Hearts & Minds: Book Six in the Crown of Blood series

by White, Gwynn

  Dip’s jaw gaped. “You’re really gonna give this to me?”

  A twitter of excitement raced through his boys. Even String drew nearer.

  “It’s yours,” Grigor said. “To make up for the thousand guardsmen I sent into the city.”

  Dip patted the rifle. He prodded and poked it. Then he pulled the trigger.

  Nothing dramatic happened.

  He pointed at the bullet held in Grigor’s hand. “I need that. This is no good without it.”

  “This you will get after you’ve taken me to the palace.” Grigor held his breath.

  Dip glanced over his shoulder at his boys and scowled at String. They all looked on with interest. A long, pained sigh. “Okay, Avanov, you’ve got a deal.” Dip stood.

  Grigor stayed on his haunches. “You’re taking me to the palace kitchens, I assume.”

  “That’s what I said. I keep my word.”

  “Just to be sure, the kitchen is inside the palace?”

  Dip rolled his eyes. “Questions. Questions. All these Avanovs do is ask questions.”

  Father, Grigor thought, am I being taken for a ride here?

  Father chuckled. “Let’s just say that you’re on a journey and let’s see where it takes you.

  Not exactly helpful.

  Grigor stood. “Okay, Dip. Let’s go.”

  Dip tossed the rifle strap over his shoulder. Little taller than the weapon, it jogged against his heels as he walked. “Let’s go, Avanov.” He swaggered out of the room.

  Grigor followed. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw String stand, then hesitate. Grigor waved at him. “Come, you’re also part of this.”

  The boy scampered after them, keeping an arm swing away from Dip.

  Nose in the air, Dip swaggered up the passageway toward another door. When he reached it, he stopped and turned back to look at Grigor. Somewhat deflated, he said, “We need someone to open it.”

  “I’ll oblige,” Father said into Grigor’s head.

  A lock clicked, and the door eased open.

  Dip’s eyes widened. “Creepy.” But he didn’t hesitate in pulling the door open and striding out into a tunnel.

  Grigor and String followed. Grigor stopped. “Light. Surely we’re going to need some light?”

  “Nah,” Dip said. “I know them tunnels better than the back of my hand. You just keep up with me.”

  Warily, Grigor followed, then stopped. “Uh-uh, Dip. I’m going back to get a light. You wait here.”

  He went back into the room with all the informas to ask Dray if he had a light on him. Father waited for him. He snatched one of the informas floating in the air out of its formation and thrust it into Grigor’s hands.

  It glowed softly.

  “I don’t suppose you’ve got some chalk or something like that?”

  “Chalk?”

  “Something to mark the passages, for when I have to go back.”

  “Ah, good thinking. Even better, give me that informa.” Father lifted the informa out of his hands and spoke some command. He handed it back. “It will track your every move, creating a map for you. If you wish to take photographs, you can do that, too. Instruct the informa to go into image mode and tell it what you want it to photograph.”

  “Wow. That’s pretty amazing.” Still new to informas, he smiled his appreciation and then headed off back to join Dip and String.

  Both boys waited for him.

  “Them bullets are calling,” Dip said. “Let’s move.”

  They seemed to walk for an age with nothing but echoing silence and dripping water to fill Grigor’s thoughts. It wasn’t enough to drive away the emptiness Natalia left in his core, or his sorrow for the loss of her family.

  Not to mention his guilt.

  Intellectually, he understood why he’d run and what the cost would be. That didn’t make it any easier to live with.

  Finally, Dip slowed. “It’s around this corner,” he whispered. “But you’ve got to be quiet. The crazies in there don’t notice much, but there’s always a first time. And turn off that light.”

  Grigor obeyed.

  His blood pounded in his ears as they shuffled around the corner and stopped under a grimy, food-encrusted grate.

  Twenty-Eight

  The Test

  Nicholas was asleep on Farith’s mattress when a sharp knock vibrated the door. He sat up groggily. Farith’s head fell off his lap. Anna moaned. She was tangled somewhere between him and Farith. Another knock, sharper than the first. “Nicholas? Are you in there?” Mom.

  He wiped the sleep out of his eyes. “Yes. What’s wrong?”

