Guardian of the Crown

by Melissa McShane

  “I do not understand how it can both less complex and more difficult be,” Alondra said. She held Caderina over one shoulder and rubbed the baby’s back gently.

  “It’s less complex because it’s as straightforward as finding the letter, but difficult because we’d have to get into the Abakian Residence,” Willow said. “Which I can do.”

  “The Abakian Residence a fortress is,” Giara said. “I think you overconfident are.”

  “I’ve spent the last ten years of my life breaking into places people thought were impregnable,” Willow said. “And I’m not overconfident. It will take some doing, and I’m not saying it won’t be hard, I’m just saying that with enough time, I’m sure I can find a way into anywhere.”

  “But you cannot read Eskandelic,” Alondra said. “How will you know what evidence to take?”

  “Kerish told me Terence doesn’t speak Eskandelic. Anything he sent to Abakian will be in Tremontanese.” Willow watched Catrela pace. “You know I can do it.”

  “Catrela should,” Giara said.

  “Moving about secretly in a home I have been given access to, that I can do with ease,” Catrela said. “But entering a home uninvited, unlocking doors and bypassing sentries—this I cannot do without much preparation. And preparation something we have time for is not.”

  “What do you mean?” Willow asked.

  “Conclave nearly over is,” Janida said. “Nine days from now the vote on the adjeni is. For this information effective to be, we must have proof five days from now.”

  “That’s not enough time,” Willow said. “It usually takes me that long just to work out a plan of approach for something as well-defended as you say the Abakian Residence is.”

  “Then we must think of something else,” Giara said. “Can we trick Raena into revealing the truth?”

  “Raena a crafty old woman is,” Maitea said, with the air of someone who was herself a crafty old woman. “She will not speak to us even to gloat.”

  “We might trick Terjalesh,” Alondra said. “I know him. He cunning is, but not intelligent.”

  “No,” Willow said. “It will have to be the break-in.”

  “That impossible is,” said Catrela.

  Willow shook her head. She could see the future laid out before her, all those possibilities, but only one led to the success of their cause. “I’ll just have to work more quickly. And take advantage of your knowledge. Surely some of you have been inside the Abakian Residence?”

  “I have,” said Alondra. “Before I married was. Abakian courted me as harima and I visited the Residence twice. But I do not see how that helpful will be.”

  “The more I know about its interior, the more successful this will be. Alondra, can you draw a map of the parts of the Residence you remember? Catrela, where would they keep an incriminating letter like the one we need?”

  “Every Residence has a room like this one. All business is carried out here. If it is not kept in the harem chamber, it might be in Raena’s apartment.”

  “Unless it has been destroyed,” Janida said. “This is foolishness.”

  “Raena would not destroy anything so valuable,” Catrela said. “If she needed to turn against Terence Valant someday, she has only to produce the letter and claim he attempted to suborn Abakian. With no evidence that she hired assassins, it would make her look noble and him look weak in the eyes of others.”

  “But Janida’s right, there’s a possibility it might have been destroyed,” Willow said. “Or that it doesn’t exist. Abakian still might have done this on their own.”

  “And yet you will try anyway,” Janida said.

  “It’s a risk, but it’s one worth taking.”

  “If you are caught, it over is.” Janida looked more stern than Willow had ever seen her. “Do not caught be.”

  “I’ve never been caught and I don’t intend to be caught.” Willow regretted her brash words immediately. Feeling cocky was a sure path to failure. “But I’m going to be careful. You said we need proof in five days? I’ll make my theft in four. Which means I need to start…not immediately, I dislike making an initial approach in the dark. Tomorrow morning. And I need that map as soon as possible.”

  “I will draw it tonight,” Alondra said.

  Willow nodded. “I’m going to put Felix to bed now, and…thank you. All of you. You’ve done far more for him than I could have hoped.”

  “Thank us when he King is,” Janida said. “You did not say you had spoken to Mahnouki Adorinda.”

  Startled, Willow said, “Who told you that?”

  “Kerish. You should not have confronted her.”

