The Dragon Knight's Curse (The Dragon Knight Series Book 2) (13 page)

The afternoon after Owen’s arbitrary two nights ended, Ethan came up to tell me that Bell
and
Odet were in Braden’s office. He didn’t even wait to see if I would follow him before he dashed back out the room.

Opening the office door revealed Bell standing next to a figure clasped in a dirty green cloak. Also in the room was Braden and Ethan. The door shutting caused the figure to turn around and confirm Ethan’s vision.

“Do you have the copy?” I asked her.

“Hello to you, too,” she replied. Her hand escaped her cloak to hand me a scroll.

“Thank you, and I am sorry I didn’t wait a few days for your reply. I didn’t think you’d find an original so quickly.”

“You had places to be, I’m sure. So who is this translating friend of yours?”

“Riskel Rathmore’s son.”

Her head moved back. She then used the momentum to look at Braden, who simpered and said, “I’ve sent Catherine to retrieve the scholar if you want to meet him. Fidgety fellow.”

Back to me, the princess said, “You make odd friends, Mercer.”

“And your bodyguard friend looks competent enough to deliver scrolls, so why are you wasting your time here?”

“The benefit of being
second
in line to a throne is having more freedom to waste my time where I wish.”

“Oh, so your parents know you’re at the Warriors Guild helping to smoke out a traitor?”

“Well, I didn’t say I
truthfully
wasted my time where I wanted. I’m ‘officially’ with Owen now. If they come looking for me there, then Owen will say I went riding with Bell.”

“Why the lying at all?”

“Because I want to see this through myself. Or did you expect I’d stand idly by after you ask me to instruct my friend to help hand over his family?”

“I’m assuming you didn’t actually tell Owen that much. What did you tell him?”

“He knows something is going on, obviously, but I haven’t told him I suspect his parents of any wrongdoing. As far as he knows,
Summertide
is wanted by very aggressive art dealers.”

“How long until Ghevont creates the false messages?” asked Braden.

“He’s already studied some coded messages we took from Dranall, so it shouldn’t take him more than a few hours to falsify similar letters. We’ll send one overnight so it can arrive in the morning.”

“What will these messages say?” asked Bell.

“Something simple, yet mildly menacing. Something like ‘We have to talk about your husband and son,’ along with a meeting place and time.”

“And the meeting place?”

“The Advent seem to enjoy using temples, so we’ll set the first meeting at noon for whatever temple the Vealora family uses. Noon is when we’ll also send the second letter. This second one will be addressed to Owen’s father and will call for him to come to the temple in the evening. Whoever answers the missive will be our traitor. Does that sound okay with you, guild master?”

“Aye, so far so good. I imagine the Vealora family uses the more intimate Western Ecrin temple, right?”

“Yes,” answered Odet.

“Then I’ll take a couple of guildsmen there before the noon meeting. I sincerely hope we don’t have to apprehend anyone of that high a station, but it would confirm the Advent as major players in the attacks. We’ll then be able to make this line of investigation more official. Mercer, do you mind if Ghevont does his work in my office?”

“I can’t think of a better place.”

“I can think of way more places,” said Ethan, simply trying to add something to the conversation.

The room became too crowded when Catherine brought over Ghevont and Clarissa a few minutes later, so Braden decided that Ghevont and Catherine would stay with him. Everyone else would wait for a result in the sibling’s home nearby. I didn’t want to wait in a cramped room with Ethan and Marcela, so I slinked away by saying I needed to inform my father of our current status.

It was a slow walk to the large, cheap inn the pirates occupied half a mile from the guild house. Lorcan wanted to basically bring his entire crew to the temple, but I insisted that no battle was imminent and that he and Lucetta would be more than enough.

I didn’t go back to the guild house until after I ate supper with the buccaneers. When I checked back with Ghevont, he said to carry a couple more hours of patience. I tried spending these hours on a nap, but I had trouble getting my eyes to stay closed. I gave up after an hour and instead went to wait in the office. Ghevont had asked for Braden and Catherine to leave as he worked, but he said nothing against my presence.

