did whatever she asked without complaint, hoping to eventually earn back her trust.
His boots squeaked and dripped through the halls as he made his way back outside to the barracks. Of the four wings, two were being used — one by the males on staff, and one by the females. Barely a quarter of the beds in the male ward were taken, and nearly all the beds in the female. Soon the women battlers would begin to fill a second ward unless Gavin recruited more men or assigned a captain who would. If the new militia head appointed a former Viragon Sister as captain, she’d be more likely to fill the ranks of the king’s guard with women battlers, which Adro didn’t think was a wise choice. He’d seen Sisters fight and marveled at their prowess, but women were supposed to be protected, not do the protecting. It just wasn’t right.
He opened the chest situated at the foot of his bed, withdrew a dry pair of trousers, and rolled them into a towel. He took his only spare boots as well. Once he was back inside the palace, he sat on a bench and did his best to wring the rest of the water from his boots and set them against the wall to dry. He ducked into a closet to change out of his wet trousers and into the dry, shook his head hard to fling the water out of his hair, and combed through it with his fingers. Considering the weather, this was about as presentable as he could manage.
He tucked his wet clothes into a corner, pulled on his spare boots, and walked through the grand halls of the palace. He didn’t think he would ever tire of the beauty of the building. Even the simple things — the carved mouldings, the buttery wood paneling, the dark, marble floors — were marvels to behold, especially for a man like himself, who’d grown up poor and spent his adult years on the back of a horse. The palace smelled beautiful, too, with cedar wood candles in the wall sconces.
He rounded a corner and nearly plowed into a pair of women. They looked up at him with mouths agape, as surprised as he was. He started to apologize, but realized something was wrong. Their identical faces were too wrinkled and their builds too frail for them to be battlers. They were dressed in flowing robes, one rust and yellow, the other green — not the blue uniform of palace workers — yet they were wandering around the palace unaccompanied by a guard or supreme councilor.
“Who are you?” he asked. “You shouldn’t be here without—”
One of the women waved her hand and whispered something unintelligible. Then, they vanished.
Adro drew his sword and spun around. “Hey. Hey!” He ran up and down both corridors. “Guard!”
One of the former Sisters, Taria, ran to his aid, sword drawn. “What’s wrong?”
“Two women. They were right here, and then they vanished.”
“I saw no one.” She grinned crookedly as she resheathed her weapon. “You haven’t been drinking that swill Pryan makes, have you?”
“No, damn it. They were here. I swear I saw them.” He had to alert the king, yet he couldn’t help but worry Feanna was vulnerable. As her would-be champion, it was his job to protect her, but Taria hadn’t seen the women and wouldn’t be able to accurately describe them or their surprising disappearance to Gavin.
“Maybe you need more sleep.” Taria clapped his shoulder.
“Taria, listen. What if I didn’t imagine it? What if two mages with ill intent have breached the palace? If I did imagine it, I’ll welcome all the teasing you can heap upon me, but until we get it sorted out, we must ensure the king and queen’s safety.”
“All right, Adro. Calm yourself. What do you want to do?”
“I’ll alert King Gavin. You go to Queen Feanna’s room and stay with her. We need to organize a search for those two women. If they’re in the palace, we have to find them.”
She nodded and took off at a jog in the direction Adro had come from, and he continued on towards what was undoubtedly the ball room in centuries past, though Gavin was currently using it to hear petitioners.
Requests for funds had begun pouring in almost the very minute Gavin had taken his vows as king. People who’d managed to get by on what they had were suddenly destitute, even the lordovers, whose families had been collecting taxes in the