17. Leila

SEVENTEEN

LEILA

L eila rushed out into the courtyard of the castle, seeing her friend and colleague from the academy, Chaniel, ride through the gates flanked by Rehn's royal guards. Chaniel held herself with the dignity Leila would expect as her horse trotted toward the stables. She sat straight backed with a dark traveling cloak wrapped around her square shoulders and a cascade of auburn curls halfway down her back but Leila knew the woman too well. She saw the pinched expression on her face.

Chaniel never enjoyed riding. She'd have preferred a coach for travel, Leila knew, so she could read on the journey. Rehn needed a magic tracker quickly though, so poor Chaniel had to ride.

That pinched look on her face turned into a bright smile as Leila rushed closer. Chaniel waved before one of the royal guards assisted her off her mare. She dusted off her traveling cloak and shook her head before moving toward Leila.

"Leila, you are a sight for my travel-weary eyes," Chaniel said, pulling Leila into an embrace. "The Sorcerer's Academy is abuzz with rumors about you, my dear. All sorts of fanciful tales."

"I am happy you are here," Leila said, pulling back to look at her good friend, then she frowned. "Rumors? How many have you been spreading?"

Chaniel sucked in a breath, mouth and eyes wide with mock offense. As much as Leila liked the woman and enjoyed her company, if there was a rumor whispered in the academy, Chaniel either started it or knew who did. In either case, she adored spreading them more than most.

"You can't blame people for asking questions, can you?" Chaniel tilted her head, giving a slight smile. "The king of all people arrives at the academy and leaves soon after taking you with him, not even a good-bye to your old friend? And here you are in the castle, dressed like a lady. You even have a… bodyguard."

Leila smoothed the skirt of her dress. It wasn't fancy, not by the standards of the castle, but much closer to the simple woolen clothes common at the academy. One came there to study and research, not for fashion. Leila grinned but felt her cheeks burn. Yaldred stepped beside her and waved to Chaniel, her smile mischievous.

"I'm Yaldred, Lady Leila's handmaiden," she said.

"Handmaiden?" Chaniel's brows rose. "And here I discounted that rumor as just romantic claptrap."

"What rumor?" Leila braced for it.

"Why, that the king fell madly in love with you at first sight, whisking you away to marry you," Chaniel said.

Yaldred burst into a chuckle. Chaniel joined her while Leila stayed silent. What she and Rehn had been up to in the king's chambers were about the last things she'd share with her gossip-loving friend.

"I know, it is such a ridiculous rumor," Chaniel said when she recovered. "I have to assume you are here for the same reason as me, to aid the king."

"That's right. This case is very important to Re… I mean, the king," Leila replied.

The other woman's brows rose at her misstep. Claiming she'd been brought to help the investigation since Chaniel was here for the same purpose. Using the king's first name displayed a level of familiarity that would have the rumor mill at the academy buzzing about her even more than Chaniel certainly had them already.

"With your future sight, I could imagine you would be an asset to… the king's investigation." Chaniel hadn't missed her slip-up, all the more reason for Leila to watch her tongue and not allude to anything going on between her and Rehn.

Leila didn't want her to be a target of the conspiracy Chaniel came here to help investigate either. No reason to have that whispered about at the Sorcerer's Academy by the time Leila returned, if she ever got to return. Exciting as her time in the castle and especially with Rehn had been, she missed her old home, plain and simple as it was.

As if summoned by her thoughts, Rehn and Idris stepped out of the main keep's doors and started toward them. Chaniel dusted her travel cloak again and stood taller. She plastered on a smile, intent on impressing the king and his advisor. Rehn would see through such a fa?ade, Leila knew. His bear would sniff it out.

When Rehn neared, his impassive face cracked as he nodded to Leila. She felt her friend from the academy's eyes on her at that greeting and here she tried to stop the rumors. Idris stepped beside Yaldred, bumping her shoulder and getting a bump back. Rehn gave Chaniel a slight nod.

"You are the magic tracker, yes?" he said in lieu of greeting.

"Chaniel, Your Majesty." She curtsied, holding her travel cloak out to the side. "My specialty is in discerning magical signatures. I understand that is why you requested my help."