  “She confronted me. Besides, there wasn’t any way to avoid her. I didn’t exactly want to talk to her.” Belatedly, she remembered how that conversation had ended—something that had been driven out of her mind by the conflict with Terjalesh. “But I did learn something. Is it legal for a principality to invest heavily in the proposed southern voyage?”

  “It illegal is not,” Catrela said, “but…bad manners is, to promote out of altruism something that a personal benefit is. Did Adorinda say this?”

  “She failed to credibly deny it.”

  Janida’s lips curled in an unpleasant smile. “This a thing we can use is.”

  “So it wasn’t so bad that I talked to her, was it?”

  The smile vanished. “Willow North, you brash and impetuous are at times. Think of Hajimhi Fariola, and your insults to Abakian Raena at the Review. You eskarna for a King are, and should not speak so unguardedly. Adorinda is cunning and eloquent and can turn your words against you. But…” Her eyes narrowed in thought. “Kerish very clear was, that you clever and confident were. Perhaps you will yet learn to think before you speak.”

  “Thank you. I think,” Willow said, and made her escape.

  Willow’s usual path from the harem chamber to her rooms felt darker than usual, though the Device lamps gleamed as brightly as ever. She crossed the open corridor without looking out over the grounds toward the invisible ocean. Part of her wanted to leap to the ground and go running off toward the Abakian Residence, start investigating the place, counting guards and timing their paths. But that would be stupid. Lurking around the building with no idea what she should look for would only get her caught. Not to mention that she didn’t know where the Abakian Residence was. No, waiting for daylight was safest, even if it did set her nerves jangling with tension.

  The sitting room was empty when she pushed the door open, so she went to Felix’s bedroom and knocked softly. On a muffled reply, she entered. Felix was sitting on his bed, already in his nightshirt. Ernest was, for a miracle, asleep in his own bed, his doggy head resting on his front paws and his left ear twitching in his sleep. “I didn’t think Ernest knew what that was for,” Willow said.

  “I wanted there to be room for you, and besides, it’s good for him to obey,” Felix said. He lay down, scooted well over so there was a place for Willow to sit.

  “Are you tired? It’s been a long day.”

  “I wanted you to tell me your plan.”

  “My plan?” She wondered how he’d known they’d made a plan to break into the Abakian Residence. Then she remembered what she’d said that morning. “Oh, you mean for if the Serjian question loses. Which it won’t. And I don’t want you thinking fatalistically.”

  “I don’t know that word.”

  “It means expecting the worst. If you do that, you can weaken yourself by not having confidence in whatever you’re doing. You have to have confidence that we’ll win.”

  “I do. But I’ll feel better if I know what will happen if we don’t win.”

  “All right. Here, sit up with me. You have the most extraordinary ability to fall asleep in the space of two breaths.” Willow scooted over and put her arm around Felix. “Comfortable?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then here it is.” Willow squeezed his shoulders briefly. “If Eskandel won’t support you, there’s no way we can regain the Crown o
n our own. So we’ll disappear into the city. There are plenty of Tremontanans living here in Umberan, and with a change of hair color and clothing, we’ll look just like an ordinary mama and her little boy. Then we’ll go to one of the other Eskandelic cities, change our names, and find work there. We’ll move around like that for about a year, then come back to Umberan and settle in under yet another set of assumed names.”

  “That sounds easy.”

  “It’s not, because there are all sorts of ways we can give ourselves away if we’re not careful. But we’ll both be careful, right?” There was another possibility, that of going to one of the Tremontanan provincial lords and asking for his or her help, but the idea made Willow’s skin crawl. Not the need to ask for help; she wasn’t that proud. No, it was the fact that it would be far harder to get Felix away from a Baron or Count who wanted to use him as a figurehead—and who would likely kill Willow as his first step in that process.

  “Can I be Adam again?”

  “Sure. But remember, that’s not likely to happen.”

  “I remember.” Felix snuggled closer, a little motion that made Willow’s heart ache. “Will Kerish come with us?”

