The Scholar's Heart (Chronicles of Tournai Book 3)

by Antonia Aquilante

  “No, don’t.”

  “What? Why?” He swung around, nearly tipping himself off balance, but Etan’s hands never loosened their firm grip, keeping him on his feet and close to Etan. Tristan put his own hands to Etan’s chest, perhaps to push away, to call for the guard to find his baby no matter what Etan said.

  “Because the city guard, though it has its own hierarchy, is still under the overall command of Captain Loriot,” Etan explained, his hands moving in soothing sweeps along Tristan’s back. Tristan didn’t want to be soothed, but he couldn’t bring himself to move away either. “I think we should go to the palace. To Philip and Amory and Captain Loriot. They’ll have more command and more resources.”

  Etan’s suggestion made sense even if Tristan didn’t like the idea of imposing on his friend for something that only came as a result of the man Amory married. “Is it too much?”

  “Of course not. You know Amory will want to help. If he knew, he’d be out scouring the city with your brothers and fighting anyone who told him he couldn’t. He still might.”

  Tristan huffed out a laugh because that was just what Amory would do. “I know.”

  “We’ll go now.”

  Tristan nodded.

  “I’ll go back out. Look for them some more,” Maxen said, his voice reminding Tristan of his presence and prompting him to turn and put a small amount of distance between himself and Etan. He didn’t want to; even the short distance felt like too much.

  “No,” Etan said. “Stay here so someone is in the house in case anyone finds them.”

  “Of course, yes, that makes sense.” Maxen nodded, looking glad again to have a task. Tristan wanted to resent the easy way Etan took charge, but he was too grateful, both for himself and for Maxen. “You’ll keep me informed?”

  “We’ll send word as soon as we know anything,” Tristan said, hoping harder than he’d ever hoped for anything that they would have news—good news—to report soon.

  They rode to the palace in silence. Etan’s quiet, steady presence at his side kept him calm enough to make the trip, but he was glad of Etan’s silence. He couldn’t possibly carry on a conversation now. Fear swirled inside Tristan, dark and cold, the coils of it tightening around his insides. The trip to the palace at least made him feel as if he was doing something to find Bria, little enough though it was, but that feeling did nothing to alleviate the fear.

  When they arrived at the palace, Etan ushered him inside and straight to Amory and Philip’s suite with a hand at his elbow. Etan rapped at the door, opening it when they heard a cheerful call to enter. He and Etan walked into a jovial scene, Philip, Amory, Cathal, Flavian, and Griffen with drinks in hand laughing and talking over each other. He stepped back, coming up against Etan. It wasn’t right that everyone should be so happy, so carefree, when everything was crashing down around him, as if Tristan had walked into another world, one out of step with his own. He blinked, having trouble adjusting to the thought that they didn’t know, that everyone didn’t know about something so important.

  “Etan, there you are! And Tristan,” Amory said in welcome, and then looked at them more closely. His smile drained away like water, and he reached behind him for Philip. “What happened? What’s wrong?”

  The whole party stopped talking at Amory’s questions, turning to look at Tristan and Etan. Tristan found the silence as grating as the laughter had been. Etan stepped forward again, urging Tristan into the room with a gentle yet firm hand at his back.

  “Tristan’s daughter and sister are missing. Tristan and his brothers have been searching, but they haven’t found any sign of them,” Etan said as he steered Tristan toward the sitting room couch.

  The silence took on a shocked quality, a breath of air sucked in and held for a moment, two, and then it seemed everyone moved. Amory rushed to Tristan’s other side, taking his arm, murmuring words Tristan hardly heard as everyone began to talk around him.

  “Was the city guard called?” Philip asked. Etan must have given him an indication to the negative, because Philip continued. “We’ll call for Captain Loriot.”

  “I’ll go,” Flavian said and ducked by Tristan. He reappeared almost immediately. “I’ve sent one of the guards for him. Told him it was urgent.”

  “I hope you told him not to storm in with weapons drawn,” Cathal remarked.

