Chapter 108

Arik

Of course the Raven was involved in all of this. You plucked one strand of his spiderweb and the old bastard would come scuttling out. The question was why, I thought as we followed Weasel through tunnels that had obviously been dug under the city.

The first time I met the Raven of Khean was just after I'd worn the crown of antlers. He'd appeared in my room in the Fallspire manor, the sudden glow from his lamp forcing my eyes to flick open. The prick had smiled at the sight of my bleary-eyed surprise, only widening when I grabbed the bedcovers and wrenched them up and over Ariel.

"So you're the one they seek to make king." He peered at me like my tutors did, each one's nose pinching, their eyes containing all of the disdain they dared not give voice to, though the Raven's focus was much more avaricious. "I thought for certain I was going to have to intervene before Magnus took the throne, make the king aware of his lady wife's… indiscretions."

"Who the hell are you!" That initially came out as a shout, but Ariel shifting restlessly against me forced my voice into a whisper. The duke had approved of our marriage, but he would not have looked kindly on me taking these kinds of liberties. "How the hell did you get into my bedchamber?"

"I go wherever the hell I like, lad, and you best remember that." His eyes slid to Ariel's bare shoulder, the hunger there forcing me to growl at him. "And as for who I am? I'm the Raven of Khean."

"My father…"

I whispered that, aware that the king slept in the room next door. He'd made clear to me what role the Raven played within Khean. In some countries, the Guild was a highly disruptive force, the thieves that joined it pooling their resources to steal from the populace, stymying all attempts by the law to stop them. In others, like Khean, the Raven was received at the king's table, just not in polite company, because he ran the most extensive information gathering network in the country. My father's own spymaster was forced to go cap in hand to buy from the Raven regularly.

"Knows exactly what I am," the Raven confirmed. "He'd have to be an idiot to think I wouldn't approach you. I did the same to him when I was but a lad myself, just raised to the role of Raven. Thought the two of us could've ruled side by side, I did, him on the Emerald Throne, me on the much less grand one I have in my office, but…" His lips thinned. "Your father seemed to think that it wouldn't be a good idea." His eyes narrowed as he stared at Ariel, so my arm tightened around her. "You might want to listen to me if you want to hold on to that pretty little lady of yours."

"I will never deal with the thieves' guild!" I snapped, that zeal the first casualty in the war that raged between myself and Magnus.

"Pity." He tossed a bunch of letters tied together with string onto my bed. Ariel's leg shifted restlessly at that. "That there is enough information to confirm that your brother is not the true-born son of your father."

"A bastard…" I'd stared at the letters like they were a handful of precious diamonds, my fingers itching to snatch them up.

"Pretty funny, isn't it? That he'd call you that all this time, but he's the one that's a result of a mother who can't keep her legs closed. But…" My eyes found his. "If your father warned you about me, he'd have told you all of my information comes at a price."

I lunged for the letters, leaving Ariel to flop down on the bed, snuffling and burying her face back in the pillow, but before I could get close, the Raven had the letters back in his hands.

"What price?" I hissed. "What do you want? Gold, gemstones—"

"Nothing as precious as that." His tone took on the wheedling one of a stallholder at the markets. "In a lot of ways my price will help you."

Beware the man bearing gifts, my father had told me. They expect to be paid in a coin you might not wish to part with.

"Help me?" My jaw locked tight. "Perhaps you could start by leaving my room."

"I can…" The Raven unfolded, growing taller and taller by the second. "But the letters come with me."

I looked down at Ariel, her face a perfect picture of tranquillity and was struck by the importance of those letters. If I got possession of them, if my father brought charges of infidelity against the queen, then… No war would need to be fought. All of the aggressive conversations lords were having in the Duke's war room to support my ascension to the throne would stop. The queen would face charges, Magnus would be removed from court, sent back to his mother's family perhaps. The way would be clear and most importantly, I would be freed of Magnus' poisonous influence.

"What's your price?" I asked.

"Just advice," he replied with a smile.

"What advice could I possibly give you?"

"None." His smile grew wider. "It's how I could help you, young prince. A word in your ear here, some information about which courtiers you can trust there. It would all be for your benefit."

"My benefit?" My eyebrows shot up. "How would it be beneficial to me to allow you to make me your puppet?"

"Saw that, did you?" The Raven chuckled. "So perhaps you're not as empty headed as that idiot who claims to be your brother. Well, think on it, lad, because I'm not here by accident. Prince Magnus gave me good money to come and… retrieve your lady. I went to her room, ready to drug her and whisk Lady Ariel away, only to find her here."

"Ariel…" I said her name then as reality reasserted itself, revealing one of the Raven's tunnels under the city, I saw her.

Standing near a burning torch set into the wall, the red flames turned her dark hair to burgundy, her blue eyes to purple, it wasn't the change in her colouring that disturbed me, but the fact the sight of her had my mind churning. I had to wonder then what would've happened to her if I'd made that deal with the Raven. Would I be sitting on the throne, years into my reign? Would Ariel sit by my side as queen? A sad smile curled her lips, and she turned then, waving for me to follow her. My feet moved of their own accord, heading towards a tunnel that branched off from the main one, something that had everyone stopping and staring after me.

"Not that way." Weasel's smile, his reaction was a little twitchy, just like the animal he was named for. "That'll take you straight to the palace." His words washed over me, the meaning barely taken in as I took another step, then another. Ariel turned to look over her shoulder at me impatiently. "The Raven said to take you to his office."

"But he's not there waiting for us," Silas said, his eyes flicking from me to Weasel and back again. "And for some reason you really don't want us going to the palace. Must mean my father has business there. Business he doesn't want us messing with."

"I'm not taking you to the bloody palace," Weasel said, taking a step backwards.

