you mentioned before,” said Rose at last.
Marc nodded, “Yes, but it is still a guess. We can’t be sure from the little we know.”
Walter was fidgeting with anxiety. “Do you think he might be keeping my family there as well?” he asked me suddenly.
“I don’t know,” I told him, and I didn’t. In fact I knew very little beyond guesswork and suspicion. Glancing around the table I could see everyone waiting on me to announce the next step. The pressure built upon me until it felt like a physical force, bearing down upon my shoulders. Taking a deep breath I stood quickly. “I’m going upstairs. I need to think and I can’t do it with everyone staring at me. I’ll be back down in a little while,” and so saying I left the table.
Chapter 41
In the relative silence of my bedroom I stared at the wall where the picture of my mother Elena had been placed. Studying her features I wondered what she would have thought of the situation I was in now. Even more I wondered how she might have judged my actions up until now. She saved her child while mine has yet to be born and is already in danger, I thought. I had never known her in life, so even her features were strange to me. I couldn’t possibly guess what sort of advice she might have given.
“Think,” I said aloud. I had always taken my mind for granted, but now that I needed a truly inspired plan it was coming up empty of solutions. “I have two intelligent and gifted friends,” I said to myself, referring to Marc and Rose. “I have a wizard with strong reasons to want me to succeed in liberating the King’s hostages and a nearly invincible warrior armed with magical arms and armor. On top of all that I have a strong ally back in Lancaster willing to assist with men and support.” I finished listing my assets and considered the goal.
More than anything I wanted Penny and Dorian back, safely and unharmed. Once that was accomplished I could easily dispatch my largest current problem, the King himself. And civil war be damned, I thought. Edward had elevated himself to a level of threat that I no longer considered him to be the lesser of two evils. Another thought occurred to me then, what about Illeniel’s Doom? That was the true motivator behind the shiggreth making a deal with the King to begin with and I still hadn’t begun making a search for it. Hell, I had no idea what it looked like or if it was even a physical object.
“I’ll set that aside for now. My only concern at the moment is Penny and Dorian, and once that’s taken care of, the King. I can worry about the rest afterward,” I said to myself. Pacing the room I enumerated the obstacles to rescuing them. Most importantly I couldn’t be entirely sure where they were located. Our best guess lay in the secret compound that the Doronites had. Yet even if we could be sure they were there we didn’t know have precise directions to find it. Marc’s information regarding its location was good but he had never been there.
To make matters worse I had less than twenty four hours. Roughly twenty one hours now, I estimated mentally. It was past six o’clock now and my meeting with the King was set for three tomorrow afternoon.
I became still and felt my mind grow calm, filled by a clear silence that brought everything into focus. An idea took shape and I carefully pruned and shaped it until I thought it gave me at least a chance of accomplishing my goal. I can’t be certain of anything, so lacking surety I must simply act decisively, I thought. Taking a deep breath I went back downstairs.
The others were deep in discussion when I found them. They had moved into the parlor and I could tell by their voices that there was nothing approaching a consensus among them. In fact they seemed on the verge of an outright argument.
“Well if you have a better damned idea why don’t you spit it out Lady Rose!” Marc declared, raising his voice and putting an ugly emphasis on her title.
Rose was glaring daggers at him. “It isn’t that I mind regicide, you bloodthirsty sot, but it won’t solve anything. Even if we managed to kill him the hostages will still die. Edward isn’t a fool and I’m certain he has contingencies set up to ensure his revenge in the event of something drastic happening to him.” Her voice was level but the words left little doubt she thought Marc was reasoning poorly.
“We could just cooperate,” said Walter quietly.
“That’s worked out rather well for you all these years hasn’t it?” Marcus interjected sarcastically.
I coughed loudly from the doorway to get their attention. None of them heard me. “At least he’s thinking of his family’s well-being instead of seeking blind vengeance,” sniped Rose.
“That’s enough!” I barked and this time I got their attention. Walking into the middle of the room I looked around me. “We don’t have a lot of time. Marc, you did say you aren’t certain of the location of the Doronites secret compound, correct?”
He nodded, “Yes.”
“Do you know who would know?”
“The high priest surely, along with the supply master and some of the clergy responsible for rotating there for duty,” he responded.
“And which do you think would be easiest for us to lay hands upon?” I asked.
He put a hand to his chin. “None of them really, but the only two I know on sight would be the supply master and the high priest and of the two of them the supply master might be easier. Plus he might not be missed as quickly.”
“How long is the trip to reach this place? Or have you heard?”
He frowned, “I’m not certain but based on the few comments I’ve overheard I would guess about a half a day’s travel on horseback.”
“Rose, I need a place outside of the city. Something close by where we can move people without being too obvious,” I said shifting my attention.
“None of my properties outside of the city are that close,” she answered.
“It doesn’t have to belong to you,” I explained. “I just need something where no one will be watching and we can count on some privacy for a day or so.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Would something like a barn be sufficient?”
“That would be perfect. Can you show me where it is?” I asked.
She shook her head, “Not yet, I need to talk to someone first, but I’m sure I can set something up within an hour or two.”
I thought for a moment. “That will work. Go now. Don’t worry about being seen leaving, just don’t let them follow you.” I turned back to the others. “I want the rest of you to acquire this supply master from the Doronite temple.”
Marc looked concerned, “If we go in there and kidnap him from the midst of their temple it will cause a huge ruckus.”
“You know the layout of the temple,” I reminded him. “With Walter you can find him without anyone seeing you. Find him and remove him from his bed tonight. If he merely vanishes they won’t know enough to suspect what we’re doing.”
“What will you be doing?” asked Harold suddenly.
I smiled, “I’m going to Lancaster but I’ll be back in less than an hour. Once Rose returns I’ll go to her house and wait for the rest of you there. After that we’ll be moving to this barn or whatever she can find for us.”
I was back long before Rose was so I started work on another piece of my plan. James had readily agreed to my requests but he had been somewhat surprised when I asked him for two small boxes. I had thought that two small matching boxes would be fairly easy to find but they turned out to be extraordinarily difficult. Genevieve had solved the problem by emptying two of her ring boxes.
I had taken them begrudgingly, since I knew she treasured the boxes, but even after I had told her I would ruin them she insisted. The two boxes were actually smaller than I had planned but they met my most important criteria, they were nearly identical in size and shape, each being three inches square and one inch deep.
Since I wasn’t sure how much longer Rose would be I began by using some paper to do calculations and plan out my runes before attempting to do anything to the boxes. I had learned from my prior work that it didn’t do to start inscribing runes before I had them exactly planned out.
