Chương 31: The Imperial Bloodline (7)

By morning, Teren was still tired from the broken sleep, but at least he had eaten, bathed, and changed into clean clothes. Breakfast arrived with a young servant, along with another reminder that he was not to leave the wing without an escort. About half an hour later, one of the guards took him to a smaller room where Edras was supposed to meet him. Edras did not come. Instead, an old palace clerk arrived with an apology.

He told Teren that Master Edras had returned to his research hall early that morning and would probably remain there for most of the day. Teren was not surprised to hear it. The clerk probably knew nothing more than that, but Teren could guess what was keeping Edras busy. The mage had said it might take months to understand the hidden array properly, and apparently he had already started. After returning, Teren spent the morning in his room and ate lunch there.

By midafternoon, he had spent enough time in the guest wing that he was starting to feel restless. He went to the door and asked one of the guards whether he was allowed to walk around somewhere instead of staying in his room all day. The guard sent for the palace clerk. A short while later, the older man returned, and Teren asked him the same question.

"Of course. The east garden is close to the guest wing, and you may walk there anytime as long as your escort goes with you." He paused.

"His grace had already asked me to check whether you needed anything. He thought you might prefer some fresh air to spending the whole day indoors." Teren wasn't sure whether the suggestion had actually come from Duke Ordaan or whether Edras had mentioned it earlier. Or maybe Marshal Yaros wanted to see what Teren would do when given a little space. Either way, he saw no reason to refuse. Teren accepted immediately.

The east garden lay nearby, within the palace walls, enclosed on three sides by stone corridors and open on the fourth to a terrace overlooking the city from the palace hill. It was not large, but it had been arranged to feel larger than it was. Narrow paths curved between hedges and small stretches of trimmed grass. Trees with silver-green leaves stood in square beds, and pale flowers grew around a shallow pool where orange-white fish moved beneath the water. Two guards followed Teren at a distance.

They kept a respectful distance as Teren walked through the garden, far enough back that he did not feel crowded but close enough to reach him quickly if anything happened. He took his time along the path, partly because he wanted to look around and partly because he had nowhere else he needed to be. A child's laugh came from the far side of the pool. Teren stopped. A girl who looked about eight or nine darted along the path with a wooden practice wand in one hand.

Her pale blond hair had escaped from its braid in several places, and her green dress had grass stains near one hem. There was something familiar about her face too. After a moment, Teren realized she looked enough like Cassian that she was probably his younger sister. A middle-aged woman, probably Mariel's attendant, stood nearby with the strained expression of someone trying to decide whether to intervene before disaster or after.

"Again!" the child demanded. The person she was speaking to also stood near the pool. Teren turned to her. Shoulder-length flaming red hair. The same pale skin, almond-shaped eyes, and long, pointed ears. Just as beautiful as the last time he had seen her. It was the tall elf from the intake compound, the one Edras had taken away. So this was where he had brought her. But why would another slave have been brought to the palace? Not that she had ever looked anything like an ordinary slave.

But it didn't make any sense. She was dressed very differently now, in a fitted blue coat over a pale dress, with sturdy boots that looked better suited for travel than court. She looked cleaner, better rested, and no less ready to bite someone. The elf lifted one hand. Water rose from the pool in a narrow ribbon and twisted through the air. The little girl raised her wooden wand and shouted something that was probably meant to be an incantation, or it could just as well have been gibberish.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. The elf moved her fingers, and the ribbon of water curled into a loop before dropping neatly over the child's head. The blond girl shrieked with laughter as water splashed over her. The attendant made a horrified sound.

"Lady Mariel! You'll get sick!" She quickly began walking towards another section of the garden where a stack of towels was kept on a table. The elf lowered her hand after a shrug.

"She asked me to do it again."

"I meant a bird!" Mariel said, shaking water from her sleeves.

"I wanted you to make the water bird again. You didn't make it properly last time!"

"I made it just fine, kiddo. You should have said you wanted a bird." The child narrowed her eyes with mock seriousness.

"I knew it! You are avoiding the challenge!"

"No, I'm not." The elf laughed.

"Alright, alright. I'll make your bird." Mariel wiped water from her face and pointed the wooden wand at the elf again.

