“You mean spies?” I interpreted, and Kingston nodded. “You said you were searching for your moment. What did you mean?”
“Hazlitt is well guarded,” he explained, “not just by soldiers, but his magic as well. We’ve expanded our support considerably, infiltrated his military ranks, but gaining a man’s trust takes time. The spread of influence is slow.”
“Is it only numbers you need?”
Kingston shook his head. “Hazlitt has an ability for magic like nothing we’ve seen. But though his abilities are diverse, few of them are powerful.”
“You need magic to defeat him,” I supplied.
“Indeed.”
“Can you not use what influence you have to find someone from Ronan?” I asked. “Ava said magic’s more common there.”
“The Ronan Empire keeps a close watch on its abled. Sends them to schools, apprenticeships, and positions that they wouldn’t abandon for a rebellion in another kingdom.”
“And an alliance with King Akhran?” I suggested. “Your goals align.” Instead of answering, Kingston smiled at me with an amused glimmer in his eyes. “Have I said something wrong?”
“Not at all,” he assured me. “You so look like your mother, but you’ve much of your father in you.”
“I’m not a rebel,” I told him.
“Aren’t you?” he asked, casting a deliberate look toward Ava.
“I’m going home after this,” I said, meeting his gaze and shutting him down with determined earnestness. “To my mother and brother. Start calling me a rebel and I’ll have nothing to go home to.” I stared back ahead of me. “A Thaon can’t work, or purchase land, or apprentice, or do anything but survive. No matter his intentions, my father still damages the life my mother tries to maintain after his death. I won’t do the same.”
Kingston studied me for a long, silent moment before saying, “My apologies, Kiena. I meant no offense.”
“It’s forgiven,” I said.
“Do you not fear the consequences of assisting the princess in her escape?”
“I do,” I sighed, dropping my foot off the box and leaning forward with my elbows on my knees. “But the king sent me to retrieve her. As far as he knows, hopefully, I’m still searching.”
“The king sent you?” he asked in shock. “You’ve met Hazlitt?”
“Once,” I answered. “You fought with my father in the war?” He nodded. “Leon Leventhorp, you knew him?” Again a nod. “His son, Silas, is a knight in the king’s guard. We grew up together. He recommended me as a tracker.”
Kingston laughed, and I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at him. “Fate is a peculiar thing,” he chuckled.
Before I could respond to that, a pair of warriors entered the armory and stomped right up to Kingston. “Commander,” one of them greeted. Kingston bowed his head at them in response. “We’ve had a scuffle with Valenian soldiers, and captured one of them. He wears the armor of the king’s guard.”
Kingston made an intrigued face and looked at me. “An acquaintance of Silas’s, perhaps. Would you care to accompany me?”
I considered it for a moment before agreeing, and waved to get Ava’s attention. She hurried over with Albus at her heels, and together we followed Kingston and his two warriors to see who they’d caught. We strode halfway down the long tunnel before turning down a side one. The path declined deeper into the mountain as we traversed steps carved into the stone floor, lower and lower until we reached a single door. The warriors entered first, then Kingston, Ava, and I, and they closed the door behind us. There were a handful of others who’d brought the king’s knight down into this small dungeon, and they’d tossed the prisoner into one of the few cells. But when I saw who the prisoner was, my face paled.
It wasn’t an acquaintance of Silas’s. It was Silas.
Chapter 8
I could see the evidence of the fight Silas had been in before the warriors brought him here. His face was bleeding, and his hair was matted with sweat and dirt. His hands were bound behind his back.
“Release him,” I told Kingston. I didn’t want Silas hurt, and I knew little enough about these rebels that I had no idea what they’d do with him.
“You know him?” Kingston asked.
“This is Silas.”
Kingston studied Silas for a long moment, and then glanced at me. “I’m sorry, Kiena, I cannot. Not until I know what he does.”
My gaze met Silas’s, I watched him look from me to Ava, and I recognized the emotion in his eyes. He was angry. At me, I had no doubt. He’d had faith in me that I’d do the job I was sent to, and I failed him.
“What will you do?” I asked.
“Question him,” Kingston answered.
“How?”
He didn’t respond to that with words, but with a look that I understood as ‘however is needed.’
“Let me do it,” I pleaded. “Keep him bound if you must, but get him out of there and let me talk to him. Please.”
Kingston took me in for a silent minute, so tense and thoughtful in his consideration that I wondered how little he trusted me. He was probably right not to trust me—not even I knew where my loyalties were at the moment—and I already felt the pressure of that conflict bearing down on my chest.
After another minute, Kingston nodded at two of his warriors. “Open it.”
They did, and after they’d opened the cell door, they retreated with Kingston out of the dungeon. Ava had remained at my side, so I leaned into her a little to whisper, “It’s best if I do this alone.” She followed after the warriors without a protest.
Now it was just Silas, Albus, and me. Silas trudged out of the cell only to lean back against the outside bars, watching me silently as I approached him. Though I got close enough to hug him, I didn’t, and I didn’t know what to say to him either. He was upset with me and I didn’t know how to make it right.
“Hello, Albus,” Silas said.
Albus had always loved him, but now he growled—a deep, throaty rumble so unnerving that Silas pressed harder into the metal at his back while his upper lip curled with frustration. And that pressure on my chest grew painfully the moment Albus growled, because he always knew. He’d never threatened Silas a day in his life, but he knew what I couldn’t.
“What are you doing here, Silas?”
“What am I doing here?” Silas asked sarcastically. “I got special permission from the king to be out looking for you, because I know how skilled you are, and I knew there was no way you hadn’t found her yet unless something had happened to you. I’m here because I was worried for you, Kiena. What are you doing here? Who are these people?” That was the last thing I could tell him, and when all I did was watch him silently, he shook his head with displeasure. My secrecy hurt him because we’d always been honest with each other, and I could see that the hurt made him defensive. It made him angrier. “You ran from the tavern last night,” he said, and my eyes widened with shock because he’d been there. I hadn’t recognized him, I’d been in too much of a hurry and the snowfall had been too thick, but he’d been one of the soldiers. He’d seen me run with Ava, and he glanced toward the door of the dungeon with a glare. “What are you doing with the princess?”
“All is not as it seems,” I said.
“You had one task!” he snarled, so suddenly it sent me back a step. “It wasn’t to ask questions. It wasn’t to make decisions or choose sides. It was to find her and bring her back! My men are dead because of you!”
“You must listen to me,” I begged. This wasn’t the Silas I knew. Not the lighthearted friend I’d grown up with. He was irritated and probably still riled up from being captured, and so on edge that I could feel his tension. “The king is not what he’d have you believe.”