  “Just open the door,” Farith hissed. “The rest of us want to sleep.”

  He scooted across the mattress and flicked the door handle. “What’s up?” He blinked, suddenly wide awake. It wasn’t just Mom out there. Axel, Clay, and two men he didn’t know were with her. One of the men was a Trevenite. Like all Trevenites, excepting Farith, his long hair was pulled back from his face. He wore an alliance uniform. He crouched down and peered into the cave.

  Imagining how the three of them sleeping together must have looked, Nicholas blushed.

  “I see you’re charming not one, but both of my daughters.” The Trevenite—King Chad—said. “I must warn you, Farith is attached to Meka. So am I.” He pointed at Anna. She lay dead still as if she were sleeping. “As for Anna. You are free to court her.”

  What a terrible way to meet Anna’s father. Nicholas’s blush was so hot, sweat beaded his top lip. He longed to drop his hair over his face but that would be cowardly. “I—it’s not what it seems,” he stuttered. “I—we just fell asleep. It got late an—”

  A pillow flew over his head and hit King Chad in the face. “Leave him alone.” Anna’s muffled voice. “And close the door. Farith and I are sleeping.”

  “Trying to,” Farith grumbled.

  Nicholas’s blush threatened to melt his cheeks.

  To escape Chad, he looked over his shoulder at the two girls. Anna’s face was buried in the mattress. Farith sat up, bleary-eyed. He sighed, then turned back to their father.

  Smirking like a cat with a fish head, King Chad tossed the pillow back at Anna. “You aren’t fooling anyone, missy.”

  Was it all a joke?

  It must have been because King Chad’s eyes sparkled.

  Trying to recover some dignity, he scrambled to his feet—and then couldn’t see out the door.

  King Chad laughed openly now.

  Could this day get any worse?

  “Give him a break,” Axel said.

  Nicholas could have hugged him. Instead, he dropped to his knees and asked, as formally as he could, “What’s happening?”

  Mom pushed King Chad aside and knelt in his place. “It’s about that book. We want you with us when we read it.”

  His heart raced. “Great. I’m coming.” He gripped the top of the doorframe and swung his legs out. “What about Lukan?” Hands still gripping the doorframe, he hung in mid-air, waiting for the dreaded answer.

  “Toss Lukan,” Mom said. “Cricket meant for you to read that book, so that’s what we’re doing.”

  He wriggled out of Farith’s cave and beamed at everyone. Well, almost everyone. He wasn’t going to look at King Chad unless he absolutely had to. “Then let’s go.”

  “My office,” Axel said. “But first…” He swept his arm around Nicholas’s shoulders. “Chad you’ve already met.” He shot Nicholas a wicked grin. “I promise, he’s not as evil as you think he is.”

  “You sure about that?” Nicholas managed to mutter.

  Chad’s shoulders shook with laughter. “The joys of being young.”

  Axel pulled him tight against him. “Ignore him, Nicks. I’m on your side. We’ll take him on together.”

  Peace spread like soft mist through Nicholas. The last time he’d been loved and supported by another man was when Uncle Tao had been alive. Uncle Tao had been a true father to him. If Axel carried on like this, perhaps he’d
earn that title, too.

  “Next up,” Axel said, pointing to an elderly man with moons and stars tattooed on his face. “Nicholas, allow me to introduce Jerawin, King of Lapis, to you.”

  Nicholas’s fingers waved before he could stop them. “Um… hello.” His blush threatened to scorch him again. But how else did one respond to such a formal introduction?

  “Delighted.” Jerawin bowed to him. “It truly is an honor to have you amongst us, Nicholas.”

  He almost sniffed, trying to detect if Jerawin was mocking him.

  Nothing but sincerity glowed on the old man’s face.

  He dipped his head. “The pleasure is mine.”

  “Okay. Enough of that,” Axel said. “We have a book of rhymes to get through tonight.” He dropped his arm off Nicholas’s shoulder and started walking.

  Nicholas braced himself for another journey through the mine.

  This time, it wasn’t too bad. Whenever the terrain allowed, Mom and Axel slipped into position on either side of him. And when the tunnels narrowed, Axel made sure that his informa lighted Nicholas’s path.

