Last Stand (The Black Mage #4)(46)
The people of Devon were growing restless. Cassius, as promised, had continued to stall negotiations with ridiculous demands. Whenever Blayne seemed ready to commit, the Pythian upped his request. The advisors had begun to catch on and warned their king to refuse, and things had become tense. The duke still had three weeks in our term; he delighted in the stakes. Either way, his brother would have better terms than before.
I continued to prowl the library while the others watched. Thanks to the king’s prediction, half the palace was hanging their hopes on me. I wasn’t even expected to take part in guard duty. I found a new mound of books waiting each time I arrived in the study; Paige had even begun to read the texts aloud to me in the training courts.
The glass barrier had yet to be replaced; my guard’s voice carried easily across the platform as I drilled.
I studied the scrolls, doing my best to understand monotonous formations long into the night. I still had another two weeks before Nyx’s reply, three if it took her more than a day, or the envoy caught on a delay. Now that the commander knew what Cassius expected, she would craft a much better response.
Two fingers drew the parchment from my hands as warm lips pressed against my neck. I didn’t bother to turn; his heat clung to me like a second skin, a warm envelope of cloves.
“It’s time to come to bed.”
I looked up from a stack of papers, wondering if the crown prince was right. The bell had long since tolled midnight; I suspected an hour or two ago.
I wanted to join Darren, but with each day that passed, I grew a little less amorous with my plan and a little more worried Nyx would fail.
“Or I can stay here.” The prince’s smirk grew devious. “If that’s what you prefer.”
“Darren…” My protest was useless. The Black Mage was restless like me, trying to channel all his fear and doubt into something he could manage. He was turning to the one person he thought he could trust.
“Tell me, Ryiah,” Darren said, “have you ever wondered what it would be like in the room that started it all?”
A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth. “The palace library isn’t the Academy’s.”
“Oh, but it’s better.” Heat flared in his eyes, twin coals against a sea of endless black. “We have more tables. And chairs.”
Hours later the two of us fell into bed, breathless and flushed. It was only then I noticed the new charm hanging from his neck next to the hematite stone.
“What is this?” My finger curled around the object, and I started. Brass and heavy, not a charm. Almost like a—
“It’s a key.”
I tried not to sound too curious. “You didn’t have this before.”
“Blayne.” Darren shut his eyes with a groan. “He wants me to keep it on me at all times. Doesn’t trust… the ambassador… dragging out the negotiations.”
“Why? What is it for?”
The prince didn’t reply; he was already drifting off to sleep.
“Darren?”
For a second, I lay there weighing my odds. Then I shook the prince’s shoulders, unable to keep the question to myself, not when I was standing on the precipice of something new. Not when something told me this key was important. Not when Blayne had suddenly placed it in safekeeping. It could be the answer I needed.
The prince blinked several times before registering my face. “Love?”
“I was just thinking…” I bit down on my lip and then forced myself to finish. “This key, what does it do? Don’t you think I should know in case something happens?”
Darren reached out to catch my tapping fingers with his own—I hadn’t even realized I was doing it.
“It unlocks the Crown’s best kept secret.” His lips curved up as his eyelids fluttered shut.
“Best kept secret?” Why was I just hearing of this now?
“Perhaps you were too distracted.” He was smiling to himself. “You were always staring at me during Commander Ama’s lessons.”
“Perhaps I was imagining the best way to rid myself of an arrogant prince.”
“Well, I’m not going to tell you now—” Darren yawned, “—since you think I’m so arrogant.”
And so he drifted to sleep as I tossed and turned. Commander Ama? The desert?
What did she even talk about? Chariots and sickle swords and the best way to breach a defense. Hardly a secret to the thousands of regiment warriors.
Think, Ryiah, think.
I knew there was something important I was missing. Darren wouldn’t have made that comment unless he believed I already knew the answer.
Crown’s best kept secret? So the commander of Ishir Outpost knew, and clearly the original members of the Crown: Lucius and Blayne and Darren.
Maybe he doesn’t expect me to know the secret, maybe that’s what this is about.
I ground my teeth. That didn’t make the puzzle any easier, and I was sick of puzzles. Cassius already had me wringing my own neck trying to find a solution for his.
Would it be so terrible for the gods to give me an answer once in a while?
I imagined them laughing down from above. Foolish mortal, they were probably saying, you saw the key. We’ve already given you more luck than you deserve. If you can’t pick up the pieces from here, well, then you’re undeserving of our help.