"Do it now! Now!" Teren almost smiled. Then the elf glanced across the pool and saw him. Her smile disappeared. The playful expression she had worn with Mariel was gone, replaced by the same sharp, slightly annoyed look Teren remembered from the intake compound. For a moment, Teren wondered if she recognized him. Then he remembered that she had never seen him before in this loop. As far as the elf knew, he was simply some tall stranger standing across the garden with two palace guards behind him.

The little girl noticed where the elf was looking and turned toward him.

"Who's that?" Mariel asked.

"Is he your friend, 'ryn?" The elf stared at Teren.

"Never seen him before." That did not sound especially welcoming. Teren decided to stay where he was. Walking toward Duke Ordaan's daughter without being invited seemed like a very bad idea, even if the guards were there to protect him rather than restrain him. Instead, he gave the little girl a small bow from across the pool. He still had no idea how much bowing was expected around nobles, but this seemed safer than doing nothing. Mariel looked pleased by the gesture. The elf still looked unimpressed.

The attendant returned with a towel and hurried closer to Mariel and began drying the water from her hair and shoulders. Teren turned and continued down the path as if he had only stopped to acknowledge them. When he glanced back a moment later, the tall elf was still watching him. That gave him something else to think about. She had been another slave in the intake compound, and Edras had personally taken her away.

Now she was here in the palace, apparently comfortable enough around Duke Ordaan's daughter to play with her in the garden. There was clearly more to her than Teren knew. By the time he returned to the guest wing, he had one more question waiting for Edras. For once, it had nothing to do with figuring out how he had died yet again.

Edras came to Teren's room near sunset. By then, Teren had eaten twice and spent most of the day waiting for the old mage to return. He had wanted to spend some of the day practicing the purple flame, but he did not dare try it inside the palace when he had no idea who might be watching. The light outside had begun to fade, and the crystal lamp on the wall was already glowing a soft yellow.

Teren had spent a while wondering how the thing knew when it was getting dark enough to start glowing, but eventually gave up trying to figure it out. He did not know enough about even the basics of magic to guess how it worked. A knock came at the door. One of the guards outside opened it, and Edras entered. There was dust along the hem of his coat, and he looked even more tired than he had the day before. Teren straightened in his chair. The guard closed the door behind the mage.

"Did you find anything at the research hall?" Teren asked immediately. Edras crossed to the table and set down a small leather satchel.

"A little. I exposed more of the array and traced some of the connections around the threshold." He drew out a chair and sat. For a moment, he just rested both hands on the table.

"The runic array is older than I first thought," he said.

"Much older than any of the wards I had placed on the building after I moved there. Parts of it were worked directly into the original stone beneath the hall."

"So nobody put it there recently?"

"Almost certainly not. I found no sign that anyone has altered the array in years, if not decades." That made the whole thing even stranger. Someone had built a trap meant to kill a Corvadryn and left it waiting long enough for the entire bloodline to supposedly disappear, just in case another person was proven to have the imperial bloodline.

"Did you find anything else?" Teren said.

"Enough to confirm what I told you yesterday. The lineage resonator is attached to the explosion mechanism. A positive result from someone of Corvadryn blood changes the state of the array around the threshold." Edras rubbed at a dark stain near his thumb, then stopped when it would not come off.

"There are still sections I have not exposed, and I have no intention of disturbing them until I understand what they do."

"So you still think it will take months?"

"At least." Teren exhaled and looked to the side. Outside the window, the setting sun cast a yellow glow across the rooftops stretching into the distance, all the way to the distant city wall. Somewhere among those buildings were the slave yard, the intake compound, and all the other places where he had already died in Karthane.

"Do you have any idea who could have made it?"

"Sadly, no." Edras leaned back slightly.

"The workmanship is exceptional, but that does not narrow the possibilities much when the array may be more than a century old. Marshal Yaros has people looking through old records for anything about the building before it became my research compound. Previous owners, renovations, changes to the basement, anything that might tell us when the array was placed."

"And if the records don't go back that far?"

"Then we keep looking." Teren nodded. It was not much of an answer, but for now there probably was no better one.

"There is something else I wanted to ask," Teren said.

"I saw a red-haired elf with Lady Mariel in the garden. You know about her?"