Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

WREN

If Finn noticed Wren's dismay he gave no sign. He spoke to Sassone calmly, the perfect knight. ‘I will follow the instructions I am given, my lord. My loyalty is as ever to the Aurum and the crown.'

Sassone smiled broadly and Wren wished she could call up the shadows now to wipe that expression off his face. He took Finn and his loyalty for granted. And still despised him. ‘Should you need it, you can get aid from my people. I still keep the fortress at the city walls in perfect order and it is little more than a stone's throw from your new home. The embassy is a fine building for an Ilanthian design. But it has been empty for too long. The new ambassador will be lucky to have your assistance.' He turned away, dismissing Finn from his attention. ‘You raised him well, Grandmaster. That has to be said. The council will be meeting in an hour. You'll probably want to be there to go over security arrangements with us, Roland. Especially in light of—' He gestured vaguely towards the door to Roland's study and then left.

Wren's stomach roiled and the realisation of what had been so flippantly discussed washed back over her.

Had Finn been planning to tell her he was leaving the palace at all? Had Roland? Was she going to wake up one morning and find that he was gone? Her stomach tightened and the whisper of the darkness grew louder and louder. The shadows had not gone so far away as all that. She couldn't lose her temper now or let this strange pain overwhelm her.

But Finn was leaving her. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right.

Someone muttered a curse under their breath. Wren wasn't sure who it was. Her own heartbeat was deafening.

‘Finnian,' said Roland after a few minutes more. ‘Please escort the princess back to her rooms and perhaps, this time, you should explain?—'

The study door opened and Sister Maryn appeared. ‘Has he gone?'

‘Have you been hiding back there to avoid him?' the Grandmaster asked. Maryn grinned at him.

‘Of course I have. Wouldn't you? The wards were broken, Roland. Deliberately. Someone wanted your office to be a weak point. Someone must have summoned them somehow. Blood will have been spilled in the palace to bring it about, too. This is not good.'

‘I suspected as much. And when Wren was there too. If things had gone differently?—'

Maryn held up a hand. ‘But it didn't. Wren needs training but she's strong and her instincts are good. She's already almost the match for Elodie at the same age.'

The age when Elodie had left. No one mentioned that. The age when she had faced down the Nox, broken it and fled Asteroth. The whole reason she was being put on trial.

Wren shifted uncomfortably. If they knew the truth of her, of the power inside her and the things it could do, they wouldn't even bother with a trial.

She glanced at Finn but his face gave nothing away. She had always known he could keep a secret. She'd had no idea until now how well, nor that he would keep something from her.

‘We have her protection and training in hand, Maryn,' Roland went on. ‘I've formed a guard for her and she will train in the sword and?—'

And Finn would not be there. Now she knew why he'd been left off that list in favour of a knight she didn't even know. They were sending him away.

‘The sword,' Maryn scoffed. ‘We'll train her to use her magic. Hone it. Improve it. Make a queen of her.'

Oh she had had enough of this. Of any of it.

‘And what if I don't want to be a queen?' Wren cut in. ‘What if I'm the wrong person? What if?—?'

‘There's no " what if " to it,' Maryn replied before Roland got there first. ‘You are who you are. Elodie has agreed.'

Elodie had mentioned training with the maidens, true, but not with a view to taking her crown. Wren growled with frustration.

‘Elodie is a prisoner standing trial for betraying the crown,' Roland interrupted curtly before Wren said something unfortunate. He sounded as irritated as she felt. ‘She doesn't get a say in this.'

‘Wren is her heir. Of course she has a say. She has not been found guilty of anything, I would like to remind you. Oh, and Roland, she wants to talk to you.'

For a moment he didn't move. Perhaps he couldn't. He stared at Maryn like she'd said something impossible. And then he just left the room, moving as if only his innate sense of decorum stopped him sprinting.

Maryn chuckled to herself. ‘Thought that might shut him up.'

‘What are you doing?' Wren asked, incredulous.

