Nightfall: Book Two of the Chronicles of Arden

by Shiriluna Nott

  King Rishi still refused to look at Gib, opting instead to brace himself against the doorframe. “Then you’ll also understand that now is your last chance to leave. If for any reason you do not wish to proceed, get up and go. No one will stop you and surely we won’t blame you for having the good sense to stay out of this.”

  Was this a test of some sort? Gib’s emotions sought to undo him. Some part of him wanted to accept the King’s offer and leave now. If he was none the wiser, there would be no secret to keep and no worry of accidentally revealing it, but—Diddy was his friend. If there was some way he could better serve his friend and prince then he would do it. “My loyalty is to the Crown. I would serve in whatever capacity you see fit.”

  Aodan remained rigid, watching Gib narrowly. Marc refused to make eye contact, and Diddy let out a long breath. A small eternity passed before the King bowed his head ever so slightly. “You may come to regret that one day. Come with us.”

  Everyone was on their feet and out the door at once. Just outside, King Rishi informed the royal guardsmen that he was going to Dean Marc’s office and that Blessed Mage Natori needed to be sent to meet him there immediately.

  Less than a bell toll later, the door of Marc’s office came into view. Gib sighed with relief. At least the damned thing had stayed closed this time.

  Marc reached out first and pushed against the handle. His eyebrows shot up in a fleeting look of surprise when the door didn’t budge. Without missing a beat, he pulled a key from his bag and disengaged the lock.

  “Seems to be working now.” The King’s relieved sigh beckoned Gib to feel at ease, but a sinking sense of dread blossomed instead.

  It would have been easy to allow King Rishi this reassurance. Gib might not have even thought ill of Marc if he’d chosen not to clarify, but the dean was a better sort than that. Head hung low, Marc kept his fist firmly on the handle and held the door shut. “Except I didn’t lock it on my way out.”

  Aodan made a strangled sound and pushed past the dean to take the handle. Shoulder down, he poised himself as if ready to burst through, but King Rishi held up a hand. “Wait. Hold off for a moment.”

  The bodyguard whipped his head around, hair catching the sunlight in a fiery halo. The fearsome look on his face didn’t soften even when he glared at the King. “Oh, aye? An’ wait for whoever may be in there ta jump out the window and make a run for it?”

  Marc cast his eyes skyward. “There’s no one in there! It’s just the damned lock acting up—”

  “It never once seemed suspicious to ya that the lock only started slippin’ since ya took Koal’s position? What goes on in that empty head of yers?”

  Gib grimaced. Apart from when the assassin had shot the King, he couldn’t recall a time he’d seen Aodan so wound up. Gib still couldn’t figure out why birth records would be the cause of this much worry.

  The King frowned. “Aodan, wait for Natori to arrive.”

  “I’m not waitin’ with my thumb up my arse fer no good reason. It’s now or never!” Aodan signaled toward the royal guardsmen who had accompanied the party. “With me, soldiers!” The sentinels moved to flank Aodan, longswords drawn and at the ready. In the next instant, Aodan shoved the door open and they stormed inside.

  No immediate sounds could be detected, and Gib felt like he was drowning in the quiet. Beside him, Diddy’s breaths were ragged.

  “It’s clear.”

  Aodan and the soldiers reappeared at the door a moment later, and everyone waiting in the hall let out a collective sigh.

  Marc threw up his hands. “How about that? What did I say? It’s a simple matter of the latch not catching—or catching at the wrong time.”

  Neither the King nor his bodyguard seemed convinced, and Gib wasn’t sure he faulted them. In fact, he might have even agreed. The fact that the door had only now begun to have these problems seemed too suspicious to be coincidence.

  The office wasn’t big enough for their entire party, and King Rishi wasted no time in demanding the royal guardsmen wait outside. The door remained open while they examined their surroundings for signs of mischief and waited for Natori to arrive.

  Aodan snorted disapproval. “How can ya know whether everythin’s here or not? Ya got things strewn from floor to ceiling!”

  “I know where everything is.” The clipped tone in Marc’s voice suggested he’d just about reached his limit.

