The Eagle And The Nightingales

chattering, and all of them upset. People of all stations were standing together in tight little groups, rigid with apprehension, or rushing about_apparently with no clear destination in mind. Pages ran hither and yon on urgent errands, their eyes wide and faces pale. All that Nightingale could pick up was fear; fear and excitement, and all that those emotions engendered.

What's been happening? She and T'fyrr stood just inside the door, and no one noticed them, which in itself was nothing short of astonishing.

T'fyrr solved the entire question by reaching out and intercepting one of the page boys as he ran past. The boy felt the talons close on his shoulder and stopped dead, with a little squeak of surprise.

'What is going on here?' T'fyrr rumbled down at his captive. 'What has happened since yesterday? Why is there all this commotion?'

The page stared at him with wide blue eyes and stuffed his fist into his mouth as he blinked up at them. He wasn't very old, no more than seven or eight_and very sheltered. One of Nightingale's street-urchins would have replied already and been well on his way. T'fyrr waited patiently. Finally the boy got up enough courage to speak.

'It's the D-deliambren, S-sire!' he stammered, then seemed to get stuck, staring up into the Haspur's raptorial eyes exactly like a mouse waiting for the hawk to strike.

'What about the Deliambren?' T'fyrr asked with a little less patience. 'I haven't been here, I've just come in. What about the Deliambren?'

'H-he's_he's been attacked!' the boy blurted. 'He's hurt, they say badly, they say someone tried to kill him!' Then as T'fyrr's grip loosened with shock, the page pulled away and ran off again.

T'fyrr's shock didn't last past that moment; he knew where Harperus' suite was, and may the Lady help anyone who got between him and his destination. He headed off in that direction with a purposeful stride that Nightingale had to match by running. Her mind flitted from thought to thought, infected a little by all the fear around her. Attacked? By who? Is he really hurt badly? Is he_oh dear Lady, not dead, surely! The idea of Old Owl dead_no, it was not to be thought of, surely not he, not with all of his Deliambren devices to protect him? He had outlived her grandfather with no sign of old age, how could he be dead?

But how could he have been attacked? How could anyone have gotten in to him, past his devices, to attack him?

They ran past rank after rank of statuary, taking the quickest path to the Deliambren suite. Past animals, past famous generals, past mermaids_up the stairs to the fourth floor and past guildsmen, past famous Bards, past farmers_oh dear, there is one with his favorite piggy at his feet! she thought distractedly_past the Allies of the Twenty Kingdoms_

And there was the door to Harperus' suite, now guarded by a pair of the King's personal bodyguards, who let T'fyrr and herself past without so much as a challenge. T'fyrr flung himself inside immediately. But she stopped at the door and caught the attention of one of the guards, one she thought she recognized from the King's suite. 'What happened?' she asked shortly.

He looked down into her eyes, his own as flat and expressionless as blued steel. Finally he opened his thin, grim lips and answered.

'Someone broke in here last night while Envoy Harperus was with the High King. They_there was more than one_were ransacking the suite when the Envoy came in and found them still there. His devices had stunned and captured one of them, and the others were trying to get him free. When the Envoy surprised them, they clubbed him and fled. The Envoy is still unconscious. The High King has put his own personal servants in place here, since the Envoy's assigned servants have disappeared and might even have been in collusion with his attackers.'

'We have the one the device caught in custody,' the other guard said at last. 'The Envoy regained consciousness long enough to tell us what had happened, how to free the man, and to ask for Sire T'fyrr, and then collapsed again.'

She might have thought she was imagining a faint tone of disapproval that T'fyrr had not been here when Harperus asked for him, except that she sensed the disapproval as well as heard it. She simply nodded with dignity, and said, 'Sire T'fyrr and I were attacked by nine armed men in the city last night. We were some time in being tended to and unable to send word to the Palace. It seems that someone would like to harm the High King's foreign allies.'

Then she passed on through the doors into the Deliambren suite, knowing that the Bodyguards were far more than mere soldiers, and knowing that what she had just said would be recounted, with exact tone and inflection, to the High King's Spymaster. And whether that mysterious gentleman served Theovere only, or served some of the Advisors as well, there would be no doubt that she and T'fyrr were well aware of what their attackers were, if not who.

It was a risk to reveal that, but it was an equal risk to seem unaware of their situation. Perhaps this would make their enemy a bit more wary.

But for right now, she was grimly certain that Harperus had better have someone at his side who was his friend, guarding him. The King's bodyguards might help so long as whoever was after Harperus tried to pass the doors, but they wouldn't be of much help if an attacker were one of the King's servants, or came in by some other means.