The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3) (52 page)

“I hate to say it, but I don’t see anything we can do about these raids. Do you?”

Gen. Crandal shook his head. “Even if we find out who’s behind them, I’m not sure we can do anything. If they’re using a key, there’s a seated sorcerer involved.”

Kevin nodded. “Twelve suspects.”

“And even if we figure out which one it is, unless things have changed since Badec was going to those meetings, I don’t see them stopping just because you ask them to.”

“Things haven’t changed at all in that respect, but if we find out who has our people, I just might go get them. I told everyone on the council I’d do that the first time I met with them.”

Gen. Crandal raised his eyebrows at Kevin. “You didn’t.”

Kevin nodded. “I told them if I found out any of them were holding any citizens of Camden against their will, I’d go get them, no matter where I had to go to rescue them. I’m not sure they believed me, but they’ve all been warned.”

“You’d really go marching into another sorcerer’s castle to rescue some captives?”

When Kevin nodded, Gen. Crandal laughed. “If you do, I’m going with you. I want to see this.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Friday morning Darrell and Cpt. Lawrence met in Darrell’s office to discuss the results of their investigations into who could have passed the information about Landis to the assassins.

“How many possibilities did you end up with?” Cpt. Lawrence asked.

Darrell sighed. “Twelve, but I’m hoping you can help me narrow it down a bit. You know these people better than I do.”

“All right. Who’s on your list?”

“Well, first of all, Brandon. He wasn’t at breakfast, but when Marcus gave him the note for Hayley, he told him what it was about, so Brandon knew they were going to eat lunch at the chapel. Trent was with Brandon at that point, so he knew too, but neither of them saw Rhianna, so they didn’t know she was an elf.” Darrell glanced at his notes. “When they got to Milhaven, they separated. Brandon went to the chapel and then he says he stayed around town for a while helping out where he could. He wasn’t with any of the squads, but some of the other guards said they either saw him or spoke to him that morning, and several of the townspeople who thanked me for sending the guards down mentioned Brandon by name, but he didn’t get back to the castle until lunchtime. I guess he could have met with Saryn, but I don’t think so.”

Cpt. Lawrence shook his head. “I doubt he’s involved. He hasn’t been here but three years, but I got to know him pretty well. He didn’t work inside when he first came. He wouldn’t have known Badec had a cup of tea every night, so we can rule him out there, too.”

Darrell drew a line through Brandon’s name.

“What did Trent say?”

“He says he was working in town too, but no one in town mentioned him when they talked about the guards who helped out. None of the other guards mentioned seeing him either.”

“Did you ask if they saw him?”

“No, I asked each guard to name the people from the castle they saw or spoke to between breakfast and mid-afternoon and tell me where and when they saw them. I imagine most of the guards forgot one or two people, but if he’d been in town, someone would have mentioned him.”

Cpt. Lawrence thought for a minute. “Do you know where Kira was during that time by any chance?”

“Kira? Miranda’s Kira? From the kitchen staff?”

Cpt. Lawrence nodded.

“She’s on my list, too. She said she’d been with Shana, but Shana said she went to town by herself. And Shana’s on the list too, by the way. She said she went to the dry goods store but it was closed so she came back to the castle. But several of the guards mentioned that Tolliver had his shop open by mid-morning. She could be telling the truth, but when I talked to her I got the impression she was lying. I got that feeling with Kira, too.”

“I can’t help you with Shana, but I bet I know why Kira lied, and I’d be willing to bet Trent lied, too.”

Darrell frowned. “Is there something I should know about?”

“Something’s going on between those two, and I mean that in the romantic sense, not the spy sense. Trent’s only been here a little over a year. I have no idea how long Kira’s been here, but I became aware of her about this time last year. I spotted the two of them kissing out behind the barracks and I’ve seen them back there several times since. I bet they were together that morning.”

“Why didn’t they tell me that?”

“Because it’s frowned on for any of the guards to take up with any of the castle staff. I’m not sure how Miranda feels about it, but if it’d been reported to me, I’d have had to follow up on it, and it could have cost Trent his job. Miranda may have the same policy.”

