The Eagle And The Nightingales

The suite didn't look a great deal different from theirs, except in one small detail. Harperus had none of the 'Deliambren sculptures' around the suite. That might explain why Tyladen didn't know about the attack.

Yet.

Nightingale passed through the reception room and into Harperus' bedroom, where there were two more guards at the door. T'fyrr had already settled at Harperus' bedside, displacing a servant; Nightingale bit her lip, then reached out to touch the Deliambren's bruised brow and hummed a fragment of the healing chant under her breath.

But she emerged almost immediately from her brief trance with a feeling of profound relief. 'He'll be all right,' she told T'fyrr, whose tense shoulders and twitching tail signaled his own worry and fear. 'He's healing himself; he doesn't even need me to do anything. That is why he went unconscious again. He has a concussion, but when he wakes it will have been taken care of. I'm going to your suite to get something; I'll be right back.'

T'fyrr started up at that, and she knew what must be in his mind. 'If anyone got into your suite last night, it won't matter,' she pointed out. 'Whoever was behind this was probably behind the attack on us, and he knows where we were. After Harperus was attacked, the King's men probably checked all the suites to make sure no one else was hurt, so even if the attackers got into yours, Nob is surely all right.'

He sank back down on his stool, and nodded. 'Nob is all that I care about,' he said, a bit hoarsely. 'Anything else can be replaced, and most of it is not mine, anyway. Things can be restored; people cannot.'

She hurried out, running as soon as she reached the hallways, picking up her skirts like a child so that she could run the faster.

Despite what she had told him to reassure him_thank the Lady we can't read thoughts! _she was by no means sure that she would find either the suite or Nob intact. In the excitement, the guards might not have thought to check. Nob could be lying with his skull cracked in the bathroom of the suite or in his own room even now.

But as she pushed the door open, Nob came flying out of the bedroom with a cry of relief to see her, and the room seemed intact.

'T'fyrr is all right,' she said, and gave him the short version of the attack in the streets_and then, for the benefit of Tyladen's listening devices, a short story of the attack on Harperus. Nob had known that there had been an attack on someone, for guards had come checking the other suites as she had suspected they might, but he had known nothing more than that one of the envoys had been hurt. He hadn't known which one, and he'd been afraid to leave the suite to find out. He hadn't known what to do; his training in etiquette hadn't covered this sort of situation, and he was afraid to act without orders.

But now that T'fyrr was back he had someone to give him orders, which put his world back in place again. Nightingale gave him the first of those orders, on behalf of his master.

'Have someone bring T'fyrr his breakfast in Harperus' suite,' she said, 'then you bring him fresh clothing. He'll want you to stand guard over Harperus while he uses the envoys bathroom. He still hasn't had much of a chance to get completely clean after those bravos attacked us.'

Nob nodded; his eyes were full of questions, but he was too well-trained to ask them. Nightingale was not going to say anything; it wasn't her place. Whatever T'fyrr wanted him to know, T'fyrr would tell him.

'I will perform for the High King, as usual,' she told the boy. 'We will hope he will find me a satisfactory substitute. I'll be going there as soon as I get my harp in tune.'

As soon as Nob was out of the room, she locked the door and gave a much more detailed accounting of everything for the sake of the listening devices. 'That is all we know now,' she said. 'I presume we will find out more when Harperus awakens. In the meantime_'

She stopped herself; after all, what could she suggest that was of any real value? 'In the meantime, I will substitute for T'fyrr with the High King, unless I receive orders from the King to the contrary. I will not be back to Freehold for the next day or so.'

As she took her harp in its case off her back_she was so used to the weight that she hadn't really noticed it, even when she'd run to the suite_she tried to calm herself. She would not be able to call the magic if she was too tense to hear its melody above her own.

The trouble was that this second attack pointed all too clearly to an enemy within the highest ranks, an enemy who had at least some inkling that she, Harperus, and T'fyrr were all working together, presumably to bring about changes in the King that this enemy did not want to see occur.

And depending on how high that enemy was_

We are already marked. We could be doomed.

And with that cheerful thought in mind, she passed out of the doors and into the hall, walking swiftly on her way to entertain the King.