"Yes, exactly." Rehn nodded, then his eyes darted to the royal guard's tower. "Come. We should waste no time. I want you to read the scene of the prison break, then examine the artifacts I've collected from every sorcerer in the kingdom."

"I am at your command, Your Majesty." Chaniel flashed a wide smile, fluttering her eyelashes at Rehn.

Her flirting had Leila fighting a frown, but if Rehn noticed, he ignored it completely, turning on his heels and starting toward the Royal Guard's tower. Yaldred and Idris followed immediately. Leila waited for Chaniel to start.

"Maybe you're lucky the rumors are not true," Chaniel said with a shake of her shoulders. "He seems very gruff."

"He only wants to finish the investigation," Leila replied with another half-truth. Rehn wanted to protect her as well.

They hurried to catch up with Rehn and his small entourage. Two royal guards opened the double doors of the tower as the party reached the steps. As opulent as the main keep was, the guard tower favored a more practical appearance.

There was no art on the walls inside, simply a few sconces with hanging lamps. Simple wooden tables with none of the ornamentation or glossy varnish of the king and queen's chamber filled the main room with stairs going up along the curved wall of the tower with another moving down to the prison and dungeon below.

The magical artifacts Rehn and Idris had collected were spread over one of the tables. Every sorcerer preferred a different medium and style of tool. There were a couple small statues, covered in arcane script, river-polished stones, even a gem, multiple animal bones, one worked into the head of a short staff, and a few things Leila didn't recognize.

Rehn and Idris led them to the stairs going down. The main room of the guard tower seemed fancy compared to what lay below the ground level. The walls and floor were bare stone, with flickering torches replacing the lamps and belching dark smoke that hovered above their heads near the ceiling. Thick iron gates stood between the guard area and each cell. All stood open and empty at that moment.

"Drystan was in the third cell," Rehn said, pointing to that cell. "After the escape, we evacuated the other prisoners lower in the dungeon."

Chaniel stepped close to the open cell door. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, only for her nose to wrinkle. Leila agreed. The prison smelled of mold and rot, with the stink of men who had gone far too long between washes and lived in their own filth. She wondered how the shifters with their enhanced sense of smell could handle being in here at all.

With another deep breath, Chaniel stepped through the cell door. Her shoulders hitched and she froze, then turned around in a circle. She stepped outside, eyes opening before she nodded.

"I have the signature. It is strong. We should go back to the artifacts," Chaniel said.

On the ground floor with the artifacts, Chaniel walked around the table, eyes narrowed, with her hand hovering above each item. She slowed at one of the little statues, a roughly human-shaped hunk of clay with white chalk eyes, but moved on to the next. She passed several items, shaking her head, then slowed over the deer skull-topped staff, but again moved on soon after.

Her hand froze above a circle of wicker with an abstract web of twisting and turning branches cutting through the center. Moments ticked by as everyone watched her. Finally, her eyes opened wide and she picked up the wicker object.

"Here," she said, holding it out to Rehn, bowing. "This is the same signature I felt down below. Whoever made this was involved with the escape; their signature is all over the cell downstairs."

"Altair!" Rehn growled, sending Chaniel flinching.

He snatched the wicker charm and rushed for the door out of the tower with Idris on his heels. Leila let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. They knew who helped Drystan and who was behind the plot to change history. It was over.

"I know he is the king, but could he not thank me?" Chaniel said, staring at the doors Rehn and Idris left through, then her eyes turned to Leila. "Now that it is all over, are we to be travel partners back to the academy? Maybe the two of us could commandeer a coach."

Yaldred looked at Leila. At the center of attention from both an old friend and new, Leila felt put on the spot all of a sudden. The weight that left her shoulders knowing who was behind the plot came right back.

"My reasons for coming here seem to be concluded," Leila said, earning a smile from Chaniel but knitted brows from Yaldred.

"In that case, I'll go looking for a coach." Chaniel left the royal guard house.

"Are you really planning on leaving?" Yaldred asked once they were alone. "Don't you want to stay?"

"I accepted Rehn's pledge of protection until we uncovered who was involved with the madman who wanted me to change history," Leila replied. "I always planned on going back to my life after."

All that was true, but even saying it, a part of Leila wanted to stay. If Yaldred had a response, she kept it to a deep frown.