“So they just keep sneaking around? What if they decide they want to get married?”

“Then one of them needs to find another job. But anyway, that probably explains the two of them. You might want to check with Miranda and see how long Kira’s been here though. Trent didn’t come until after Badec had been poisoned, so he wasn’t involved in that, but if one of them is involved, they both are.”

Darrell nodded and made a note. “Next, Rupert, but only because no one can alibi him. He was on duty all night, even though Myron wasn’t here. He was around the office when Landis and Rhianna were in there, and he was in the dining hall while they were eating breakfast, so I imagine he knew their plans. And that’s the last place anyone remembers seeing him. He said he went back to his room and went to sleep, which I believe, but can’t prove.”

“I think we can take Rupert off the list. If he saw Rhianna, he knew she was an elf, and he knows how dangerous they are. If he was the spy, Saryn would have known about Rhianna.”

“That’s what I thought, too.” Darrell drew a heavy line through Rupert’s name. “Next we have Josef and Aaron. Both of them were with squads in Milhaven, so I got my information from their squad leaders. Josef left his group to go get some wood. He did come back with wood and nails, but he was gone nearly an hour, a little longer than Cantor thought was necessary.”

“Did he have his horse nearby?”

Darrell shook his head. “No. He drove the wagon down. That’s why he knew Marcus was taking the girls to the chapel for lunch. Brandon and Trent were talking about it while they were saddling their horses. Josef was in the stable loading tools and supplies into the wagon while they were there. He did take the wagon when he went to get more wood though, so he had transportation.”

“But he came back with the supplies he went for, right?”

Darrell nodded. “The only problem was the time.”

Cpt. Lawrence shook his head. “There’s no way he could have met someone, told him about Landis, got back to Milhaven, picked up more supplies, and got back to his group in an hour, not unless he met Saryn in town.”

“If that were the case, I think Saryn would have said so. I got the feeling whoever gave him the information went out to their camp, and I don’t think it’s that close to town or someone would have spotted it by now,” Darrell said as he drew a line through Josef’s name. “I think they’re camped somewhere to the east. We’re the last town before the mountains, so there’s less chance of being spotted out that way.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Next we have Aaron,” Darrell said. “According to Meech, shortly after they got to town, Aaron said he needed something to eat, that he’d missed breakfast. And from what I’ve been able to find out, that much is true, but he was gone for more than two hours.”

“Put him on the suspect list. Two hours is an hour and a half longer than he would have needed to get something to eat. He was already in town, and according to Fenway, he was open bright and early that morning.”

Darrell circled his name. “That does it for the guards. Next we come to the kitchen staff. Carrie was serving that morning and overheard Marcus say they’d eat at the chapel. Almost everyone in the dining room was talking about heading into Milhaven, so she told Miranda about it when she got back to the kitchen. Miranda gave her whole staff three hours off that morning since there weren’t going to be that many people in the castle for lunch. Carrie said she went home for a while and then came back to get started on lunch, but there’s no one to verify that she went home.”

“Hazards of living alone.” Cpt. Lawrence frowned. “She’s lived in Milhaven all her life. The house she lives in belonged to her parents. They left a couple of years ago to go back to her mother’s hometown. Carrie stayed. I don’t see any way she’d have come in contact with Rolan or anyone representing him. She keeps to herself and leads a quiet life. To the best of my knowledge there hasn’t been a love interest at any point either, so no one could have gotten to her that way. I think we can leave her off the final list.”

“Good. We’ve already put Shana on there, right?”

Cpt. Lawrence nodded.

“That only leaves Miranda. She says she was in the kitchen the whole time and I don’t doubt it for one minute, but no one came in until Carrie got back, so no one can vouch for her. I only put her on the list to be thorough, but I don’t think she’s a suspect, do you?”

Cpt. Lawrence shook his head.

