“East tower. Now.” Ian blurted out his command as he stepped into the room.
It was empty. The blankets on the bed looked mussed, but Onric was nowhere in sight.
“Onric!” he growled, releasing his frustration through the word though he expected no answer.
He went back out into the hallway.
With Meena and Sol in Lockwood and Aden and Isa back at her villa in Allys, the only other person he could wake was Erich.
He knocked on his brother’s door, rather more tentatively than he had banged on Onric’s. Erich had a wife now.
His hand stilled. He had fallen asleep before confirming that Erich had taken Aizel and Celesta to safety.
Erich answered the door quickly. Surprisingly, he was fully dressed and appeared quite awake despite the early hour. His cheek was bruised from the fight before, and he looked tired and annoyed. But somehow, his lopsided smile was still as roguishly confident as ever. “You are finally awake.”
“Aizel?” Ian whispered, eying the Chendas guards at the end of the hall. “And Celesta?”
“Safe,” Erich replied. “With Lord Cabril.”
Ian nodded, glad at that small relief. Lord Cabril was the first member of River’s Talon that Ian had met.
“I came back immediately yesterday so as not to arouse suspicion,” Erich said. “But I was just heading out to see them.”
“Eastern tower first,” Ian commanded, using his crown prince voice, not his older brother voice. He did not want to keep Erich from seeing his wife, but they needed to make a plan to deal with Gareth as soon as possible. “Just follow after me in a few moments so as not to make it obvious.”
Erich nodded in reply, closing the door in Ian’s face.
Ian banged his fist against the door, just because he could, then strode down the hall and past the purple-clad guards without acknowledging their presence. After taking the steps down two at a time, he burst out the door at the bottom of the staircase into the crisp morning air of the back courtyard.
A dusty blue sky spread out overhead, stars still visible in the growing light. The courtyard was empty, save for a sleepy stable hand walking across the far side near the open gate.
Through the opening, Ian saw two figures riding atop a single horse headed his way.
“There you are,” Ian said, another wave of relief washing through him as Onric and Ashlin entered the courtyard.
From atop his horse, Blossom, Onric stared down at Ian and raised an eyebrow. “You’re awake.”
Ian ignored Onric’s comment but nodded to the woman who sat in his brother’s arms. “Ashlin.” Ian gave her the first true smile that had graced his face in well over a day. While she and Onric were not yet wed, they had been together for nearly four seasons and Ian already felt that she was as true a sister to him as Meena.
Ian turned back to Onric, who was sliding off Blossom. “Secret meeting. Eastern tower. Now.”
Onric nodded his assent as he reached up to guide Ashlin to the ground.
“Perhaps you should go inside first,” Ian said as two Chendas soldiers in full armor walked slowly through the courtyard, as though on patrol. “Pretend you are going to break your fast and make your way back out here when you can escape notice.”
Onric nodded again.
The courtyard would soon be busy enough with servants and nobles going about their daily morning tasks. Ian trusted Onric to find the right moment.
Onric and Ashlin led Blossom toward the stable, and Ian continued across the courtyard.
Opposite the current castle, an old, crumbling structure had filled out the eastern wall of the castle keep. The smaller hall and tower were the remnants of the original Iseldis castle from the time when the Majis ruled the kingdoms. Throughout the upheaval of the last few seasons, this had become the unofficial meeting place for any conversations that the royal family wanted to have away from prying eyes.
Ian entered the old hall and wound his way up the twisting steps of its eastern tower. At the top, he stepped into an old storage room that was filled with wooden crates and chests—both of which made excellent chairs for quick meetings—and a large makeshift table.
A massive, colorful tapestry lay spread out across the table. This, too, was from the time when the Majis had ruled the kingdoms, but several of the panels in the tapestry had been destroyed. The damage appeared to have been done deliberately, as though someone had been trying to erase the story held within the colorful threads.
Ashlin, an adept seamstress, had been repairing the damaged panels to recover the lost history. She was using a needle that had been infused with harmony magic to replace the missing stitches, but the needle had run out of magic and progress had slowed. Ian absently wondered if she had learned anything new in the time since he had been gone—then realized that he had only left the castle two days prior. It had felt like so much longer.
