“You didn’t even ask about the soldiers in your own command?” DeLacroix raised an eyebrow. DeLacroix, who’d managed to avoid any military service up to now.
Wrestling with his temper, Hal gritted his teeth. “I did ask, and I was told that there were few survivors,” he said. “I didn’t know whether to believe them or not. Then I was moved to Chalk Cliffs, where I was the only Ardenine prisoner.”
“And you’ve been a captive in the north for three months?” It was as if DeLacroix was suggesting that any soldier worth his salt would have escaped before now. As if Hal had taken advantage of the situation to enjoy a three-month vacation. “And now you’re the only one to escape.” The thane tapped his fingers together as if this was significant.
“Quit interrogating him,” Heresford said. “We should be welcoming him home, not grilling him about how he came to survive. We’re going to need him if it comes to a fight with Jarat.”
“It will come to a fight, Heresford, you know it will,” Matelon said. “I’ve seen nothing in the son that makes me think otherwise.”
“Half the boy king’s army will come over to us when they find out Captain Matelon is with us,” Heresford said, grinning.
Hal cleared his throat. “I have some news about events in the north that might have bearing on a decision about whether this is the right time to take the fight to King Jarat.”
Hal’s father raised both hands, giving Hal a warning look. “Gentlemen, we’ve been at it since early this morning,” he said. “This is a good time to break for the day, so we can all take a piss and have a bite and I can debrief my son about events in the north. We’ll reconvene tomorrow morning.”
24KILLING THE MESSENGER
Hal knew going in that persuading his father to make peace with King Jarat in order to unite against a common enemy would be a hard sell. He hadn’t expected it to be impossible.
He booked a room at the inn where his father and Robert were staying. It seemed like his little brother had aged a year and grown an inch in three months. He kept staring at Hal as if he might disappear. Apparently, he’d blamed himself for being elsewhere when the city fell.
Over dinner, Hal relayed what had happened since the fall of Delphi. Well, not everything. Traitorous or not, he did not choose to share Captain Gray’s true identity, or dwell on the bond that had grown between them during his time in the north. That would make his motivations even more suspect than they already were.
His father asked few questions until Hal described his meeting with the wolf queen, and her hope that the death of King Gerard might signal a new opportunity to end the war between the Realms.
“If she wants peace, she should be sending word to the fledgling hawk in Ardenscourt,” his father said. “That’s how this whole thing started. After the fall of Delphi, I informed Gerard that I would not be spending more men and money to further his grudge match with the witch in the north. That’s when he took our families hostage.”
“Queen Raisa is not just asking for a truce, Father,” Hal said. “She wants an alliance against an enemy who threatens us both.”
“Who? Jarat?” His father snorted. “Isn’t it enough that we’re no longer supporting the war? She cannot expect us to turn traitor against our homeland.” His eyes narrowed. “Why are we even talking about this? Are you here as her emissary or what?”
“I’m not her emissary, and I’m not talking about Jarat. I’m talking about the empress in the east. Celestine.”
His father frowned. “Celestine. Isn’t she the Carthian pirate that promised Gerard an army of mages? I was never sure she really existed except in the king’s imagination. I haven’t heard another word about her since he died.”
“She’s real,” Hal said. “She’s taken Chalk Cliffs. It looks like she’s here to stay.”
His father stared at him. “Where did you hear that? It’s news to me.”
“I was there,” Hal said. “Being held prisoner in the keep there. I saw it happen.”
“Did she bring an army of mages, as promised?”
“If her soldiers are mages, they’re not the kind we’re used to.”
“What do you mean?” Robert stuffed an end of bread in his mouth and chased it with a swallow of ale. “What are they like?”
“They’re nearly impossible to kill. They don’t have amulets, and I don’t think they use magic in the way our mages do.”
“Really,” his father said. “Do you know that from personal experience? Were you in on the fighting?”
“Yes,” Hal said. Then thought a moment. “Well, actually, no. One of them . . . ah . . . dropped out of the sky when I was up on the battlements.”
“Dropped out of the sky?” Matelon reared back in his chair, as if Hal might have something catching. “They can fly?”
Hal realized how implausible that sounded. “Well, no, I don’t think so. There was a beast, or a bird, that dropped him.”
“A beast or bird. Dropped a soldier on you.” From the skepticism in his father’s face, Hal knew he was losing ground. There wasn’t even a question there.
Robert was instantly on board, of course. “What did it look like? Did it have scales or feathers? Was it a gryphon or a dragon or—?”
“Robert.” Their father shook his head as if saying, Don’t encourage him. “So you didn’t actually see the battle,” he said to Hal.
Hal shook his head. “I was locked in the keep during the fighting, but I could hear it well enough.”
“How did you escape?”
“We . . . we left through the water gate during the battle.”
“We?” His father raised an eyebrow.
“Me and another prisoner,” Hal said. He saw no reason to get into the details and thereby raise more questions than he already had.
Matelon sighed heavily. He drummed his fingers on the table, looking at him