Darrell circled Shana’s name and drew a line through Miranda’s. “The only other household staff that’s got any time unaccounted for is Serra. She said she went to Joan’s to see if she was needed there, and when she wasn’t, she went to see if her mother needed her. Both of those visits were checked out. The only problem is she wasn’t either place but a few minutes, and she was gone nearly three hours. She rode her horse into town, so she had transportation.

“What does she say she did after she left her mother’s?”

“That she went for a ride out in the country, but she didn’t run into anyone on any of the roads she took, so no one can say where she was or when she was there.”

“She’s been at the castle almost her entire life. I’ve known her since she was a child. I can see her wondering around by herself, checking things out. What I can’t see her doing is anything that would hurt anyone. She can’t stand to see anything in pain. There’s no way she could set someone up to get killed.”

Darrell smiled and drew a line through her name. “Then we have the grounds men. Neiven never left his shop, but as no one came in, we’re in the same situation there that we were with Miranda.”

Cpt. Lawrence nodded. “We can leave him off, too. He could have run into Rolan at some point, but he takes no interest in what goes on in the castle. There’s no way he’d have known Badec liked tea in the evening. As for Landis, Neiven has a protective streak when it comes to women and children. He wouldn’t have any part of any plan to kill a woman. He’d have tried to stop it.”

“The only grounds men who might be involved are Randor and Darius. They were around while Brandon and Trent were talking in the stables. Randor says he worked in the stable area all morning, and since no one complained about the stable when they brought their horses back, I tend to believe him. Darius said he saddled up one of the horses and went to check the fencing around the different pastures. That’s a good excuse since it needed to be done, but he was out of sight most of the day, and if he rode the whole fence line, I don’t see how he missed that section near the river where one of the willows fell over on it. Myron spotted it the next morning.”

Cpt. Lawrence’s eyebrows arched upwards. “Add him to the suspect list.”

Darrell circled Darius’s name. “And that does it for my group. Now, what about the soldiers? What did you find out?”

“Mine were easier than yours. Gen. Crandal divided the whole regiment into squads under the command of the sergeants. They can all alibi each other except for three men who disappeared for a while. Menos was gone for an hour and a half. He says he was checking out some of the nearby woods, but no one saw him. Carlo was gone most of the morning, but his sergeant sent him out to check some roads. Trevor’s horse picked up a rock in his shoe and Trevor didn’t get back to his squad until lunchtime. Personally I don’t know them well enough to vouch for them, so put all three on the suspect list.”

Darrell added their names to his list. “That gives us six.”

“What do you want to do now?”

“Figure out which one’s a spy.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“I’m not sure yet,” Darrell said, “but it’s probably going to involve setting a trap and seeing what happens.”

Chapter 47

Sunday Morning in the Canyon Lands

Sunday morning, after warding off what felt like a thousand of Glendymere’s energy bolts, Kevin sat on the edge of the butte soaking up the tranquility of the canyon lands. Glendymere was stretched out nearby, enjoying the warmth of the sun.

Kevin was daydreaming of quiet walks in the moonlight with a certain elf when he realized Glendymere had said something. “What?”

“
I said Landis has made her decision.”

“What happened?”

“She asked me to help her learn everything she needs to know to become your apprentice.”

“But you’ve already said you’d do that.”

“That’s what I said. Then she said I’d been asked by other people, never by her.”

Kevin turned towards Glendymere. “She’s serious.”

Glendymere nodded.
“And she’s done a lot better since she made her decision. We’ve only worked with the energy of Terah and water. We still have to tap into wind and fire, and if she’s good enough, her life force. Not all sorcerers can connect with that one well enough to draw energy from it, but I think she may be able to. You’ll need to be ready to take over by mid-summer. She may be ready earlier, but if you haven’t got things worked out, I can keep her until then.”

“The first thing I’ve got to do is find a place for her to live. Milhaven’s too dangerous.”

“You can use the caves in Rainbow Valley.”

“I may have to for a while, but it’s not fair to either you or the giants for me to leave them there. Ashni will feed them and take care of them if they live in the caves. And you’ll still stand guard if they’re anywhere around there. I’ll find a safe place for them.”