“But if we fix it—”
“Then there will be rumors of other flaws, problems not yet discovered, incompetence! The remaining Bastians no doubt have people here at court ready to spread distrust like wildfire. With our guard depleted, they are just waiting for the right circumstances to try once again to retake the throne. And it will not be my son who gives them their chance! Unless he has decided to take his rightful place in the guards’ command? In that case, I will call the Masters of Light and discuss this matter with them right now.”
Carys remembered how her brother struggled before shaking his head and saying, “I promise I will not speak of this again, my king.”
“Andreus,” she said, looking at the way he now refused to meet her eyes. “You didn’t tell anyone about the flaw you found. Did you?” When he didn’t answer, she grabbed his arm and dug in her fingers. “Andreus. Look at me. Did you tell someone when the King ordered you not to?”
“Not exactly.”
“Andreus!” Carys looked around and spotted not only apprentices and Masters of Light but also members of the court and guard walking the battlements. People who had been doused in darkness were now looking to satisfy their curiosity about what had happened.
The sound of the windmills masked a lot, but now that the wind had died down, there was far less to conceal a conversation being had out in the open. “Come with me.”
Making it look as though she was trying to get out of the way of the workers, Carys pulled Andreus closer to the base of the nearest tower so they stood directly beneath a massive windmill. The noise of gears and pulsing blades was loudest there, and they could still be seen. Hiding secrets in plain sight was one of the first skills Carys had learned growing up at court.
With her back to the wall and her eyes watching for those who would listen, she asked, “Tell me. How do you not exactly tell someone something?”
“I have done nothing.” Andreus pulled his arm out of her grasp. “This is not my fault.”
Which meant that he believed it was. She knew her brother. She could see the lie in his eyes.
“Dreus. There are a lot of things that aren’t our fault, but we still have to deal with them.” If he hadn’t learned that by now, they were in bigger trouble than she suspected. “Since you didn’t exactly tell someone about the flaw, what exactly did you say?”
He took a deep breath and gazed down upon the city below. “I—I asked questions. I knew they would lead to the Masters finding the flaw on their own. Technically, I didn’t disobey His Majesty’s command.”
“Since when does Father care about technicalities?”
“Look, there was a serious problem. I wanted to help fix it. Isn’t that what the royal family is charged to do? Aren’t we supposed to see to the safety and well-being of the people we rule?” Andreus didn’t wait for her to answer. “I thought if the Masters of Light could make the discovery on their own and bring the matter to the Council of Elders, it would look like any other action they requested permission to approve. And if they are doing a bunch of other minor improvements to prepare for winter, no one would have reason to whisper about design flaws. It’s why I pushed them to run a test of the new wire I had created today.”
“Today.” She tried to remember the details of her brother’s latest design. Something about a new wire that was somehow better at transporting wind power. “I thought the Masters were going to wait until the King returned from the battlefields before testing your design.”
“They were, but when Father sent a messenger saying he and Micah were delayed, Master Triden decided we should do a trial run. That way, we would be ready to make the changes to the system as soon as Father and the Council agreed.”
The Council.
Out of the corner of her eye Carys spotted the distinctive blue cloak with a deep purple V on the other end of the battlements. The V stood for virtue, and strength was the virtue represented by the District of Bisog. She didn’t have to see the iron claw or the pointed white beard to know it was Chief Elder Cestrum there, questioning one of the Masters.
The Council. What could they be about in all of this?
Andreus put a hand on her arm. He smiled and said, “Look, if this was the court we were talking about, maybe I would wonder about it. But this is Master Triden and the Order of Light. They don’t care about intrigue and deception. Their only concern is for the approaching cold months and making sure the lights don’t fail us when we need them most.”
“But there are others who work with the Masters,” Carys argued. “Blacksmiths and weavers and dozens of apprentices, and not all of them are raised to the gray robes. Those people might want something.”
Because everyone wanted something, and when someone coveted a thing enough, rarely did they question the price.
“I think the dark dreams you’ve been having are making you look for danger. The lights are working now. Things will be fine, Carys.” Her brother tried to reassure her as Elder Ulrich and his red cape with black hearts sewn onto the shoulders—hearts to represent the charity of District Derio—appeared in the tower doorway to their right. His hairless scalp almost glowed against the dark and his one good eye turned toward Carys and Andreus. A moment later, Elder Jacobs, who despite his quiet, unassuming voice never quite seemed as humble as he wished people to believe, appeared beside him—his long, dark, braided hair whipping in the wind.
She thought about the outage of the lights and Andreus’s test and what Larkin said about the lack of power below, and tried to see three steps ahead on the chessboard.
Andreus thought she was looking for connections because of the dreams she couldn’t remember, dreams that had left her feeling so unsettled the past few months. Maybe he was right, but Carys doubted it. Someone was playing a game. The question was who, and which piece in this game were they taking aim at? Andreus? Their father? Or was it someone else?
Taking his arm again, she asked quietly, “Was your test today successful?”
Andreus grinned, transforming his handsome features into those of the boy she used to play hide-and-go-seek with. “It was. The Masters are going to watch the gauges, and if everything continues to go well, they’ll replace the wire in the lines starting next week. And while they do that, they can fix the design flaw that has now been discovered and clearly leaves us vulnerable.”
Carys frowned. “Father is going to think you set him up. He’s going to believe you defied him, made him look weak, and are attempting to gain power for yourself.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Andreus said. Although she could see by the way her brother’s eyes narrowed that he realized it might not be. “You know I can’t afford to draw attention to myself.”