The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3)

by Mackenzie Morgan

“She left? That’s a first.”

  “I know. Sort of scary.” Joan laughed. “Almost like she wanted to be sure she wasn’t blamed for anything that came out of here.”

  “Are we having lunch here? Or is everyone leaving before lunch?”

  “As far as I know, we’re supposed to eat after the register is signed, but I’m not sure where or what. Anyway, go get Allisandra.”

  Joan wiped frosting off her hands, face, out of her hair, and changed into fresh clothes. By the time she was done, the cake was safely in the center of the second table, surrounded by Allisandra’s flowers. and Krista had cleared up the kitchen. She’d washed out the bags and tips, but the left-over frosting was still in bowls on the counter.

  “What would you like for me to do with these bowls?” Krista asked as Joan started to head out into the dining room.

  “Cover them with cheesecloth for right now. We may need some of it later. If there’s any left, we’ll see what Miranda wants to do with it.”

  As soon as Joan entered the dining room, Karl grabbed her hand and rushed her over to the table where the register was set up. “We need to sign this before Steve and Laryn get here.”

  Tolliver had taken up a position at the table directly across from the register. He stepped around to the front, moved the chair intended for Steve, and flipped back a page. “Here.” He pointed to a line halfway down the page. “If you’ll both sign your names right there, we’ll be done.”

  Karl glanced at the way the other couples had registered. The man had signed first, including his parentage, and then the woman had signed. The only difference between signing the marriage register and the resident register was they both signed on the same line. Karl picked up the pen and signed the book. He handed the pen to Joan and stepped back out of her way.

  As soon as Joan signed, Tolliver sighed. “Thank you. Now it’s complete.” He blotted their signatures, turned the page over to the new page he had set aside for Steve and Laryn, put Steve’s chair back in place, and took up his position on the other side of the table to wait for the moment when he could leave.

  Meanwhile, Laryn and Cryslyn had settled on a green dress with an overlay of white lace. Laryn felt it was too fussy, but Cryslyn insisted it was perfect, so in the end, Laryn gave up and put it on. Once she was dressed, Danyelle showed up with a lace veil.

  “Why do I need that?” Laryn asked, frowning. The veil was so long it would hang halfway down her back.

  “To keep the crumbs out of your hair,” Danyelle answered.

  “Crumbs? What crumbs?”

  “From the cake,” Cryslyn answered. “You know. The man always breaks either a piece of bread or a bit of cake over the wife’s head. It’s custom.”

  Laryn frowned and shook her head. “Never heard of that. When did that start?”

  “Long before any of us were born. Badec did it when he married Yvonne,” Danyelle said. “Don’t you remember?”

  “I do remember the day, but I was busy fielding questions, finding places for the extra guests to sleep, and so on. I don’t think I was anywhere nearby when they signed the register.”

  “It wasn’t when they signed the register, it was later, after dinner. Surely you remember.”

  Laryn thought for a minute and nodded. “I’d forgotten. That’s tradition? I thought it was an accident. He was standing, she was sitting, he was eating a piece of cake, and some of it broke off and hit her on the head.”

  “It didn’t break off, he broke it off,” Cryslyn said, chuckling.

  “Sedwin dumped half a cake on my head,” Danyelle said, “You don’t remember that?”

  “I wasn’t there,” Laryn said, looking down. “The day before you got married there was a flood on the Kivee. Badec had taken several sorcerers out there to help build up the banks and clear up the damage. While Badec was with you, I shuttled sorcerers back and forth.”

  “Oh,” Danyelle said. “I remember now. You’re right. You weren’t there.”

  Laryn shook her head. “But you sent me a piece of your cake for luck.”

  “And you missed Alli’s, too.”

  “We both did. There was an earthquake in Jardin so Badec had to go. I had to stay here to handle messages and coordinate supplies and sorcerers.”

  “Well, if we don’t get downstairs, you’re going to miss yours, so let’s get this on your head and get moving,” Danyelle said as she tried to keep the tears gathering in her eyes from spilling over.

