one stands too close. “We need to scare out the rats here. I’ve got a good mind to dismiss this lot altogether.”
He gestures at the young soldiers, who march in a wide, ragged circle, half of them out of step. Two crows swoop overhead, their piercing caws mocking the pretense of a fighting force.
“They’re no use and never will be. If you lose the heart of the people, then you’re not going to persuade any of them to fight for you.”
“That’s what you think has happened?”
The captain looks away. Maybe, Cal thinks, he’s afraid that he’s said too much.
“Not my place to say,” he replies, and walks back toward the bumbling circle of fighting men.
Cal walks to the place where Lady Cecilia’s broken body lay last night, the stone still rosy with bloodstains, despite the best efforts of three maids to scrub it away. Her case is perplexing, and since Martyn’s death there’s no physician now to investigate or advise. The new physician left soon after examining Martyn’s body, as he was needed elsewhere. But some think he left in fear.
Lady Cecilia had a blackened mouth and was frothing black foam, as though she’d been poisoned. But unlike Father Juniper, she still had the strength to walk and talk, and to be overheard blaming the queen for her misfortunes. Who would be the next one discovered with ashy blackness on their faces—or, as in the case of Martyn, their throat slit with a sharp piece of obsidian? Everything points to an Aphrasian infiltration, but how has a gray monk been able to operate in such a guarded place, and evade every search of the castle? Why has Daffran seen one of them, but still lived to tell the tale?
He’s deep in thought when Rhema rejoins him.
“You can still see the blood,” she says, and he frowns at her.
“Keep your voice down. Assassins don’t shout their business.”
“Oh—yes. Sorry.” Rhema doesn’t sound sorry, but she does lower her voice. “I just thought you’d want to know where I was. Why I was summoned.”
“No doubt the queen wished to thank you for your work last night.” Cal tries to sound disinterested.
“I wasn’t summoned by the queen. The king wanted to see me.”
“Hansen?” Cal blurts, and Rhema looks bemused.
“Didn’t realize you were on first-name terms.”
“Of course not.” Cal has to get a grip. “I’m tired. What did he want? Why did he want to see you?”
“He wanted to thank us, actually, but only I was around,” Rhema says. “The queen has moved into his apartments, so they can be together at all times. He wants her to be safe and thinks it’ll be easier to protect them if they’re in the same place. You know, day and night.”
Cal doesn’t trust himself to speak. So it’s finally happened. The king and queen will share private quarters at last. They’ll have a real marriage now, with all that implies. Cal may as well be riding off today.
“He’s asked me to serve as a special bodyguard and lead the night watch outside their apartments.”
“What?” Cal is incredulous. The king should have spoken to Cal directly. He is in charge of Rhema. Whatever she did last night, she is Cal’s apprentice, not his equal.
Rhema is pretending to examine the stones at her feet, poking at a loose spot with one foot. “He said that he and the queen trust me and want me to stay close. For the time being. You’re not angry, are you?”
“Of course not,” Cal says too quickly.
“I couldn’t say no to the king,” Rhema admits. “I know I’m your apprentice, but—”
“I understand,” says Cal. He does, of course. Rhema must follow the commands of the king. The assassins of Renovia-Montrice serve at his pleasure. “Was the queen not present during this conversation?”
“She was sleeping in another room,” Rhema tells him. “Recovering from last night and whatever she was given by Lady Marguerite. A woman from the Guild was summoned to tend to her.”
“Varya,” Cal says, and Rhema looks surprised that he knows.
“Where’s Jander?” she asks.
Cal shrugs. “In the stables, probably.”
“It’s just that yesterday he told me the Chief Physician was getting very close to identifying that black stuff around the mouths of the dead. Jander was helping him, using some knowledge from those Guild aunts we visited in Renovia. I’m wondering if Jander should go back to the physician’s chambers and continue the work alone. Nobody else here knows as much as he does.”
They walk to the stables to talk to Jander. The captain