The deceased Regina was something they never spoke of. Ever. It was a silent rule made the moment after her lifeless body had been discovered in the royal chamber. Neither of them had ever broken it before, and for the life of him, Trystan couldn’t imagine why he’d been so foolish as to do so now.
“Apologies, Father.” He bowed his head, keeping his eyes downcast on the tips of the Rex’s polished boots. “I don’t know what came over me.”
The Rex still had his arm around Trystan’s shoulders, and for a moment, it seemed like he might move his hand over and strangle the Zane. He seemed to surprise them both when he suddenly flashed a half smile instead and dropped down the final step, dragging his son with him.
“You’re forgiven, this once.” The threat at the end was clear, though the mirth never left his eyes. “Losing someone you care for is never easy; however, we’re Ends. We don’t dwell on such trivial nonsense. The planet keeps turning, and we continue on. But you must have come to that conclusion on your own, or else, why would you be here? Isn’t that right?”
It was a trap, a poor attempt to gauge a reaction and see if Trystan was hiding something. Knowing this, he kept his expression firmly in place, making sure not to flinch or twitch, or even alter his gait as they moved down a long hallway. He kept his gaze firmly ahead, pretending not to be bothered by his father’s intense stare at his side.
“‘The Crown before the Common,’” Trystan stated, repeating the bullshit creed his father had taught him as a child. It was even scrawled across a tapestry in his father’s bedroom, though few others ever saw it.
For good reason.
“Exactly.” The Rex patted him one last time and then finally let go of Trystan. “I knew I could count on you to see reason.”
They’d walked a little more than halfway down the hall, and now paused at a set of silver doors. The walls themselves were a pale blue, the floors carpeted in a deep navy. This section of the castle was made to look lavish, with all the expensive trimmings and even small square tables with plants drifting in glass bowls filled with water. It was meant to be relaxing, nonthreatening.
Like pretty much everything else involving the Rex, it was a lie.
Trystan could see it, clear as day. He’d known his father wasn’t the best choice for ruler, that he didn’t always keep the safety of the people in mind. He’d known he was manipulative, and controlling. But making the Zane believe they were on the same page, that he could finally have one thing that he wanted without fear of his father taking it …
Delaney was right: The Rex was a monster. And unless you could befriend them, monsters needed to be put down. He and his father would never see eye to eye; Trystan realized that now.
Which only left them option two.
“Now, as I’ve stated, I don’t think you’re in any shape to meet with the council.” The Rex ignored the two sentinels at the doors, who were waiting to open them. “You should go straight to your rooms. Get some sleep. When you wake, freshen up and we’ll meet again for dinner. How does that sound?”
Like literal hell.
“Perfect, Father,” Trystan said, clasping his hands behind his back respectfully. “May I ask, why is it you’re meeting with the council? I might not be in the right sorts to attend, but surely I should be privy to what’s taking place.”
“There’s damage control to do. We must prove to the people that Olena is the right option.” He glanced pointedly up and down the hall. “Which reminds me, where is Lissa Olena?”
“Back in Inkwell,” he said. “She wasn’t well enough to travel.”
“You were meant to keep me updated on that. We never even received a report from you. I still don’t know how this happened.”
“Apologies, Father. In the rush to get the information to Tilda in person, it slipped my mind. Teller Pettus managed to get control of a fritz and shot Olena twice. Once in the abdomen, once in the left shoulder. The doctors have managed to secure her, and report that she’ll live through the ordeal.” He made sure to add a twinge of distaste to his tone at the end there.
“Don’t sound so thrilled about that, son,” the Rex drawled. He chuckled and then turned toward the sentries. “Do you need an escort to your rooms?”
“That won’t be necessary, Father.” Trystan bowed and then moved away, careful not to glance back as he heard the double doors opening and his father greeting the council members within.
He turned the corner, playing the part he always did—mirroring the Rex and ignoring the Tellers he passed, heading in the direction of his rooms.
* * *
HE NEEDED TO figure out the reason the Rex was angry, especially since he believed Delaney was dead and Olena was alive. Trystan was here, wasn’t he? That should have been enough to placate his father, but no, there was something else going on.
It was possible he was still upset about having been disobeyed, Trystan mused, placing his palm on the keypad at the left of the door once he reached his rooms. As soon as it opened, he entered, coming to an abrupt halt just within the doorway.
They were exactly as he’d left them, the open lounge area all polished marble flooring, tall dark-blue walls, and wide windows. The silver pillows on the couch were placed at the exact angles he’d set them, and the coffee table before the couch was clear, aside from the statue of his favorite animal, which he used as a centerpiece. He had a similar one back in his rooms in Inkwell, and the memory of Delaney standing there, inspecting it, hit him like a ton of bricks.
This place was empty, hollow. It needed Delaney.
He needed her.
He’d been careful not to dwell too long on the promise Tilda had forced his Lissa to make. Though he’d been standing behind her at the time, he knew Delaney well enough to know she wasn’t pleased with having to agree to marry him.
Again.