  The King waved them both to stand down. His grim features commanded respect, and the other men dutifully fell into silence. King Rishi paced, hands clasped behind his back. “When did this start exactly?”

  Marc frowned as he thought. “This is day three.” He turned a heated look at Aodan, who leered in response. “Considering how long Koal has been gone, you would think if someone was going to search my things they would have taken action sooner.”

  “Perhaps.”

  Gib jumped at the new voice in the room. Blessed Mage Natori stepped across the threshold without waiting for permission to enter. Sword on one hip, her authority seemed to precede her, and the soldiers didn’t hinder her entrance.

  “Or perhaps they were waiting for an opportune time.” The mage knelt like Nawaz had earlier and inspected the lock. Her frown did little to comfort Gib.

  The King groaned when she didn’t immediately say anything. “Well?”

  Natori stood and looked around the rest of the room. “It appears whole. I can’t feel any magic traces on it. If someone has been coming in here, they must have their own key.”

  “Or Marc just doesn’t lock the door,” Aodan muttered.

  Marc opened his mouth, but Natori had already turned her peculiar, violet eyes on him. “You don’t lock your office? Are you not in possession of some sensitive materials?”

  Marc sighed. “Here we go again.”

  “Where do you keep the birthing records?” King Rishi asked. “The documents concerning Gudrin and the others, where are they? How do you know they’re safe?”

  Gib remained silent but took in all that was said. Gudrin and the others? Who? And what information could be so sensitive it would need this much hiding and protecting?

  Diddy cleared his throat. When Gib glanced up, their eyes made contact. His mouth went dry. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t curious, but the larger part of him still didn’t want to know the truth. What if it was a secret too enormous to keep? You can always ask Joel later— He winced. No. He couldn’t ask Joel.

  Marc produced his keys once more. “Those are kept in here.” He strode over to the closet and jiggled the handle. The door didn’t budge. Fixing a dark look on Aodan, he went on in a smug tone. “This door stays locked.”

  Gib watched, breathless, as the dean unlocked the closet and stepped aside for the others to look. Gib was vaguely aware of conversation going on around him, but his mind wandered back to that morning.

  The office door had been left ajar. He’d come inside the office and thought he’d heard a noise in the closet, so he’d looked. It hadn’t been locked. It had been left wide open.

  The entire room tilted.

  “Gib? Gib, are you all right?” Diddy’s voice sounded far off even though the prince was standing right there. “You’ve gone pale. Sit down. What’s wrong?”

  Gib did as was directed, dropping into a chair. As his vision cleared, he became vividly aware of everyone in the room staring at him. Through chattering teeth, his voice was barely audible. “It was open this morning.”

  No one seemed to grasp the implication of what he was saying. The King and his bodyguard studied him with narrow looks, and Marc’s wide-eyed bewilderment offered no help. Even Diddy, who had knelt beside the chair, seemed confused.

  Gib swallowed and tried again. “The closet door. It was open this morning.”

  Overwhelming silence engulfed the room. The King stiffened. Marc’s mouth dropped open. Diddy gasped, and Aodan went terrifyingly quiet.

  “I came to join you for the meeting, but your office door was open and you w
eren’t here,” Gib blurted. “I was worried something may be amiss, so I came in and called for you. No one answered, but I thought I heard a noise coming from the closet so I went to investigate.” He looked down at his lap, shameful heat rising to his cheeks. “I didn’t mean to pry, I only wanted to make sure you weren’t hurt. The closet wasn’t locked. I looked inside it. No one was in there, unless they were hiding.”

  Aodan rushed the door even as Marc fumbled to get the key into the lock. The King and Blessed Mage hovered close by, leaving only Diddy to tend to Gib. As soon as the door was open, Aodan squirmed inside and Marc followed at his back.

  “Where are the records?” Gib had never heard Aodan sound so desperate or angry.

  “Right here. This box.”

  Aodan re-emerged with a small crate. In one deft move, the bodyguard cleared Marc’s desk, knocking everything to the floor, and set the box down. He tore the lid off before anyone could say differently and shuffled through the multitude of scrolls and parchment. “Does it look like it’s been tampered with? Where are the birth records?”

