The Silent Shield (Kingfountain #5)(58)

The door resisted at first, but then it relented and opened, bringing a crack of light from the audience hall. There were torches lit inside and people were moving around urgently. Trynne blinked and pressed her eye to the slit.

Rucrius stood in the center of the room, his hand resting on the king’s empty chair. He was still wearing the clothes in which he’d been rescued, but he was no longer a prisoner. He was the one barking orders.

“Change into their tunics quickly!” he said impatiently. Trynne saw that there were several warriors in the hall, quickly donning tunics of the Sun and Rose. She recognized their leaf armor from the Battle of Guilme. Her heart shriveled as she realized the palace was being stolen right under their noses. “Then return to the guard posts and pretend to be asleep like the others. When dawn comes, the people will see the treasure ship moored in the harbor. It will cause panic.”

Another Wizr spoke up. Trynne hadn’t noticed him because he was standing before Rucrius, who was much taller. “You know Gahalatine would not wish to win this way.”

“Gahalatine will conquer Kingfountain as he desires,” Rucrius snapped. “Is that not what matters? Their confusion will give us an easy path to victory. The city will fall. Then the king’s champion will lose to our champion, and Gahalatine will challenge the king in combat. Without the Kiskaddon brat, the king will succumb to our power and relinquish the hollow crown.”

“But this is sooner than we agreed upon, Rucrius!” the other Wizr said. She could not see him well, but she recognized him from the Battle of Guilme. He was one of the three Wizrs who had brought Gahalatine to King Drew on the hilltop.

“Events are already in motion, Astorel,” Rucrius said dismissively. “The game goes on. The poisoner is in the Forbidden Court as we speak. She brought our enemy with her.”

The other Wizr chuffed. “Maybe we should just kill the king now and be done with it.”

Trynne’s heart filled with a burning rage. Were they speaking of Drew or Gahalatine? There was a fallen spear on the ground in front of her, only a couple of steps away, and she felt a powerful urge to seize it and hurl it through Rucrius’s back. The temptation was painful. But it was against one of the oaths she had taken as an Oath Maiden, and she would not give in to it. Still, she promised herself Rucrius’s treachery against his own king and hers would be punished.

The sound of boots came from the corridor behind them and she felt the power and presence of Fountain magic once again. Trynne whirled around just in time to see more soldiers marching down the hall, all of them wearing the leaf armor. Lady Evie did the same. Another Wizr was with the warriors, and when they turned the corner, they saw the two women at the door.

The Wizr’s eyes widened in surprise. “Who are you?” he demanded.

She felt something in his eyes, some look of recognition.

The door behind them was shoved open by invisible hands, knocking them both away.

“Rucrius!” the Wizr shouted. “It’s her!”

Trynne summoned her magic to defend herself. She had faced three Wizrs before, but not while fighting so many soldiers—that would be impossible. The magic revealed to her that the power of the sleeping spell was coming from high above the castle. She grabbed Lady Evie by the wrist and used the magic of the Tay al-Ard to bring them to the poisoner’s tower.



The rush of the magic spilled them both to the floor of the tower room, and they landed on their hands and knees. Trynne’s head swam with dizziness, and the force of the magic blasting down from the staff above her rang in her ears. She had sensed the magic coming from the tower earlier, but it had not been activated at the time. It was certainly active now. The power radiating from it was so immense, it had rendered the entire palace asleep except for those the Wizrs had made immune to it.

Trynne kicked open the balcony window and stepped outside, knowing her time was measured in moments. She gazed out at a sea of fog shrouding Kingfountain’s lower harbor beneath the falls. The fog was thick and unnatural, most unusual for the season, but she still saw the hulking treasure ship coming up the river. The crews and ships stationed at the harbor would not be able to see it coming. She heard the rush of the waterfall and realized with despair that the city was lost.

The Wizrs were controlling events, not Gahalatine. Trynne’s hasty visit to the Forbidden Court had merely accelerated the plans they’d already been brewing.

Morwenna was involved in the plot. Trynne was certain of it. The Wizrs had chosen Severn’s daughter to be Gahalatine’s queen. Was she wittingly part of it, or a pawn in the scheme?

At that point, it didn’t matter. Trynne had to get the king away from the palace. She was the only one who could. Gazing at the peak of the tower, she saw something crackling with power. A staff had been bound to the steeple, strapped with leather. It was the source of the magic.

“Anoichto ekluo!” Trynne commanded, gazing up at the staff bound to the tower spike. With her words, she unmade the fastenings of the straps and the staff fell from the spike, hurtling and spinning as it fell from the heights and cracked to pieces on the cobbles far below.

The fog of magic in the air vanished.

Save the king.

Her heart quailed with dread when she heard the whisper from the Fountain. She was still dizzy from using the Tay al-Ard, but she rushed back into the chamber. Lady Evie’s face was ashen with concern, but she looked determined.