THE QUEEN’S RIDERS
“The first thing I must do is see that the king is
informed,” Alton told Merdigen. He swung away and strode toward the
wall.
“Where are you
going?” Merdigen asked.
“To get Dale ready
to ride out.”
“Did you not tell me
there was one with mind sense among the Riders you’ve stationed in
the towers?”
Alton’s cheeks
warmed. In all the excitement over finding out the truth about
Haurris’ tower, he’d forgotten about the other Riders. Mind sense? He must mean Trace.
“Right. I’ve sent
her to Tower of the Ice.” He had taken two more steps toward the
wall when Merdigen loudly cleared his throat.
“Now what?” Alton
demanded.
“Where are you
going?”
“To send Dale to
Tower of the Ice to inform Trace to—”
“You are not
thinking, my boy,” Merdigen said. “I can contact Itharos much more
quickly myself.”
Alton brushed his
fingers through his hair and gave Merdigen a cockeyed smile. “I
keep forgetting. Trace may not have reached Tower of the Ice
yet.”
“Tell me exactly
what you’d like your message to the king to say, and I shall relay
it to Itharos, who will in turn pass it on to Trace as soon as she
arrives.”
Alton did, and when
Merdigen vanished, he left the tower thinking that centuries ago,
when the Green Riders had been at full capacity, there must have
been a number of Riders who could speak mind to mind like Trace and
Connly, and who enabled messages to be conveyed almost instantly.
In that long-ago time Riders wouldn’t have had to saddle up and
rush off in a cloud of dust.
Depending on the
pace Trace had set, it could be a day or two before she reached
Tower of the Ice, and waiting to hear confirmation that his message
was received was going to feel like years, no matter that it was
being delivered at the speed of thought.
Instead of waiting
around and fretting, Alton left the tower to share his and
Merdigen’s revelations about Haurris and the Sleeper with Dale,
Estral, and Captain Wallace. Estral was more determined than ever
to work out the measure of music in the Silverwood book, and he
knew enough not to get in her way when she ran off to fetch her
lute.
“I hope the king
will send us more troops,” Captain Wallace told Alton. “Especially
now that we know each tower is a potential passage to these
Sleepers. I haven’t the manpower here to watch the breach and all
ten towers.”
“Nine,” Alton said.
“Haurris left defenses around Tower of the Earth that should keep
any Sleepers out, or at least trap them.”
“Do you want to rely
solely on the tricks of some old, dead mage?”
“Point taken,” Alton
replied. “Tell me what you need, and I’ll put in a
request.”
Alton also took time
to inspect the cracks in the wall radiating from the breach to see
if Estral’s music really was having an effect. Since the summer
he’d been taking periodic measurements and recording changes in his
journal. He discovered incremental improvements—the cracks appeared
to be diminishing, if only minutely. The changes were not dramatic,
but were, all the same, miraculous.
When he returned to
the tower encampment, he searched for Estral, eventually finding
her in the dining tent. To the amusement of all, he lifted her off
her feet and twirled her around and kissed her
soundly.
“What was that for?”
Estral asked when her feet were again on the ground. He liked that
he’d made her blush.
“You are amazing,”
he said.
She gave him a coy
smile. “You’re only just noticing?”
He laughed and
twirled her around again. Later on he would show her just how
amazing he thought she was—without the audience. But first he
wanted to check on the tower to see if Merdigen had heard back from
Itharos about Trace.
When he entered
Tower of the Heavens, he found not only Merdigen awaiting him, but
Itharos, too. The two broke off some deep discussion when he
arrived.
“I take it Trace has
arrived at Tower of the Ice?” Alton asked.
Itharos bowed with a
flourish of his cloak. “To my delight, she has indeed arrived, and
I conveyed your most distressing message.”
“And?”
The mages glanced at
one another, then back at Alton.
“Trace has some news
of her own,” Merdigen replied. “We suggest first that you have
Rider Littlepage join us, and Estral Andovian as
well.”
Neither Merdigen nor
Itharos offered any hint of the nature of the news, but it must
have been of great import if they wanted Dale and Estral present to
receive it, too. Quickly he returned to the dining tent and found
Estral, and together they searched for Dale, finally locating her
at the pickets, running a currycomb over Karigan’s
Condor.
“I promised I’d look
after him,” she said, patting the gelding’s neck.
Condor nudged Dale’s
shoulder to encourage her to continue, and she
chuckled.
“How is he?” Alton
asked. It was not a casual question. Messenger horses possessed an
uncanny sense of knowing when their Riders were in trouble, and
Condor, Lynx’s Owl, and Yates’ Phoebe had been edgy since their
Riders entered the forest.
Dale settled her
hand on Condor’s withers. “Fretful,” she replied thoughtfully.
“Phoebe, too. More than they were. Owl seems much the
same.”
As if to punctuate
her observation, Phoebe started digging her hoof at the ground. A
sizeable trench had begun to develop there, evidence of her
anxiety.
The three humans, in
turn, fell into an uneasy silence. What, Alton wondered, and not
for the first time, was going on with the company? How did the
Riders fare? He was seized by another flash of regret at how poorly
he and Karigan had parted. He shook himself. Whatever was happening
on the other side of the wall was beyond his control, and he had
problems of his own to contend with.
“Right,” he said.
“We are all needed at the tower.”
“That sounds dire,”
Dale replied.
“Trace reached Tower
of the Ice and has some news for us.”
“Don’t worry,” she
told the horse. “I’ll be back to finish.”
He swished his tail
as if to say she had better be.
“What is it about?”
Dale asked as they set off.
“I don’t know,”
Alton replied. “They wouldn’t say until I got you
two.”
