freeing Darkhorse, then she had struck a heavy blow against his plans, whatever they were.
The soldiers had backed away from their master, obviously more familiar with his violent temper. He eyed them ferociously, knowing that someone had discovered the escape earlier but had been afraid to alert him, then sneered at his captive. One hand darted toward Erini’s face, causing her to flinch. It stopped short of striking, instead seeming to caress her bruised chin. When his hand came away, there were drops of red on two of the fingers. For the first time, the princess tasted the blood on her lower lip.
Quorin took a deep breath. “You were an unexpected impediment! Melicard to have a queen? What sane creature would want that pathetic fool? You should’ve been well on your way back to Gordag-Ai within a day of meeting him, but no, you chose to play the heroine in one of your fainthearted ladies’ tales, the woman who would rescue the enchanted king! This is what it gets you!” He held up the hand with the blood on it so that the stained fingers were directly before her eyes. “Even knowing that he would dare to summon up a demon, a fiend that might have killed hundreds of innocents if it got out of control, you convinced yourself that you loved him!”
Erini simply stared back. She knew Quorin’s words for the twisted lies they were, however, and finally could no longer hold back. “And who was it who first suggested he seek out demons? Drayfitt would have never suggested such a dangerous, mad spell!”
“Drayfitt.” Mal Quorin took hold of Erini’s arm again and wiped the blood onto her sleeve. She did not give him the satisfaction of struggling, no matter how disgusted she had become with his true manner. Her abilities had failed her for reasons she could not fathom, but the princess had survived without them all of her life and would continue to do so, despite the odds. “What did he tell you? It doesn’t matter now, princess, because that old charlatan is dead. Poisoned, I’d think.”
Erini did not respond, and simply clamped her mouth shut, continuing to glare.
“Perhaps later,” Quorin continued. He was slowly growing calm again, as if the discovery of Darkhorse’s escape and Erini’s questionable involvement did not really matter. “Perhaps later, when the last few items have been taken care of, we’ll speak again. Your presence initially threw everything into chaos, but you may prove to be the key to adding Gordag-Ai to our winnings without so much as a struggle.”
Responding to some silent signal, two of the guards took hold of Erini by her arms. She finally gave up all sense of caution. “You’ve overstepped yourself! Melicard will not stand for this! Your influence over him is nothing now! He’ll-”
He gave her a genuinely puzzled look. “Princess Erini! Do you mean to tell me that you, an intelligent if somewhat troublesome female, can’t understand what’s happening? Do I sound as if I care what your crippled lover does to me?” Quorin smiled as he watched Erini’s belated reaction. “This is a coup, your majesty. Tonight, Talak will be without a king for the first time in centuries. Fortunately, the rightful one is on his way even now… and the gates will be open in greeting. Remove her from my sight but try not to damage her.”
As she was dragged past him, Erini struck out at the counselor with the full force of her will, not caring what the results might do to her or even the palace, if it came down to it. The sole response to her efforts was a sudden movement of one of Quorin’s hands to his chest, where he seemed to be reassuring himself that something still hung around his neck. He stared at the princess intently, his expression a mixed one of doubt and curiosity, until the twisting stairway took her out of sight. Erini wondered if he knew now what she was-and what that would mean to her eventual fate.
Melicard! Even though the evidence was all there, she could not bring herself to fully believe that the counselor’s minions had taken over the palace so swiftly and silently. She had retired for the night only a few hours ago! Yet, Mal Quorin had had years to plan for this, slowly insinuating himself into the hierarchy of Talak, becoming the fellow crusader obsessed with the same goals as his master. The longer she dwelled upon it, the more the truth of those final words became evident. Probably more than three-quarters of the palace guard obeyed the advisor’s commands. Melicard-Melicard had likely been cut down while he slept, a victim of the very men he had thought were protecting him.
