The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) (15 page)

“Not possible,” Violet said. “It’s
closed.”

“The portal?” I asked. I wasn’t
sure how the thing worked. I only knew that it involved the use of a Pyxis
Charm in W.R.A.I.T.H.’s secret location in the human realm.

“No,” Violet whispered. “The whole
thing. It’s shut down. Mom said it wasn’t safe anymore. As of last night,
W.R.A.I.T.H. no longer exists.”

I froze, unable to believe my ears.
“
What
? Why?”

Violet shot me a warning glance and
gestured for me to keep my voice down. “I don’t know the details. There was
some big project and they finished it last night. Mom said it was the last
thing. We shouldn’t even be talking about this.” She ducked her head and went
back to concentrating on her medicines.

I feigned concentration but my mind
was working double time trying to put things together. What was W.R.A.I.T.H.’s
big final project? Why shut it down? The only clue I had was the rendezvous
that Bazzlejet’s contact had mentioned.

“Where is Lev?” Violet asked
suddenly, sitting up.

I cringed. “Gone, and not a moment
too soon.”

“What?” Violet asked, looking
puzzled.

“We’re leaving.”

We both looked up to find Garland
standing over us. He had thrown on a traveling cloak and a hat.

“You’re not leaving before I mend
that scrape on your chin,” Violet said, standing up. She dabbed his wound with
a soft cloth.

“I’ll be fine,” Garland said,
gently pushing Violet’s hand away. “We’d like to make some distance before
nightfall.”

“Are you sure you don’t need one of
Commander Larue’s men?” I asked.

“Not to be morbid, but if we did
find ourselves in a bad situation I doubt one more man would help. Besides,
Father has been planning this for a while. He has considered every
contingency.”

I realized that I had no idea where
they planned to go. “What’s your route?”

“We’ll use Loosestrife as our
starting point and make our way north from there to the little villages that
dot the forests between here and the old Slaugh border.”

Lord Finbarr pulled up in a
creaking carriage that was loaded down with supplies. The hounds that pulled it
were spooked by the sights in the graveyard. Their fur bristled and their ears
twitched restlessly.

Garland climbed up onto the
driver’s bench beside his father. Chloe, Othella and Commander Larue lined up
alongside Violet and me to send them off. It felt very strange bidding them
farewell in the midst of such chaos. I tried to hold a good thought. The last
time an Ivywild emissary had gone on a peace mission, it had ended in tragedy.

I suspected that Commander Larue
was thinking the same thing. Every time he looked at the loaded carriage, his
hard brow furrowed into hundreds of tiny creases and the corners of his mouth
fought against a frown.

“You have the copy of our
itinerary?”” Lord Finbarr asked him.

Commander Larue patted a rolled up
scroll in his belt. “Yes. Send me a Pixie with news when you reach your first
stop…and every stop after that,” he added.

Lord Finbarr smiled. It made me
feel better. He had been the first person to smile at me when I came to
Faylinn. He was the first to make me feel like I was home

“Tell Anouk I said goodbye,”
Garland said to me, turning a little red in the face.

“Sure thing,” I said.

“Are you sure you have enough
Channeling supplies?” Violet asked.

“Enough to keep a whole crew of
Channelers busy,” Lord Finbarr said.

“I wish you didn’t have to miss the
coronation,” Chloe said. “This mission is more important, though. I want my
people to know that we haven’t forgotten about them.”

Everybody turned and stared at her.

“What?” she asked, placing her
hands on her hips.

Lord Finbarr’s smile turned watery.
“Heaven forgive me for ever losing faith in you, Your Majesty.” He flicked the
reins and the carriage pulled away.

“What did he mean by that?” Chloe
asked.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her
that there was a time when Lord Finbarr had put the king’s survival before
hers. “I think we’re just all surprised by how unselfishly you’re handling the
situation,” I said. 

Chloe shrugged. “I’m just trying to
do what Daddy would have done.”

The king’s burial ended up being a
small, private affair, after all. While Enchanters and Channelers worked around
us, Chloe and the remaining nobles saw to the king’s interment beneath a
gigantic memorial pillar that had survived the attack.