  “No, I impressed upon him that the danger wasn’t in this room.”

  “Is Savarin back in Jumelle?” That was Philip.

  “Just arrived last night, I heard.” Cathal again. “I haven’t seen him, though.”

  “I want to call for him as well. He may be able to help.”

  “Didn’t I hear he did something like that before? Helped find someone missing?” Amory asked.

  Tristan let their voices wash over him without paying much attention. He concentrated on calm, on not imagining what could be happening to his helpless Bria and to Selene—and he hated that he had to keep reminding himself to think of his sister, but he was so angry at her and so afraid for his baby—but he wasn’t sure how well he succeeded. Every time he closed his eyes he could see them, scared, hurt. He shied away from the thought there, not wanting to think of anything worse.

  Etan and Amory still flanked him, sitting with him on the couch. Etan’s hand was on his back, Amory’s held his arm. He hadn’t let himself think of falling apart until Etan arrived to lean on, but he still couldn’t break. Not yet. He could go to pieces later, if the worst did happen. He let the connection with his friend, with the man he loved—he could admit that easily now, as fear and pain coursed through him at the thought that he might have lost both Bria and Etan, and his sister too—ground him to the present, give him the strength to push aside the horrible images that flooded his mind. He had to be strong now for Bria.

  With that resolution, he straightened his spine and focused outward again. Captain Loriot strode into the room at that moment. He bowed to Philip and Amory, and then his gaze unerringly latched on to Tristan, as if he knew where the trouble came from.

  “Thank you for coming so quickly, Captain,” Philip said. “Tristan’s infant daughter and his sister are missing. We need your help to find them.”

  “Of course, Your Highness.” Captain Loriot looked back at Tristan, who absently studied the man. He’d seen the captain of the royal guard before, but he couldn’t say he’d taken much notice of him, and he wasn’t sure why he was doing so now when something so much more important was happening. Captain Loriot was a tall man and a muscular one, older than Tristan probably by at least a decade, but he didn’t look that old. His features were aristocratic, his hair thick and brown. His eyes were serious, his gaze level and confident. That gaze snapped Tristan back into the present. “Please tell me what happened.”

  Tristan nodded and recounted the whole story, everything that happened from the time he returned home that day until Etan arrived at his door. Some of it embarrassed him to relate—how his mother didn’t see him as a fit parent for his daughter and tried to take her from him—but he kept his head up and his eyes on Captain Loriot, and told him everything.

  “You’re certain your mother doesn’t have the baby? She couldn’t be hiding her from you?” Captain Loriot asked when he finished.

  Tristan shrugged. “I searched her house. If she has Bria, it isn’t there. And my brothers would have told me anyway. They don’t agree with her about the baby.”

  “All right. It’s a possibility we can look into. Is there anyone else who would want to take your daughter? Her mother’s family?”

  He shook his head before Captain Loriot even finished. “Dariela’s family never tried, never said anything about wanting to raise her. Dariela’s mother visits her, brings her presents. She’s been kind, helpful, never said anything the way my mother has. I can’t see them taking her.”

  “We’ll check just in case. What about your sister? Is there anyone who would want to harm her? A rejected suitor, perhaps?”

  “No, not that I kno
w of.” He tried to change directions, to think about his sister as a target instead of his daughter. “I don’t think she had any suitors. My mother or her friends might know better. Maybe my younger brothers. She lives with them. Do you think someone could have taken Selene and just happened to take her when she had the baby with her?”

  “I don’t think anything yet. I don’t know enough to have a theory, but these are things I have to think about, that I have to find out. I’ll talk to your mother about your sister. Can you tell me the names of a few of her friends?” Captain Loriot wrote the names Tristan gave him, including Adora’s, down in a little notebook he’d pulled from his pocket when he sat down to talk to Tristan. “What about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “Is there anyone who might want to hurt you and use your daughter to do it? Or might try to ransom her?”

  He rubbed a hand over his face, trying to wake himself up, to make sense of what Captain Loriot was asking. “You think an enemy of mine took her. I don’t have enemies. I can’t….”