  “I…don’t know.” In all her plans, she’d never thought to include Kerish, mainly because she’d made most of them before they were reconciled. Now it didn’t seem so simple. Kerish had said he would give up Devisery for her, but she’d asked him to give up his magic once before and she wasn’t going to make that mistake again. And a Deviser would draw far too much attention to them. But if they loved each other, shouldn’t they make that decision together? The thought of leaving him behind made the ache grow harder and colder.

  “Was that man today the one who wanted to kill me?”

  “He hired the assassins, the one who killed Fedrani and the one your guard killed.”

  “He didn’t know who I was. Why would he want to kill me?”

  “Because your uncle asked him to. Felix, I’m sorry.”

  “Why are you sorry?”

  “That you have to endure all this. If Terence wasn’t such an arrogant, self-centered git, you’d still be in the palace and not fearing for your life.”

  “But I wouldn’t have met you.”

  “That’s true. And I would still be midnighting in Aurilien.” Would Kerish understand that this plan, stealing from Abakian, wasn’t the same? Or would he think she was breaking her promise to him? “I guess neither of our lives went the way we’d planned.”

  Felix was silent. Willow looked down at him and saw he’d fallen asleep. Carefully, she laid him down on his pillow and tucked him in. No, her life definitely hadn’t gone as she’d planned.

  When she emerged from Felix’s room, she found Kerish sitting on one of the sofas, leaning back with his eyes closed and his arms stretched out across the sofa back. “You’re not asleep, are you?” she said. “Because I’d have to wonder what it is about me that the men in my life fall asleep in my presence.”

  Kerish smiled. Without opening his eyes, he said, “I was just enjoying the quiet. Posea was having a shrieking fit just down the hall from my room and I wanted to get as far from her as possible.”

  “And ‘as far as possible’ turned out to be my room?”

  “I might or might not have had ulterior motives. Come, sit with me.” He opened his eyes and smiled at her, that wonderful expression that never failed to make her heart beat faster.

  She sat down, and Kerish immediately put his arms around her. “There, that’s better,” he said. “I was hoping to spend some time alone with you.”

  “So was I.” Willow rested her head against his shoulder and breathed in the wonderful smell of him. “It’s been a long day.”

  “Culminating in a long meeting with Mother and my majdrani. Were you talking about the Abakians?”

  “Yes.” Willow fought a brief but urgent battle with herself, torn between honesty and cowardice, and won—or possibly lost. “I’m going to break into the Abakian Residence to find evidence linking them to Terence.”

  “What?” Kerish disentangled himself from her and grabbed both her hands. “Are you out of your mind?”

  “Kerish, I know I said no more midnighting, but this is different!”

  “You’re damn right it’s different. If you get caught, you’ll not only be executed, you’ll ruin Felix’s chances entirely. You can’t possibly think this is a good idea.”

  “It’s not a great idea, true, but it’s not—no, listen to me, Kerish! If I can find this evidence, Janida and the others can use it to erode Abakian’s support and build ours. Not to mention preventing them from hiring any more assassins. This is crucial to Felix’s survival.”

  Kerish swore a blistering oath. “Abakian was never going to vote for us anyway. This changes nothing.”

  “Then it protects Felix. Either way, this is a good thing.”

  “I thought I was done having to worry about you.”

  It hit her like a brick to the face. “I wouldn’t do this except for Felix’s sake. I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it. Please, Kerish, can you understand this?”

  Kerish looked away. She could see the taut line of his jaw, his clenched fists, and a tiny thread of fear wound itself through her heart. Had she just ruined everything? She reached out to touch him, but withdrew her hand before it could rest on his, fearing what he might do.

  Finally, he sighed. “I don’t like it,” he said, “but it makes sense. I just…Willow, please be careful.”

  “I will. I always am.”

  Kerish chuckled and put his arms around her again. “Remember when you broke into the Bank of Aurilien vault?”

  She flushed. “That was different. I didn’t know there were two sets of guards. And they’d put the second pair on duty the afternoon before my theft, so that wasn’t carelessness, that was just bad luck.”