"That's fine," I said, my eyes locking with Ariel's. I grabbed a lit torch from the walls and used it to set the one in this tunnel alight. The flickering flames did little to dispel the darkness though, the passageway dark as a wolf's throat. "I know where to go."

"You do?" Roan appeared by my shoulder. "You've been this way before?"

"No, but…"

I didn't bother to finish that sentence because Ariel walked deeper into the tunnel and for some reason I couldn't bear to let her out of my sight. That made no sense. Every other time I saw her had resulted in me bearing witness to her death, over and over again, but it wasn't that I saw right now. Just darkness, more darkness, as I pulled the torch from the wall and followed after her.

But it became clear we weren't the only ones in the tunnel.

When Tiana stepped out from the shadows every part of me stiffened. My feet stumbled, then stopped at the sight of her. Those keen grey eyes, that raven dark hair, that I remembered, but not that imperious look.

"So you're finally doing something about your brother?" The princess sneered that last word. "After all of these years…" She nodded slowly. "Of course, not when I needed you." Then her hand slapped down on her neck, that regal expression shattering as I saw something very familiar. Her fighting to breathe, her hands clawing at her throat. My feet moved faster, the sounds of her frantic breaths, her thin whimpers filling the space until Silas interrupted her death rattles.

"You think my father is at the palace?"

"You don't know?" Roan looked him up and down. "Aren't you supposed to be his heir?"

"The man shot his seed into the woman that bore me," Silas replied, his lips thinning. "Apart from that, I know little more than anyone else, but…" He looked me over, those keen eyes catching the moment I flinched when Princess Rochelle appeared beside me. "A potential transfer of power? The palace is a good place to look for him, because he would have his fingers in this pie."

"Aren't you lucky that your little princess passed the inspection?" Rochelle said, baring her teeth at me. In reality, she'd been a picture of reserved dignity, but death had stripped her of that. "I had my skirts flipped and I was inspected like a horse at market day and then found lacking. I'd never touched another man." Her look of disgust intensified. "I'd never wanted to until your ‘brother' decided I'd make him the perfect wife, because my kingdom was too small, too powerless to strike back at him when he was done with me. I didn't even get a chance to become queen…'

She stared off at some point beyond me, growing taller by the second, seeing something that I didn't.

"I didn't get a chance to do anything. I went from the doctor's rooms straight to the executioner's axe, right before he—"

Her words were cut off as her whole body stiffened, then I watched her head drop from her shoulders.

"At least her death was quick." I turned to see Princess Helena standing there, staring down at the other ghost with pursed lips. She was the second, no, the third princess we escorted here. "He was at me for days."

I knew this. I knew exactly what had happened to her. People couldn't stop talking about it in the palace. In an environment hardened to his cruelty, the length and breadth of Magnus' abuse of Helena was notable.

"He and that bitch, Giselle. She egged him on, then held him off, stopping him from finishing things—" she said, the bitterness in her voice like lemon juice being squeezed over a thousand cuts.

"I know," I muttered.

"They gave me a temporary reprieve, made me think there was a way out of this—"

I raked my hand over my face, scrubbing at my eyes as if that would dispel the sight of so many bruises splotching her skin. It didn't.

"I know," I said again, dimly aware that the others were staring at me.

"He sent you away on ‘business' once you delivered me and you went." Helena moved to stand before me, but I kept moving, just like I had when she lived. "You left the castle. You left me."

I walked through her then, because she wasn't actually here. If there was any way to save her spirit from this prolonged pain, I would've done it gladly. Found where her body was dumped and laid her to rest on her home soil. Atone for my brother's sins.

And mine.

As I walked on I saw more ghosts, more, some of women I didn't even know, but the same look in their eyes, the same pattern of bruises on their skins created bonds of kinship between them.

"Brother…" Silas said, his touch bringing me back to the tunnel, the smell of dank earth and water that had pooled in the same spot for too long filling my nose as I sucked in one breath after the other. "Who are you talking to?" He cast a wary eye around the empty tunnel. "What're you seeing?"

"The past…" That admission felt like it was torn from me. "The future." But as I looked up I saw the wooden trapdoor inset into the ceiling a few feet in front of us, a rope ladder leading up to it. "But most importantly the present. What's the bet that trapdoor will bring us behind the palace gates?"

"Before them, I reckon," Silas corrected. "Father wouldn't be giving the likes of Weasel access to tunnels that got him into the palace itself."

"That means we're likely to run into those lads that say they protect the king." Roan drew his sword with a smile.

We knew exactly what those ‘lads' were like, because once we were pulled from the army, we were placed among their number. Cruel, venal, they wouldn't just turn a blind eye to whatever the king got up to with his women. No, these bastards discussed his exploits with relish. Magnus had to have scoured every cesspool, every stew to find a group of men as vicious as them.

And as poorly trained.

They faced few obstacles in the palace, their presence more as decorative displays of the king's strength. They stood around and looked impressive, that's what they did. Our attempts to stay sharp, to keep training every day was marked by derision and hilarity, right up until I challenged one of their number on the practice ground. Putting each contender on their arse didn't establish anything other than resentment though. My hand gripped my sword hilt and when I looked back, I imagined I could see the shadowy shapes of all of Magnus' victims standing in the darkness. Perhaps that lax attitude could be used against the king's guard now.

A thin howl filtered through the tunnels, the sound muffled, but clear with his intent.

"That's Creed!" Silas threw himself at the rope ladder, clambering up as quick as a monkey before thrusting the trapdoor open, revealing one of the garden beds set just outside the palace gates. "If he's here—"

"Where is Jessalyn?" My teeth ground against each other, dismissing ghosts, the past, everything, in favour of now. "Not in the palace. She is not in the palace. She can't be—"

"Only one way to find out," Roan said, pulling himself up the ladder and after Silas.