  “Tristan is a wealthy man,” Amory said, breaking into the conversation when Tristan ran out of words. “He runs his family’s shipping company. A large and successful company. The premier shipping concern in Tournai.”

  Captain Loriot nodded. “We may be looking at a rival or someone just looking for ransom by kidnapping the daughter and sister of a wealthy man. Are there any business rivals I should be aware of?”

  Tristan gave him more names, scrambling through his mind for the names of his competitors. He couldn’t believe any of them, anyone at all, would take an innocent baby because of business.

  “What happens now?” Philip asked from where he sat on the couch’s arm at Amory’s other side, his hand on Amory’s shoulder.

  “We’ll question everyone we’ve spoken of today and investigate the house and the route she may have taken when she left. I would also like to speak with anyone else in your household—servants, the child’s nursemaid,” Captain Loriot said, addressing his words somewhere between Philip and Tristan.

  “Yes, of course,” Tristan replied. He didn’t think Sanna could give Captain Loriot any additional information, but he also didn’t see the harm in her, or any of his servants, speaking with the man. Perhaps they would remember something when questioned by someone who knew what to ask.

  “Thank you. I’ll report back regularly.”

  “Thank you,” Tristan said.

  “Yes, thank you, Captain Loriot,” Philip repeated. “I’ve also called in Savarin. I hope you can utilize his Talent and he might aid you in your search.”

  “I would welcome having the use of Savarin’s skills. Anything that can help us find them more quickly is a boon.” Captain Loriot bowed to Philip and Amory, then the rest of them, before leaving the room.

  They sat in silence for long moments after the door clicked shut behind Captain Loriot. Tristan wondered if the others were trying to figure out what to say. He certainly didn’t know. He was busy trying to hold on to the calm competence Captain Loriot displayed. This was a man who was good at what he did—if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be captain of the palace guard. Philip had confidence that Captain Loriot could find Bria and Selene—if he didn’t, the prince would surely have called for someone else instead, as he had the whole of Jumelle to call on, the whole of Tournai. And they’d said something about a sorcerer too. Surely a sorcerer had some spell that could help.

  No one had promised him that Bria would be found.

  She had to be found. She had to be all right.

  He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them to find everyone in the silent room staring at him. “I should go home.”

  “No,” Etan said quickly. “It’s getting late. Stay here tonight.”

  “I should be there in case they find her.”

  “Your brother is there in case someone searching finds something,” Etan said.

  “Captain Loriot knows you’re here,” Amory added. “He’ll report here to the palace, and he said he’ll be searching the house and talking to the staff. You’ll never get any rest there.”

  Tristan laughed shortly, a sound with no humor in it. “You think I’ll rest anywhere with my daughter missing?”

  “I think you need to if you’re to be any use to anyone looking for her and to her once she’s home,” Philip said, his words whipping out. “And I say that as a father who can only imagine what you must be feeling.”

  He’d begun to bristle, but the last part of Philip’s statement drained his anger before it had a chance to really take hold. Of course Philip would understand—Amory too. They were parents themselves. He let out a long breath and nodded. “All right. Thank you.”

  “I’ll have a guest suite readied for you,” Amory said, getting to his feet.

  “No, he can stay with me,” Etan said to Amory, and then turned to Tristan. “If you want to. You might rest easier if you aren’t alone.”

  He still didn’t think he could rest at all, but he didn’t want to be alone. And Etan was the one he wanted to be with. “Yes, that would be good. I still don’t think I’ll sleep, but… I would like that.”

  “We can always send for Jadis and have him put you to sleep.” It might have been meant as a joke—Tristan wasn’t certain—but everyone seemed to be considering it seriously, which was mildly disturbing. “But let’s see if you can sleep before we go calling for healers.”

  Tristan nodded and let Etan help him to his feet, to usher him toward the door, treating him as if he was made of glass. As if he might break. He wanted to be insulted, but he wasn’t sure himself that he wouldn’t fall to pieces at any moment. When they reached the door, he pulled back, forcing Etan to stop, and turned. They were all standing there, putting on brave faces for him, but their concern was still plain to see.