But that was a topic they’d discuss at a later date, once all of this was finished and he knew they were safe. Until then he needed to keep his own feelings about the matter—and about how she clearly still didn’t want to be betrothed to him—carefully locked away.
The whole way here he’d tried not to think about her, or how he was leaving her behind. He knew the Ander would keep her safe, but he would prefer to be with her himself, so he could be sure she was protected. Yet they’d needed more information, fast, and try as he might, this was the only solution he could come up with under such short notice.
Forcing his feet forward, Trystan passed by another empty side table to the left, and the circular glass table set before the floor-to-ceiling windows directly across the main door. The room branched off at either side, one leading to his bedroom and bathroom, the other to his study. He took the latter.
His study was almost the same size as the lounge area, which made sense, because when he was here, he spent more time in this room than any other in the entire castle. Bookshelves lined the walls, volumes carefully sorted by color, and aesthetically displayed with trinkets and statues between them.
Trystan didn’t bother sparing them a glance, moving to his desk at the far end. He didn’t sit in the large leather chair, either, opting to lean over, already tapping on the clear glass panel that took up most of the desk’s surface.
The device hummed to life beneath his fingertips, a row of blinking lights greeting him before his home screen appeared. He inputted the sequence that would ensure no one could trace what he was doing or spy on his screen while he was doing it, before he ran a search through the castle’s systems. As soon as that was accomplished, he got down to business.
His father had Kint’s top specialists create the firewalls that kept the castle computer systems safe. Of course, in his need to have the smartest child on the planet, he’d also hired those same people to teach his son, not realizing they would teach him everything he’d need to know to teach himself how to hack. Which meant Trystan could easily infiltrate the system, and had been doing so since age thirteen.
Trystan knew the Rex had a
private computer, one not connected to the rest of the castle’s systems. If he was keeping damning evidence, that was probably where it was, but Trystan wanted to cover all his bases before taking a risk like that. There’d be no explaining his way out of trouble if he got caught in his father’s study, the only place, aside from his parents’ bedroom, that he was forbidden from entering without the Rex present.
Needing to know if anyone else was in on it, Trystan ran a full search through all communications that had been sent and received by the castle in the past seventy-two hours. He supplied a few specific keywords to look for, in order to weed out what had to be thousands of messages. While that process began, he clicked open a new screen, pulling up video footage of the hallway directly outside the conference room his father was in, and then the corridors surrounding the Rex’s study.
When the latter popped up, he frowned, momentarily confused to find security had been more than doubled. At least half a dozen Tellers roamed the halls, boxing the study off.
In all his years living here, he couldn’t recall there ever being that much security placed on one room. It drew unwanted attention. The Rex had to have something to hide for him to go to such lengths in what was meant to be his own highly secured castle. Did he expect someone to try to break in? Try to search through his things?
But why, and who? The only known enemies the Rex had were Vakar, and he currently believed he had Tilda eating out of the palm of his hand. That left the Tars, whom Trystan now knew his father secretly ran, and Ruckus’s little ragtag group, who he’d left back in Varasow.
Actually, that wasn’t entirely true. There was someone else he hadn’t considered.
A few keystrokes later, and he had a separate search running through the castle’s security cameras. The screen flicked through different images, almost too quickly to be processed, but Trystan had done this multiple times as well, and knew what to look for and what not to bother focusing his attention on. He slammed his palm down a split second before the image he was currently looking at could change, pausing it.
It was grainy and in black and white, but he could easily make out the Sutter his father had taken from Inkwell. Delaney’s friend Gibus.
He was bent over a worktable, fiddling with some metal device. His face was set in intense concentration, even as his right foot tapped out a rhythm Trystan couldn’t hear. These cameras didn’t have any sound, which often came in handy for him. When he’d been younger, it meant if he’d gotten caught, he could easily make up some story as to why he was where he wasn’t meant to be.
Just as he was about to check the location, a soft ding drew his attention to his first search, and he quickly tapped over to his original screen. There were three communications that matched his search parameters. It was honestly a bit surprising that there were even this many. Leaving behind a trail was sloppy, but then again, having the most secure systems in Xenith meant sometimes the Kint got a little lax with protective protocols.
The first one he looked at was a useless outgoing message that had been flagged due to a vague mention of the Tars as a whole. The second was more interesting, giving him pause as he read through the somewhat cryptic message.
It was only three words—Confirmed. They’re here—but something about it gave Trystan a poor taste in his mouth. He checked the location from which the message had been sent, and felt himself start to worry when he saw it’d come from Varasow late last night.
Around the same time he and the others would have landed in the palace.
Quickly, he flipped to the final message, hoping that his suspicions would be proven wrong. Instead he sucked in a breath when he read the single word.
Secured.
The message had come from Inkwell.
Trystan had put the entire castle on lockdown, leaving behind a couple dozen of his most trusted Tellers. If his father had sent another retrieval team after him, he should have received word from his men. Unless they’d been caught off guard and overrun.
