The Rest is Riddles

Chapter 7: Nightmares

"And then the time came when I knew I had to decide, and—and it's just awful. It was like my m-mind was trapped in some sort of... haze. I remember breaking into the treasury, giving the rune to the prisoner and him free, I remember thinking at the time that I had to, that I had to save Nikolay. I was so sure I was doing the right thing, up until a few minutes after I set the prisoner free, and by then it was too late—"

Jane was becoming more convinced by the moment that Zakhar was to blame for Kir's betrayal. Had Zakhar somehow warped Kir's mind through the message he'd sent Nikolay? It seemed like exactly the sort of nefarious thing the Kanachskiy sorcerer would do. "The message," she said, "Did you sense anything sinister from it? Any kind of... dark magic?"

"I d-don't remember." Kir hiccoughed. "Nikolay d-didn't say anything; he just scowled a lot and then set it on fire after he'd realized I'd read it—"

Typical, Jane thought. If Zakhar had bespelled Kir through the message, and the message was gone, it would be all the harder to prove Kir was innocent. What had Nikolay been thinking, setting the message on fire? Unless Kir hadn't actually been bespelled by the message, but something else...

Or maybe Nikolay had just set fire to the message in a fit of rage, without considering the consequences. That seemed painfully likely, given what she knew of his character.

Jane rubbed her forehead. Wind whipped her hair; goose pimples were starting to creep up her arms. They were very exposed, out here on the balcony, and she was starting to wish she had brought a blanket.

She turned back to Kir and cupped his tear-stained face in her hands. "Kir, look at me," she said firmly. "What happened with Dalnushka—I don't think it was entirely your fault. We'll get to the bottom of this, I promise. But for now, you have to try to act as normal as you can. All right?"

Kir looked away, his eyes on the ground. He was shivering, Jane realized. "I—I'll try." He swallowed. "I don't—I don't want to go back to sleep right now—"

"Then we'll stay out here together for awhile. And tomorrow—if you insist on helping out, maybe Drazan can find a task for you that involves something other than cataloging corpses." She patted his shoulder. "Wait here for me. I'll be right back. I'm going to get us some blankets."

Jane eased herself out of the alcove. She had barely rounded the corner when she almost collided with Drazan's retreating back.

They locked eyes, and she swallowed. She waited for him to say something, to ask.

But all he said was:

"The crown prince is very lucky to have you as a friend."

He clapped her on the shoulder and walked away.

~*~

The following morning, Drazan transferred Kir to work in the lower levels of the fortress, with the Riders who were helping clear out the rocks that were blocking off the underground tunnels. Jane wanted to go with Kir—she still didn't trust what he might let slip if he was left with the other Riders—but Drazan had a special task for her instead.

"We found the missing battle mages," he told her. "The other hundreds of civilians are still missing... but the battle mages... well..." His voice trailed off in telling silence. "Their bodies are piled in the northwest tower, along with a whole heap of scrolls. Some weird magic ceremony I don't recognize. I want to know if you can read the runes on the scrolls. You have the avtorka's gift of tongues."

Jane, feeling uneasy, asked the azdaja to accompany Kir to the tunnels. Then, with a last, anxious glance toward Kir's retreating back, she followed Drazan out the charred double doors to the great hall, and up the tower staircase.