battlements were the only ones outside.
Freda, Blaise, and I retired to the audience hall, waiting for Locke and Davin to return. We didn’t have much to say to each other, but the company was better than being alone.
The silence outside seemed ominous.
Finally, toward midnight, I heard horses in the courtyard and rose to check.
“It’s Locke and Davin,” I told my sisters.
“About time,” Blaise murmured.
Locke left the horses with Davin and hurried inside. He looked grim when he saw us.
“What news?” I asked.
“The men are now a safe distance from the castle,” he said. “I don’t think the lightning will reach them. What have I missed? Where’s Dad?”
“Locked in his rooms,” I said unhappily. “He’s not answering to knocks.”
Freda added, “We moved everyone to ground level, and they are settled for the night.”
“I saw the lightning strikes,” he said. “Perhaps we should move everyone out to the fields as soon as possible.”
“I think that would be a mistake,” I said. “They’re trying to drive us into the open. Despite the lightning, we’re better off in here. Although the top towers will fall, the closer the walls get to the ground, the stronger they become. We’ll be all right for a while yet.”
“Good enough.”
“If you’re going back out tomorrow morning,” I said, “you might want to do it before daybreak. I think darkness stopped the lightning.”
“I will.” He glanced around. “Where are we camped out tonight?”
I rose. “I’ll show you.”
My sleep was deep and restful, for once. Even though I shared the chamber with a dozen others, most of whom snored, exhaustion took me. No bad dreams plagued me, no visions of evil serpents or dying men on stone altars, no skies of ever-shifting patterns nor towers made of human bones.
I woke a little before dawn, listening to the first stirrings of life, thinking back to events of the previous night. It seemed unreal, somehow, almost like a bad dream. Clouds didn’t swirl in the sky, loosing thunderbolts upon helpless people. It seemed impossible, and yet I knew it had happened.
A silent figure crept into the room. I tensed, hand reaching for my sword. It was one of the castle guards. Another assassin?
Silently, like a ghost, he padded to Locke’s side. I prepared to shout a warning and launch myself at him, but he only stretched out his hand and shook his general’s shoulder.
Locke came awake with a start.
“You asked me to fetch you before dawn, General,” the man said. “It’s time.”
“Very well,” he said softly. “Wake Davin.” Rising, he began to dress.
I too sat up, stretching. My muscles ached a bit from my workout the previous afternoon, but I felt much refreshed… ready to fight, if need be, to protect Juniper. The hell-creatures would not take the castle easily, I vowed. I began to dress, too.
Locke picked up his boots, noticed me, and gave a quick jerk of his head toward the door. Rising, I grabbed my own boots and followed him out. We headed toward our father’s workshop.
“What are your plans for today?” I asked when he paused to pull on his boots. I took a moment to do the same.
“Prepare the men for battle,” he said grimly.
“I don’t think it will come today.”
“Why not?”
“Why rush? Let the lightning work on our morale.”
He nodded. “You’re right. That’s what I would do, too.”
We headed for our father’s rooms again, but the guards there lowered their pikes, blocking our way.
“Apologies, my Lords,” said the guard on duty with an audible gulp. “Prince Dworkin said not to let anyone disturb him. Not even you, General.”
Locke sighed. “I know you are only doing your duty,” he said. “But I must do mine as well.”
He hit the man twice, fast and hard, with the flat of his hand; the poor fellow slumped to the floor. It happened before the other guard could so much as move.
Locke glared across at him. “Remove your friend,” he said, “or I will remove you both.”
“It means my life, Lord,” the man pleaded, eyes wide and desperate. He barred the way with his pike and raised his chin, then pressed his eyes shut. “If you please.”
Locke nodded. Then he hit him twice, too, and when he slid to the floor, Locke and I stepped over the bodies. We had gone well beyond the point of fooling around.
Dworkin had left the door unbarred, so we didn’t have to kick it in. Locke glanced over at me, then pushed it open and entered.
Our father sat with his head down on the table nearest us, snoring. Three large bottles sat before him. Two had been completely emptied, plus half of the third, I picked up the half bottle, sniffed once, set it down.
“Brandy,” I said.
“Dad! Wake up!” Locke shook his shoulder.
Dworkin lolled to the side and would have fallen to the floor if I hadn’t reached out to steady him. We didn’t get to much as a whimper. He was dead to the world.
“Typical,” Locke said.
“He’s done this before?”
“Once that I know of, when he got kicked out of the Courts of Chaos.”
“Kicked out? Why?”
“Well, that’s not exactly how he tells it. He usually says he left because he grew tired of life in the Courts. But I know the truth. He forgets that I was there, too.”
I leaned forward. “What really happened? Every time someone tells me, I get a different story.”
“The truth?” He gave a sad smile. “He seduced King Uthor’s youngest and favorite daughter. Got her with child, in fact. Once that happened, it was hard to hide their involvement.”
“Couldn’t he have married her?”
“Unfortunately, she was already betrothed. Had been, in fact, since birth. Dworkin knew that, too, and he didn’t care.”
“Then… all this could be King Uthor’s doing?”
“Could be?” He chuckled. “Oh, Uthor may not be leading the attack, but I see his hand in it. I had hoped we could outrun or outlast him. He is old. And all this happened forty years ago, as time goes in the Courts.”
Forty years… long before my birth. I stared down at our father’s unconscious form. If Locke told the truth— and I believed him; why should he lie?—then Dad had brought ruin upon himself. And upon the rest of us.
I pushed him back onto the table. He could sleep off his drunk there. Foolish, foolish man.
“Leave him,” I said. “If you don’t mind, I’ll accompany you today. I don’t want to spend the day in the castle, listening to falling rock. And if I get a chance to swing my blade a few more times in the right direction —”
“All right.” He chuckled humorlessly. “I’m sure we can find something for you to do.”
The grooms had emptied the stables during the night. Our horses were penned with the cavalry’s mounts outside in the main camp. Davin joined us in the courtyard, now littered with fallen stone, and together the three of us walked out toward the military camp.
The sky grew lighter. I saw that the clouds still swirled endlessly overhead.
Halfway to the army camp, the lightning started again behind us. I glanced over my shoulder at the castle, as bolt after bolt of blue lanced from the sky, striking the tallest towers. More stones fell, raising clouds of dust. I didn’t envy those still inside. I knew it wouldn’t be a pleasant day for them.
Ahead, horns began to sound.
“That’s an attack!” Locke cried, recognizing the call to arms and sprinting for the pens of horses.
Davin and I followed on his heels.
