The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3) (71 page)

“You mean there were three assassins?”

“Apparently. Anyway, why don’t you head back and pick up the others so they don’t have to go all the way back to their starting points.”

Kevin nodded. “Would you mind keeping this to yourself until I pick up the other two? I’d like to be there when Darrell and Cpt. Lawrence find out we have three spies.”

“Bet they won’t find it very funny,” Kyle said. “Neither will Chris.”

“I know.”

Kyle nodded. “I’ll wait out here for you.”

Kevin turned his key and went back to the road near the assassins’ hideout, but by the time he got back, Allisandra and Theresa had made it back to the buggy. Kevin asked Theresa if she felt okay about driving back to town by herself.

“Sure. I’ll be fine. Go on. Allisandra needs to put her feet up and relax for a while. And when you want to know where the assassins are living, just find me and I’ll show you where it is. It’s easy to find once you know where to look.”

“I may take you up on that tomorrow,” Kevin said as he helped his aunt out of the buggy. He put his arm around her and turned the key.

A few moments later, they were in the front yard with Kyle. Allisandra started laughing as soon as she saw Kyle. “I couldn’t believe it when I spotted you and Shadron. Can’t wait to see what he has to say.” She looked at Kevin. “Go on. Find him and bring him here. We’ll make a grand entrance together. But don’t take too long. I really do want to put my feet up for a while. I’d forgotten how tiring flying can be.”

Kevin didn’t say a word. He just turned the key and headed back to Fall Creek Road. There wasn’t any sign of Shadron when he got there, so once again he set up a seeing eye and scoured the woods. He was about to give up and head back to Bekka’s when he remember Allisandra’s comment about flying. He looked up. A dark shape was drifting across the sky. The more he watched, the more he felt certain it was a man, and the only man anywhere nearby who could be up there was his uncle. Kevin slowly lifted himself straight up in the air.

“Took your time getting up here,” Shadron said. “Hope you’re faster than that when you need to be.”

“I am, but not when I’m afraid I’ll startle a sorcerer who might turn me into a pile of ashes before he realizes who I am.”

Shadron snorted. “Want me to show you where your assassins are?”

Kevin shook his head. “Not right now. I don’t want to spook them. Now that we know where they are, I want them to stay put.”

“I wasn’t talking about knocking on their front door,” Shadron said. “See that little ledge there, halfway down the mountain. The one with the moon shining on it.”

Kevin nodded.

“There’s a stream flowing over the side. It’s not much of a stream, so you’ll probably need your seeing eye to see it.”

“Got it.”

“Follow the stream down the side of the hill. See the waterfall near the base?”

Again, Kevin nodded.

“Their cave’s behind the waterfall. They’re camped back in there maybe forty, fifty feet. From what I could tell, I’d say there are at least five of them, maybe six. They’ve hung glowstone torches along the walls of their main room and they’ve found a natural chimney for their fire circle. Nice and homey in there.”

“I lived in a cave once, while I was working with Glendymere. It was nice.”

“I bet you had real beds and everything.”

Kevin nodded.

“They don’t. They’re sleeping on the ground, but they’ve made a table and some chairs, so it’s not bad. Anyway, that’s where they are.”

“Thanks,” Kevin said. “Now, let’s get back to your house. Bet you’re ready for dinner.”

“That I am,” Shadron said as he put his hand on Kevin’s arm.

~ ~ ~ ~

Shortly after Kevin brought the last three spotters in, Kayla sent everyone out to the bunk house for dinner. Craven had set out the kegs of scog Shadron had picked up earlier in the week, and soon everyone was seated around the table with a mug of scog and a plate full of food. And that’s when the spotters started talking.

All of them were natural story tellers, and even the ones who hadn’t been visited by an assassin told funny stories about things they’d seen while waiting for trouble to arrive. But when the three who had spotted assassins told their stories, everyone was in stitches over their descriptions of the men creeping around, picking out hiding places, and waiting, and waiting, and finally giving up.

When they got to the part about following them back to the hideout, Allisandra took over. She said from the moment she’d first spotted the assassin, she’d been looking forward to teasing Shadron. She said her assassin must have been the most determined because he was the last to give up and head home. By the time she and Theresa reached the trail that led to the hideout, Shadron and Kyle were already there. Allisandra said she’d felt crushed when she saw them.

