"All right," Codric said at last and smoothed the transcribed page flat on the table.
"'Dear Kailin, Codric, Shovia, and Morek. I'll start with the easy part. I've arrived without incident at the palace, and I managed to cut the journey down by four days.'"
Codric lifted his head and grinned at me. "Was I right, or was I right? I know my cousin."
"You were right," Shovia said. "Now, keep reading."
"Fine." Codric cast her a glare, but there was no heat in it. The letter had lifted his mood, providing him with a thread to the cousin he missed.
"'Now comes the part that I needed the code for,'" Codric continued reading. "'The reason my parents called me home was that Arlen has been badly hurt. I can't write the how, not even in cipher, because I promised to keep the details a secret. I can only tell you that it was bad enough to send shockwaves throughoutthe entire family. He's lost the use of his legs and is confined to a chair with wheels, but that's not even the worst of it. His mental state is not good, and his place in the line of succession is no longer certain, even though he had gotten hurt in the service of Catonia and had acted heroically. Whether he keeps it depends on how far along he is by the annual ball, which is a month from now, and I have set myself on the task of getting him there. I can't make him walk again, but I believe I can restore his confidence. That is the work in front of me, and my success or failure will determine when I can come back, if I can return at all.'"
The lump in my throat grew so large that I couldn't draw air into my lungs.
I'd known that there was a chance Alar wouldn't return to Elucia, but now that he'd put it in writing, the maybe became a likelihood.
"'Tell no one,'" Codric read on. "'Not a word, nor a hint. I'm trusting the four of you with this because there is no one else in the world I trust more.'"
Codric paused and snorted, sounding for a moment like his old self. "Tell no one. Who exactly does he think we're going to tell? Moki?"
"Moki can keep a secret better than most," I said. "He can't talk, and only Saphir understands his chittering."
That won the ghost of a smile from him that I'd been aiming for, then he looked down at the words he'd written and his expression softened.
"'This part is for Kailin. I read your letters every day, careful with the paper they are written on so they won't fall apart in my hands. I cherish every word. Be careful and watch your back. Tell Veynathei that I can still feel our bond even from here. Yours, Alar.'"
I nodded as if he could see me and sent his message to Veynathei.
"I can feel him too,"she sent back."Tell him that when you write to him."
It was sad that they could both feel the bond but were too far away from each other to communicate mind to mind.
"Well," Morek said. "That's grim."
"It's worse than that." Codric leaned back. "Alar is naive to think that restoring Arlen's confidence is enough. If the loss of mobility is permanent, which it seems to be, Arlen has no hope of being accepted by the council. They would eat him alive and the whole Tekumuton line along with him. The king would be wise to nominate the next in line."
"But he was hurt in the service of his country, and being brave must count for something," Morek said, sounding offended by the injustice. "If a man loses the use of his legs doing something heroic, he gets disqualified? Is this the thanks he's getting?"
"Yes," Codric said flatly. "That's exactly the thanks."
Shovia shook her head. "Are you telling us that in Eluria no one can rule unless they are physically perfect?"
"There was a famous king, ages ago, named Namron of Penvasita," Codric said. "He'd lost a leg to a bad wound, and no one challenged his rule despite that, but Namron could still walk with the help of a prosthetic leg and a cane. Arlen needs a chair with wheels, and he's not king yet, so it's not the same. Besides, the Elurian Federation is different now, and especially Catonia. People care more about appearances than about substance. The Elurians want their kings and queens healthy and good-looking. To become king, Arlen would have to overcome obstacles and prove himself to a much greater extent than any other heir, and even then it probably won't fly."
"They'd really set aside an outstanding prince who got hurt in the service of his country?" Shovia said. "Over a chair?"
"They'd set aside their own mother if anything about her looked embarrassing to them on television." Codric said it without heat, which somehow made it even worse. "It's not cruelty. It's strategic. A diminished heir invites every ambitious house in the Federation to flex their muscles and try to advance to the top."
I hated it because Codric made sense. The world wasn't fair, and good deeds seldom got rewarded. Not in this realm anyway. Maybe the reward awaited the Good Samaritans in Dolis, but I preferred rewards in this life, not the next.
Codric reached for the pencil again. "I'll write to Alar and give him my honest opinion. As much as I feel sorry for Arlen, I think Alar is wasting his time. He would do better supporting Avren, who the king is likely to choose for the position since neither of the twins would be suitable. Both are uninterested, and either one would be a disaster as king."
"Don't," I said.
They all looked at me.
"Don't write that," I said. "You don't know that it's a lost cause. You're assuming, but you are not there, and Alar is." I was getting louder. "Hope is a powerful force, Codric. Don't take that away from him or make him doubt himself. Let him do his best to save his brother."
Codric looked at me with compassion in his eyes, the kind you give someone naive who doesn't know how the world works. "Even hope needs to be grounded in something that makes sense. Alar is hoping to pull off a miracle in a month. That's not going to happen."