All three of them
picked up their pace, which carried them rapidly across the
encampment and into the tower.
“This must be the
esteemed Estral Andovian,” Itharos said when they entered the tower
chamber. “I am honored to meet you, my lady.” He
bowed.
“Estral, meet
Itharos of Tower of the Ice,” Dale said.
“It is good to see
you as well, Rider Littlepage,” Itharos said. “All three of you. In
fact, a party would—”
“Not now,” Merdigen
interrupted, an irritable counterpoint to Itharos’ flamboyance.
“Rider Burns has received some news that you must
hear.”
“Well?” Alton
said.
“I’m not going to tell you,” Merdigen replied.
“There is a way you can communicate with Rider Burns directly, as
the wallkeepers once did. Itharos and I assume it will work anyway.
It’s been a while since it was last done . . .”
“There’s a way to do
this and you didn’t tell me?” Alton demanded.
“Didn’t seem
necessary since you’ve never had anyone stationed in the other
towers before.”
Alton wondered
fleetingly what other interesting details Merdigen had chosen not
to reveal.
“You must all go to
the center of the chamber and place your hands on the tempes
stone,” Merdigen instructed. “Itharos and I will do the
rest.”
Alton wasted no time
and Estral and Dale were right behind him. They placed their hands
on the tempes stone. At first nothing changed in the grassy plains
at the center of Tower of the Heavens. Then Merdigen and Itharos,
who stood nearby, vanished. Silvery runes came to life in the air,
pulsating with light, circling them.
Alton heard Estral’s
sharp intake of breath beside him. “Don’t break contact with the
stone,” he told her.
“I
won’t.”
The runes merged and
shimmered until a human form materialized, Trace suspended above
the ground, a corona of green light flashing around her, the green
of tourmaline.
“There you are,” she
said, her voice sounding as if she were right there with them.
“Thank the gods.”
“Trace?” Alton said.
“Can you hear me?”
“Yes, yes I can. I
can see all three of you, too.”
“Merdigen says you
have something to tell us.”
“I do, though it
wasn’t easy to get it out of Connly. I don’t think he wanted to
worry me—us—but when I contacted him to pass on your news about the
Sleeper to Captain Mapstone and King Zachary, I could tell
something was wrong.”
“And?” Alton
pushed.
Trace’s shoulders
sagged. “When I finally got him to talk, I found out ... I found
out there was another assassination attempt on King Zachary, and
that this one may yet prove successful.”
“No . . .” Dale
murmured.
Estral’s free hand
found Alton’s.
Trace explained how
the assassin used an arrow tainted with poison and successfully
impaled the king, and how Ben tried to heal him but was in turn
overcome.
“The king has
survived thus far,” Trace said. “And each day buys more hope, but
Connly does not know how much of the truth he’s getting from those
closest to the king.”
“It isn’t like the
captain to hide the truth from her Riders,” Dale said.
“No,” Trace agreed,
“it is not. Connly hasn’t been able to see her. Destarion claims
she’s been taken ill, and has confined her to the mending wing. He
says she’ll recover and not to worry.”
“Who is in charge?”
Alton asked, his chest tight.
“Connly is in charge
of the Riders,” Trace said. “He reports mainly to Colin Dovekey. As
for the realm ...” Her pause was ponderous. “As for the realm, we
now have a queen.”
Estral and Dale
gasped.
“Lady Estora,” Alton
murmured.
Trace nodded, the
corona of green light flaring around her head with the gesture.
“Queen Estora.”
“But how?” Dale
demanded. “If the king is so injured—”
“Exactly why she’s
been made queen.” Alton, the son and heir of a lord-governor who
had grown up immersed in the politics and machinations of the
provincial court, could see all too clearly what had happened.
“King Zachary’s condition must be truly precarious for them to go
forward with something like this. A deathbed wedding.”
“Someone wanted to
ensure there was continuity of power,” Estral added. “But what of
an heir? Surely the king had someone in mind in case something like
this happened.”
“Even if the king
had an heir,” Alton said, “it would cause a disruption, not
something we need right now. Just what Second Empire would
want.”
They all fell
silent, absorbing all that Trace had told them, and what it might
mean for their future. A future without King Zachary? Alton shook
his head. It would be a blow to the realm, a blow to himself, for
he’d admired King Zachary, who always put his people before
himself. Could he already be gone, and those closest to him had not
yet revealed the truth?
And Karigan. Now
that he knew where her affections truly lay, he couldn’t help but
hurt for her. She would not know until she came back from
Blackveil. If she came back. Estral squeezed his hand, and the
somber look she gave him indicated her thoughts were along the same
lines.
“What does Connly
want us to do?” Alton asked Trace.
“To keep doing as
we’re doing. Our orders have not changed. Meanwhile, he’s going to
find out what he can do about the captain, and take your
information about the Sleepers to the queen. He wanted me to tell
you to remember we are still His Majesty’s Messenger Service, but
if the king dies, we are the queen’s Riders.” A solemn silence
followed this pronouncement.
“I’d like us to
touch base daily,” Alton told Trace. “More often if
necessary.”
“Absolutely.”
When they said their
good-byes, Trace vanished and Merdigen reappeared.
“We’ve got to tell
the others,” Alton said. “Can we do it this same way?”
Merdigen nodded.
“Except, obviously, with the towers east of the
breach.”
“I can ride to
Garth,” Dale said.
Alton nodded. “He
and Fern will need to know about Haurris and the Sleepers, as well.
We need to impress upon everyone just what Connly said, that we
need to keep doing our duty, whether we are the king’s Riders, or
the queen’s.”