It was soothing watching and hearing him scribble away, enough so that I was almost slumping with sleep in my chair. His “I did it!” exclamation rid me of my snooze craving.

“Did what?”

“I decoded one of Corbin’s shorter messages. Someone evidently denied a financial request from him. Some Old Voreen words are unknown to me, but I’ve proven I can at least translate eighty-five percent of the language. I’ve also learned that the differences between the original and newer editions are substantial. I can see why the changes were made. The original is quite dull compared to the newer versions.”

“Feel good enough to start working on those fake messages?”

“I’ll have them done in an hour, and then I’ll start translating Corbin’s messages and then see what
Summertide
is hiding.”

Braden and Ethan came in to check on Ghevont when he was halfway done making his first encoded letter. When he finished it ten minutes later, he handed it to Braden so he could start the delivery process. Twenty minutes after that and the scholar turned code breaker finished with his second letter. This second snare we left in the drawer for future sending. Without missing a beat, Ghevont went on to studying the poem’s deeper secrets. I agreed to Ethan’s request to join him in updating the girls back at his place.

The room he rented was located above a little woodwork shop a strange old couple owned. I knew they were strange due to the fact the still awake woman was told us to keep our “erotic endeavors” quiet with the girls upstairs. She sounded serious, but nearly toothless little grin crept up on her face as we climbed her stairs.

On opening the door to his room, Ethan proclaimed, “Don’t worry, ladies, the men are here!”

“Hit him for me,” Cat entreated me.

My harder than necessary punch landed behind his upper arm. He wanted to curse from the pain, but seeing Odet on the floor braiding Marcela’s hair stopped him.

“Guys, we’re supposed to act like civilized people.”

“Then you should rent a more civilized place,” I replied.

The room was too small and packed to do anything but stand. There was a single bed by the tiny window Bell and Clarissa sat on. Cat sat in the only chair in the room, which was next to a small-ass table to my right. To my left, Odet and Marcela were on a squashed pile of straw covered by a bristly rug that must have acted as an extra bed.

Odet, without taking her attention away from the girl’s hair, asked, “Did Marcela’s friend succeed?”

“The proverbial wheels are in motion, your highness,” I answered.

She sighed. “Then there’s no going back.”

“What you should do now is fetch Owen and take him back to your palace until this is done. He’ll need your support if we discover what I expect to.”

“I told you, I want to see this through myself. I have to be there to see who shows up. Besides, Owen is stronger than you think.”

“I suspect he’s only strong when you’re around him.”

She looked up at me with a face mildly scrunched by incertitude, not knowing how to respond to what was a compliment to her and an insult to her friend. Not having the conviction to look at me, she said, “I suspect you’re wrong.”

We would have continued our discussion if we had been alone, but current company stopped me from what I was going to say to actually asking, “Do you believe it’s only his mother?”

She held her tongue a moment and paused in her braiding. At the same time she restarted weaving the hair, she said, “If this isn’t all a coincidence, then yes, I suspect Lady Vealora more than her husband. Lord Vealora was a comrade of my father’s when they fought in the special units together. His loyalty and skill earned him the role of royal spymaster, a role he’s held since my father became king. Lady Vealora is more of an unknown to me, but I do know she’s of valkrean blood, so I don’t see why she would work for the Advent if she’s what they’re after.”

“She wasn’t there to help protect her son during the attack on Qutrios. You still don’t believe that was a coincidence, do you?”

Odet’s silence allowed Clarissa to ask, “I don’t know about everyone else, but I think we can leave grim news for later. Mercer, I was just telling Odet a little about your father.”

“He sounds like a charming man to meet,” said Odet. “He is near, I understand.”

