The Measure of the Magic (58 page)

“I want to help,” the boy declared grimly. “I don’t want them to end up like …” He cut short what he was going to say and stared at the tops of his boots. “Poor Phryne. At least she found the Elfstones she was searching for.” He managed a faint smile. “She seemed to know how to use them well enough on those Trolls, didn’t she? But it was the dragon that was so … well, you saw it, too. She not only rode it, she managed to control it. She had it flying where she wanted and made it use its fire to break apart the Drouj attack. Imagine how it would feel to be able to do that—to fly on a dragon and turn it against your enemies.”

Tasha shook his head. “Some things you’re not supposed to do. Riding a dragon is one of them. She crossed a line when she did that, and I think she paid the price for it.”

Xac Wen nodded. “Maybe. Doesn’t matter. It was still wonderful. I won’t ever forget it.”

The big man clasped his hands and sighed. “None of us will, little man. None of us will.”

They were silent after that, lost in thought. The sun drifted west, the light faded to dusk, and the world slowed and stilled around them. The clouds that had begun to form earlier had massed and darkened further, and the first few drops of rain began to dampen their faces.

It was fully dark and raining hard when Tenerife reappeared. “They’re off,” he announced, giving Tasha a look.

“Then so are we.” The big man was on his feet at once. He turned to Xac Wen, who had scrambled up after him. “It might be better if you wait here.”

The boy was incensed. “I’m not waiting here! I did everything you asked of me, and I’m coming with you to see how this ends. You can’t stop me!”

Tenerife gave a short laugh. “Who would be foolish enough to try?”

Tasha bent close, his features taut and expressionless. “Listen to me, then. If you come, you can only watch. You can do nothing else. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“You will also have to keep to yourself everything you see. Maybe forever. That might be hard for a wild jaybird like you. Can you do it? Do you promise? No matter what?”

“I promise. Not a word.”

They set out at a trot, Tenerife leading the way. As they went, he quickly explained that he had kept watch on the palace near its rear entry until well after dark before seeing Isoeld surface from out of a small cottage at the rear of the grounds that he knew to be connected to the palace by an underground tunnel and through which Elven rulers had been slipping away to clandestine meetings since long before he was born. Teonette had been waiting just at the edge of the grounds, and together they had set out on foot traveling eastward.

“The rats flee the sinking ship,” Tasha observed. “Just as I thought they would.”

“They will have horses and a carriage waiting, but not until they are safely outside the city,” he finished.

“Then we can catch them before they escape,” Tasha responded, and picked up the pace.

They raced through the city in a line, Tenerife leading, Xac Wen trailing, down roads and pathways, through small stands of trees and
between houses, three shadows lost in the darkness and the rain. At times, even Xac found it hard to tell where it was they were going, but Tenerife seemed completely certain and never hesitated.

“Stay well behind us and out of sight,” Tasha told Xac at one point. “Don’t let her see you. We don’t want her to know that you’re with us.”

Xac Wen wasn’t entirely certain what they intended to do, but he understood well enough that the Queen would recognize him if he showed himself and the brothers didn’t want that.

Damp all the way through and winded when they finally slowed, the boy peered through the gloom and mist at the eastern edge of the city amid scattered woods and tall grasses to watch the distant flicker of a light bobbing and swaying not too far ahead. Tenerife turned and pointed, nodding back at his brother and Xac, and all three dropped into a crouch as they continued forward. The boy knew how to move without making noise much better than most, a street kid of his own choosing for most of his life, his home life untroubled but boring when compared with the adventure he had always found in the larger world. So he kept pace with the Orullians and did so silently, hanging back so as not to be in the way, watching the figures ahead grow steadily larger and more distinct until at last he could see their faces.

Isoeld Severine and Teonette.

They were following a narrow path, each of them carrying a bundle, wrapped in heavy-weather cloaks with hoods pulled up so that the only view he had of their faces was when they looked back now and then and the light caught their features. It was clear they had a destination in mind and were hurrying to reach it. Xac guessed the news had unsettled them enough that they had decided to get away before Phryne arrived to confront them. Given that the Princess knew the truth about them and now possessed the magic of the Elfstones, neither Queen nor first minister saw much future in Arborlon. Better to slip away and start over somewhere else in the valley—a self-imposed exile that would not be challenged once they were gone.

Of course, they wouldn’t be traveling without something to trade for what they needed. What would they have taken that would be valuable enough to give them the means to attempt a fresh start?

The boy couldn’t think of anything, and in any event there was no
further time to consider the matter. The pair had reached the carriage that Tasha had foreseen they would have arranged, a team of horses already hitched in place and a minder waiting. A few words were exchanged, and the minder took something from Teonette and disappeared into the night. The first minister watched him go, then opened the carriage door and helped the Queen inside. As she glanced back once, Xac Wen saw her face clearly. Even at his young age and with his limited experience, he thought her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

“Now,” Tenerife said to his brother.

They sprang to their feet and sprinted for the carriage, tearing through the thin screen of trees and breaking out into the open not fifty feet from the carriage. Teonette saw them coming and vaulted into the driver’s seat, a more agile man than Xac would have believed, given his size. But Tenerife was quicker and caught hold of the reins on the lead horses, swinging the team about to prevent it from bolting. Tasha was a few steps behind, and he gained the first step of the carriage just as Isoeld bolted out the door on the other side and began to run.