  Still, his breathing eased when they rounded a corner and entered a brightly lit cavern. Four archways carved in the rock led to four different caves. Men and women in alliance uniforms hurried in out of three of them.

  Everyone stopped what they were doing to salute Axel and to bow to him. Even after his welcome when he’d arrived in the mines, their homage was unnerving.

  Someone even called him crown prince.

  How much would it shock them to know that Anna’s words about choice had sunk deep into his soul? He didn’t know yet exactly how to use her gift, but it had cracked opened a door where previously no door had existed.

  “This way,” Axel said, steering him to the archway with no traffic. They stopped at a locked door. Axel pulled out an elaborate key and slotted it into a very old-fashioned lock. The door swung open easily on its hinges. “In you go,” Axel said, flicking on a bright light.

  It illuminated a weapons rack stuffed with shotguns, a single desk, and a wonky-looking wooden swivel chair. Struck by the mountain of clutter on the desk, Nicholas shuffled forward slowly. Scraps of paper with notes scrawled in fast, impatient strokes vied for space with layers of maps. Some of the maps were rolled, others held open with chunks of ice crystal. All of the edges curled from use. Books, some open, spread across the other side of the desk. A mug of half-drunk coffee perched precariously on one of them. Next to it, a cracked plate held a wizened bread crust. It, combined with the patina on the coffee mug, and the layer of dust over everything, suggested that Axel hadn’t been in here for a while. Certainly not since the battle in Cian.

  In a world of informas, the desk and the key puzzled him.

  He caught sniggers behind him and realized that he was jamming the door. He was about to move to one of a dozen mismatched stools when Axel swooped around him.

  “Stop it, all of you,” Axel groused. He scooped up a pile of clutter and dumped it onto a rock ledge behind the desk. It teetered on an even higher pile of mess and then fluttered to the ground to land on a scattering of paper.

  “Don’t even ask,” Mom said laughing as she sat next to him.

  “He claims to be able to find things in this chaos,” Clay said, taking a seat opposite him. “That’s why he doesn’t let his orderly in to clean. Says she messes up his filing system.”

  Everyone laughed. Everyone, that is, except him and Axel.

  Axel grinned at him. He tapped his temple with his index finger. “Messy desk. Sharp mind.” He sat in his creaking swivel chair and clunked his boots onto the desk. The coffee mug went flying. It crashed onto the rocky ground, spreading coffee grinds everywhere. Axel peered over the desk at it. “That, my orderly can clean up.” He picked up a pencil and chewed the already chewed end.

  Nicholas could keep quiet no longer. “Explain. Please.”

  Axel spat out the pencil. His derisive grin was even snakier than usual. “I told you. Clean desk. Dull mind. A bit of chaos is good. It keeps everyone on their toes.”

  “Winds! Please tell me that I won’t ever have to share an office with you.”

  “You, and all the rest of us,” Chad said. He smiled at Nicholas.

  He smiled back. Maybe Anna’s father wasn’t as terrible as he’d first thought.

  Something shifted on Axel’s desk. Another flurry of paper floated down to the floor.

  Nicholas shook his head in wonder. “Axel, you have to solve a mystery for me, or I’ll never be able to sleep again. Why the key and the paper? You’re so good with informas.”

  Axel’s smile died. He held up his left hand. The first two knuckles on his ring finger were missing. Nicholas had already noticed the stump and had wondered how the accident had happened. “About eighteen years ago, I was, ever so briefly, the Crown Prince of All Chenaya and the Conquered Territories. I gave it up for a combination of things. Your mother. My hatred of ice crystals. Freedom. And… you.”

  Nicholas couldn’t stop the shiver that trilled through him.

  Hand in the air, Axel continued. “When I came to these mines hoping to forge an alliance with Chad, Jerawin, and the other king. Chad’s people demanded a blood sacrifice so I’d never forget where my heart lay: with the alliance. As he chopped my finger off, Chad said I was to think about my loyalties every time I looked at my hand.” His stumpy finger wobbled. “It was about as painful as you can imagine. But it taught me something very valuable. They weren’t the only people who needed my sacrifice. Outside of Lukan’s palace, no one in Chenaya can read or write. No one even knows what informas are. Until that injustice is corrected, I use paper and boring old keys.” He picked up the pencil. “No great hardship. Pencils are great for chewing.” He shoved the pencil into his mouth and called to Clay. “Let’s get the party started.”

