“When was the last time he was known to be in his cell?” Aefric asked.

  “Two hours prior,” Ser Yrsa said, frowning. “But it shouldn’t have been more than one hour since he was last checked. I haven’t had time to look into the discrepancy.”

  “Your grace,” Ser Arras said, stepping forward. “I enquired, and was told that the last check before shift change was skipped because Ser Calder deemed it unnecessary. He himself had just checked on the prisoners.”

  The night suddenly felt colder.

  “And where is Ser Calder now?” Aefric asked.

  “He retired for the evening, your grace,” Ser Yrsa said, though her eyes too were narrowed suspiciously. “But he should be here by now. I sent a page to rouse him some time ago.”

  The high-pitched shout of a page’s young voice cut across the tumult of the search.

  “Your grace!”

  Aefric turned toward the castle. A page came running at speed.

  Anger burned through Aefric. He suspected he knew what that page would say.

  “Your grace,” the page said, skidding to a stop. The poor youth was breathing hard and sopping with sweat. He bowed. Then spotted the king. Bowed deeper. “Your majesty.”

  “Go on,” King Colm said. “What news?”

  “Ser Calder would not answer my knock. I tried the servants’ backway, but that entrance to the castellan’s chambers was barred.”

  “Barred?” Aefric asked. “There’s no bar on those doors.”

  “No, your grace,” the page agreed. “I had to seek out Meliflua and her keys. She unlocked the castellan’s door.”

  “I take it he wasn’t there?” Aefric said.

  The page blinked as though stunned that his duke already knew his news.

  “Yes, your grace,” the page said. “I mean no, your grace. I mean, he was gone. His person. His clothes. His armor. His weapons. All gone.”

  Aefric turned to Karbin. “You know what we need. Go.”

  Karbin took to the air, zooming toward the castle. He passed Kentigern, who was on his way out.

  “He’d blocked the door to the servants’ backway with his armoire, your grace,” the page said. “His bed had not been slept in.”

  “What about the chamber servants?” King Colm asked. “Were they dead or missing?”

  “Your majesty, they were missing,” the page said, paling. He turned to Aefric. “Might they be dead, your grace?”

  “I hope not,” Aefric said. “But I think we know how Gwawl escaped.”

  “Your majesty, your grace,” Kentigern said, bowing as he joined the group. “I’ve sent rikas to Ajenmoor, Lachedran, Behal, and Fyretti. The search won’t end with Water’s End.”

  “Your grace,” King Colm said. “I think perhaps you should tell me of your problems with your castellan.”

  “Yes, your majesty,” Aefric said, and then gave his majesty a quick summary of the conflicts he’d had with Ser Calder since coming to Water’s End.

  “Calder’s horse is missing,” Ser Deirdre said, approaching from the stables. “As, I fear, is Windsong, your grace.”

  “They stole my horse?” Aefric said.

  “I fear so, your grace,” Ser Deirdre said. “And they left the grooms all in a magical sleep. I roused them easily enough, of course, but they witnessed nothing.”

  “Of course not,” Aefric said, thumping the butt of the Brightstaff against the tile of the courtyard. “Gwawl would cast the spell from an unseen spot.”

  “Surely your grace’s horse is easily spotted,” King Colm said.

  “Certainly,” Aefric said. “But they didn’t need it at all. I can’t believe Gwawl wouldn’t know how to call up a magaunt to ride. So they didn’t want Windsong for their escape. Just to hurt me.”

  Karbin came flying back down and landed beside Aefric.

  “No good,” Karbin said, bitterly. “Decades of working with the Soulfists taught Calder well. He’s burned everything we could use to track him. I did find his chamber servants. Unconscious in his privy. Didn’t even see who hit them.”

  Aefric turned to Ser Yrsa. “Did your guards tell Gwawl we destroyed his pendant?”

  “Yes, your grace,” she said, frowning at the subject change. “I believe the exact words were, ‘his grace had the worthless thing melted down for scrap.’”

  “Good,” Aefric said. “How did he respond?”

  “Guarded his reaction,” Ser Yrsa said.

