Lucivar smiled. Then he looked behind him and Grizande when Zoela Queen stood up.
“I need to reach the Hall,” Zoela Queen said. “There are things the other Queens and I need to discuss.”
Grizande studied the other girl. Zoela Queen had been afraid when they’d gone to the Keep. Now she was ready for the fight to come.
Lucivar used Craft to glide the Coach above the road as if it were a wheeled carriage. When he reached the bridge that indicated the boundary between Halaway’s land and the SaDiablo estate, he set the Coach down on the road—a barricade to keep the unwary, or the foolish, from slamming into Daemon’s Black shield. Not an aggressive shield as such, but not passive either. Since it consumed a person’s power so swiftly, the reservoir in a Jewel could be drained and the Jewel broken before its owner realized the danger.
The Black had gone cold, but Lucivar couldn’t tell from just the feeling of cold if he would be dealing with the High Lord or the Sadist.
So we dance on the knife’s edge.
*Bastard?* he called on a spear thread.
*Prick? Where are you?*
*At the bridge. The girls are with me. Zoey would like to talk to the other Queens.*
*Zoey is in her room because of tummy troubles,* came the dry reply. *I’ll open the shield above the Queen’s square of rooms. You better bring the girls in that way for discretion’s sake.*
*We’ll be there in a few minutes.* Lucivar ended the link, then nudged the girls out of the Coach.
“How do we reach the Hall?” Zoey asked.
Lucivar took firm hold of an arm and wrapped a shield around Zoey. After doing the same with Grizande, he said, “We fly.”
That was all the warning they had before he spread his wings and launched them skyward. He needed Craft and power to hold that much weight in each hand during flight—especially because he was flying close to the shields above the Hall and didn’t want a collision between the shields around the girls and the shields around the Hall. Even an Ebon-gray shield wouldn’t protect them against the Black.
When they reached the Queen’s square of rooms, Lucivar used Craft to create a platform of air that they could stand on while waiting for the shield to open. Zoey looked pale but still determined. Grizande quivered with . . .
“I learn to do this?”
. . . excitement. “We’ll teach you.”
She purred with satisfaction.
He swallowed a sigh and accepted that he would also be teaching the little tiger. Maybe not. Liath seemed to be in charge of Jaalan’s education. May the Darkness have mercy on all of them.
The shield opened. Lucivar vanished the air platform and spread his wings enough to control the fall to the inner courtyard, landing lightly before he set the girls on their feet and released the shields around them.
Weston stepped onto the second-story balcony and stared at them.
“You in trouble, Zoela Queen,” Grizande said, sounding amused but sympathetic.
Arlene and Jhett ran out of the social room, and skidded to a stop when they realized the Eyrien with Zoey wasn’t Daemonar.
Lucivar put a hand around the back of Grizande’s neck. The girl hissed a warning, which he ignored. “You are going to find the other Queens. Do it quietly. Say these words exactly: ‘Lady Zoela requires your presence in the Queen’s square.’ Don’t answer any questions. Don’t tell anyone else the message you’re giving the Queens.”
“Not even brother Daemonar?”
Brother? Well, well, well. “You may tell your brother when you can’t be overheard.” He didn’t point out that she could use a psychic thread to talk to Daemonar. If she didn’t realize that, it would be another lesson.
He released her. “Go.”
Grizande looked around. Lucivar noted with approval that she carefully probed the rooms before she said, “How?”
“Up here.” Weston waved a hand. “This room is the only way in or out.”
The girl moved fast, racing up the stairs with a feline grace that would make her exquisitely lethal with a few years of training.
When she disappeared with Weston, Lucivar looked at the other girls but didn’t ask any questions. He walked up the stairs.
“Zoey,” Weston said when Lucivar walked into the room. “Did she get the answers she needed?”
“She’s asked to see the other Queens, so I guess we’ll find out.”
Grizande found Kathlene Queen first, but she wasn’t alone.
As Grizande wondered how to separate Queen from court without being obvious that she had a message meant for Queen alone, Titian noticed her and moved toward her, leaving Kathlene Queen to deal with a screeching girl.
“I have to get out! I can’t breathe!”
“We can go into one of the courtyards for fresh air,” Kathlene Queen said soothingly.
“But we’re still locked in! Why are we locked in?”
“Cara, I’m sure the Hall being locked is temporary and has nothing to do with us. Come on, now. We have lessons to finish.”
“I can’t!”
“Grizande,” Titian said, looking worried but trying to smile.
“Screeching do no good,” Grizande said. “Outside land also shielded. Can’t get in; can’t get out.”
Titian looked at the other people around Cara and Kathlene Queen. “You got back in.”
“Prince Lucivar got back in. Brought us with him.”
“Father’s here?” Titian blinked. Then she sighed. “Yes, of course he’s here.”
“Have message for Kathlene Queen from Zoela Queen.”
“Maybe you can tell me?”
Grizande shook her head. “Only for Queens. Lucivar said.”
Titian nodded. “Wait here. I’ll tell Kathlene you need to speak to her.”
Whatever Titian said had Kathlene Queen moving away from her court—including the screeching girl who tried to follow.
“What does she have to say that the rest of us can’t hear?” Cara wailed, trying to shake off Titian’s hold of her arm.
“Is Zoey feeling better?” Kathlene Queen asked. “Her tummy was upset this morning.”
That was the untruth to explain Zoela Queen’s absence from the assignments. “Better,” Grizande agreed. “Zoela Queen requires your presence in the Queen’s square.”
“If my presence is required, then this must be important.”
“Yes.”
“Just me, or Felisha and Azara too?”
“You and them.”
“We don’t want everyone to notice that you’re delivering a message to all the Queens. Why don’t you tell Azara and I’ll tell Felisha?” Kathlene Queen thought for a moment. “Better not to bring our courts to this meeting?”
“No courts. Just Queens.”
“Then if you would oblige me by finding Prince Daemonar and telling him the Queens will be heading for the Queen’s square without an escort? He’ll know what to do.”
She knew what to do. “I find Daemonar. I escort Azara Queen. He find escorts for you and Felisha Queen.”
“Very well. We’ll be there as soon as we can. Azara and her court are working in the main library today. Do you know where that is?”
Grizande nodded and walked away.
As she headed for the part of the Hall where she would find Azara Queen, it occurred to her that Kathlene Queen had made requests, not given orders—just like she would have done if she’d been talking to Daemonar.
Daemonar felt the presence of the Sapphire—and the presence of the Ebon-gray. Sadi’s Black was a smothering presence that made it impossible for someone to know the man’s exact location. Well, Daemonar couldn’t tell. He was certain the Demon Prince would be able to locate the High Lord.