The Keeper's Flame (A Pandoran Novel, #2) (16 page)

“I’m not sure that I can, now,” he said.

He wasn’t whining; he was speaking with candor.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Please don’t take it personally. Maybe we can see each other tomorrow if I’m feeling better?”

His eyes flickered over my face. “I’d like that. I’ll check on you later.”

I nodded and hurried off toward the entrance, almost bumping into a tray overfilled with drinks.

“Oh, sorr…” I started, but didn’t see anyone carrying it.

The tray hovered through the crowd, level with my waist, and then I realized it wasn’t hovering at all. It really was being carried. He wore two shiny black shoes, completely out of proportion with his skinny black legs, and the rest of his body was hidden beneath the tray. I had maneuvered closer to get a better look when he jerked his tray away, peered above the edge, and glared with two round black eyes.

My own eyes widened.

Grool?

He was dressed in a tux and his three strands of hair were combed neatly to one side. Those black eyes glared at me down his aquiline nose. “No drink!” he growled, resting the tray back on top of his head and scurrying back into the crowd.

“You really should stay away from faerie wine,” said a raspy, feminine voice behind me.

I turned around and gazed right into a pair of familiar blue eyes.

Tran Chiton, the great mage. And he was dressed as a woman.

His white hair had been curled and piled on top of his head, stuffed inside of an oversized hat, making him look like a bouquet of flowers. He was wearing a ghastly amount of makeup, a fluffy blue gown, and had taken to fanning himself.

“Tran?” I gasped.

“Shh!” He winked at me and held a finger to his lips—had he painted his nails?—and then fanned his face again.

I threw my arms around him and he chuckled a strange, high-pitched chuckle before insisting I let go so that he could breathe again.

“Where have you been?” I asked.

“Keeping my eyes on things,” he continued in that feminine voice men sometimes do, but is hardly feminine-sounding at all. “And things are as dangerous as ever, with the return of the dark rider and all, but so very exciting, don’t you agree?” He winked again, and then he said, “You know, I have new respect for you women.”

I arched a brow.

“Mere walking requires at least a five foot radius of empty space, not to mention that dreadful line you must draw around your eyes—poked myself so badly I thought I was going to go blind. After all these decades, I finally lose my sight to eyeliner.” He shook his head.

I had noticed the crooked line he’d drawn when I was suddenly struck by a thought.

Maybe I wouldn’t talk to Master Antoni about Fleck after all. Maybe…

“There’s something I need to talk to you—”

“Such a curious floral display,” he interrupted, studying one of the nearby tables with a look of disapproval. “I would’ve gone with the popping patelles, myself. The spinis are simply so overused and that blasted silver gets everywhere. Come to think of it, I found some in one of my robes just the other day from about twenty years ago when I’d walked through a field of them.”

“Tran,” I said.

He glanced back at me and smiled as though I’d just appeared.

“I need to talk to you…about Fleck.”

Ms. Tran held the fan to his lips and dug something from the folds of his gown. He handed me a carefully folded silver kerchief. “Make sure no one sees this.”

I took it from his hand—the kerchief was wrapped around something small and hard—and I shoved it in the folds of my dress, right beside Thad’s birthday present. “What is it?”

“If you need to speak to me in private, use that.” Tran said and started walking back into the crowd with a little tray floating behind him.

“Wait,” I called after him, “You can’t just…go.” My last word dropped in a whisper.

I patted my pocket holding my gifts.

Well, whatever he had given me, he had said I could use to talk to him later. I sighed and went looking for my father.

As I passed, people bowed at me and hurried to step aside. Many of them smiled at me, which was something I wasn’t used to—particularly the young men.

I needed to get out of this room. Too many staring eyes…

My dad stood near the exit, laughing and smiling with a very rotund man, who had a flaming red beard he was scratching with a jewel-covered hand.

“Daria!” Dad beamed.

“Have you seen Fleck?” I asked as I approached.

Dad shook his head. “The guild still hasn’t arrived, but I imagine it won’t be much longer. Here, Tosca, meet my daughter.” He nodded to the broad man beside him, who extended a thick, hairy arm.