Drained, Erini made no effort to free herself as she and her two companions reached the top of the stairway again and exited into the garden. The nearly starless night seemed a fitting symbol of the twilight of Melicard’s rule. He had not needed her worthless curse to tear him down; his own obsession had done that.
Why her skills had suddenly abandoned her, she could not say, but, even if it had cost her his love, Erini would have utilized those abilities however possible to save his kingdom and his throne.
Her mind was numb and so she did not struggle as they passed through the garden and into one of the adjoining halls. Erini had never been through this area, but that made little difference to her now. All she wanted was to find some quiet place where she could bury herself in the darkness and not come out again.
Evidence of the coup mounted as they marched through the palace. Armed figures prodding men wearing the same uniforms, that of the palace guard, walked past them in the opposite direction. Erini rose from her stupor long enough to watch the unfortunates as they were herded away, wondering in the back of her mind where she was being taken, since it was safe to assume that the other prisoners were going to cells. Perhaps, Quorin had a separate area for prisoners of royal blood. Perhaps, Melicard’s body would even be there.
They had gone through a number of unlit corridors, left darkened apparently because there were far more important things to attend to than lighting torches, and so neither Erini nor her captors paid any attention to the latest one. The two soldiers muttered to one another, but not loud enough for her to understand. By this time, they were leading her more or less as a puppet master might lead a marionette. Thus it was that she was totally caught unaware-as were her guides-when hands reached out from the walls and caught the soldiers by the necks.
Erini fell to the ground, bruising her shoulder but succeeding in preventing her head from striking the hard surface. She looked up and tried to make out more clearly what was happening. What little she could see left her completely baffled and even more frightened.
The hands had been joined by partial bodies. A darkly clad figure, consisting of the upper half of a man’s form and one lone foot that seemed to hop by itself, had one victim down on his knees. The other attacker, no more than a head and two arms, was slowly dragging the other hapless soldier backwards. Both newcomers were using something akin to wire or string to choke their victims. With their windpipes expertly cut off, neither guard could even gasp loudly, much less summon help.
It was over in less than a minute. When both victims lay limply on the floor, one of the dark figures moved toward the princess. The other began removing evidence of the attack-that is, the bodies.
“Your majesty! I give thanks that we found you!” The man’s voice was only a faint whisper, but Erini still recognized the tones of one of her own people. Were there sorcerers among her own subjects?
As if reading her thoughts, her rescuer pulled off the hood obscuring his features. In the darkness, she could only make out a soldier perhaps ten years older than she was with a face that only now, as her savior, could possibly have been termed handsome. “Don’t be frightened, Princess Erini, of either what we did-or what I look like without a mask.” The attempt at levity failed. “If you could please see to rising, my lady, we’d like very much to lead you to somewhere safer.”
“Safer?”
He nodded. “Captain Iston holds a portion of the palace; he’s been planning for this for days, ever since the rumors were first reported by our network here.”
“Network? Days?” Reality was returning with less than savory surprises. “What do you m-?”
“Please!” he hissed. “When you’re safe, your majesty, the captain will answer all your questions!”
The other man joined them. He was younger, almost as young as Erini and only a little taller. It amazed her to think that he had taken on a veteran more than a third again his size.
“We’ve gotta move! There’s another batch comin’ this way!”
“Please, your majesty?”
Too many men had died because of her already and the princess would not allow these men to become the next ones. Rising in one swift motion, she gave her hand to the first man, who immediately led them down the corridor in the same direction the guards had been taking her. At the first intersection between halls, however, they turned left. The sound of marching feet echoed for a time, then drifted away as the patrol the second man had noticed apparently turned in a different direction than the trio had gone.
As they moved, Erini caught a glimpse of the cloaks the two men were wearing. At first, they seemed incongruous, serving no apparent purpose, but then she noticed that, depending on how the cloaks twisted, her rescuers seemed to fade-no, not fade, but blend into their surroundings. The cloaks somehow cast some sort of illusion. Erini had heard tales of such things, though she had never seen anything like them before.
