Rune said, “You think the killer was Chancellor Aubrey.”
“I don’t want to think that,” she said. Her voice sounded small, and as cold as the rest of her had become. “But suspecting him without proof would have been more than enough reason to keep Arethusa quiet.” She tilted back her head to look up at Tiago. “What do you think?”
His hard-edged face was quietly savage as he looked at the pain in her face.
Aubrey had said to Niniane, If I had known you were alive, I would never have stopped searching for you. It had felt like the truth. What if the reasons behind the statement were much less benign than what Aubrey had inferred? Had he ever unequivocally refuted his distant connection to the throne?
Upon reflection, Tiago thought not. It disturbed him, especially considering how Aubrey was already centrally positioned in the Dark Fae government and secure in his allies and relationships. Now one of the major Dark Fae power brokers was dead, the checks-and-balance system built into their triad disrupted, and their army leaderless.
He kissed Niniane with lingering tenderness. Then he said, “I think we should get to Adriyel as fast as we can.”
NINETEEN
Change of plans.
They could not take Aubrey into custody without proof, not with so many highly placed witnesses present, and they could not allow him to reconnect with his power base in Adriyel and possibly gain control of the army. The same applied to Kellen. Without proof, they could not conclusively clear Kellen of suspicion. For all they knew, Aubrey and Kellen might have struck up an alliance and were now working together. Niniane had to leave, and quickly, but she also had to travel in the right way. If it were a simple matter of who reached Adriyel first, Tiago, Rune and Aryal could shift into their Wyr forms and carry her to Adriyel in a matter of hours, not days. But she could not be seen to take power through the Wyr.
She said to Tiago, “The troops need to go with us.”
“Agreed,” Tiago said. “Yesterday Arethusa told me the trip would take the group three days from this point forward. We had an easy day, so our horses are still fresh. If we travel light and push it, we can make Adriyel in a day, maybe a day and a half.” He looked at Rune and Aryal. “You need to stay behind and monitor what everyone does when we leave.”
Aryal stretched and sat up. “Should be interesting.”
Cameron pushed through the hangings, shoes in one hand, scabbard in the other, her hair tousled and face creased. She said in a sleep-gravelly voice, “What about me?”
“You come up with us,” Tiago said.
Cameron nodded. She looked unsurprised. She slanted a grin at Niniane and said, “My sore ass can’t wait.”
Niniane snorted. “Mine either.”
Tiago passed a hand over Niniane’s hair. “Do you need to sleep for an hour or two before we leave?”
She shook her head. “I rested and ate. I’ll live.”
“Right. Here’s packing made easy for you. It’ll be a food, water and weapons kind of trip.” He stood and set her gently on her feet. “I’ll go muster the troops and get our horses saddled. Plan to leave in half an hour. Less if I can manage it.”
“Okay.” She watched him leave then she looked at Cameron. “That gives you time to eat something.”
Cameron looked around at the empty cooler and array of empty containers. Her eyebrows rose.
Niniane picked up her plate of food and handed it to the other woman. “I just nibbled around the edges. Mr. Incredible served me enough food to last a week. Finish that while I make us some coffee.”
“You’re the coolest princess I’ve ever met,” Cameron said.
She filled a metal pot with water and set it on the brazier to boil. Then Rune and Aryal took their leave to wash and change into clean clothes and, as Rune said, prepare for mass consternation and misbehavior. They each gave Niniane a hard hug. “See you at the other end,” said Rune.
“Be careful,” she told him.
“You too, pip-squeak.” He smiled and touched her nose.
When it was her turn to say good-bye, Aryal said, “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Niniane opened and closed her mouth. She said, “I have no idea how to respond to that.”
“Yeah, well.” Aryal’s hug lifted her off her feet. Then the harpy followed Rune out.
The water in the pot boiled. She set about the comforting, familiar routine of making coffee while Cameron ate everything left on the plate. Niniane tried to drink her coffee but it was too hot. She had a sense of time flashing by too fast as it raced toward an inevitable, deadly foreign place, like a curtain of water that spilled over a waterfall to shatter on jagged rocks. Her hands shook as she added cold water from a canteen to the steaming brew so she could drink the contents down.
Cameron did the same with her coffee. As the other woman drained her cup, Durin said from outside the tent, “Your highness.”
“Come in, Durin,” she said.