The Element of Fire by Martha Wells (top novels TXT) 📕

THOMAS WOKE BEFORE dawn, the wound in his leg stiff and sore. Despite the fire, the room was frosty and he sat on the bed and struggled into his doublet. He stood and limped around until he could walk without obviously hobbling, then tried to do a fencer’s full extension. He got halfway down and needed the help of the bedpost to get back up.

Phaistus was sleeping in front of the doorway, rolled up in a rug and snoring. He hadn’t stirred when Thomas was bumping around the room and didn’t wake when he stepped over him and opened the door.

The anteroom was lit only by two candles on the mantel, their soft light making the blue wallpaper dissolve into shadow and hiding the disarray of the fine furnishings. Kade was sitting on the floor with the contents of an ebony trinket cabinet spread out around her. It was probably the silver-gilt curiosities and mother-of-pearl boxes that had attracted her attention, but it was the seashells, the baby’s skull, and the ostrich egg that had undoubtedly kept it.

She looked up at him. “Are you going back to the palace today?”

It was too early for this. He dropped into an armchair. “Wouldn’t that be an extraordinarily foolish thing to do?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think about things that way.” She held up a seashell with her bandaged hand, passed the other hand in front of it, and the shell disappeared. “I suppose it would depend on why you were going. And who went with you.” She pulled the shell out of her right ear. “Do you want to find the keystone?”

Thomas watched her for a moment. She was giving the shell the sort of concentration usually reserved for a deep philosophical problem. He was certain Denzil had returned to the palace yesterday, and he meant to discover why. He had thought the keystone was a lost cause. “Would that do any good?”

“The wards themselves are still there, drifting over the older parts of the palace, and the other wardstones are still in place. If we replace the keystone, it will pull the wards back down into their original courses, and the Host will have to leave or be trapped inside.”

Thomas knew Grandier must have taken the stone, probably soon after he had arrived at the palace, but that still didn’t leave them a clue of where to look for it. “He could have hidden the keystone anywhere inside the palace. Or more likely, he handed it to Dontane, that night at court when he was there, to hide somewhere in the city. It would be like looking for one certain rock in a quarry.”

“But it’s a very special sort of rock. If I could get to one of the plain wardstones, and take a chip from it,” Kade said slowly, “I might be able to use it in a spell, to find the keystone.”

Thomas frowned. “How?”

“Years and years ago when all the stones were placed in the warding spell, they became one. Even when the keystone has been removed, and the matrix isn’t there anymore, the stones remember. It’s like using a lock of hair to find a person.” She stared at the shell in her hand, vexed. “I should have thought of this before we left the palace yesterday.”

“There aren’t warding stones in the Old Courts. It would have been just as dangerous to go into the other part of the palace then as it is now,” he said. And you had other things to think about. “If you came with me, you could do this spell while we were in the palace, and discover if the keystone is still there?”

Kade considered this a moment, her eyes moving through the collection of curiosities on the floor. “No. Am I a fool for being honest?”

“No. Am I a fool for expecting you to be honest?” Even as he said it he realized it was true. He had been prepared to believe her answer, even if it had served her purpose.

Kade didn’t look up at him, staring instead at the shell lying on her bandaged palm. “So, whatever are we going to do?” She closed her hand, and opened it again. The shell had vanished.

“Don’t play coy; it ill becomes you.”

She pulled the shell out of her ear again and for the first time looked at him directly. “All right, will you say I can come with you or do we have to have a loud fight about it and attract the attention and speculation of the entire house?”

Thomas sighed and looked at the ceiling. “I don’t know, I could do with a loud fight. Gets the blood moving.” He had seriously considered asking her to come already. She could escape any danger far more readily than he could and with her help his chances of accomplishing something increased to the point of the almost possible.

Kade made the shell vanish again, stood to lean on his chair arm, and apparently found it in his ear.

This time he saw it come out of her sleeve. “Get away from me,” he told her cordially.

Kade smiled. “I’m going with you, am I not?”

He said, “Yes. We’ll both be fools together.”

*

Falaise did not complain when told she had another long ride ahead of her. She seemed just as anxious to go as they were to send her on her way.

The Queen’s presence had assured them the loan of some of Aviler’s horses, and the servants readied them in the large roofed court that held the house’s stables. The large chamber was warmed somewhat by the presence of the animals and was probably one of the more comfortable areas of the house. This did not entirely account for the number of city guardsmen who had ostensibly shown up to see them off, probably on Aviler’s orders.

