the missiles took each aetheling in the forehead, cracking their heads and scorching their brains, smoke puffing from perfectly round holes before they dropped to the ground, dead.
Dorian’s shields sprang up around him and Jenine only then, though he’d acted as fast as he could. There was no other sound in the hall.
The dead children gaped at him, brains smoking. The living ones didn’t dare look up. Fury rushed through Dorian. They hadn’t just tried to kill them; they’d tried to kill Jenine. He looked at the Vürdmeister who was in charge of these aethelings. The man was cowering, prostrate, at the back of the line. Dorian couldn’t think. The vir lashed out from his hand, yanked the man to his feet by his throat. He gave a strangled yelp, waving his hands in denial, before a huge fist of Dorian’s vir smashed his chest against the rock wall.
Blood exploded over the wall and the aethelings at the back of the line, but no one moved. With effort, Dorian dropped the shields, pushed the vir down. His head was throbbing.
The aethelings had moved against him. It was a stupid, childish attempt, and it had almost succeeded because he hadn’t thought to guard himself against boys who were eight years old. There’d been no follow-up to take advantage of the distraction, so Dorian couldn’t know if the children had been directed by a Vürdmeister, unless it was simply to test Dorian’s strength or to see if the vir would save him. In some ways, it wasn’t important.
What was important was that something had to be done about the aethelings. They were vipers. If eight- and nine-year-olds had already acted, there was no doubt that the older boys were plotting, and a wedding would give them all sorts of opportunities. Delay looked like weakness, and weakness put not only himself but also Jenine in peril. That, he wouldn’t tolerate.
Jenine started crying, and Dorian banished the aethelings and comforted her, but his mind was far away, and every thought was bloody.
42
Kylar was dressed in servant’s garb, and there were many new servants in the castle as Terah’s retinue meshed with the remnants of Garoth’s which had meshed with the remnants of King Gunder IX’s, so getting into the servants’ entrance was no problem. Once inside, he headed to the scullery and grabbed a tray of freshly polished silver goblets, balanced it in one hand, and walked toward the Great Hall. In the bustle and hum of activity and shouted orders and snarls of men and women under pressure working together for the first time, no one paid any attention to him. He was invisible not because of the ka’kari, but because of the practiced anonymity Durzo had spent so many hours teaching him.
For the moment, all of the tables were stored in the servants’ room adjacent to the Great Hall. After the coronation, the tables would be carried in fully set. The goblets went onto one of the high tables adjacent to the queen’s table. Unfortunately, her table was still empty: it wouldn’t be set until immediately before the banquet, and then only under the watchful eyes of the Queen’s Guard would her cupbearer lay out the castle’s finest goldware for the high table with his own hand.
These were not insurmountable difficulties. However, Terah Graesin didn’t have a reputation as a drinker, so if Kylar used a poison mild enough that her cupbearer wouldn’t be affected when he tested her wine, she might not drink a lethal dose. The same was true of her eating utensils. She was a dainty eater.
So after setting down the goblets, Kylar grabbed a pile of rags dirtied in polishing the tables and headed down a back hallway. He walked purposefully, though he had no idea where the castle’s laundry was. He scanned the ceilings and walls for the spy holes and crawlspaces that honeycombed the castle. When he saw a crawlspace, he leapt, grabbed the edge with his fingertips, and pulled himself up.
Inches from his face, a decaying web of vir crisscrossed the opening. Kylar’s fingers were almost touching it. Hanging on by one hand, Kylar rolled the ka’kari through the web. The web popped harmlessly like a soap bubble.
From the secret passages, it was only a matter of finding his way. Kylar crawled or walked as the passages required and kept the ka’kari over his eyes so he could see every magical trap. In an hour, he’d found the royal treasury. The opening here was covered