Free Shadowforged (Light & Shadow) by Moira Katson

else at all; I, at least, knew now that this was more difficult than I had reckoned by far, and I tried to hold my resentment close. I would never have said it out loud, but in the darkness of the night sometimes I thought that Roine had been right: no good came of courts. I should just leave.
     
     

Chapter 6
     
    In the torrential downpour that marked the end of winter, a messenger arrived from Dusan of Ismir, demanding to see the King alone. The pageboys had huddled inside, out of the rain, and so it was only the Royal Guard, fiercely loyal to the King, who saw the man. It was the Royal Guard, who, now accustomed to the avidly inquisitive nature of the court and Council, and the increasingly secretive nature of the King himself, escorted the messenger directly to the King’s chambers.
    Thus, there was no one to remark on the fact that the King had received a messenger, and no one to call a meeting of the Council. No one knew to be listening at the door when the messenger announced very simply that King Dusan now held proof that his former heir had been assassinated by an agent of none other than a member of the King’s Council. Holding proof, Dusan required that Garad bring the man to justice.
    The King, ever unpredictable and more than slightly unsure of himself, ordered the messenger held in the royal presence chambers, and instructed the man to speak to no one else, not any of the Council, not even the Dowager Queen, on pain of death. Then he sent a messenger, at a dead run, to find me and bid that Miriel come to the King at once, discreetly, for reasons he could not name.
    Donnett let me go early, with a glower at the messenger, and I toweled off, trying not to wonder what this strange summons might mean. I wondered if we should tell the Duke, and at length decided only to send a message—with no thoughts on what the summons might mean, how could the Duke tell Miriel what to say? And so the only remaining puzzle was how to get Miriel away from her tutors and to the royal chambers themselves without being seen. Now was not the time to go exploring in the tunnels below the buildings.
    In the end, the best I could do was bid her change her gown and put on a cloak. I told Anna to send a message to the Duke, and then I led Miriel on a circuitous path, through kitchens and servants’ corridors, finally coming into the main hallway near the entrance to the King’s rooms. It was a back corridor, ostensibly blocked off from the throng of people who waited near the main doors for a glimpse of him, and two guards looked round sharply at the sound. I checked that no one else was about, and then beckoned Miriel out of the servants’ corridor.
    For a moment, the two of us only stared around ourselves in shock. We came to the Palace proper for dinner and services, but we had never been allowed to roam around. Even I, who sneaked to the library every few weeks, had never spared a glance for my surroundings. In daylight, the Palace, even this back hallway, was so beautiful that I could hardly believe my eyes. The columns that flanked the windows were carved in the shape of birds, fish, leaping deer, each different and perfect. The windows themselves were set with panes of colored glass, so that light of scarlet, sapphire, and royal purple was cast on the rich marble floors. Up on the vaulted ceilings were painted tableaux of the saints: Saint Eral with his sheaf of wheat, Saint Nerian with her quill and parchment.
    The Royal Guard cared little for our amazement. “Who are you?” one of the two demanded. “You—are you carrying weapons?”
    I froze, but Miriel drew back the hood of her gown and smiled her seductive smile, and the guards relaxed at once. None of them, I was sure, could be unaware of the King’s infatuation, and they had been told to admit her. With another suspicious glare at me, they opened the doors and ushered us inside, from one richly-appointed chamber into another, and another. We passed through an