The Eagle And The Nightingales

The Bodyguards shoved the interlopers rudely away from the bed, and she realized that there weren't a hundred people; there weren't even twenty. Only the Advisors, and who had told them what was going on? Most of them seemed to be shouting at the Captain and the Seneschal, both of whom were shouting back.

Her eyes blurred again, and she slid a little sideways, into the comforting embrace of T'fyrr. 'What happened?' she asked.

'I'm not sure.' He held her closely, his own arms trembling with fatigue. 'You did something, and made the shadow go away, then we sang Theovere back, like the Elves said to do_he woke up and spoke, and then all the Advisors began pouring in. I'm not sure how they found out that we were doing anything here.'

'It's a good thing they didn't get in until we were done,' she said, a bit grimly, as Theovere gained enough strength from somewhere to outshout all of them.

'Silence!' he bellowed. 'Enough!'

The babble ceased, and he glared at all of them. 'We have,' he said, clearly and succinctly, his eyes shining with dangerous anger, 'a traitor among us. The note that held the_call it a curse_that felled me was sealed with the Council Seal.'

Out of the corner of her eye, Nightingale saw the Captain of the Bodyguards go momentarily limp with relief.

But she saw something else as well.

Heading up a contingent of his own private guards and standing at the back of the room was someone who looked oddly familiar to her.

'Who is that?' she whispered to T'fyrr, under the sound of the King's furious but controlled questioning of his guards and his Advisors. 'He looks familiar somehow.'

He glanced in the direction she was looking. 'That's Lord Atrovel,' he said. 'But you can't have seen him before; he never leaves the Palace, and you never encountered any of the other Advisors except the Lord Seneschal.'

Just at that moment, the odd little man moved into a wash of shadow that darkened his hair. She saved herself from gaping at him only by a strong effort of will.

She had seen this 'Lord Atrovel' before_but not here.

In Freehold. And 'he' had been_

Violetta. That's Violetta_one of the Great Lords of State_and the biggest gossip in Freehold. Someone who was in a position to know everything that was going on in the King's Chambers, in his private correspondence and in Freehold_

And who had the knowledge and the means to sabotage all of it.

And I'll bet he wasn't leading those guards here to protect us if we failed to bring back the King!

'T'fyrr_' she whispered, clutching his hand and turning her head into his feathers to make certain her voice didn't go any further. 'Put long black hair on Lord Atrovel and tell me what you get.'

She knew by the tension in his muscles that he had seen the same thing that she had. 'Violetta_' he whispered.

Then he stood up abruptly, and she scrambled out of his way. She had never seen him like this before_but she had seen a hawk about to attack an enemy.

'Violetta!' he roared.

Lord Atrovel started_but so did all the other Great Lords. But none of the others had that look of panic in their eyes_and none of the others had been making his leisurely way toward the door as the King continued to question his Advisors.

T'fyrr launched himself at Lord Atrovel in a fury, and Nightingale was only a second or so behind him. Lord Atrovel's guards scattered, but the King's Bodyguards came pouring in from the room beyond, alerted by T'fyrr's scream of anger.

T'fyrr reached the traitor first.

He seized the little man in his talons and picked him up bodily. His beak was parted in fury, his eyes dilated, and all Nightingale felt from him was a flood of red rage_