The Royal Thief

Chapter Thirty-two: the Fire-Glass

The atmosphere was heavy and dark, which could only be expected. When I entered the room there was silence, and only a flicker in Nali's eyes acknowledged my arrival. I suppose they were grieving, and I did try to hold my tongue. But after a few moments I couldn't help it.

"What was that?" I burst out. "How could you be so stupid? How could you think this wouldn't happen?"

Aiden opened his mouth, but I didn't give him time to say anything.

"How the hell did you think you could get away with that? Why would you risk it?"

Stubbe put his head in his hands, burying his fingers in his hair, and Nali looked away. There were dry tear tracks running down her face, pinching her pale skin. Beck, I noticed, looking around, was absent. There was Rayna and Dell, Nali and Stubbe, but Beck was missing. Kemp, I had told to stay in the castle. I didn't want him disappointed by anything that might happen tonight.

"Explain."

"It was," Aiden said wearily, "A necessary risk."

There was an odd gasping sound from Nali's corner, but when I looked at her, she had drawn her har around in a curtain and only the glint of one eye showed through. 

"Oh, of course. And did your necessary risk pay off?"

"No." His short reply did nothing to help my temper. For once, just for this once, couldn't I get answers without dancing around the truth for days?

Choosing another rebel at random, I turned to Dell. "So, could you explain why you felt the need to infiltrate the castle?"

She raised her chin and glared at me. "This was not my fault. I did the best I could to stop anything like this from happening." Her dark green eyes seemed to show the same anger I felt. I didn't know much about her, I realized, except that she lived in the city and was a friend of Gordan and sometimes showed up downstairs at the Black Horse. But she wasn't useful, apparently.

So I spun around to face Stubbe. "Well, you were certainly involved."

"It wasn't my plan," he said, his eyes on the ground. "We were following Nali."

"It wasn't my plan," Nali protested, her voice hoarse. "I was just the one who knew where we were going."

Drawing a deep breath, I tried to keep my voice level. "Well then, that leads us back to you, doesn't it?" 

Aiden gave me a long look. "I said it was a necessary risk, and it was. It is deeply regrettable that we lost Jan. It was certainly not my intention. But had we found what we were looking for, even his death would have been worth it."

It irked me to no end that he said we, when it had been Nali and Stubbe and Jan fighting their way out of the castle. His life had never been in danger. More than that, I was frustrated. I was annoyed. I was angry, and I wanted answers. I strode forward, so the square table he sat at was all that separated us. "I told you to explain. Now."

His face still blank, he withdrew something from his cloak, holding it clenched in his hand. "For the past few years, I have been working on a spell to help us attain a certain object we require, which happens to be located in the palace. During my last testing of it, I decided that it was ready to be used. Having heard that the Sage would be returning to the castle soon, we knew this would be our last chance for some time to test it without... intervention."

"What was it that you needed?"

"Information. Confirmation. So little is known about the Guardians. And you know how vague our prophecy is. We needed to know for sure that it's possible for the Assassin to kill the king. After all, with so many years of history involving corrupt rulers and powerful Guardians, you would have expected at some point this would have happened already. Yes, thousands of years ago legend says a king was killed by an Assassin. But legend is just that-- legend. Not fact. So I had wondered if perhaps something in the magic of the Guardians made it impossible for them to kill a ruler of Solangia. There's only one way we could find out for sure."