  Clay pulled out the book. “I’m starting at the beginning for Nicholas’s benefit.” He started to read.

  Try as he might, all Nicholas could think of was that Axel had once been crown prince. He had given it up for things that meant more to him than ruling Chenaya. In doing so, he’d changed the world. Axel’s efforts had made it possible for him to fulfill Dmitri’s curse.

  Did that mean that once he’d done what Dmitri required, he could also give his title and claim on the Chenayan throne? Excitement at all the possibilities that could lie before him made his breathing race.

  Reality snagged his breath.

  Who would take his place? The only person he knew who had the necessary combination of humanity and a get-the-job-done attitude was Axel. But he’d refused it once before. So who—

  Mom nudged him sharply. He didn’t need to look at her to know that she was glaring. He sat up straight on his stool and fixed his eyes on Clay.

  “And still the die rolls, and tiles the map reclaim,” Clay read. “Two diamonds for victory labor. To one is decreed the keys to the gate, while ere the other diamond hideth. But no dark night can the son resist. He that is hidden, must be revealed.” Clay looked up and said. “It will interest you all to know that this time, son is spelled S, O, N.”

  With no clue to what Clay was talking about, Nicholas wished he’d listened from the start.

  Almost as if he’d read Nicholas’s mind, Clay flipped the book over and showed them all illustration. Double-sided axes in hand, Lukan and a dark-haired boy with a diamond next to his eye waged battle. Lukan was bloody while his opponent was unscathed. “Anybody have any idea who that youngster is?” Clay asked.

  “Well, there is always the…” Jerawin’s hand fluttered in the air. “The crown prince. Oh… what’s his name?”.

  “The crown prince? But that is Nicholas,” Mom added quickly.

  How would she take it if he announced that he didn’t want to rule Chenaya? A problem for another day if he was to get any benefit from this meeting.

  Jerawin’s hands waved like flags in a gale. “I mean…the brother. You know the one. Meka’s brother… he
… uh… he—”

  “Grigor,” Nicholas said. “He’s got a diamond. And dark hair. I’ve met him. He’s great. I really like him. Natalia, his girlfriend, is lovely, too. I think we’ll all be good friends.”

  “You’re the only person here who’s had that privilege,” Jerawin said.

  Axel spat out his pencil. “He’s in the palace with Stefan. At least his mind won’t be fried by ice crystals.”

  “He’s the official crown prince,” Nicholas added, trying to be useful. “So it makes sense that the poem is about him.”

  Mom frowned. “It’s possible, I suppose. He does have dark hair. But Meka also has a diamond. Why isn’t he in that picture?”

  “It’s so damned cryptic.” Axel’s pencil made a drum-rolling rat-a-tat-tat on the desk. “Make yourself useful, Nicks. Tell me what you think.”

  “I say it’s Grigor. We should make contact with him before we arrive in Cian.” Nicholas only realized how decisive he sounded when Axel nodded.

  “How?” Lynx asked.

  “Details like that we’ll discuss separately.” Axel waved his pencil at Nicholas. “You understand the challenges.”

  He sighed. “I’m just grateful to be involved with this. I don’t need more.”

  Axel ferreted through all the junk on his desk and pulled out another pencil. Both ends were still intact. “Allow me to introduce you to the delight of pencil chewing.” He tossed it over to Nicholas. “It’s a great stress-reliever.”

  He caught it. “Thanks. I’ll be sure to pack a crate of them to take with me to Cian.”

  Axel’s sardonic smile embraced only him. It prompted him to stick the pencil between his teeth.

  “If you two have quite finished bonding, can I carry on?” Without waiting for a reply, Clay started reading. “Blood and fire. Fire and blood. The Dragon’s eyes are ruby red. Two rubies to see all and to hear all. One eye to fight for truth and light. One eye to defend ignorance and darkness. One eye to enforce compulsion. One eye to fight for freedom.