Thomas was sending all the guards who had survived the flight from the palace, even the most badly wounded. Aviler would probably interpret this as the basest form of distrust, but at the moment the last thing Thomas cared about was the High Minister’s opinion of him.

He drew Lucas aside while Gideon was helping Falaise to mount and said, “I’m not going with you. I’m going back to the palace.”

He hadn’t thought this would be well received and he wasn’t mistaken. Lucas stared at him incredulously. “Why?”

They keep asking me that, Thomas thought. Do I seem bored, that I have to invent these things to keep myself busy? “Why do you think? That’s where Denzil went. He must realize that we’ll get the Queen out of here, and with her gone he’s not likely to come back.”

“What if he isn’t there?”

“If he is, it’s the best chance I’m likely to have at him. If he’s not, I can at least have a look at what’s happening there before I go on to Bel Garde.” He didn’t know if Aviler had sent someone to follow Denzil or not; probably not, and he didn’t want to give his own plan away by asking. It seemed unlikely that Aviler was in the plot with Denzil, but it had seemed unlikely that Galen Dubell was anything other than what he had appeared.

Lucas said, “Send someone else, Thomas. Or I’ll go.”

“No, it’s a fool’s mission. I’m not Roland, to send someone off to die on an idiot whim.” Thomas glanced around. The argument, though low voiced, was attracting the attention of the city guards who were loitering in the stable and of Lord Aviler himself, who was watching from the narrow second-floor balcony where an arched door led into the rest of the house.

Lucas noticed and made a concentrated effort to appear calm. “You’re going alone?” he asked.

Thomas found himself curiously reluctant, as if he were admitting to something. “No, Kade is coming with me.”

Lucas winced.

“She’s a sorceress, and she can get me back in without a fight.”

“I know, I know.” Lucas hesitated. He looked toward the other men who were saddling the horses, or waiting half-nervously and half-impatiently for them to get on with it. “She could do it by herself. You don’t need to go with her.”

Thomas shook his head. “She’s not invincible, she only thinks she is.”

“So do you.” Lucas looked back at him, saying deliberately, “In your condition, you’d probably slow her down.”

“Then it’s no loss to anyone if I don’t come back.”

Thomas had spoken with more heat than he had intended, but Lucas seemed to realize that line of argument was not going to get him anywhere. He said, “I’ll wait for you here.”

“I need you to go with Falaise.”

“Gideon can do that. He’s not a fool; he’ll get her there.”

They were both silent a moment. Thomas didn’t want to force the issue, not here, not now, and not with an audience. He said, “All right, then, but keep a couple of the men with you. And don’t wait too long. If it takes more than a day, we’ll have to hole up somewhere for the night, and this place may not be safe much longer. If something starts to happen, get out and ride like hell for the gates.”

Lucas nodded distractedly, then without looking at him said, “You know that girl’s half in love with you.”

“Falaise will keep.” Thomas looked over at the Queen, who sat her horse with a kind of delicate ease, a few ringlets escaping from her hood. “If anything, it will make things easier in the long run—”

“I’m not talking about Falaise.” He hesitated. “You didn’t see her when she thought you were dying. I did.”

There was only one other “her” he could mean. Thomas said slowly, “Well, she’s the excitable type.”

“It was more than just that.”

“You’re mad,” Thomas told him, but couldn’t help thinking about a woman who chuckled wickedly to herself at odd moments and offered to kill people for him.

“I’m only telling you to watch yourself, that’s all,” Lucas said, his expression serious. “She’s not exactly an ordinary woman.”

“I realize that,” Thomas said. Believe me, I realize that.

“You think you do, but I’ve known you a long time and you’ve got a blind eye when it comes to this type of woman.”

Thomas said, “Now I know you’ve gone mad,” and turned and went back toward the others. Gideon was holding the bridle of Falaise’s horse and looked up as he approached. Thomas said, “Do you think you can get her back to Roland without losing her somewhere along the way?”

The younger man’s eyes lit up at the chance to redeem himself. “I’ll get her there safely if I die for it.”

“Don’t die until she’s out of the city.”

Falaise leaned down and said, “Captain, remember what I said.”

“I will, my lady,” he answered, thinking,_ Let’s all survive the day at least before we start plotting again._

Kade was waiting beside the sorrel gelding Thomas had chosen for their outing. He had managed to get his buff coat back from her, and she was wearing instead a thick wool doublet that Berham had scavenged for her over about a dozen other layers of assorted clothing. She asked, “What was all that about?”

He checked