“WE ARE MAKING SOME ENQUIRIES INTO who survived the purge,” Jade said, once they had returned to the inn and checked the wards. “We just have to be very careful.”
“Yeah,” Cat said. He sighed, heavily. “The Tower of Alexis is damn near impregnable.”
“There’s no such thing as an impregnable fortress,” Jade said, sharply. He sat down on the bed, looking tired. “What happened when you walked past the Tower?”
Cat glanced at Emily, then launched into a detailed description of everything they’d seen and sensed around the Tower. Emily watched Jade, more concerned than she wanted to admit. She had no idea what Jade had discussed with Mouse, and his other contacts, but she suspected that none of them could really help. Anyone with the sort of presence in court that might lead to them having useful information would be reluctant to risk it. Jade’s wife and unborn child were at stake. He had to be feeling frustrated–and helpless.
“We may be able to find a way to slip up to the rear gate, assuming it actually exists,” Cat finished. “We couldn’t get a proper look at it from the riverbank. But they’ll have made damn sure that no one can get any further without being stopped.”
Jade ground his teeth. “So you’re saying it’s pointless? That we might as well give up and walk away?”
“I’m saying that it will be very difficult to break into the Tower,” Cat said. His lips twitched, mischievously. “Unless you want to surrender and hope you get sent straight to the Tower yourself…”
Emily scowled at him. “Jade would be beheaded on the spot and you know it,” she reminded him. Jade almost seemed to be considering it. “He’s too dangerous for Randor to keep around.”
And his death would force Alassa to marry someone else, she added silently. Her father wouldn’t let her choose her second husband.
Jade stood and started to pace the room. “There has to be another option.”
“We were thinking about trying to dicker with whoever runs the Tower,” Cat said. “Do you know who does?”
“No,” Jade said. “The identity of the Tower Warden was always a secret. If Alassa knew, she never told me.”
Which makes sense, Emily thought. Randor wouldn’t want anyone to know who runs the Tower.
She considered a handful of possibilities for who ran the Tower, but none of them stood out above the rest. It wasn’t Alassa herself, although she held the Low and Middle Justice. Randor himself held the High Justice, which included treason against the crown. And he couldn’t take time out from being king to administer the Tower himself. Nightingale? Emily didn’t think Randor trusted him that far. Lord Burrows? No, he’d been sent away when he’d married Alicia. Whoever ran the Tower had to be someone who lived in the city.
It might even be someone of low rank, on the face of it, she thought. Paren hadn’t been the only commoner to be ennobled for great service to the crown. Sir Roger or someone along those lines…
She shook her head, reluctantly. They couldn’t start trying to bribe–or threaten–noblemen at random. If Jade didn’t know, the chances were good that very few other courtiers knew either. And everyone who did–the men under his command, perhaps–would probably have a binding on them to ensure the secret was kept. It would have to be someone the king trusted completely, or as much as he trusted anyone, but who?
“Then we’re stuck,” Cat said, quietly. “Unless you want to try a frontal attack…”
Jade glared. “Do you think that getting ourselves killed would help?”
Emily looked from one to the other, then sighed. “We need to identify the person in charge of the Tower. Or, at least, figure out who might know.”
“Nightingale,” Jade said. “That little”–he ground his teeth in frustration–“has his tongue so far up the king’s ass that he’s…”
“Thank you,” Emily said, quickly. She really didn’t care for the mental image. “If we can get our hands on him…”
“That might be hard,” Jade said. “He won’t want to leave the king’s side. There are a dozen other people just oozing around, hoping for a chance to take his place.”
“It’s a good place to start,” Emily said. She had few compunctions about kidnapping Nightingale and demanding answers. “And…we should move, perhaps somewhere close to the Tower. If we keep a list of who goes in and out, we might be able to figure out who’s in charge from that.”
“If we can get lodgings somewhere closer to the Tower,” Cat said. “You saw how tight security was. I’d expect questions to be asked of anyone who moves into the neighborhood.”
“Then we hire street urchins to watch the gates,” Jade said, brightening. “Or…”
He smiled, humorlessly. “What about Sir Xavier? The king’s hired spy?”
Emily frowned. She’d be astonished if Sir Xavier, the head of the Black Daggers, was also the Tower Warden. Randor wouldn’t want to put that much power in one man’s hands. She rather suspected the king had a plan to dispose of Sir Xavier in a hurry, if he had the slightest doubt of the man’s loyalty. He certainly wouldn’t want to lock the man up in a prison he’d formerly controlled. But Sir Xavier might know who was the Warden…
Warden, she thought, wryly. Does he punish naughty children too?
“We could try,” she said. “But he’s not going to be easy to catch.”
Jade’s face darkened. “He’s in the best position to know, short of the king himself,” he said sharply, still pacing the room. “And I’m pretty sure the king trusts him more than Nightingale.”
“He’s also a wily man who’s survived for years in a snake pit,” Emily countered. “He won’t be taken easily.”
“We need to either find a way into the Tower or put pressure on the king,” Cat said. “Are there no other options?”
Jade stopped, suddenly. “He has a son,” he said. “A bastard son, but still a son. We could kidnap the son and offer to trade…”
“No,” Emily said, without thinking. “We can’t kidnap a baby.”
Jade rounded on her. “A little brat the king happens to want!”
“And a baby who happens to be a bastard,” Cat said. “The kid isn’t an immediate threat to Randor’s power, Jade. Alassa, on the other hand, is. He’s not going to make the trade, even if we…even if we threaten to kill the kid.”
“Then what do we do?” Jade’s voice hardened. “Is there no other way?”
“We could try to replace a couple of the guards,” Cat said, slowly. “And then…”
“The wards would catch us, even if the other guards didn’t,” Jade said. “And we couldn’t take control of the wards without being inside the Tower already.”
“Randor might have a way to bring down the wards from the outside,” Emily mused. “He wouldn’t want the Warden turning the Tower into a private fortress.”
“It isn’t as if someone could use the Tower as a springboard to take the city,” Jade said. “And the key is probably configured to Randor personally. We’d have to capture him…”
“What if we did?” Cat leaned forward, excitedly. “Capture the king, then force a trade.”
Jade looked up, sharply. “It might work…”
Emily shook her head. “It wouldn’t. And it would put Alassa’s life at even greater risk.”
“Explain.” Jade’s eyes bored into hers, all the harder for the sudden lost hope. “Why can’t we capture the king?”
“First, Randor spends most of his time in the castle,” Emily said, reminding herself that Jade’s wife was in danger. She didn’t need to take his anger personally. “That castle is a heavily-warded fortress, with most of the inner wards keyed to Randor personally. I’d bet that whatever permissions he granted you and Alassa have been revoked by now. You wouldn’t be able to get into the castle without being caught.”