So, this was Lord Tosca, the man Alex had gone to serve.

“It is a pleasure, princess,” Lord Tosca said in a gregarious tone and bowed his head. “Lord Tosca, at your service.”

“Princess, what’s wrong?” Dad pulled me away. “Is this about Fleck, because I promise you he’s perfectly safe…”

I dropped my voice. “No, I’m not feeling very well.”

Dad searched my face and pressed the back of his hand to my forehead. “You do feel clammy.”

Thank you, nervous perspiration.

“I was wondering how long you’d last.” He glanced down at my scarf-wrapped arms. “I can get one of the healers—”

“No,” I interrupted, “I’d like to go to my room, if you don’t mind. Rhea can take care of me…as long as I’m not needed here for anything else?”

“No.” Dad studied me a moment. “Are you sure? It’s nothing to—”

“Dad, I’ll be just fine, and if I’m not better in the morning, you can find one of your healers, okay?”

At last, he sighed. “All right. Your grandfather will be disappointed, but he’ll have to manage.” He smiled and wrapped his arms around me, holding me close. “I’ll walk you to your room.”

He started to reach for my arm and I said, “No, my room isn’t far and the entire guard is standing watch between here and there. Besides, you’d better stay and keep an eye on things…like Stefan.”

He hesitated, but I saw the smile on his lips. “Good point.” He arched a brow. “In fact, maybe you should take him with you.”

I made a face, and Dad laughed. “On second thought, I don’t like the idea of my only son dying at the age of twenty-one, so I think it best he stay here with me.”

I grinned as he leaned forward and kissed my forehead.

“You’re sure you don’t want someone to go with you?” Dad pressed. “What about Thaddeus, or I thought I saw Sturgis around here somewhere…” He started searching the crowd.

“Dad,” I said firmly.

“All right,” he said at last, “but straight to your room, understand?”

I couldn’t stop my smile, and he smiled back.

I pushed through the doors, out of the room, leaving the noise behind me.

Silence.

I took a slow, deep breath.

The castle was empty and the echo of my shoes tapping along the stone floor seemed lonely and out of place. After having come from the bright ballroom, the halls were exceptionally dark and cold. I shivered and pulled my scarf tighter. Unfortunately for me, the scarf was more of a fashion accessory and less a piece of functional clothing.

Rhea had been wrong. This was ridiculous femininity at its finest.

A draft of cool air blew threw the halls and right through my permeable scarf, and I shivered again. But it was better than being back there, at the dance, dealing with them. Dealing with
him
.

I could still see his face, smiling at her. I could still see her in his arms, comfortable and happy like she’d belonged there. My stomach turned and my throat squeezed around the lump.

Why had he even bothered coming over to talk to me? Did he get some sort of sick pleasure out of knowing that I still cared for him?

“—was too close!” hissed a voice in the darkness.

I stopped dead in my tracks.

“Shh!” hissed another.

Where are the voices coming from?

I craned my neck down the nearest hall, searching the shadows.

“Tiernan wants it now!” said the first.

There, just beyond a statue, a shadow moved. I slipped out of my shoes, careful not to make a sound, shoved them in a corner out of sight, and crept down the hall.

“Patience,” said the other. “You must have patience, or it will all fail.”

They were just around the corner from me now. I pressed myself against the wall beside a drapery.

“I understand what’s at stake, Ambrose.”
Ambrose
? “Lord Eris has made that quite clear”—
Who is Lord Eris
?—“and he says the boy is coming into his powers. If Darius takes them now, we’ll lose our opportunity.”

They were talking about Fleck. My hands clenched, fisting the drapery.

“The king isn’t planning to take his powers, not yet, anyway. He’s merely holding him under observation. In this instance, his arrogance works in our favor.”

But who is Ambrose talking to?

“What about the box?”

“Lord Tiernan assured me the princess didn’t know of its existence. Unfortunately, that knowledge died with her mother. The boy is our only assurance that Eris’s power won’t be challenged.”

“I say we take him now,” growled the other.

“We can’t,” Ambrose continued. “There are too many people watching. We must wait until after the games. Then it’ll be safe and Eris can drain the boy of his power.”

