There was no one else there.
Chapter 9
"If you see a shadow move, don't blame the sun."
CLINK.
Clink...clink...clink...
He opened one eye.
Clink!
Both eyes open, he saw that a table by the bed held a tray. Someone was mercilessly rapping a spoon against a cup.
He peered past the table: Ukarres, hunched forward in a chair.
The old man grinned with the usual display of stumps. "Good sky to you, Prince Shadow."
Shadow sat up fast. "What time is it?"
The old man dropped the spoon and squirmed back painfully in his seat. "You have slept about one watch and a half."
Shadow glanced around a fine, luxurious room, with bright hangings to hide the stone walls and thick rugs on the floor and well-carved, shiny furniture; bright sunlight shone through good, clear glass. He recognized the anteroom--through that door was the prince's room, probably the ducal bedroom in normal times, empty now, of course. He threw back the covers. "The patrols are ready?"
"Oh, they left hours ago," Ukarres said in his wheezy voice.
Shadow put his feet on the floor. His head was whirling, but most of the ache had gone.
"Stop!" Ukarres said. "You can serve your prince better by staying where you are and listening to me."
Shadow stared at him skeptically.
"I mean it. I know things you do not. So eat that meal before it gets cold--it may be the last decent one you will ever see."
He smelled coffee. Yes, he was hungry again, so he had been out for a long time. This had not come from the commons; the ducal kitchen itself had spawned the white bread and the plate with thick, glistening slices of ham and a huge fried goose egg. His mouth watered.
He reached for the coffee, noticed that he was grubby and smelly and naked, and decided he did not care. "Then speak."
"Do you trust me?"
Shadow shook his head.
"Wise of you," Ukarres said. "I am a trickster. I never tell the truth when a lie will do as well. Deceit is almost the only pleasure left to me, and it was always one of my favorites. This time, though, I find myself forced to be honest."
"You lied to Lady Elosa," Shadow said with his mouth full.
"Of course. I knew that the sight of the prince would dumbfound her--enough to be obvious, so that he would get the reason out of her. I never thought that Rorin would be sent along. That ruined it. I had a slight hope that he would have the sense...well, it didn't work." He sighed. "No need to hurry. You aren't going out to search with the others."
"NailBiter?" Shadow barked, sputtering coffee in his alarm.
"No, he's still there. But Lord Ninomar left written orders: You are to return to duty at somewhere called Jaur."
"The sun will move first."
Ukarres squirmed again and regarded him with some amusement.
"He is trying to save you, you know."
"Ha!"
"Yes, truly. He maintains that only you can fly NailBiter. Of course that is all feathers--the duke can handle anything ever hatched. He's on your side, too."
Shadow chewed for a while, wondering how much to risk. "I can understand the duke wanting me out of sight. But Ninomar hates me down to the hairs on my big toe."
Ukarres shook his head, his one live eye shining, his wrinkles emphasized by a smile. "He admires you."
"Mutes!"
"I asked him about you before the accident. He said you were an insolent, smart-aleck peasant but one of the finest skymen he had ever met and fanatically loyal to the prince. Loyalty is one of the few things he understands. He despises you, yes, but secretly he thinks you deserve to escape. The king will have you publicly ground and roasted like a coffee bean as a warning to all future Shadows. No, the vice-marshal is risking a serious reprimand, but he has left the door open for you, the door to the world."
Shadow started to eat more slowly. "To be an outlaw? No rank, no name, no honor?"
"The king of Piatorra would accept a good skyman with his own mount."
He shook his head. "I shall stay and help search."
Ukarres sighed.
"Loyalty!" he said. "It is rare. Yet, in spite of my devious ways, young Shadow, I was always loyal to my duke. He trusts me. Nobody else dares to. I have served him all his life, kept his secrets, done a few things he wanted done but could not ask for..."
He was silent for a while, as though pondering the next most likely strategy. "Vak Vonimor and I are blood enemies. He runs the aerie and I run the household, and Eagle Dome itself lies between. When I was there to greet your prince, it was the first time I had been in the aerie in...well, in almost your lifetime, I should guess. He is fiercely loyal to the keeper also, but we detest each other."
"So?" Shadow said. Ukarres was a slimy old ruin, but he had a curious attraction about him.
"Today we are friends," Ukarres said solemnly.
"I don't understand," Shadow said, still working his way through the ham.
"You were right--it was murder. You can work it out."
Now Shadow paused, fork in hand, staring at the old man, trying to guess what message lay in that single watery eye.
He thought back to the departure from the aerie. IceFire had been perched in a corner, with NailBiter next to her--it was standard practice to isolate a cawking pair. Then there was old WindStriker, then the duke's IceFlame and a group of birds that were not being used...Before the dressing, Shadow had laid all the equipment nearby on the floor. The prince had stood just inside the bars, facing into the aerie so that Shadow was properly at his back. He would have seen a bat being thrown from in there, and by the time he turned around to mount, WindStriker had been blinkered and unable to react.
"Only one man had the opportunity!" he said. Why had he not seen that before? "You are accusing the duke himself?"
Ukarres's eye slid away from his. "His Grace must take some blame. And so must I. And so must you, Shadow."
"Me?" By God, that was unfair! "What more could I have done?"
"Oh, you did too much, not too little," Ukarres sighed. "Now I must betray a trust. Listen! About four hours before the deed was done, in the middle of third watch, the duke came to my room and woke me. He had received a message from the king."
"What?" Shadow shouted. "How?"
"By bird, of course. The royal courier who came to announce the prince's plans, Sir Jion Something...he left his mount and took one of ours. It returned with this." He reached inside his old brown doublet and pulled out a letter, a seal still dangling from it. "It is an extraordinary document!"
Shadow held out his hand, but the old man hesitated. "My duke is a passionate man, lad, in all ways: lust or rage or joy, but I have not seen him cry since he was a child. Yet this made him weep. The king would have my head...he would have the duke's for showing it to me, I think. Well...read it."
Astounded, Shadow unfolded the parchment. The seal was certainly genuine, but the writing was scrawly, not that of a professional scribe, and the usual flowery preliminaries were missing. But he had seen the king scribble notes, and recognized his hand. It began even more starkly than the summons he had received at Hiando Keep.
The King to his cousin of Foan: Greetings.
Send the enclosed letter to intercept the crown prince at Gorr. It bids him terminate his journey there and forbids him to come to Ninar Foan.