I mentally chuckled at the image of a drunk pirate meeting a refined princess. “I fear the state he’s in at this time of night is no state to meet a lady, much less royalty.”

“Then he sounds as though he’ll get along wonderfully with my father. Perhaps once Alslana is allowed to breathe a moment, we may all meet more officially.”

“You get right on planning that.”

The others began trickling in their input on different topics, which mostly came back to Odet explaining how palace life worked. I was certain the princess had heard every question imaginable regarding her aristocratic life, but she answered everything as though she had only recently become royalty and was describing her new experiences to close friends. I expended more brain power than I should have trying to figure her out, and I concluded that she must have truly appreciated not being first in line to the throne. As a result, she didn’t mind trading the pressure of someday leading an influential kingdom for the little annoyances that came with intermingling with us lowly commoners.

The overfilled chamber was losing its air too quickly for my liking, urging me out of the room. I hoped to get some proper sleep in the guild house before we all made our way to our respective positions in the morning. After a few good yawns and stretches, I succeeded in entering a dream world where I struggled to swim in an endless field of fire.

Ghevont was still working when I made my way down to get some predawn breakfast. I ate with Braden in the corner of the mess hall before the others began showing themselves. As the siblings were not official guildsmen yet, Braden ordered them to stay at headquarters in case he had to send a message to his other comrades. For my part, I told Clarissa to move Ghevont in with Marcela and keep an eye on them. She didn’t like the babysitting duty, but I assured her that if I were anticipating trouble, I would have undoubtedly brought her along. Including the two guildsmen Braden was going to take, the temple group stood at eight strong.

Thanks to Odet not wanting to make it known that she was at the guild, my father’s introduction with the hooded princess was subdued and pleasantly short. The preparation we were in the middle of also cut off any casual conversation he wanted to get into. Nearly all the planning was done by me, Braden, and Lorcan, but the princess tried her all to add her input. To eliminate any doubt as to why she was there, I resolved to be the one to act as the letter sender and get Lady Vealora to spill her secret to me. When I extracted it, I was to signal Lorcan and Lucetta, who would be waiting in a nearby pew. Their getting up would prompt the out of sight guildsmen to come in for the arrest.

Odet wanted to be the first person to encounter Lady Vealora if she appeared, but not only did Braden point out that he would be beheaded by the king if he allowed his daughter to head into an unpredictable situation, he also rightly identified that her relationship with the noblewoman would fetter both mouths. She also couldn’t argue with the fact that it was my plan and my digging that led us here in the first place. The princess gained a victory when she convinced me to allow her to stay close to the trap, since someone needed to let me know who the lady was.

The eight of us rode guild horses to the western temple two hours before noon. We arrived minutes after the morning sermon ended and with plenty of time before Lady Vealora made a life altering choice. Any non-highborn believers who wandered in during our operation were kindly told by one of the two priests on staff that the temple was closed for a couple of hours, keeping away as many prying ears and eyes as possible. The priests themselves were told nothing other than this was guild business and to only allow nobles inside. Luckily, few nobles entered a temple when it wasn’t obligatory.

The temple’s size was much cozier than its grandiose sibling in Central Ecrin, but it was still spacious enough to have a quiet conversation and not have it resound across the echo friendly room. The pirates sat themselves at the front pew while the guildsman disappeared into a small hall. Odet and I sat on a pew close to the entrance, with Bell watching her highness from a nearby hallway of her own.

I grabbed a pair of holy books from a priestess,
The Tome of Duality
, and gave one to Odet so we could pretend to read. However, I did begin reading through a few passages for the first time in my life when Odet and I weren’t talking. The first half of the book was dedicated to the three gods of day, who were led by their chief god, the god of sun fire, Tahlous. His underlings were the god of stone and the goddess of sky. Ylsuna, goddess of night and wife of Tahlous, held domain over goddess of the sea and god of luck. To further emphasize the duality of these gods, the first half was written in black ink on white pages while the second section had white words on pages of dark gray.