For a moment everything was swallowed in rain, darkness, and confusion. Xac did as he had been told and stayed well back from where the struggle was taking place around the carriage. But he saw everything that happened. Teonette had produced a short sword and was hacking down at Tasha. Tenerife was still struggling with the traces and the team, trying to hold them in place. But he lost his grip and was thrown down, and the team bolted ahead with Teonette still in the driver’s seat urging them on. Tasha hung on to the carriage for a few seconds longer and then let go, staggering ahead for a few steps before dropping on all fours, muddied and soaked.

The carriage thundered through the darkness and disappeared from view, the first minister urging it on.

Tenerife ran past his brother to give chase, but Tasha called out sharply, “Let him go! The Queen is the one we want!”

Tenerife drew up and turned back, panting. “You’re right. We can find him anytime.”

The brothers trudged back to where Xac Wen waited. Without being asked, the boy pointed in the direction he had seen Isoeld Severine go. “Good eyes, eagle boy,” Tenerife said, giving him a grin.

They began tracking the Queen. It wasn’t all that difficult. She was leaving a trail so easy to follow that even the darkness and rain failed to mask it. Even Xac was able to pick it out with no trouble. Tenerife led once more, and the three picked their way ahead through the trees at a steady pace, watching for any sign of their quarry. Her cloak was found discarded a hundred yards off, apparently too cumbersome for her to be bothered with. A scarf was discovered farther on, then the bundle she had been carrying.

They hurried ahead, slowly closing the gap between themselves and their quarry. After thirty minutes of hard pursuit, they caught up to her. By then, she had run herself out and was collapsed on the ground beneath a towering hickory, her clothes muddied and torn, her face twisted in fury.

“You have no right to treat me so!” she spat at them.

“We have every right,” Tenerife replied. “We are here at the command of the Princess. She insists you be present when she arrives.”

“I don’t answer to her! She isn’t anything to me!”

“So it would appear, given your efforts to have her imprisoned and killed.” Tasha gave her a smile. “Do you think she doesn’t intend to see you pay for your treachery? What will you tell the members of the High Council when she confronts you with the truth? Do you think your lies will count for anything then? She’s a hero now, Isoeld. She saved the Elven nation with her acts of courage at Aphalion Pass.”

Hiding back in the trees, remaining perfectly still, Xac Wen could still see clearly the look of mingled fury and despair on the Queen’s face.

“I will deny everything! No one will challenge me!”

Tasha shrugged. “Perhaps. We’re going to find out, at any rate. Too bad your first minister won’t be there to support you in your efforts. I’ve never seen anyone run away so fast.”

He reached for her arm, but she jerked away quickly, her haunted eyes shifting this way and that. “Teonette is a coward. If not for me, he would have crawled back to the High Council begging for mercy long ago. Let him go. I didn’t need him then, and I don’t need him now.”

“You can tell all that to the High Council when we bring you before them,” Tenerife said brightly. “It should be interesting to see their reaction.”

She sneered at him. “You are such a fool. You and your brother
both. You think this matter all done and over already, don’t you? The little Princess returns, the conquering heroine, and the evil Queen is deposed and sent into exile. So simple. Except that isn’t how it’s going to happen. The Princess will make her case, but I will make mine, as well. She is young and wild and often confused—everyone knows that. I’ll convince the High Council that she misread what she heard and saw. I was there, but it was an assassin that killed the King. I was trying to save him, and I did manage to save her. But she was so out of her mind with grief that she had to be restrained and locked away for her own protection.”

Tasha and Tenerife exchanged a quick glance.

“It won’t work,” the former declared. “They won’t believe you.”

“No? Why don’t we find out? Take me back and let me face them. Running away was never a good idea in the first place. Teonette’s solution—a coward’s way. In fact, he forced me to go with him. He threatened to kill me if I didn’t. The assassin was his doing, not mine. I discovered it only tonight. He admitted it. He wanted me for himself. He’s always wanted me.”

“You had nothing to do with the killing? Is that what you plan to say?”

“Of course! Look at me! Do I appear dangerous to you? Do you think the High Council will see me as dangerous? Or as a beautiful woman coveted and manipulated by strong men!”

The brothers stared at her in silence. She looked from one to the other, and then walked right up to Tasha and cupped his face in her hands. “You can’t win this, Tasha. Not this way. But there is another. You could support me. You could tell them that what I say is the truth. If you did that, I would make you my new first minister. And your brother could have a place on the High Council, too. There’s no reason you shouldn’t both be there to help me govern as Queen. We share the same concerns; we both want to see things set right. Phryne is young and untrained; she needs time to grow and mature. When I am gone, she can be Queen after me. There’s plenty of time yet for her. We can make her understand.”

She was touching his face all over. “In the meantime, you can hunt down Teonette and silence him! We both want to see him punished. We could share so much, you and I.”

Her voice was seductive and compelling, and she stroked the big man’s arms and shoulders, casting glances at Tenerife as she did so, commanding attention as only beautiful women can, demanding they consider what in a different time and place they never would.

Tasha nodded slowly. “We could do that. Couldn’t we, Tenerife?”

“We could,” his brother agreed.

“Be your consorts together?” Tasha pressed. “Act as your protectors and advisers?”

“All of that! Anything you want!”

Xac Wen, still in hiding, was so horrified at what was happening that for a moment he almost left his hiding place to try to stop it.

Tasha was caressing Isoeld in response to her advances. “You are a beautiful creature, Isoeld,” he told her. “What man wouldn’t want to do what you asked of him?”

“Only a fool,” Tenerife said.

Tasha placed his hands on either side of her face and drew her to him. “But then we’ve never been particularly bright,” he whispered.

Then he tightened his grip, wrenched her head sharply to one side, and broke her neck.