  “Thank you. For helping, for everything. Just, thank you.” He turned before anyone could reply and walked out the door with Etan close behind him.

  Chapter 14

  THE DOOR closed behind Etan and Tristan, the sound of it echoing in the silence. Tristan’s words, the reality of his situation, hung heavily over Philip. Over all of them. But maybe most for him and Amory. They were the only ones in the group to have a child of their own.

  He looked at Amory’s pale, drawn face, then around at the others. The shock, the worry was plain to see, as was the fact that none of them knew what to say or do now that Captain Loriot had left to put his guardsmen to work and Etan had ushered Tristan away to rest. But Philip knew if it were him and Julien was missing, there would be no sleep until his child was returned to him safe.

  “I cannot believe what that woman tried to do,” Flavian burst out, his hands clenching into fists. “Taking his child! And getting his sister to do it! How can someone do that? What would possess a mother to do that to her son?”

  “Flavian,” Cathal said, reaching a hand out to his husband to calm or comfort.

  But Flavian twisted away. “No. I can’t be the only one who is furious at what that woman did. I don’t care if her plans went awry or not. She tried to steal her son’s child and put her in a position to be taken by someone else. Because of some ridiculous idea of who’s best at raising a daughter? I want to go there and shake her until she sees sense.” Flavian looked at each of them, his eyes blazing. “I can’t be the only one who feels this way.”

  Cathal sighed. “You’re not. Of course you’re not. I’d like to do just as you said.”

  “We all would,” Amory said quietly.

  “But what purpose would it serve? It won’t help Tristan,” Philip said, hoping to calm Flavian before his anger drove him out to find Tristan’s mother. “It won’t bring Bria back. And that’s what we have to focus on now. Getting Tristan’s baby back.”

  “What should we do, then?” Flavian asked after a few moments of silence. “Should we help them search?”

  “We’ll only get in the way,” Cathal said, taking Flavian’s hand. “Let those who know what t
hey’re doing do it. We’re here, of course, if anything needs to be done, or if you need anything for Tristan.”

  Cathal addressed the last part to Philip and Amory, and Philip nodded. “Thank you. We’ll let you know if there’s anything to be done, but right now, this is in the hands of Captain Loriot and his men. We can only wait.”

  His words fell into the room like a rock into a pond, silence tinged with horror rippling out from them. Amory took his hand.

  Finally, Griffen said, “I suppose we should retire for the night. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not in the mood for cards anymore. And we can’t do anything waiting here.”

  They all murmured their agreement, but no one moved to leave, everyone just standing where they were, scattered around the sitting room.

  Cathal sighed. “We really can’t do anything here now. Best to get some rest ourselves—there’ll be more to do tomorrow. You’ll let us know if you hear anything, or if we can do anything?”

  Amory nodded. “As soon as we hear something.”

  Tristan was closest to Amory of all the men in the room, but Cathal, Flavian, and Griffen were all good men, kind men, and Philip knew they would want to do all they could for anyone who faced what Tristan was facing.

  Cathal, Flavian, and Griffen took their leave of Philip and Amory in a way that was far more subdued than how they arrived. Their plans for an evening of conversation and cards, of relaxation and laughter, seemed very far off. Philip wished he could turn back time and bring them back there, wished they could have had that night with Etan and Tristan present and Tristan’s daughter safely sleeping in her nursery at home. He was crown prince, ruler of Tournai, but he couldn’t manage that feat.

  Philip closed the door behind them and turned back to Amory. Amory said nothing, just looked at him, still pale, with eyes large with fear and worry. Going to Amory, Philip pulled him into his arms and against his chest. Amory shuddered and wrapped his arms around Philip, holding on tight.

  “Philip, I can’t even imagine. I don’t want to imagine, because every time I do, I think about how I would feel if Julien were missing. If our child had been taken.” Amory’s voice was a whisper muffled against Philip’s shoulder, but he heard him easily despite the low tone.