  A few minutes later, Laryn stepped off the steps and into the hall leading towards the dining room.

  Steve was waiting for her at the door. As he watched her walk towards him, the smile on his face reached his eyes.

  “You look beautiful,” he whispered as he took her hand. “Ready?”

  She nodded so he opened the door to the dining room and ushered her inside. As Laryn looked at the two tables, her family, and Steve’s friends, tears gathered in her eyes. Steve was right. This was done out of love.

  Laryn let Steve guide her through the dining hall. He pulled out her chair and waited for her to be seated before he sat. Once they were both settled, Tolliver leaned towards Steve and pointed at the blank page. “If you’ll sign here, and then Laryn, you sign next to him.”

  Steve picked up the pen and signed his name. As he signed, he caught a flicker of light out of the corner of his eye. Someone had lit his candle. The corner of Steve’s mouth tilted up in a lopsided grin. Of course. He’d been wondering how they were going to light the candles, but with a room full of sorcerers, who needed matches? He wasn’t sure who’d lit his, but he’d be willing to bet Kevin had.

  When he was done, he handed the pen to Laryn. As she signed, a small flame danced at the top of her candle. Again, Steve had nothing to base it on, but he felt sure Shadron had lit hers.

  When Laryn handed the pen back to him, he set it down beside the register and picked up his candle. He waited a moment for her to pick hers up, and then, together, they lit the candle in the center of the table. When the flame flickered and caught, applause broke out around the group.

  While everyone congratulated Steve and wished Laryn a long and happy marriage, Tolliver worked his way around the table until he could reach the register without bumping anyone or catching his tunic on fire. As soon as the register was within his reach, he picked it up and worked his way out of the group. Once he was clear, he made a beeline out the nearest patio door.

  Joan was watching Laryn with her sisters when she felt someone behind her. She turned and nearly bumped into Miranda.

  “Sorry to startle you,” Miranda said, “but I’ve got to know how you made that topping. I tasted a little of what was left in the kitchen and it’s wonderful. And how did you make the trim? Are those little rose buds?” Miranda asked as she squinted at the cake. “Joan, if I’d had any idea you were going to do all of this, there’s no way I’d have left the kitchen. When can you show me how to do this?”

  “The icing’s buttercream,” Joan said with a smile. Then she told Miranda how to make it. “But you need to grind the sugar down really fine if you want it to come out smooth. That’s the hardest part, getting it fine enough. I’ve had Karl grinding every evening for a couple of weeks. As to the decorating, that just takes practice. I’ll show you the basics and you can come up with your own designs from there. Want to give it a try one afternoon next week? Provided I don’t get swamped in the office, that is.”

  “You just let me know when you can do it and I’ll take care of the rest. Grind the sugar down real fine, you say. Well, I’ve plenty of hands in the kitchen to help with that. We’ll get started on it tomorrow,” Miranda said as she turned to head back to the kitchen. “Oh, and would you see if you can get everyone to move towards the front so we can serve lunch? We kept it light today. Want to save room for the cake!”

  Half an hour later, everyone was done with lunch. As different ones finished, they gravitated towards the cake. Teron and Norrie kept trying to reach out and touch the ici
ng, so Danyelle ended up guarding it. The other children weren’t much better, and a couple of times she had to stop her brothers from sneaking a bit of frosting.

  When Steve and Laryn walked over to the table, Miranda sent Carrie out with plates, forks, and a knife. Allisandra cleared a spot for the plates, took the knife off the top of the stack, and handed it to Laryn. “Cut the first piece and hand it to Steve. After both of you have had some, move out of the way and I’ll cut the rest.”

  Laryn nodded, cut a slice of cake, and handed the slice to her husband. Steve took a bite, broke off a bit, fed that to Laryn, and while she was eating, he crumbled up another bit and scattered it over her veil. As the crumbs hit her head, a cheer went up from the onlookers, and Allisandra started cutting slices for everyone.

