“You never did tell me,” Lady Estora said in a much quieter voice.
“Tell you what?”
“What you saw in the looking mask. What you really saw.”
“Nothing,” he replied, but even from where Karigan was standing, she could see the lines of tension on his face.
“Please do not be dishonest with me,” Estora said. “It would not be a good way to commence our lives together, hiding things before we’re even married. I have been very honest with you, after all.”
“Very well,” the king replied. “I just did not want to cause you concern.” He hesitated, but Lady Estora’s gaze on him was unflinching. “I saw arrows in flight. Many arrows.”
“Arrows? What does—”
“I do not know what it means,” he said. “Though I cannot think it bodes well. Shall we continue on? I imagine the ball is going to break up now and I’d rather not be detained by those needing to ask a hundred senseless questions.”
They set off down the corridor, leaving Karigan feeling stunned and wondering if she’d paled as much as Estora had at the king’s answer.
Arrows. He’d seen arrows. She had also seen arrows. What did it mean? What did it portend?
Three more Weapons filed by and a fourth paused on the landing and peered at her. It was Fastion. She stepped out from behind the statue.
“You should return to the Rider wing,” he said. “It appears the ball is over.”
“But ... but the assassin!”
“He is in hand and all is well.”
“But—”
“Do not worry,” Fastion said. “We may be Weapons, but we are foremost shields. We defend the king with all our skills and will die for him if necessary.”
Karigan shuddered. Strangely, however, she was more shaken by what King Zachary said he’d seen in the looking mask than by the assassination attempt.
Fastion glanced over his shoulder. “Other guests are now leaving.”
The guests in their masks and finery mounted the stairs, their voices shrill and laughter nervous. Fastion set off down the corridor and Karigan hurried to catch up.
“Fastion,” she said. “How is it you and Donal recognized me in my costume?”
“You were the most out of place, out of your element.”
That was the truth, she thought.
“We are also well acquainted with the way you move.”
“Oh,” she replied, taken aback.
“We would not have permitted you on the balcony with the king if we didn’t recognize you,” Fastion added.
“What? You—” But Fastion turned down another corridor, going his own way without another word.
Why would they have allowed even her? No, she did not want to think about it. Weapons had their ways and reasons, and she was an honorary member of their corps. That had to be it, nothing more.
She struck off for the Rider wing.
“Why’s she so glum?” The chair creaked beneath Garth’s weight as he sat down. “She looks like she lost her best stallion—er—friend.”
Why, Karigan wondered, did it seem everyone but her had seen the play Mad Queen Oddacious? Currently she sat in the common room of the Rider wing, still in costume, although the mask, fan, and crowned wig were on the table in front of her. Garth, wet and muddy from the road, had only just arrived from his latest errand. Yates and Tegan had just heard her rather spare account of the masquerade ball. She’d left out certain details, like her visions in the mask and her encounter with Lord Amberhill. Maybe she’d tell Mara later if they had a moment alone.
“She didn’t lose her best friend,” Yates said. “She’s just mad that this time she wasn’t the one who got to save the king.”
Karigan rolled her eyes.
“Save the king?” Garth demanded. “Something happen while I was gone? Is that why the guards harassed and challenged me all the way across castle grounds?”
Karigan was obliged to recite, once again, her account of the assassination attempt.
“Huh,” Garth said. “A king is apt to make enemies. Those D’Ivarys were a bad bunch, abusing people the way they did.”
“Those D’Ivarys,” Tegan emphasized. “The current lord-governor is not of that ilk. Anyway the Weapons kept the king safe, which is their job, and his reign goes on.”
Karigan wished she could be that calm about it. She knew the attack had been clumsy and the assassin didn’t have a chance with all those Weapons to protect the king, but what if circumstances had been different?
And Garth was right—a king was apt to make enemies. There would be other attempts on the king’s life and there was not a single thing she could do about it. If it came down to it, she would not hesitate to give her life for his, and not just because he was her sovereign and what it would mean for the country.
I am hopeless, she thought.
“Queen Oddacious looks ready to retire for the night,” Yates said.
Karigan yawned and stood. “She already has.”
She left the common room for her own chamber. On her bed she found Ghost Kitty waiting for her, belly up and purring. It was with much relief that minutes later she was in her nightclothes and joined him.
That was an eventful end to the evening, Amberhill thought as he stepped outside of the castle’s main entrance.
The assassin hadn’t even gotten close to Zachary before the Weapons were on him like a cloud of wasps. He’d seen the young man earlier and wondered about his nervousness. Now he knew.