The Eagle And The Nightingales

arrived at Court. If Theovere dies, you'll die_and if he simply remains in a coma, you'll die anyway. Someone has decided that you two are the obstacles that need to be removed for the Advisors to have a free hand again.'

Nightingale dropped the paper at her feet. 'That doesn't matter,' she said steadily, and glanced over at T'fyrr.

I was wrong to discount Theovere. He can be reached; he was nearly his old self before they struck him down. We must help him, for his own sake, and for the sake of all those who are depending on us.

His heart swelled with pride and love for her. 'She is right,' he agreed. 'It does not matter. Our enemies are counting on our cowardice. We must teach them better. And_' He hesitated for a moment, as the last of his anger with Theovere washed away. 'And the High King needs us,' he concluded. 'If we desert him_we are no better than they. Perhaps, we are worse. We will try, for nonhumans and humans alike.'

Harperus wordlessly stood aside, and the two of them walked out of the tiring room, through the Chapel and out into the street.

High King Theovere needs us, and he is the Twenty Kingdoms, for better or worse. With luck on our side_

_perhaps we can make it, 'for better.'

Nightingale settled at the High King's side, next to T'fyrr. The Haspur looked very odd, with patches of down- feathers showing where coverts had been taken, with his wings denuded, with reddened, visible scars and with not even a stump of a tail.

No one could deny his dignity, however, a dignity that transcended such imperfections.

That dignity had gotten them past the Bodyguards to the Captain, and from there to the one person T'fyrr thought might still back them: the Seneschal. The Captain and the Lord Seneschal had been skeptical of their claims to be able to reach Theovere by music_but they were also no friends of the King's Physician. The Seneschal simply didn't trust someone who was often in and out of the suites of the other Advisors. The Captain just didn't trust him, period. It was his opinion that there had been too much talk of purgings and bleedings, and not enough of things that would strengthen rather than weaken a patient.

So the Captain of the King's Bodyguard chose a time when the Advisors were all huddled together in Council, threw out the Physician and smuggled them in.

'Now what?' T'fyrr asked her as she surveyed Theovere's bed. Theovere was in it, somewhere in the middle, hardly visible for all the pillows and feather comforters piled atop him, and lost in the vast expanse of it. The bed itself was big enough to sleep three Gypsy families and still have room for the dogs. 'Do we need to have physical contact with him?'

'I don't think so,' she replied as the Captain moved a little in silent protest to that suggestion. He might not trust the Physician, but he also made no bones about the fact that his trust for them was very limited. 'No, there's nothing we can do with a physical contact that we can't do without it.'

She turned to the Captain, then, as something occurred to her. 'You were there when he collapsed, weren't you?'

The beefy man nodded, face red with chagrin and anger at himself. 'And why I didn't think_'

'You're not at fault,' she interrupted gently. 'There should have been no way for a note to get to the King that hadn't been checked for problems first. Unless_'

He looked sharply at her. 'Unless?'

'Unless that note was put on the tray by one of the King's Advisors and had the seal of the Council on it,' she said, and got the satisfaction of seeing his eyes narrow with speculation. 'Now, I know if I were an Advisor to the High King, knowing that the King wasn't getting any younger, and suspecting that a successor might be named soon who would want his own Advisors in place...' She let her voice trail off and raised an eyebrow significantly.

The Captain nodded, his face as impassive as a stone wall, but his eyes bright with anger. 'I take your meaning, and its one I hadn't thought of.'

Nightingale shrugged, pleased that she had planted her seed in fertile ground. But the Captain was not yet finished.

'Lady, I_' She sensed him groping for words through a fog of grief, though there was no outward sign of that grief on his features. 'I served Theovere all my life. I've seen him at his best, and at his worst, and_'