  Miranda sent out a fresh carafe of coffee, a new pot of tea, a pitcher of milk, a pitcher of scog, and a tray of mugs. Laryn took Kevin off to the side and asked him to tell the pages to round up everyone and invite them to join them. Before long the dining room was full of people, laughing and eating cake.

  It was a good half hour before anyone realized the guests of honor had slipped away.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Most of the family stayed through dinner, but as soon as dinner was over, they all but lined up outside Kevin’s office to go home. For the next hour, Kevin and Chris transported Kevin’s aunts, uncles, their families, and luggage back home.

  After they were done, they collapsed in Kevin’s office.

  “I can’t believe we have the castle to ourselves again,” Kevin said.

  “And I can’t believe Steve was the first one of us to get married,” Chris said with a grin. “I figured it would be Darrell, or maybe Theresa. Guess that pendant Glendymere gave him worked.”

  “Want me to ask him to make you one?”

  Chris laughed and shook his head. “No, thank you. Women all over the place bake stuff and send it to me. If I got married, they’d stop. Not worth it.”

  Kevin laughed.

  “What about you? Are you ready to tie the knot?”

  Kevin shook his head. “I doubt I ever will.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t think I could put anyone I cared about in that spot. Living in a fishbowl, having everything you do and say criticized by people who don’t know what they’re talking about, and then there’s the risk. Any wife of mine would be a good candidate for kidnapping, or for an assassin’s arrow.”

  “Do they kidnap people here? I don’t think I’ve heard of anyone doing that.”

  “I don’t know, but I imagine someone will think of it eventually if they haven’t already. Want someone to do something they don’t want to? Put the life of someone they care about in danger. We know Rolan uses that tactic. What’s to prevent him from sending out kidnap squads as well as assassins? And he’s not all that smart. If he can think of it …”

  “Well, you can’t live your life based on worst case scenarios. If you did, you’d never get out of bed. Life’s dangerous, bad things happen, but you can’t let that keep you from living it.”

  Kevin frowned and looked sideways at Chris.

  “What?”

  “You’re the one who always watches for the dark cloud on the horizon. And you’re the one who keeps saying paranoia is the secret to a long life.”

  “Yeah, but when did you start listening to me?”

  Kevin chuckled and shook his head. “Today was nice. Much nicer than last weekend.”

  Chris nodded. “Because it was family. Even the ones who weren’t related were family.”

  “And that cake Joan made,” Kevin said. “I had no idea she could do that.”

  “Neither did I.” Chris’s eyes took on a dreamy look. “That icing was heavenly.” He sat up and said, “Now there’s a woman worth marrying, if she wasn’t already married.”

  “I won’t tell Karl you said that,” Kevin said, laughing. “But it was a good cake.”

  “Hope she makes another one before long. Or better yet, teaches Miranda how to make it.”

  “Well, I’m ready to call it a day. How about you?”

  “Just waiting for you to give the word.” Chris stood up and stretched. “I’ll send the pages home. Want some scog? Thought I’d drop by the kitchen and get a mug.”

  “Sure, and if you find any of that cake, bring me a slice.”

  Chapter 57

  Making Plans

  Monday evening, after dinner, Darrell and Cpt. Lawrence dropped by Kevin’s office to see if he had a few minutes to talk to them.

  Once they were all settled, Darrell said, “We’ve been working on a plan to catch our spy.”

  “Provided the spy’s from the castle,” Cpt. Lawrence added.

  Kevin leaned back in his chair and nodded for Darrell to continue.

  “We’ve narrowed our suspect list down to six. We can’t be positive our spy’s on the list, but it’s the best we could come up with based on everyone’s movements that morning.”

  “Who’s on the final list?” Kevin asked.

  Darrell handed him a slip of paper with the six names.

  After he read through the list, Kevin handed it back to Darrell. “So how do we figure out which one’s the spy?”

  “By setting a trap. We thought you could bring Landis back to the castle,” Darrell began, but Kevin started shaking his head. “Wait a minute. Hear me out. If Landis is here, word’ll get around fairly quickly, both here and in town. If she has some mock errands she needs to run, we could get one of the people from our list to either take a message to someone that Landis is coming, or make preparations for one of her errands.”