He tried to rack his brain for any other possible explanation, but came up with nothing. No, his father must have sent more Tellers to Inkwell, either before or after their conversations about Trystan’s trip to Vakar. They’d taken the castle there, and had silenced his people before they could get word out to him. The fact that he’d taken a random ship, and that his shing had cracked during his and the Ander’s skydiving escapade, would have made it difficult in any case. Especially since he’d only discovered that it’d been broken after departing from Varasow, and hadn’t had the chance to get a new one.
He needed to check on his people, see if any had been able to escape in the ship he’d left behind.
Fear for Dominan and the boy’s mother forced Trystan to pause and take a deep breath. There was nothing to be done about that at the moment, and he had other, more pressing issues.
The Rex knew about Olena.
Putting the two incoming messages together was proof enough to convince Trystan, especially when he took into account his father’s odd behavior. He’d seen his son more worn down than he was now plenty of times, and not once had that been reason enough for him to suggest he shirk his duties. The Zane being in the castle but not attending a council meeting? That would certainly cause more gossip than if he’d gone in there looking tired.
This was a setup.
He glanced at the computer screen once more, scanning the tightened security around his father’s office, everything clicking into place. The Rex wanted him to try something; that was why he’d let him go off on his own as soon as he’d gotten there.
Did he know Trystan had discovered his connection to the Tars? Or was there something else he was hiding that he didn’t want him to see? Why hadn’t he used his knowledge of Olena’s death against him already? Everyone was in jeopardy now, including those currently in the Vakar palace.
If the Rex knew his hold over Tilda and her crown was gone, he’d be plotting a way to regain control. By any means necessary.
Cursing, Trystan spun away from his desk, running both hands through his hair until he could tightly cup the back of his skull. His options had dwindled, and he needed a better plan for how to proceed.
If he tried for the study, surely he’d get caught. He could do it, play into his father’s hands if only to see where the Rex intended to take this. Perhaps Trystan would be able to glean important knowledge from it, even.… But if he couldn’t get away? He’d be putting Delaney and his people in greater danger.
Which meant giving up on the mission. He barely resisted the urge to slam a hand through the wall. He did not come all the way here for nothing, and he refused to let his father win.
Still scrambling to come up with a solution, he turned back to the computer, and paused when he spotted the window displaying Delaney’s Sutter.
The one who’d been in his father’s clutches for a few days now. And who was clearly working on something for him …
The beginnings of a new plan started to take root, spurring him back into action. Trystan hit a few more buttons to bring up the location of that specific camera. After finding that the Sutter was being held on the opposite side of the castle, in the South Wing, he quickly wiped any trace of what he’d been searching, and shut down his device.
A smaller version rested in a drawer, and he grabbed it before exiting the study to head back to the main door.
While this wing was supposedly private and unwatched, he didn’t trust that his father wasn’t having him spied on. It was the type of thing the Rex would do, especially considering he knew he’d been lied to.
The only reason he could think of for his father not to have openly confronted him was that he was waiting to see how far his deception ran. Not attempting to break into his study was a good way of throwing his father off, especially if he was successful in retrieving the Sutter, making this appear like it’d been nothing more than a rescue mission.
Either way, he couldn’t still be here when the Rex’s meeting concluded. If h
e was, he risked being detained, and he needed to get back to Vakar and warn Delaney and Tilda that his father was onto them.
Trystan activated the device in his palm and loaded the program that would allow him to access the security cameras. Once it was open, he inputted the North Wing and waited for the feed to appear. Sure enough, there was one camera set down the length of each hall on this floor. They were meant to only be operational in times of an attack, so clearly his father didn’t trust him.
Knowing that the footage would be carefully monitored, Trystan ran through his plan one last time to ensure there weren’t any obvious kinks. When he couldn’t find any, he rotated his shoulders and pressed his palm to the keypad at the side of the door, hitting a single button on his device afterward. Since it connected to the main computer, it was easy enough for him to hack in and download everything the castle’s security cameras had recorded over the past hour. Once he had the video footage, it was a simple matter of rewinding. A programmed thirty-second loop of the feed began to play, and he darted out of the room and ran left.
A few feet away from the turn, he hit another button, altering the camera footage in the next hall so that it would start to loop. His count hit thirty seconds as he turned the corner, having just made it before the original looped footage ended and returned to regular record.
This had been a game he’d played as a child, a way to sneak up and spy on his father during council meetings he’d been too young to attend. Or even—more often than not—to sneak to the kitchens in the middle of the night to satisfy a sugar craving.
Because of this, he knew to adjust the loop to thirty-five seconds as soon as he passed the East Wing, and again to forty when he entered the South.
Trystan traveled the castle this way, taking the most secluded corridors, which he knew were more than likely empty. Twice, he had to duck into side rooms to avoid a set of passing Tellers, making sure to switch back to the regular footage so that the security guards watching the feed would see their fellow Tellers and know all was secure. Both times, he was forced to wait until they’d evacuated the hall completely before reactivating the loop.
Within Ash and Stardust Page 15