As the stories unfolded, Kevin kept an eye on Darrell, Cpt. Lawrence, Chris, and Marcus. They’d laughed along with the others, but the laughter never reached their eyes. He had a feeling this night was going to get even longer once they were back at the castle.

After dinner was over, Shadron motioned Kevin away from the group. “What are you planning to do about the assassins?”

“Nothing. If we do anything, Rolan will just send more.”

Shadron agreed. “What about your spies?”

“Nothing right now.”

“Watch and see?”

Kevin nodded.

“Know Rolan pretty well?”

Kevin thought about how to answer that. “Not really. It’s more I know what he’s capable of. He kills as easily as most men put on a tunic, and he thinks nothing of holding people hostage to get what he wants.”

Shadron nodded. “Let us know if you decide to go up against those assassins. We’ll be more than happy to help you smoke them out, literally.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Kevin and Chris each took a key and soon all of Kevin’s aunts and uncles were back where they belonged. Then Kevin took Warren and Torrey home while Chris headed back to the castle with Cpt. Lawrence, Darrell, and Marcus.

After Kevin helped Torrey unload her basket, he thanked them both for going.

“We enjoyed it,” Warren said. “Anytime you need an extra hand, just let me know, and I mean that.”

Torrey gave Warren a sideways look. “Why don’t you tell him what’s on your mind? I know you spent the whole day thinking about it.”

“What?” Kevin asked.

“It might be time for me to think about stepping down,” Warren said slowly.

Kevin frowned. “A month ago you said you weren’t ready. What’s changed?”

“Well, Colin’s ready to handle this job on his own, and if I keep hanging on, it’ll undermine his confidence. He’s ready to be a district sorcerer.”

“This has been bothering him for a couple of weeks.” Torrey slipped her arm around her husband. “I keep telling him it won’t make any difference whether he retires or not. Folks around here will still come to him when they need something done. If he really wants to let Colin take over, we’ve got to move. Unfortunately, we like it here. We’ve lived here for a long time and have a lot of good friends here.”

“All I’m doing at this point is holding him back,” Warren said with a deep sigh. “I’m not ready to retire, but I’m also not willing to go back to being the district sorcerer full time, so if I have to choose between the two …”

Kevin pursed his lips. “Actually, I’ve got something I want to talk to both of you about that might solve the problem, but I can’t say anything yet.” Kevin looked first at Warren and then at Torrey. He looked back at Warren and asked, “Can you give me some time to get a few things worked out? I should know more in a couple of months.”

Warren nodded. “All right. Just don’t take too long.”

“I won’t. And thanks again.”

Chapter 61

Follow up

It was midnight by the time Kevin got back to the castle. Cpt. Lawrence, Darrell, and Marcus wanted to talk, and even though he was worn out, Kevin figured it was best to talk while the rest of the castle slept, so he ushered the three of them and Chris into his office and shut the door.

Cpt. Lawrence was the first to speak up. “I’m sorry about all of this. I’ll hand in my resignation tomorrow morning.”

“Whoa,” Kevin said. “What brought that on?”

“Those spies got in here on my watch. I was Captain of the Guard. It was my job to protect this castle and all who live here. I thought I checked everyone out, but I missed Shana and Darius. I can’t take responsibility for Trevor though. I didn’t hire any soldiers.”

“I hope you noticed not one guard was involved.” Darrell leaned forward and turned towards Cpt. Lawrence.

“As far as we know,” Cpt. Lawrence countered, turning towards Darrell. “Maybe we just haven’t found him yet.”

Kevin held up his hand. “Stop. Just stop.”

Both Cpt. Lawrence and Darrell leaned back in their chairs.

“It’s not your fault,” Kevin said as he shook his head. “None of this is your fault. It’s not Miranda’s, not Neiven’s, not Gen. Crandal’s. It’s Rolan’s. And I will not let him undermine this staff. He got to these people. We don’t know how yet, but mark my words, this is on him.”

Chris nodded. “You don’t know him. We do. He inspires fear and hatred, not loyalty. If they’re spying for him, they’re not doing it to help him. He’s either offered them a lot of money, which puts the blame on them, or he’s threatening them, which puts the blame on him.”