  “You came back so shaken I had to hold you for an hour to get you to calm down. I don’t think you’ve ever come so close to being caught.”

  She smiled at him. “Only once before. When I found myself in a strange man’s bedroom.”

  “I see. And I suppose that man turned you in for the reward.”

  “There wasn’t a reward. And he didn’t turn me in. He gave me my first kiss.”

  Kerish brushed his lips across her forehead, making her shiver with pleasure. “Did he? Was it a good kiss?”

  “The best.”

  “Let’s see if we can improve on that,” Kerish said.

  ***

  Early the next morning, Willow borrowed some clothes from Caira, a zetesha’s short-sleeved robe and wide sash, and asked her to bundle up some clothes for her to carry. Caira rolled her eyes, but said nothing, and just after dawn Willow set out for the Abakian Residence, hoping she looked enough like a zetesha on an errand for her mistress to pass casual scrutiny. She’d donned the gray headwrap herself, and with that covering her hair and her skin tanned by weeks under the hot Eskandelic sun, she wasn’t obviously Tremontanan. She hoped.

  Umberan at dawn was cool and fresh, smelling of dew and the salt brine of the ocean. The usual overcast was thin and high, promising a blistering hot day as soon as the sun got around to burning it off. Willow walked slowly along the street in the kid leather shoes she’d made herself and felt as if she were home again, though Aurilien didn’t smell of the sea and its houses weren’t plastered white. Her special shoes were thin enough to let her feel the stones of the street, and if she really were a native of Umberan she’d be able to walk the length of the city blindfolded, just relying on the shoes. But she wasn’t a native, and her eyes had to be her guide.

  She’d passed the Abakian Residence twice in her earlier wanderings through Umberan without knowing it, and hadn’t paid it much attention other than to observe how big it was, easily a third again the size of the Serjian Residence. Its walls, forty feet high and squared off at the top, were built of the same pinkish-tan stone, but in blocks the size of a carriage that must have taken dozens of
laborers dozens of hours to haul from wherever they were quarried. All she’d seen of the building were a couple of domed roofs beyond the massive walls, but at the time she hadn’t been interested in its construction. Today was different.

  The Abakian Residence wasn’t located in its own private neighborhood the way the Serjian Residence was, fortunately for Willow’s plans. A private neighborhood meant twice as many guards to elude. A completely unnecessary iron fence surrounded the stone walls, with crushed stone and the same spiky desert plants Willow had seen back at the Serjian Principality filling the space between the two. Two guards stood sentinel at the gate. They looked far more alert and ready for violence than their Serjian counterparts. Too bad she couldn’t just suborn them, get them to protect Felix instead of the Abakians. But that was a different kind of job, and not one she had any gift for.

  She kept walking, observing the place covertly while appearing intent on her shoes. So. She’d need to find a way through or over the wall and then tackle getting inside the house. The wall was too sheer a face to climb without assistance, and she couldn’t tell if there were guards at the top, but she’d bet on it.

  She stopped, removed a shoe and pretended to search it for a small, annoying stone. The guards hadn’t noticed her, on the far side of the street, though they gave close attention to anyone passing near the gate.

  Past the Abakian Residence, a row of tall, narrow houses extended to the end of the street, similar in shape to Rafferty’s place, but built of granite rather than wood and stucco. They looked expensive, and much easier to get into than the Residence, and Willow had a moment’s regret that they weren’t her target. On the other hand, they might be able to help her with the real job.

  Willow put her shoe back on and crossed the street at the corner, then kept going, looking for access to the rear of the houses. She found it immediately, a narrow alley barely wide enough for a small wagon to pass, cluttered here and there with barrels and crates. It smelled faintly of human waste, but the paved surface was clean, with no noxious puddles or unpleasant clumps that could be mistaken for dirt. There were doors but no windows on the side facing the alley—on either side, because the other “wall” of the alley was a row of identical houses. Aside from the narrowness, it was nothing like an Aurilien alley, but it still felt comforting, familiar, and Willow felt a tingle of excitement she hadn’t felt since leaving home.