The Crow King's Wife (The Elder Blood Chronicles #5)(21)

“Out with it then.” Caleb pressed and Shade nodded slowly in response.

“The Morcaillo are Changelings, Caleb. Right now I can’t shift the areas that were wounded, the flesh is dead, which means my birthright is useless. If I can shift my forms this mission will be much easier, but if you are saddled with a cripple as a partner in this rescue slash assassination than I think we will both be standing on Finn’s door step awaiting a very dismal eternity as his personal bitches.” Shade explained quietly.

“A Changeling.” Caleb repeated with a note of distaste in his voice. He nodded slowly and let out a heavy sigh. “You know you are supposed to be pure unholy evil right?” he muttered sourly.

“I was supposed to be a lot of things. I’m afraid I’ve been a disappointment on every last one of them including the unholy evil part. I just didn’t turn out the way father hoped.” Shade sighed.

“Merro first then.” Caleb agreed with a faint nod as he leaned further back in his seat. “Then we both get to be heroes.” He added with a snort of disgust.

“In the stories the heroes always triumph.” Shade offered with a shrug.

“In reality they suffer more than anyone else and usually die horribly at a young age.” Caleb countered.

“Oddly enough I have always preferred fiction to reality, so I’m going to stick with my version.” Shade replied quietly. He glanced down as the goblin wrapped its scrawny arms around his leg and settled beside his chair. “Just perfect, me, a goblin, and the Bloody Huntsman of Arovan against an entire nation of bloodthirsty flame-hurling madmen. Wonderful.” He muttered.

“If you listen to the stories about me I could handle the entire nation of Rivasa with one hand tied behind my back and blindfolded.” Caleb offered dryly.

“Any truth to those stories?” Shade asked hopefully.

“My mother is a bard and writes most of the stories about me. What do you think?” Caleb replied sourly and gave a long sigh.

“I think by the time we reach Rivasa I will have a plan that keeps us both alive to see this through. It may not be conventional, but I promise it will work. My only concern is you actually following my plan.” Shade said with a smile.





Chapter 3





Sanctuary





Heavy boots rang on the marble floors behind him, but Remedy ignored the sound. It was most likely just guards making their rounds, and none of his concern. The quarry he followed was silent as she moved, and she was already slipping around another corner ahead of him. He paused long enough to fish a sprig of mint from his pocket and chewed on it as he continued down the hall. A cigarette would have been much more satisfying, but given his current life it simply wasn’t possible. The mind cloud he was using to keep himself from being detected in the palace could persuade people to ignore the smell of mint, but smoke was another thing entirely. Smoke was visible in the air, mint was not.

Faramir’s steps slowed and he paced himself to match hers. He didn’t want to get too close to her. Despite the mind cloud there was still a slight chance she might detect him, and that would destroy several weeks of spying.

When he had been captured in Rivasa he had thought there might have been a chance of corruption in the Fionaveir. Then Shade had echoed his thoughts on the matter which raised his suspicions further. However when important people began disappearing from the Fionaveir ranks he knew without a doubt there was corruption, and it was only recently that he had managed to trace it all back to Faramir.

That in itself was disquieting. Faramir was married to the leader of the Fionaveir, and Caspian didn’t seem to notice any problems. Either she was lying very well to her husband, or Caspian was involved in the corruption. Remedy calmly pushed that thought away and let out a long slow breath. If he was going to save Symphony he would have to face it eventually, but for now all he needed to worry about was what Faramir was up to currently. She had seemed pensive all morning, and there were several times when her expression had shifted to fury without warning. Had anyone else been present, Remedy might have believed it was a part of a conversation that he had missed that had shifted her mood. She had been alone all three times however, which meant she was in mental communication with someone, and the news she was hearing wasn’t pleasant. Now all he had to do was follow her long enough to try to get some indication of what was wrong.

Faramir paused in the hall ahead of him and turned to look back over her shoulder. Remedy froze in place, even going so far as to hold his breath. It was ridiculous of course. The nature of his magic didn’t make him invisible. It infiltrated the minds of those around him and simply forced them to ignore him. It wasn’t as if he had to be silent. If his magic was functioning as it should, his quarry wouldn’t acknowledge any noise he made. Faramir made him too nervous though. In the past few days he had seen a side of her that he had never noticed before in all of his years living amongst her with the Fionaveir. She was acting more devious and some of the magic she had used when she had believed she was alone were spells that there should have been far beyond her mastery. Faramir simply wasn’t that great of a mage, at least she hadn’t been from what he had known about her. The Faramir he knew was an archer and a damn good one, but not a mage.

She turned once more and walked a few steps before stopping in front of a door. Turning slowly Faramir scanned the hallway once more and slowly stepped into the room. It took every ounce of speed and stealth that Remedy possessed to slide through the door before she could close it behind her and the action put him much closer to Faramir than he wanted to be. Her eyes narrowed as the door clicked shut and she turned slowly to stare about the room with searching eyes. Once more Remedy found himself holding his breath until her attention passed over him.