  “Like asking Shana to prepare a basket, or having Aaron get a carriage or horse ready,” Cpt. Lawrence said, “and in the process, we tell that person her plans.”

  “And I guess I go with her to keep her safe and capture the assassin when he shows up?” Kevin asked.

  “Well,” Darrell said, “that would work if our goal was to capture the assassin and the spy, but we weren’t sure you’d want to do that. It might be more useful to just know who they are.”

  “If we capture them, Rolan will just replace them, and we’re right back where we started,” Cpt. Lawrence said.

  Kevin thought for a minute. “Better the enemy that you know. One question though. If I’m not there to protect Landis, how do you propose to keep her safe? We can’t be sure they’ll send just one assassin this time, especially after last time, or that the assassin won’t be a sorcerer. I don’t want to take any chances on her getting hurt.”

  “We can keep her safe by not putting her in harm’s way,” Darrell answered.

  “After she lets her plans for the day be known, we thought you could take her back to wherever she’s staying,” Cpt. Lawrence explained. “If you and she came in here to go over last minute instructions or something, the spy wouldn’t know she’d left Milhaven. The message would be delivered and things would be set in motion before anyone figured out she was gone.”

  Kevin frowned. “Then how …?”

  “If we had someone in each location, hidden away, to watch and see if an assassin shows up, we’d know who the spy is and we’d also have a lead on one of the assassins,” Cpt. Lawrence explained.

  Kevin nodded. “Leave the spotters to me.”

  “But I don’t think either you or Marcus should be spotters,” Darrell said.

  Kevin nodded. “I’ll still take care of getting the spotters. Have you come up with the six errands yet?”

  Darrell shook his head. “Nothing definite. We wanted to run it by you before we took it any further.”

  “Have you chosen a date yet?”

  “Saturday, the 14th,” Cpt. Lawrence answered.

  “Any particular reason?”

  “Things are quieter on the weekends and that’ll make it a little easier to have the right people in the right place,” Darrell answered. “We chose Saturday over Sunday because you have practice sessions with Glendymere on Sunday, an
d I don’t want you to miss any more of those.”

  “Why that Saturday?”

  “You have the council meeting this Saturday, so I didn’t figure you’d want to try to do it then, but we wanted to do it as soon as possible. The next Saturday just fell in place, but we can change it if you’ve got other plans.”

  “No, at least none that I know of. I’ll have to check with Chris to be sure, but I’ll need to know the six destinations before I talk to the spotters.”

  “We should have those for you this weekend. Will that be soon enough?”

  Kevin nodded.

  “Oh, and one more thing,” Darrell said. “I don’t think Rhianna should come. Saryn said he wouldn’t have attempted it if he’d known Landis had an elf with her. If Rhianna’s here, the other assassins might decide not to try it.”

  “I’ll take care of it,” Kevin said with a sinking feeling. That wouldn’t go over well.

  Darrell stood up to leave. “We’ll work on the rest of the plan and get back with you Friday.”

  “It’ll be nice to know who’s leaking information to Rolan,” Kevin said. Then he looked over at Cpt. Lawrence. “Do you think our spy was involved with my father’s death?”

  Cpt. Lawrence hesitated a moment. “I don’t know. I know everyone on the list, some better than others, and not all of them were here when your father was poisoned. But of the ones who were, I can’t see any of them poisoning anyone, much less Badec, but passing along the information that might have led to it? That I could believe. Of course I could be wrong. We could have a cold-blooded killer working in the castle. I hope not, but it’s possible.”

  Kevin nodded. “That’s what I was thinking. Our spy’s probably just a source of information.”

  “But don’t count on it,” Darrell warned. “Be careful about your habits. We’ve got your morning practices covered, but don’t develop any other predictable habits someone could use to get to you.”

  “Like coffee every morning?”

  “Exactly the kind of thing I mean, but I know better than suggest you give it up. And since you drink coffee all day long, if they use that to get to you, they don’t have to stick to mornings.”