  “They’re at the bottom, folded not rolled.” Marc put his hands in his hair and gripped the raven strands between his fingers. “And I don’t—I don’t know. Nothing looks any different.” He went back to the closet and peered inside, looking over every detail. “I mean, it’s always cluttered in here, but everything looks the same.”

  King Rishi swept up to stand behind Aodan and watched, utterly focused, while the bodyguard fumbled through the papers. The muscles in Gib’s neck wound tighter with each passing moment.

  “Ha!” Aodan slapped a page down on the desk, then another, and one more. “They’re here. All of ’em.”

  The King closed his eyes and hung his head back, getting his own breathing under control. He set a hand on Aodan’s shoulder as if to stabilize himself, and the two of them shared a heavy look. “But it would have been foolish for someone to take the records. What if they were viewed and then left here?”

  What was so wrong with these birth records? Gib chewed his bottom lip. He didn’t want to jump to any conclusions, but he was beginning to wonder if the princess wasn’t who the kingdom thought she was. Perhaps Queen Dahlia wasn’t her mother? It didn’t seem an unreasonable theory, given Hasain’s parentage. Was that what this was about?

  Aodan’s pale face went red as he thumbed back through the documents. “The wordin’ is vague. The spy would have a lot of guesswork on their hands, but if they knew enough ta look for them in the first place… An’ how in hell would they have gotten in the closet in the first place?” His glare shot back over to the dean.

  Marc shook his head and fell into his chair. “I don’t know. It’s not possible. I’m the only one with a key to that door besides Koal and you.” He looked at the King. “Koal’s key would be in the Northern Empire with him.”

  King Rishi frowned, thinking out loud. “Mine is safe. I know where it is. There’s no way in hell it’s been tampered with.”

  Natori approached the closet door. Her eyes slipped shut as she laid her hands against the wooden frame. Everyone in the room watched her, waiting with bated breath for her to speak. Finally, Natori sighed and opened her eyes. “No magic. Not even a trace. It has to be a key or a lock pick.”

  King Rishi wrapped his arms around himself, suddenly appearing impossibly thin. His voice was as haunted as his eyes. “Someone has a key. Who would even have access to them?”

  It was a heavy implication. If there were only three known keys, possessed by the King, seneschal, and dean, then someone close to one of them had to be the culprit.

  “I’m going to ward the entire room,” Natori announced. She went to the hallway door and laid a hand on it. “Marc, you’ll be the only one who may come and go freely until the King tells me otherwise. Everyone else will have to be given your express permission.”

  Marc groaned. “How in hell do I do that? I’m a healer, not a mage. Our magics are very different, you know.”

  Natori’s dry response may have been humorous under better circumstances. “I’m aware. I’ll link you to the magic. The door will recognize you, but you’ll have to hold it open for anyone else. Same for the window and closet door.”

  “Hear that, Gib? No more crawling in through the window.” If Marc’s joke was meant to be funny, he failed miserably.

  As if awoken from a spell, King Rishi drew up to his full height and snapped his head around to glare venomously at the dean. “Is this funny to you? Does my family mean so little that you would make light of this?”

  Marc leaned back in his chair with wide eyes. “I didn’t say that. You know I value the safety of your children and family.” His gaze fell on Aodan briefly, whose stance grew rigid in response. “I would protect all of them, even the ones who feel they don’t need protecting.”

  Aodan opened his mouth but was silenced by the King with one wave. He leaned across the dean’s desk, face to face with him. “If any harm comes to my daughter or sons, you can bet you’ll have to deal with my wrath!”

  Marc was on his feet in an instant, holding the ruler’s glare with his own. “Is this how little you trust me? How could you ever think I’d allow harm to befall them? Chhaya’s bane, Rishi, you’re like a brother to me! They’re all my family as much as yours as far as I’m concerned and you know it!”

  Natori sighed as she watched them from the doorway. “Do either of you plan on solving this problem, or are you content to tear one another apart? Surely you must have taken into consideration that this is precisely what the persons behind this act are hoping for?”

  King Rishi and Marc froze where they stood, not unlike scolded children.

