guard.
“Onric has been speaking privately with the men he trusted,” Peter explained, seeing Ian’s confusion. “He’s been sending them to me in secret to learn about the Majis and Gareth’s true motives. I have recruited several dozen of them to River’s Talon. They are prepared to follow Onric’s orders when the time comes.”
“Then we do it now,” Ian said.
“Now?” Peter lifted his eyebrows in doubt.
“Half the city is up on this hill right now,” Ian said. “They are worried for their safety, and Gareth has shut them out. If I can get inside and open the gate for Sol, Onric can signal the guard, and Gareth will be forced to respond. We need to force his men to use their chaos magic in front of the people of Iseldis.”
Robin nodded. “Now is not the time for secrecy.”
“I will lead my people to the front gate,” Sol said.
“It will not be an easy fight,” Ian said, acknowledging the gravity of what he was asking.
Sol nodded. “It has never been an easy fight. You stand a better chance against Gareth’s magic wielders with us at your back.”
“Find Ashlin first,” Mistress Cedrice said, cutting in. “She said her discovery was urgent. It might help you defend yourselves against the chaos magic.”
Ian nodded. “Start with Ashlin. Find Onric. Open the gate.”
“Get in the castle,” Robin said, reminding him of the actual first step.
“Right.” Ian nodded. “How?”
Robin folded back her cloak, fumbling at the straps of the satchel she wore over her shoulder.
“Ohhhh,” Lane said, looking at Robin. “Do you think that will still work?”
“Why would it not?” Robin replied, flipping open the flap of the satchel. “It has only been four seasons. If anything, the stone is more weathered now.”
Lane looked up at Ian. “She was going to break into the castle on the night of your ball,” he explained.
“Why would she need to break in?” Ian asked. “That ball was open to everyone.” It had been put on as an attempt to find him a wife and secure the future of Iseldis. He had spent the entire night secretly scanning the crowd to see if she had come. “You could have just walked in.”
“And risk you knowing that I was there?” Robin turned back to Ian. “I think not.”
“Were you there?” Ian asked.
Robin heardthe wistfulness in Ian’s voice. “No.” She had not attended the ball, though she had seriously considered it.
She had always known that Ian would marry; it was required of him as the crown prince. And when he had let her walk away from the castle, she had steeled her heart against the future announcement of his one-day marriage. Yet season after season had passed with not even a hint of tongue wagging that Ian had a found a lady worthy of his attention. She had tried not to make sense of it, tried not to analyze or wonder what could have been holding him back.
She had thought about it, of course, but she’d told herself she did not care. It did not matter if Ian ever found his queen because she had no desire tobea queen. That life would make her miserable, and she had always known it.
So when she’d heard a year ago that Ian was hosting a ball to find and choose his future queen, she had not been prepared for the waves of livid anger that broke through her buried feelings.
She had lain awake in Lockwood for nights, dreaming of making a grand entrance. She would arrive well after the ball had started, when everyone was already on the dance floor and the wide doors at the front of the hall would be relatively empty.
She would scrounge up some coin to spend irresponsibly on a magnificent dress, and she would sweep into the room, standing in the doorway—like the queen she did not want to be—and wait in stony silence until every eye in the room was on her.
And then she would spend the entire evening chatting effervescently with every man and woman she could except for Ian himself.
It was a dream born entirely out of childish spite, and she had known it then.
So, she had tempered her plan to a more reasonable one. One that felt more like who she truly was. Climb the wall by the eastern tower. Wear her dark, hooded clothing that blended into the shadows. And watch the evening unfold from afar.
