'You said you also bore blame?'
Ukarres nodded sadly. 'The duke departed at last, and he left that terrible document in my charge, for I am archivist, among many other things. I should have taken it at once to the castle vaults. But I am old, Shadow, and a cripple, and it was only a couple of hours until three bells. I thought a short delay...'
A curious reluctance came over Ukarres. 'We are all downside up here just now, with so many guests. But while I slept, the person in the next room must have passed through mine. I am certain that the letter had been moved...it was on the chair by my bed...'
Then Shadow knew and was horrified. 'But why?' he said. 'To protect her father against a charge of treason?'
Ukarres rolled his single eye. 'It would not occur to her.'
'Why, then?' Shadow persisted, even more appalled. 'Why would she do such a thing?'
'Motives make poor bandages, as they say,' the old man muttered sadly. 'She would not be the first to seek a throne through violence, would she? No...' He fell silent for a moment, as though he had not previously thought about motive. 'She has five brothers that she knows of,' he said at last, 'in the town and castle--all illegitimate. She cannot inherit the title, nor most of the lands, for she is a woman. How does she feel about bastards, do you suppose? Contempt? Fear? How would she feel about one becoming king?'
'And her destiny is to be queen?' Shadow groaned again. 'It must have been done just as the blinkers were opened. I thought at first he was trying to return to the aerie. He must have heard or seen, too late. But if he is alive, then he knows who did it.'
The old man squirmed to relieve his back, or perhaps just his feelings. His dry whisper became even quieter. 'That is why Vak and I are suddenly allies. We are loyal to our duke, but even great men have weaknesses. He has fathered seven bastards that I know of, all sons. From wedlock he obtained a single daughter. He must know she did it. But he will protect her. He has never denied her anything.'
Breakfast was forgotten. Shadow stood up. 'I must join the search and warn the others at the next break. If the duke finds the prince first...'
Ukarres shook his head angrily and thumped his cane on the rug. 'Never! The prince was his guest! He would not stoop to that, and none of his men would support him in so dastardly a crime. Elosa is being watched--I know that. I meant only that he will not bring her to justice if the prince has died. And, strangely, I find that my lifelong loyalty has choked at last. Sit down! There is more.'
There could not possibly be more. Shadow sat down.
'Now,' the old man wheezed. 'We all know that the chances are very, very slim. Perhaps one man in twenty survives a batted bird. But the bird usually does, right? If the rider tied his reins. They do not often fly into a hill, for there is just too much sky. So where did she go, afterward?'
Gods! For a moment Shadow had a foul vision of WindStriker arriving back at the palace with the lifeless, rotting body of the Prince...but no, she was a widow. He had inquired carefully. A bird removed from its mate for long became fractious, which was why he had brought only pairs and widows, with very few singles. So she had no mate to go back to.
'I expect she is wandering the hills.'
'Who chose her?'
Shadow shrugged. 'The prince. I suggested a mature female. She came from the family private collection. She is the queen's official mount, although the queen has not flown in kilodays.'
Ukarres nodded. 'I remember her, and Vonimor knew her the instant she arrived. We were on the Allaban expedition, both of us, and Princess Mayala flew on WindStriker. She has been here before.'
The story was quite plausible. She might have belonged to the queen's grandmother also. 'She had a mate back in Allaban?'
'We're not sure, but Vak thinks she might have done.' He smiled ruefully. 'Our departure was hardly orderly, you know. It was almost every man for himself. But I think that if the prince lives, then he lives now in Allaban.'
'She would have flown into certain death on Eagle Dome.'
The seneschal shook his head gently. 'Not necessarily. There is another way to Allaban. A more direct way.'
Shadow smelled treachery. 'How?'
'It is known as Dead Man's Pass. Quite simply, you fly around the back of Eagle Dome. It is very high. The wilds can use it, of course, but they do not live there, in the dark. It is not guarded, as the sun side is. It is extremely dangerous for men, but a few have made it throughout history, for one reason or another. More have failed. It takes an exceptional mount and an exceptional skyman, but it can be done.'
'Would WindStriker have known of that way?'
Ukarres shrugged. 'The eagles have strange ways of finding the best route, Shadow, as you know.'
It could be a trap. He was the one shouting murder, so the duke and Ninomar and now Ukarres were all trying to find ways to make him leave and shut him up.
Treachery?
'Vonimor will confirm what I have said,' Ukarres suggested. 'Of course, we are both the duke's servants and you can doubtless find reasons why the duke may have put us up to this. Basically you have three choices, though. You can stay here, helping in the search, but you will only be one more pair of eyes among seventy.
'Ramo has no more of our birds, and no courier can be here within twelve days at a minimum. He will certainly bring orders for your arrest. You know what will be done to you then. Or you can go through the window the vice-marshal left open for you--dress NailBiter and flee.'
'Or you can gamble your life and health and sanity and go to Allaban.'
'The rebels?'
Ukarres shrugged. 'They will certainly not hand you over to Aurolron. They may take NailBiter from you, of course. If you release him first, he will return here, to IceFire. If the prince is indeed alive, then perhaps they will treat you well--they may be holding him as hostage. The possibilities became innumerable, and we cannot guess...'
Shadow weighed the odds. One more added to seventy was very little, true. Flight to exile was somehow unthinkable, although he did not know why. He rubbed his prickly face. Off the prince's chamber was a bathroom with a bathtub, the only one he had seen on the Rand. A tub of hot water was one of the greatest luxuries in the world.
'Let us talk more while I shave,' he said.
'Don't,' Ukarres said. 'Stubble keeps the cold off.'
NailBiter sat alone on the perching in a strangely empty aerie, with only Vak Vonimor in attendance. Ukarres had provided Shadow with a magnificent flying suit in brown calfskin lined with lamb's wool. It would have cost a trooper a kiloday's pay; Shadow had not inquired who owned it. Vonimor eyed it and said sadly, 'You fly to rightward, then?'
Shadow nodded.
The older man shook his head. 'It is a slim chance for him and not much more for you. But you will need this.' He had laid out a daunting heap of equipment.
'I'll fly straight underground with that lot,' Shadow complained.
'You'll need it all,' the eaglet said grimly. 'Ever seen one of these?' He produced a metal cylinder with a black triangular thing on the end of it, and Shadow shook his head.
The object was very ancient, Vonimor told him, dating from the Old Times, and perhaps even from the Holy Ark itself. It contained air, which he had forced into it with an equally ancient pump, and he showed how the black thing fitted over a man's face and how a twist would release a puff of the air. Such a rarity was beyond price, and Shadow now began to believe that the two men were indeed betraying their duke and not him. There was also food and a great coil of thin rope--and that also must be a sacred relic, for it was made of neither silk nor hemp nor any material he had ever seen. There was a grapnel attached to one end.
'Kiting?' he groaned.
'Take it,' Vak insisted. 'And pray you don't need it. Lad, I would not try that road for anything. I know it's been done, but more have failed.'
