“Then the audience is going forward?”
The king cast us another look. “We think we’d better, Your Holiness.” The patriarch nodded and he and Doyen Allwyn laid their burdens on the rune circle, making sure they all were straight. Archdoyen Obruesk watched them from under his brows.
I walked over and squatted down beside the circle. Laurel, still lamenting, followed.
“When Doyen Allwyn arrived, I had him enter into three days of purification and sanctification,” the patriarch said. “When his time was accomplished, it occurred to us that perhaps we should search the See.” He sighed and removed his hat, showing that his head was also shaved. He began to undo his vestments, revealing white underneath. “We found these staves.” He laid his hat and vestments aside, standing there in penitent sacking. “I take it that they’re what we thought they were.” He looked at Laurel. “Doyen Allwyn was reluctant to name who’d given him his staff, Ambassador, because it came from me.” Though the most common was oak, a church staff could be made from any hardwood, the idea being that it wasn’t the wood that made the staves holy, but rather what they represented: the guidance, comfort, and protection of God. The thought floated across the back of my mind that these were more likely to cause nightmares, as I reached out and almost touched a staff made of ash. “Honor Ash Faena.”
“You knew—her?” Jusson asked.
“She strode the area around my parents’ farm.” I held my head in my hands. “How could you’ve not known, Laurel Faena?”
“I’ve been gone a long time, Lord Rabbit,” the Faena replied. “It took me months just to find you.”
“We weren’t lost that long, cat,” I said.
“Did you ever tell anyone where you were?”
He was right. I had kept where I was to myself, hiding. I lifted my head and looked around at Basel’s body and the spritewood before us, weariness pressing down.
“I’d come to see if I could stop a war, honored king,” Laurel said, standing up. “But I don’t think I can.” The Faena rumbled deep in his chest. “How it grieves me that I can’t.”
“Never say never, Ambassador Faena,” Jusson said, his voice soft. “There has to be a way out that doesn’t involve more bloodshed.”
I made myself stand also. “You foresaw the fulfilling of the Council’s charge of peace, Laurel Faena,” I said.
Laurel looked at me. “That can just as easily come after war—”
“Don’t split hairs,” I said. “Either you saw peace or you didn’t.”
“They killed Honor Ash Faena,” Laurel replied.
“Yes.” A hard knot formed in my chest. “They killed her.”
“What do you think the other Faena will say?”
Along with the elves, tree sprites and Dragoness Moraina. My face became drawn with the certainty of another war with the Border. I knew which side I’d be on, thrice sworn to the king. I wondered if I would end up fighting against my da and brothers.
“We have grievously wounded you,” Jusson said to Laurel. “But you’re an ambassador. Show us what to do to make amends, how to make restitution.”
Laurel let out a sigh and ran his paw over his head, staring at the staves. “Yes, honored king. Let me think on it.”
I also stared down on the bodies neatly arranged in the rune circle and something nudged my brain. “You say Honor Ash was fine when you left, Laurel Faena?”
“True, honored Rabbit,” Laurel replied. “She saw me off, wishing me good hunting.”
“Yet here her body is, arriving in the city before you, already seasoned and fashioned with holy bells.” I looked at Captain Javes. “What did the restaurant server say about her ice boats?”
Javes stared back at me. “That’s it.”
“We suppose that eventually someone will tell us what is going on,” King Jusson said.
Javes bowed. “Forgive us, Your Majesty, but Lord Rabbit has just come up with the answer to the problem you sent me to Freston to solve.”
The king’s eyes abruptly turned gold again.
“You knew, sire?” I asked. “You knew there was smuggling going on?”
“My tutors were very insistent that I learn to count and do sums,” Jusson said. “I could see that the docks were busy and the harbor was full of ships, but when I checked the revenue books, they did not match.” He shrugged, his mouth hard. “You aren’t the only one to indulge in naivete, cousin. I accepted the explanations given me by my Lord Treasurer. Then I heard the rumors of slave running, and sent Javes to investigate.”
“We got the staves from Lord Gherat, Your Majesty,” the patriarch interjected. His face was calm, his eyes angry. “He gifted them to the Church. Said that they came from a northern estate.”
Chancellor Berle had come up to stand with Lord Esclaur, and she now prompted me. “The ice boats?”
“False reports of pirates that sent everyone chasing their own tails in Dornel,” I said.
“Yes, we received Commander Ystan’s report,” Jusson said.
“And while they’re scouring the Banson for the raiders, they ignore the boat carrying ice to the favorite restaurant of the rich and noble in the Royal City.” I looked at Javes. “You had me thinking, sir, that it was my likeness to my Chause grandda that had everyone jumping.”
“You do look an awful lot like him, cousin,” Jusson said.
“As you say, Your Majesty,” I replied. “But I’m guessing that wasn’t the reason for their reaction when I showed up—as if they’d opened the door and found a thieftaker looking for them. And there they were today, all ready to give false witness. Why else would a royal shopkeeper and a restaurant server entangle themselves in my cousin’s treason?”
“There’s bribery and blackmail,” Lord Esclaur said. “A little money and threats against one’s family go a long way.”
“That sword cuts both ways, Esclaur,” I said, “because they’re also threatened with exposure if they’re involved in the smuggling, so they joined my cousin in an effort to discredit Laurel and me.” I looked back at the staves lying in the rune circle. “It must’ve alarmed them when they found out that we could tell spritewood from ordinary, dragon skin from lizard.” My mouth twisted. “That we could even tell who they’d killed.”
Laurel softly yowled. “That they were friends.”
“Friends,” Jusson echoed. He sighed and looked around the throne room. “Our palace has been turned into an abattoir.”
That was nothing new, I thought. The whole kingdom was one.
“That will cease, Lieutenant Lord Rabbit ibn Chause e Flavan,” Jusson said, turning glittering eyes on me.
I said nothing at the confirmation that the king could hear me. Most of the Court looked from Jusson to me, puzzled. A few, though, frowned.
“Your Majesty—” began Suiden.
“No, Captain Prince. Again, while your zeal for your charges is commendable, we are talking to our cousin.” Jusson kept his gold-shot gaze on me. “We have had enough people pulling at the stability of our kingdom. We do not need you to add to it, Lord Rabbit.”
The puzzled looks intensified.
I supposed the smart thing would’ve been to fall to my knees and beg for forgiveness. I supposed. “One of my earliest memories, sire, is Honor Ash Faena guiding my steps as she led me around the farm, teaching me how to track.” The knot in my chest tightened and I tried to catch my breath. “Look what they did to her.” I took another deep breath. “Look what they did to all of them.”
In the quiet that followed, boot steps sounded out in the hall, and we all turned as the lordling whom Jusson had sent to the House of Dru came through the throne room doors, hurried to the king, and bowed. “Your Majesty, Lord Gherat had already fled, but I’ve brought you who—and what—we found.” Troopers and guards entered, some carrying boxes and crates. And right in the middle of them was our own very officious clerk, Losan eso Dru.