The maiden rolled her eyes. ‘Getting you ready for a throne. And hopefully saving those around you. Someone wanted him dead today. The wards were deliberately broken and the shadow kin summoned. If you had not been there, he would not have stood a chance. No, Finnian Ward,' she said before he could interrupt her. Loyal to a fault, that was Finn. Roland was his hero. He would defend his skill and valour in spite of everything, Wren knew that. ‘He would not have stood a chance if he was alone, off his guard…'

‘But I was there with Roland, when the shadow kin attacked,' Wren protested. ‘If someone wanted him dead then why do it when I was there? Unless they wanted me dead too.'

Maryn shook her head, her headdress rippling behind her. ‘No, they don't want you dead. You weren't meant to be there, I think.'

‘We were late,' said Finn quietly. He sounded deflated now, defeated. And so very worried. ‘We should have been here earlier and you would have left by the time…Sister Maryn is correct. Roland would have been alone, working, lost in thought probably, as he often is. He would have thought he was safe in there. Someone was trying to kill him.'

The thought of someone trying to summon up shadow kin to set on Roland in his own study, where he should have been protected, haunted Wren. They had been strong, those dark creatures, powerful and clever. Perhaps her fear or anger had drawn them out but they were waiting there until he was distracted, lost in concentration or simply tired.

Elodie was imprisoned. If she was found guilty, Wren would be forced onto the throne. And without the man who was, everyone said, her father to support her, who would step into the gap? Who would claim her next?

Finn was leaving her. Or being sent away. Or going willingly. She wasn't sure which.

‘Were you going to tell me?' she had asked as soon as they were alone, in a corridor on the way back to her rooms. Finn stopped and then pulled her into his arms. Someone would see, she was sure of that. It seemed like there was always someone to see, always someone to gossip.

But Wren didn't care about palace gossip.

She was the centre of it anyway. It followed her like a pack of hounds on a hunt. At the banquets, at the balls and other gatherings, it lingered in the air. She couldn't avoid it. Sometimes when she walked into a room, everything went quiet for a moment and eyes lingered on her. Few of them felt friendly.

‘I tried,' he admitted. ‘I got…distracted. I'm sorry, my love. You shouldn't have found out like that.'

My love. How could he say that and then…

‘But you're still going.'

‘I have to. My duty is to the crown, to the knights. And if I can use my family connections to help end the conflict between Asteroth and Ilanthus…'

He trailed off, clearly thinking about the enormity of that task.

She gazed up into his eyes. He tried to smile. ‘Do you think you can?'

‘I have to try, don't I? For both our sakes.'

There wasn't really anything she could say to that. The last time he had encountered his people, his own brother, he had almost died. They hated him. And she wasn't sure this wasn't a trap. But what could she say? ‘Stay safe. Don't forget me.'

He took her hand and pressed it against his chest. His skin was warm, and she could feel his heart thudding beneath the muscles there. ‘I could sooner forget myself, Wren. You know that. And it won't be for long. I'm not far. Just down at the city walls. You can see it from here. Look.'

He led her to the window which had a view down over the city rather than out over the sea. The walls were a circle of grey stone, thick and impregnable. She could see rooftops and market squares jumbled together as they spilled down the slope of the mountain. But at the bottom, where the ground levelled off, there were larger structures. Fortifications and defences. And among them, smaller versions of the keep in which they stood.

‘There,' Finn said, pointing. ‘See the towers on that one, three of them, tall and thin? With the golden spires?' She picked it out, the decorative stonework beautiful even from this distance. It was different from the stark buildings around it, more like the palace on the mountaintop. ‘That's where I'll be. You can watch me from here and I'll look for you.'

‘I will,' she told him, and pulled him into a kiss which she prayed would sear him into her memory forever. And her in his. She couldn't bear the thought of losing him. ‘Come back to me, Finn. Please.'

‘Always,' he murmured, and ran his lips down the line of her neck as he gathered her to him. ‘I swear that to you. Trust Anselm and Olivier and stay safe. And I will always find my way back to you, my love.'

She threaded her fingers with his, and drew him after her, back to her chambers.