My world stopped.

It didn’t matter what my father had said—what anyone had said. Whatever these two were planning, whatever was about to happen, they were planning to take Fleck, and it didn’t sound like Fleck was coming out of it alive.

The bar supporting the drapery bent, suddenly creaked, and I fell forward.

I held my breath, landing on my hands, leaving me bent in an uncomfortable position over the floor.

Silence.

Sweat beaded down my temples as I strained to hold my position.

“What of the dark rider?” the man continued. “Where is he?”

I sighed. That was close.

“Lord Eris said that he…”

One of the silver pins slipped from my hair, and I watched in slow motion as it fell and clattered to the floor.

Oh, no.

I leapt to my feet and ducked behind a statue just as the crimson robes of the headmaster appeared, and beside him, the long, black cloak of another.

My heart beat so loudly I was certain they’d hear it.

They whispered something to each other that I could not hear, and then after what felt like an eternity, the pair walked down the hall. I held my breath as they passed, careful not to make a sound, and then I saw the other man.

It was Lord Commodus.

For a long moment, I stood there bewildered. Lord Commodus and the headmaster were working together, and I could’ve sworn they’d mentioned Tiernan. But who was Lord Eris?

I didn’t know anyone named Eris, except for the name on that portrait in the lower library…

I shuddered.

My first thought was to run and tell my father, but what would I say? What proof did I have? It would be my word against Lord Commodus’s and the headmaster’s.

Fleck.

He was the accessory in all of this.

I had to see him. I had to see him and get him out of here.

Now.

Chapter 11

Desperate Measures

R
hea was bent over a chest when I ran into my room and, hearing me enter, she glanced up, surprised. “What are you doing back—?”

“I have to get Fleck out of here.”

Her eyes widened as I explained everything—what I’d seen, what I’d heard—and all the while she stood there, breathing deep and even.

When I finished, she was quiet. At last, she said, “I’ll do everything I can to cover you, but they’re keeping a close eye on Fleck. I can’t help you get past the guards. You need someone more powerful for that, preferably someone that doesn’t have any vested interest in his powers, and right now, I can think of no one.”

I smiled. “I can.”

She raised a brow. “Who?”

Someone pounded on the door, and Rhea and I jumped.

“Do you want me to answer it?” Rhea asked.

“No, let me.” I wanted to make sure whoever was there would promptly be going away.

I ran to the door, then let my shoulders sag and eyes droop, and turned to Rhea. “How do I look?” I whispered.

She smiled, understanding. “Exhausted and feverish.”

I inched the door open until the person on the other side shoved it in all the way.

“Thad?”

“Knock, knock!” He grinned. There was an arm draped over his shoulder, and that arm belonged to Stefan, whose head hung low while he dragged one foot on the ground, sort of hopping on his other.

“What in the…?” My voice trailed as Alex appeared right behind them. He wasn’t looking at me, though; he was watching the shadows in the hall with mistrust.

“I know you’re not feeling well,” Thad said, “and I’m sorry to bring you into this, but seeing as you and Rhea are the only two people in the entire castle
not
at the ball…”

“What happened?” I asked

“You should probably close the door,” Thad grunted as he and Alex dropped a mumbling and laughing Stefan on my sofa. “Oh, and Rhea? Would you mind keeping an eye on the hall?”

“Certainly,” Rhea said, then looked at me. “As long as that’s all right?”

I nodded and she left, closing the door behind her.

Alex had disappeared into my bathroom and Thad was busy propping Stefan’s head up on a pillow. I suddenly heard the sound of water running.

Just make yourselves at home.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“Well,” Thad started. “Goldilocks here had a little too much to drink, not that you didn’t know that already, and soon after you left, got himself into a fight with a Nordic. Not the sort of thing a skinny prince should ever do.” Thad glanced at Stefan and wagged his finger with a
tsk-tsk-tsk
. “Over a fraeling of all things.”

Alex returned with a bowl of water and a rag and walked straight to Stefan.

“A fraeling?” I asked.

“The twins. You know, the pretty ones you…”