Cpt. Lawrence shook his head. “No one can make another person spy for him, Chris. If the spy gets caught, he’ll be locked up for life, if not killed. If he was offered enough money, he might think it was worth the risk, but no one can force him to become a spy. He has to choose to do it.”

Kevin shook his head. “Chris is right. You don’t know Rolan. Last year he wanted to test his skills, so he sparred against a bunch of novice sorcerers, but he doesn’t spar like we do around here, he fought them for real, to the death, and moved on to the next one.”

Kevin paused and then said, “One day last fall he had a temper tantrum in his bedroom. While he was tossing around energy bolts, one of his guards opened the door to make sure he was all right. Rolan killed him, although from what I heard it was an accident, but he stepped over the man’s ashes and yelled for someone to clean up the mess. He thinks nothing of holding a man’s mother, wife, or child hostage to make the man do what he says. And I could go on. This is the man we’re talking about.”

No one said anything for a moment, then Darrell spoke up. “We have three people providing information to Rolan’s assassins. What are we going to do about it?”

“Nothing,” Kevin said.

“Well, not exactly nothing,” Chris said, glancing towards Cpt. Lawrence and Darrell. “We need to make sure any information they provide is harmless, and we need to keep them away from any place where they could do harm.”

“Like getting Shana out of the kitchen?” Darrell asked. “I’m all for that.”

“And I’m not too sure about letting Darius saddle a horse Myron or Landis might ride,” Chris added. “We need to find some other place for him, too.”

Cpt. Lawrence was quiet, but Kevin could tell something was on his mind. “What?” Kevin asked.

“Right after Saryn was killed, I made a list of all the soldiers and where they were that night. I thought we might need to know at some point, and I was trying to remember where Trevor was. The list is in my desk. I’ll check it when I leave here, but if he’s responsible for Saryn’s death, I have to tell Gen. Crandal, and he won’t let it go.”

“No, I don’t imagine he would,” Kevin said. “Go get your list. Let’s see how big a problem this is going to be.”

Cpt. Lawrence nodded and left.

While he was gone, Darrell said, “We need a plan. We need to know where we’re putting these people, but the changes should come from somewhere else, not from this office.”

“Agreed,” Chris said. “We could send Shana to help Gracie at Joan’s, or promote her to housekeeper for Laryn.”

“I’m not sure I want her around Laryn,” Kevin said.

“Laryn’s one smart lady,” Chris argued. “I bet she could find out why Shana’s passing on information. I’d be willing to bet there’s a threat against someone she cares about.”

“Maybe so, but she works in the kitchen,” Kevin pointed out. “Do you know when she got here? Could she be responsible for poisoning my father? Do you really want to put her in Laryn’s house without knowing the answer to that question?”

Chris shook his head. “Laryn would know how long she’s been here.”

“Ask her tomorrow,” Kevin said. “If we can be sure Shana didn’t have anything to do with Badec’s death, we’ll ask Laryn if she wants to see what she can do with her. But it’s got to be Laryn’s choice, so maybe we need to come up with a Plan B if you want Shana out of the kitchen.”

Cpt. Lawrence walked back into Kevin’s office with a grin on his face. “First good news of the day. Trevor’s time is accounted for. He was at Fenway’s with some other soldiers until the wee hours of the morning. They all came back to the barracks together, all went inside together, and all went to bed. His bed’s near the back. In order to get out without anyone knowing, he’d have to get all the way up the aisle without waking anyone, which would be next to impossible. I’d say he’s in the clear for Saryn’s murder.”

“There’s no way Shana did it,” Chris said.

“Darius could have,” Darrell said. “That man’s strong. He helped build the playground and he’s as strong as any of my guards, and he’s got better upper body strength than most of them. I think Neiven’s training him as a blacksmith. He’s got the muscles for it.”

“Do we know anything about his whereabouts?” Kevin asked.

They all shook their heads.

“Okay, so he’s a suspect in that, too,” Kevin said, “but no more than the other assassins. I think we’ll have to let Saryn’s murder go for now. If anything comes up later that points towards the killer, we’ll do something about it, even if it’s Darius, but until we have more than guesswork, this stays here, with us.”

The others nodded, so Kevin moved on. “Marcus, you’ve been awfully quiet.”