Afterwards, Commander Larue
insisted that we return to Ivywild immediately. His urging met with much
resistance. Chloe was not ready to leave her father’s grave. Violet was running
herself ragged trying to tend to the wounded survivors. Queen Othella and
Bazzlejet were poking among the bodies of the mechaman.

I had my own reasons for not
wanting to leave. The long ride back up to the castle would provide an
opportunity for the others to ask me about Lev’s whereabouts. I wasn’t ready to
talk about it. Just thinking about him gave me a twisting ache in the stomach.

There was one other thing. I had been
trying not to think about it as deliberately as I had been trying not to think
about him. Nevertheless, I couldn’t keep running from the terrible possibility
that he had stolen the red dagger from me. It had gone missing the night he
told me he was leaving. He could have taken it any time without me noticing.
The whole night was a swirl of sense memories: the soft press of a kiss, firelight
on marble, fingertips brushing my cheek. Those memories were beyond painful now
and I’d never be able to sift through them and pinpoint when exactly I’d lost
sight of the dagger.   

The question of why he would steal
the dagger opened up a whole new stream of chilling possibilities. It was the
only thing that could destroy Robyn—that is, if I could find the lock as well.
Without the dagger, I was powerless to stop Robyn whether I found the lock or
not.

Maybe that was exactly what he had
intended.

Suddenly all the pieces slid
together like links on a chain. What if Hugo had been leading us on since the
day we found him? What if the lone survivor of Moonlight Pass was just a myth
meant to conceal a sinister grand scheme?

“Oh God,” I said, slumping against
a cracked tombstone.

Violet rushed over to me. “Emma,
what’s wrong? You’re white as a sheet!”

The ground started to spin. “I’ve
been so stupid,” I said weakly, clutching the tombstone to stay upright. “He
was against us all along.”

“Get over here!” Violet shouted to
some nearby Channelers. She supported me as best she could with her slight
frame. “It’s going to be okay. Just have a seat and tell me what’s bothering
you.”

“The castle,” I said. “We must get
back. We’re not safe. Nobody is safe.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Chloe’s face blanched white in the
dusky interior of the audience chamber. Formerly reserved for her father’s
meetings, the chamber had a strong masculine air about it. There were no frilly
lanterns or twinkling glass pillars. Dark wooden paneling lined the walls. The
massive chair Chloe sat in was carved from black marble. It made her look
tiny.  

“You seriously think Lev—I mean,
King Hugo,
intended
to leave us defenseless?” she said.

“How else do you explain it?” I
said. “He took the one thing that we know can defeat Robyn and then he left
just before the attack on Mag Mell.”

Chloe rubbed her temples. She was
showing the strain of the long, terrible day. Getting back inside the castle
had been a nightmare thanks to the mob of people at the castle cliff, most of
whom were now survivors of the attack on Mag Mell. She had been forced to
relent and allow them inside of Ivywild. A team of advisors was working on the
logistical problems of sheltering and feeding all of the newcomers. My
revelation only made things worse.

“He just doesn’t seem the type to
do something like that,” Chloe said. “I mean, why would he? He stands to gain
nothing by it.”

I had already run through every
scenario. “Doesn’t he? Consider this: the attack on Mag Mell was just a taste
of what’s to come. What happens when Robyn does hit us full force? We can fight
back, but we don’t have the means to get rid of her for good. At best we can
weaken her and kill off some of her mechamen, but she’ll keep coming back. Eventually
we’re done for. The Fay are history. Then all Hugo has to do is find the lock and
finish Robyn off. It’s a win-win for him. I’ll bet you anything he’s out
looking for the lock as we speak.”

There was a silence filled only by
the scurrying of servants in the antechamber. Chloe seemed lost in thought.

“But it still doesn’t make any
sense,” she finally said. “Why help us all this time if he was only going to turn
on us?”

The answer to that question was like
a mouthful of venom that I had been holding inside. “He wasn’t really helping
us,” I spat. “Spying, discovering our weaknesses, earning our trust—it was all
a front. He probably needed time to find all the remaining Slaugh so he’d have
allies.”

“But what about all the times he’s
risked his neck for us?” Chloe said. “Like when he nearly died fighting
Rahgnall in Seraph’s Tear?”