  “All right,” Aefric said, turning to King Colm. “At this point we can only conclude that Calder broke Gwawl out of that cell tonight, and the two of them fled together.”

  “Agreed,” King Colm said with a grimace. “Though it sickens me to think that such a noble knight has fallen so far.”

  “He can only mean to join Nelazzi,” Aefric said, and at King Colm’s puzzled frown, Aefric continued. “Gwawl is a known confederate of Nelazzi’s. If all Calder wanted to do was leave, he could have done so alone. But by breaking out Gwawl, he must intend to use the wizard as a bargaining chip to get himself a good position with her organization.”

  “I struggle to imagine him leaving…” King Colm stroked his beard thoughtfully. “But he couldn’t adjust to working under your grace, could he?”

  “I don’t think so,” Aefric said. “And he couldn’t retire either.”

  “No, he wasn’t the type,” King Colm said. “Still. To choose piracy instead. It seems unlikely.”

  “Kentigern,” Aefric said. “I’ll need you to rouse Elkari and all your assistants. Get started on that project we spoke of. I need to know what else Calder might’ve been up to.”

  Aefric turned back to the king. “I believe your majesty has the right of it. I don’t believe an honorable knight would do what Ser Calder has done tonight. But I fear that Ser Calder wasn’t as honorable as he let on.”

  11

  Aefric got little sleep following Gwawl’s escape and Calder’s disappearance. It was late that night when he returned to his bed at all, and he did nothing more than toss and turn for an hour or two before it was time to get up.

  He had that hour or two to himself, though. Queen Eppida had not been waiting when he returned to his room. Which was just as well. He hadn’t been in the mood for either the noble privilege, or for more discussions of marriage.

  A hot bath helped. And the hot breakfast pastry brought to him by Ocheda — while the sky was not yet beginning to gray with the coming dawn — helped even more. He ate it beside the window, in his private sitting room. Hot melting cheese along with bacon and broccoli in a flaky crust, washed down with good, clean water.

  One thing Aefric had not yet started taking for granted, as duke. That water was no longer something to be rationed, while traveling. Nor did it come to taste of its leather bag, but was always fresh and clean as though right from the spring.

  “Your grace,” Ocheda said, as he finished his pastry. “I have word from Dajen about the question you put to the castle staff.”

  “And?” Aefric asked.

  “Ser Calder was not popular. The staff considered him arrogant, abrupt and dismissive. Anything beyond that, none felt comfortable saying.”

  “Fair enough,” Aefric said. “Has my staff gathered for the morning meeting?”

  “They have, your grace,” Ocheda said. “And their majesties have joined them.”

  Aefric jumped to his feet. Checked his clothes. A navy blue silk tunic, over dark red hose. Leather belt with his wand sheath. High, hard-soled boots leather boots dyed black.

  “You look good, your grace,” Ocheda assured him.

  “Why didn’t you tell me their majesties were waiting on me?”

  “Forgive me, your grace,” she said, “but they told me to say nothing until asked.”

  “Wonderful,” Aefric said, taking up the Brightstaff and hustling down the stairs to his meeting room.

  When he entered it looked as though the meeting were already underway.

  Their majesties already sat at the round, blackwood table, along with Karbin, Kentigern, Elkari and Sers Yrsa and Beornric.

  Their majesties were in dark yellow silk that morning. A gown for her majesty, and a quilted tunic for his majesty, over matching hose.

  Kentigern wore a maroon silk tunic over dark brown hose. Elkari wore a dark brown quilted tunic over lighter brown hose. The knights wore their full plate.

  Karbin, of course, was clad in his colors of sand and dusk.

  And on the table before them was spread a map of Deepwater.

  “Good of you to join us, your grace,” King Colm said with a smile.

  “Your majesties,” Aefric said with a bow. “Please excuse my tardiness. My—”

  “I told Ocheda to say nothing until you’d at least eaten,” Queen Eppida said. “And I’ll hear no talk of tardiness.”

  “Yes, your majesty,” Aefric said, bowed, and joined them at the table.

  “It’s your meeting,” King Colm said. “We didn’t start it without you. Just went over a few things about your duchy.”