  The King sighed. “She makes a valid point. Why would they tear down a wall if the foundation is already weak? They’re just waiting for us to crumble.”

  Marc plunked back down in his seat. “Yeah, I suppose so. Sorry.”

  For a time, the room fell into awkward silence.

  Finally, Aodan crossed his arms over his chest. “So they’ve shaken us. How do we proceed?”

  The King heaved an exhale and dropped into the other chair. He used one hand to cover his pale face. “I don’t know. We’ll have to strategize in private—” His brow furrowed and he stole a look over at the youngest two in their company. “You two go.”

  “Father?” Diddy balked.

  King Rishi silenced the prince with one stern look. “Neither of you need be troubled any more today.”

  “My family is worth any trouble I may encounter!”

  The King locked his jaw, impatience thinly veiled behind dark eyes. Wordlessly, Gib grabbed Diddy’s elbow, and Aodan took the prince’s other arm. Together, they guided him toward the door.

  “No one’s questionin’ your loyalty, Diddy. Ya know that,” the bodyguard said. “This is a discussion for the King and his advisors, not a young prince and an understudy. C’mon now, out with ya.”

  Diddy grabbed Aodan’s arm. “If there’s anything I can do to help, I would.”

  “We know.”

  Once they were in the hall, Diddy lowered his voice. “Aodan, Father is under too much pressure. You must see it, too. Hasain has gone to the Northern Empire as an ambassador, Deegan is sitting in on the council meetings to fill his spot—I know I’m not a Radek, but I would do what either of them would. My only desire is to be a good son. Please—”

  “Hey, enough of that.” Aodan put his hands on both of Diddy’s shoulders. “This isn’t about names or bloodlines. You are a good son, Didier, and there may come a time where yer called to do somethin’ dangerous or difficult. Rishi doesn’t give these tasks lightly. He had no choice sendin’ Hasain. And Deegan had ta grow up sooner or later. Don’t mistake his hesitance to use you as a lack of love or trust. He’s merely been able to keep you safe for a while longer. That’s all.”

  Diddy wiped an errant tear from his cheek. “You will let him know I only wait for his call, won’t you?”

  “He knows, bu
t I’ll remind ’im if ya want. Now—” Aodan looked pointedly at the soldiers and Gib before returning his full focus to Diddy. “—do as yer king commands. Go back to the palace, check on yer mother and the young ones. And fer the love of The Two, hold yer head up like the prince ya are.”

  Aodan returned to the office then, and Diddy and Gib, flanked by the four soldiers, began their trek down the empty corridor.

  Gib cleared his throat. “I suppose I don’t need to go back to the palace. I could just go to my room.”

  “All right,” replied Diddy. “I’m sure you have studies to catch up on.”

  “Always.” Gib searched for something else to say, wishing he could avoid the obvious, but words came pouring out of his mouth without consent. He never had been good at avoiding the truth. “Diddy, if there’s anything I can do to help you, please let me know. I mean, I know there are things you can’t tell me, but despite that, I would help you in whatever capacity I’m able.”

  Diddy twisted his hands together and cast a timid look around. “I suppose you’ll have to visit the library at some point, won’t you?”

  Gib frowned. He wasn’t sure where Diddy was going with this. “I suppose. Why?”

  “Might I suggest some study material?” Diddy leaned in close and dropped his voice so low Gib had to strain to hear it. “For any confusion you may have had today, I would highly recommend Annals of the Unknown Peoples. The fourth segment is particularly enlightening.”

  A light went on in Gib’s mind. He’s trying to tell me something important.

  “Th–thank you. I will check into that.”

  His mind was heavy as he said farewell. It would no doubt bring him strife to investigate this matter further and perhaps it wouldn’t be worth the trouble—but his mind was already made up.

  To the library it is.

  Joel wandered the stone corridors, heart numb and stomach bunched into queasy knots. The urge to vomit came and went, churning his guts and burning the back of his throat, and visions of bloodshed and violence weighed heavily in his thoughts. A gripping, horrible fear that he’d never be able to unsee the horrors witnessed earlier paralyzed his mind. Would he be stuck in this nightmare forever?