“Rahgnall was standing in his way
to the Slaugh throne,” I reminded her.

“He’s been training you to make you
fight better!” Chloe argued. “How do you explain that?”

“A diversion,” I said. “All this
time I should have been working on my magic.”

Chloe sighed. “I just can’t believe
it.”

I didn’t want to believe it,
either. I just couldn’t deny all the signs.

“I’ll hold a council to tell the
others as soon as you’re ready,” Chloe said. “Thanks for confiding in me
first.”

I didn’t want to think of what
might happen when everyone realized what my dumb crush was about to cost
Ivywild. If I had not been so blinded by my emotions, I might have seen through
King Hugo sooner.

“You know what I must do.” Chloe
said.

My mouth went dry. I nodded. “Send
a ship to intercept him. Get the dagger back one way or another.”

“Right,” Chloe said. She didn’t
need to add what we were both thinking. Any Slaugh would kill himself before
being taken prisoner.

Chloe cleared her throat
uncomfortably. “There is a little time before we must act. Just a little. He
can’t pose much a threat if he’s out at sea. If you really believe what you
have told me, I’ll call up a council in the morning and you can present your
evidence.”

The pragmatic suggestion took me by
surprise. Dwarfed by her father’s throne, Chloe might have looked like a child
playing at royalty. Not so long ago that’s all she had been. A change had taken
place. She was no adult yet, but Chloe Nokomis de Lolanthe did not stay in
anyone’s shadow for very long, not even her father’s.

“Are you sure we should wait?” I
asked, for once feeling a pang of nervousness at questioning her authority.

The princess propped an elbow on
the arm of the chair and let her forehead come to rest wearily against her
palm. “I’m tired. You’re tired. My kingdom was just attacked, Ivywild is
overrun with homeless and my coronation is in two days. If Lev—I mean, King
Hugo, is dumb enough to try something before then, let him. I guarantee he’s
never faced a woman’s fury like the kind I can bring down on him right now.”

It was an attempt at humor but I
knew she was just padding her excuses. “There’s something else, isn’t there?
You don’t believe me.”

Chloe looked away. “I think we
should take
some
action against him, but…” she glanced at me and looked
quickly away again. “Well, don’t take this the wrong way, but I know you guys
were close. If we’re going to take him down for something I have to be sure
we’ve got good, solid reasons and not just, you know…hurt feelings.”

 “I’m not out for revenge,” I said
in total sincerity. “I’m just worried about Ivywild.”

Chloe raised an eyebrow. “Let me worry
about Ivywild. You go sleep on it and come talk to me first thing in the
morning.”

The idea of sleep was ludicrous,
but I took it as a cue that Chloe was ready to be alone so I started to walk
out.

“One more thing to consider,” Chloe
called after me.

I paused. “What?”

“The lock,” Chloe said. “Have you got
any idea where or what it is yet?”

“No,” I said regretfully.

“But you think King Hugo may be
searching for it?”

“Yes. I don’t buy his line about
finding a cure for Seraph’s Tear. It sounds like a cover story.”

A flash of mischief twinkled in her
eyes. “There’s not much he can do about it if we find the lock first, right?”

Sleep on it. Like that would be
easy. Of course, I saw Chloe’s point. Perhaps my slant on Hugo was
slightly
tinted by the fact that he’d wrecked my heart and my dignity. Even so, I grew
more nervous for Ivywild by the moment. I couldn’t shake the chill that had
been haunting me for days. In my blood stirred the ancient instincts of a Guardian.
Those instincts kept me on edge. I stood by what I’d said in Mag Mell. Nothing
was safe.

Ivywild had become an alien place.
Packs of unfamiliar faces walked the streets. None were smiling. I saw only
expressions of fear and suspicion. Shops and homes were shuttered up, barring
the tide of newcomers. People who hadn’t found shelter yet huddled in the
alleys off the main square. There was a strain in the air that had never been
there before and it only made me feel colder.

At first I had no clear idea where
I was going, but soon enough my feet picked up the familiar path and I found
myself beneath the arches leading to the cathedral. I stopped, staring at the
place I’d been so many times. It still held mysteries. There was also guidance
if I cared to seek it.