  Aefric tried not to wonder what those “few things” were.

  “Yrsa?” he said. “Would you care to start?”

  “Of course, your grace,” Ser Yrsa said. “We know now with certainty that both Gwawl and Calder are gone. What’s more, the remains of Windsong were found on the shore beside Behal’s bridge.”

  “Remains?” Queen Eppida asked, paling. “They slew his grace’s horse?”

  “Stole,” Ser Yrsa said, “and slew when they were done with it.”

  “Any witnesses?”

  “Ser Gray is handling the investigation,” Kentigern said. “She promises a report by midday.”

  “They took to the river, then,” King Colm said, pointing at the map. “At the docks there, by the bridge. Why else kill the horse?”

  “They killed the horse to hurt me,” Aefric said. “It’s no secret I was fond of my steed. But I don’t think they took to the river.”

  “I agree,” Karbin said. “If they tried, whether they stayed with the Haven or took the Tainfyr, they’d be trapped there. Easily enough found by a flying wizard.”

  “Will you check anyway?” Aefric asked. “In case they count on our thinking that way?”

  “Of course, your grace,” Karbin said. “Soon as the meeting’s done.”

  “Problem is,” Aefric said, “we lost so many coastal towns and villages during the wars, that we don’t have eyes on our whole shoreline right now. Too easy for Gwawl and Calder to head for the coast and rendezvous with a boat in one of our many blind spots.”

  “How could they make the arrangements?” King Colm asked.

  “Gwawl is a wizard, your majesty,” Aefric said. “Safe to assume he knows the message spell.”

  “Oh, of course,” King Colm said. “And there’s no way to trace that?”

  “None,” Aefric said. “Although there is a way to trace him. The wizard, I mean. We have a pendant that was special enough to him that, using it as a focus, I might be able to break his scry wards.”

  “Then do so,” King Colm said.

  “There’s a problem with that path,” Aefric said. “That pendant holds the key to a set of wards. Likely more than one set.”

  “Keys?” King Colm asked. “As in for doors?”

  “Spell keys that allow the bearer to pass unharmed through some pretty nasty magical defenses. Possibly taking a whole ship with him, in safety.”

  “You’re thinking of Nelazzi again,” King Colm said.

  “I am,” Aefric said. “That pendant may be allow me to take her unawares, someplace she feels safe. Someplace she’d let her guard down.”

  “But he knows you have it,” King Colm said.

  “We’ve led him to believe we destroyed it,” Aefric said. “The spells on that pendant were cunningly hidden. It’s believable that I could’ve missed them. So I let Gwawl believe I did.”

  “Ah,” King Colm said, slowly. “So if you use it to track Gwawl now, you fear it will become useless to get you past those wards.”

  “I know it will,” Aefric said with a nod. “He’d know that pendant was the only thing I could have that could help me break his scrying wards. Nelazzi would know to change the keys, as it were.”

  “Your grace does recall he’s been forbidden to pursue Nelazzi?”

  “Of course, your majesty. And I also recall that your majesty said we’d review that question after Malimfar was dealt with. I rather thought the pendant might help persuade your majesty to let me go after her then.”

  “It doesn’t have to be his grace,” Queen Eppida said. When the king looked curiously at her, she continued, “His grace has acquired a tool that will be quite useful in taking down Nelazzi. Naturally, a man of action such as his grace wishes to be the one to do so. But even if the task is assigned to another, the tool remains useful to the task.”

  “True,” King Colm said. “Very well. We’ll have to let them go, for now, so that your grace’s pendant retains the potency of its purpose.”

  “Anything else, Ser Yrsa?” Aefric asked.

  “Forces continue to build on the northside ridge of the Dragonscar,” she said. “I’ve continued to make sure the numbers favor us.”

  “If I may,” Kentigern said. At Aefric’s nod, he continued. “We’ve had a rika from Redport. Duke Wylyn and his party set sail last night for Water’s End. They should be here sometime this afternoon.”

  “All right,” Aefric said. “Unless they press the matter in the Dragonscar, we’ll continue to hold there for now.”

