“No,” Alex said quickly and firmly. “Call them back.”
“Call them back?” balked the fairy prince. “I will not. I would never allow my people to be the cause of the Bringer’s death. We will find the demonkin if it the last thing the fairy people do.”
“Call them back,” Alex replied strongly. “They can only worsen the situation now.”
“You are not the Bringer, Alexander Tork,” the fairy prince said defiantly. “I do not need to obey you.”
Alex turned to King Arik. “Give Midge the order,” he pleaded. “The fairies will never find the demonkin, but they will alert him to the fact that we are looking for him.”
“Alex is right,” interjected Queen Tanya. “Think about all of the other times that the fairy people have lost track of someone. In each case it was a demonkin. They must have some mechanism for hiding themselves that the fairies cannot penetrate. Call them back.”
King Arik nodded and looked at the fairy prince. “Do it, Prince Midge. Losing Artimor was not the fault of your people. Bring your fairies home.”
Prince Midge nodded and darted through the balcony doors. As soon as he was gone, the king turned to the queen.
“Are you sure about this?” he asked.
“The fairies have only lost three people that I know of,” answered the queen. “They lost an old man coming through the Door in Mya and they lost a woman in Danver Shores. Artimor is the third person they have lost.”
“Wycaramor and Cavanor.” Alex nodded. “It is no coincidence.”
“Does this mean that Artimor knows that we have set a trap for him?” asked the king. “I would think that is the case if he intentionally shielded himself against the fairy that was watching him.”
“Not necessarily,” offered Balamor. “They may merely have some kind of cloaking magic that they employ when they need secrecy the most. Unless we have some proof that the demonkin actually detected the fairy, we cannot be sure of what he knows.”
“Great,” General Gregor remarked bitterly. “So we just send the king and queen into a trap without knowing how much Artimor knows or where he is? Am I the only one who does not care much for this plan any more?”
“The trap cannot be rescheduled,” replied Prince Oscar. “We have gone to a lot of trouble to set it up. Artimor would not fall for it a second time. We either do it now, or we abandon the idea.”
“Then abandon it,” shrugged General Gregor. “The demonkin is at his shop every day. It is not as if he is hard to find. We will kill him there.”
“There are two problems with that,” replied Alex. “There is no guarantee that Artimor will ever return to his shop now. The only place we can be sure of finding him now is at the Everich estate. The other problem is his power. There is no way we can gauge his power without testing him, and once we test him, we best be prepared to end his life on the spot. The Everich estate was chosen because of its location. It is one of the largest pieces of private land in the city.”
“Alex is right,” agreed Jenneva. “We have talked about this before. Even if we managed to save King Arik from the demonkin’s attack elsewhere in the city, hundreds of people might die.”
“And we cannot evacuate a large portion of the city without tipping our hand,” added King Arik. “No, the Everich estate is the best place in the city for a battle, and it has to happen tonight. What alterations do we need to make to our plans to account for Artimor’s disappearance?”
“Do you mean other than the fact that we will not be able to see the demonkin?” quipped Theos. “I think our plan may be riskier than anything we had imagined. How will we even know where he is?”
“He will be revealed when he strikes,” retorted Jenneva.
“Great,” Prince Oscar replied sarcastically. “So all we have to do is let him assassinate the king, and we will have found him.”
* * * *
The Claw of Alutar stood under a tree across the street from the estate of the late Duke Everich, his form wrapped in a cloak of invisibility. The street was in an area of large estates, and it had little traffic on it. An occasional carriage would amble by heading for a private driveway, but mostly the street remained unused as its only purpose was to serve the estates of the city’s most wealthy citizens. Artimor stood patiently, unmoving and unseen.
As the sun began to set over Tagaret, a rickety old two-wheeled wagon rolled along the street. Artimor watched it closely. The ancient black wagon was narrow, its seat only wide enough for two, and behind the seat was a simple flat bed with low sideboards. An open coffin rested on the flatbed, its lid placed alongside the box. The driver’s seat held a single person, an old hunched man dressed completely in black with a towering hat atop his head. The horse that pulled the wagon was almost as ancient as the wagon itself. Its footsteps were tired and slow as if it had pulled the wagon for so long that it no longer cared if it reached its destination or not. The wagon passed by the entrance to the Everich estate. Artimor dismissed the mortician and his wagon, and he turned his eyes towards the far end of the street, hoping that his information would prove correct. He had heard that a sick King Arik was being taken to a private estate so that the city would not learn of his illness.
The sound of a creaking gate drew Artimor’s attention once more to the mortician’s wagon. He turned and saw the hunched over old man swinging open the gate of a nearby estate. The mortician hobbled back onto his seat, and the wagon rolled through the open gate and onto the private drive beyond it.
Just as the last rays of sunlight were fleeing from Tagaret, Artimor saw something promising. At the far end of the street, a plain carriage appeared. The carriage carried no markings of wealth or privilege, but two mounted soldiers preceded it. Another two mounted soldiers followed behind, and two soldiers sat upon the driver’s seat. While it was not unheard of for soldiers to escort a wealthy citizen or councilor, it was an auspicious sign for the demonkin’s intent. As it drew nearer, he saw two red-headed men on the rear step of the carriage, probably the red-headed mages that he had heard about. Another good sign, but not proof that the king was inside the carriage. The Claw of Alutar waited.
The two lead riders suddenly distanced themselves from the carriage, halting at the gates to the Everich estate. One of the riders dismounted and swung the gates open. It was another good sign, but Artimor was not about to be trapped by a false report. He had to make sure that the king was in the carriage. As the carriage turned into the private drive, the demonkin tried to peer into the windows, but they were blacked out, leaving no opportunity to see the king. He glanced at the mages on the rear step of the carriage and tried to anticipate the reach of their shields, but he knew that was a fruitless exercise. They would undoubtedly concentrate on the carriage itself as had Fredrik before them. Artimor was not about to make the same foolish mistake that Cavanor had made. He was not content just to kill the mages protecting the king. Still, their concentration on the carriage itself could prove to have been a mistake. Artimor smiled inwardly, realizing that the mounted soldiers were left unprotected.
As the carriage passed through the gates, Artimor magically reached out and touched the mind of one of the trailing soldiers. It took a moment to seize the information he needed, but the soldier’s mind verified the contents of the carriage. Both King Arik and Queen Tanya were inside. The last Claw of Alutar smiled broadly. He thought for a brief moment of attacking the carriage immediately, but he restrained himself. He had no doubt that both of the red-headed mages were using their full powers to protect the king, and the queen was probably doing the same inside the carriage. If the three mages were powerful enough, they might succeed in blunting the force of Artimor’s attack, and that was unacceptable. There was no need to rush. Once the king was safely inside the mansion, the mages would relax their shields, and that is when they all would die.