  “Nothing more from me, your grace,” Ser Yrsa said.

  “Kentigern?” Aefric asked.

  “The king’s justiciar passed Behal during the night. He’ll arrive late this morning. The remainder of the royal entourage, at its current pace, is three days behind him.”

  “Seeing more of Deepwater than we had time to, no doubt,” King Colm said with a sigh. “But it couldn’t be helped.”

  “The princess’ ship was sighted late yesterday off the coast of Havenford,” Kentigern continued. “She should arrive late today.”

  “Perfect,” King Colm said, rubbing his hands together. “Our justiciar will get the truth out of that assassin.”

  “There’s also the matter of what Elkari and I learned overnight,” Kentigern said. “Elkari, would you care to speak about it?”

  She nodded distractedly. Arranged a number of papers with her ink-stained hands.

  “Much of what can be learned through the study of history involves asking the right questions, and making the right connections,” she said, frowning. “Your grace asked us to look into questions of land and money. But those questions are really one question. Is Ser Calder a thief?”

  She shuffled a few papers and lifted one. It looked like a ledger sheet. “Thieves steal. It’s what they do. And rarely can a thief be put in a position to handle money without appropriating some.”

  She set that ledger sheet on the table tapped it firmly with her index finger.

  “The numbers on this page represent a spot-check of three dozen random intervals in which Ser Calder was placed in charge of money. None of them yielded any kind of questionable results.”

  “So he’s not a thief,” King Colm said.

  “Not by nature, no,” Elkari said, then quickly added, “your majesty.”

  King Colm nodded for her to go on.

  “Land, however, is not the same as money. And must not be counted as identical. A man who might not stoop to steal a bit of gold, might wish to acquire land. For himself, or for his family.”

  “So you checked the records regarding land?”

  “Your grace, with the aid of Master Kentigern and our assistants, I did. And while I have a good deal to report about lers and land, when your grace has time, I found nothing that connects any land issues with Ser Calder.”

  “So you didn’t find anything,” King Colm said, and turned to Aefric. “What were you expecting to find?”

  “I didn’t know,” Aefric said. “I only wanted to be certain. Some were saying he acted as though he were duke. That might involve misappropriation, or—”

  “Please excuse me, your grace,” Elkari said. “But my report was not yet finished.”

  “Oh,” Aefric said, blinking in surprise. “I hadn’t realized. Do go on.”

  “Circumstances changed between the time that your grace assigned us this task, and the time when we began it properly,” Elkari said. “I took into account the disappearance of Gwawl.”

  She shuffled about her papers, and drew out another. It looked like a list of dates.

  “Gwawl is known to have connections to the so-called pirate queen, Nelazzi,” Elkari said. “And Nelazzi harassed our coastline a few years back, before the Godswalk Wars.”

  “I remember hearing about that,” Aefric said.

  “With that in mind,” Elkari said, “I reassessed the question about Ser Calder from ‘Is Ser Calder a thief?’ to ‘Has Ser Calder been working against Deepwater?’ Your grace, I presume, understands how that is truly the question underlying the task he set me?”

  “I do,” Aefric said, his entire self now focused on his historian. “What did you learn?”

  “Well, your grace,” she said. “When considering the modified question, I had to take into consideration that Ser Calder was castellan during the time when Duchess Arinda struggled with Nelazzi’s ships. I went through those dates thoroughly. There was little to find, save that Duchess Arinda was a more active duchess, at that time, than she had been during the three years prior.”

  “Ser Calder mentioned that Arinda gave him more authority in handling duchy matters,” Aefric said.

  “And so she did,” Elkari said. “Except during the war, if you will, with Nelazzi.”

  “And what did you learn about Calder from this?” King Colm asked.

  She tapped the sheet of paper.

  “Not before, but once the war — for lack of a better term — with Nelazzi was ended. Ser Calder began traveling to Ajenmoor several times a year on a basis that looks irregular and coincidental, at first, but follows a very clear pattern, when viewed through the right lens. Always around the time of some significant decision regarding shipping or the movement of Deepwater sea forces.”