The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3) (72 page)

Marcus shrugged. “I don’t have anything to add, but I do agree we need to keep them away from you.”

“I’ll take care of that,” Chris said. “I’m not sure how, but I’ll have it done by the end of next week.”

“Well, if there’s nothing else …” Kevin looked around. “Okay, keep all of this to yourselves, the names of the spies, how many there are, what we did today, and everything that was said in here tonight. No one in this room or in any primary staff position is to blame for this. It happened. Period.”

Darrell looked at Kevin. “These three could be just the tip of the iceberg, there may be more spies lurking about. He sent out quite a few squads with orders not to come home until you’re dead. Some of those men probably want to go back to Trendon. Don’t get careless.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Sunday morning, after Glendymere finished tossing energy bolts at him, Kevin asked if he knew about the trap they’d set to find Rolan’s spy.

Glendymere nodded.
“Rhianna told me. She wanted me to stop it.”

“Why?”

“She felt Landis would be in a dangerous position.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I figured you knew what you were doing.”

Kevin nodded. “Well, the plan worked too well. We have at least three informants working in the castle. I was already of the opinion she needed someplace else to live, but after yesterday, I’m not sure any place will be safe.”

“Like I told you before, you can leave her here.”

“And like I told you, that’s not right. I may have to use the caves in Rainbow Valley for a while, but she’ll need to train for at least a year, and I can’t leave her here that long.”

“She’s only human. She’ll need a lot more than a year.
I do have a question though. How can you teach her if she’s not with you?”

“I’ll have to let someone else do the bulk of it. When I agreed to take her on as an apprentice, I had no idea how dangerous it would be for her to live at the castle. I won’t relinquish my responsibility. I’ll keep a close eye on her progress and work with her when I can, but I’ll have to let someone else do the day in and day out stuff.”

“Any idea who?”

“I’ve got someone in mind. I haven’t talked to him yet, but he’s good.”

“Will he teach her to save kittens?”

Kevin laughed. “Yes.”

“Good. I think more than anything else, that convinced her to become a sorcerer.”

“Speaking of the kitten, Marcus is picking it up this afternoon. Landis and Rhianna both said Gwynn would be happy to take care of it, but I’d rather they be the ones to tell her about it. I thought I’d pick them up this afternoon and take them to Crinsor Run for a few hours and let them make the introductions. Will that be all right with you?”

“Fine with me, but you might want to let Ashni know. I doubt Gwynn will let the girls come back here before she feeds them.”

Kevin nodded. “I’ll drop by Ashni’s on my way home.”

“Anything else?”

“Landis asked me to let her know what happened yesterday. Do you know where she is?”

“She was in the cave when I left.”

Again, Kevin nodded.

“Talk to that sorcerer of yours. If he agrees to take over, I’ll want to meet with him and see how far he wants me to take her.”

“Probably as far as you’re willing to, but I’ll talk to him before too long. And I’ll see if he’ll agree to talk to a dragon. Not all humans are as tolerant as I am, you know.”

Glendymere cut his eyes over at Kevin and snorted.
“Are you going to work with Rhianna today?”

Kevin nodded. “I thought I’d make a couple of tornadoes and let her work with them. After she’s comfortable controlling them, we can work on building one.”

“I’d rather she practice thunderstorms. If she’s ready with that, I can bring them down here and let Landis start capturing energy from the wind. You can play with tornadoes later, after the start of the new year if you like, or even later. There’s no hurry with that one. We won’t be using them for Landis.”

“All right, we can do that. Anything else?”

When Glendymere shook his head, Kevin turned his key and left the canyon lands.

~ ~ ~ ~

Kevin made a quick trip by Glendymere’s cave to let Landis and Rhianna know that the trap worked. He wasn’t sure which part shocked them the most, that there were three informants or that one of them was Shana. Landis agreed that knowing who they were was good enough, but Rhianna wanted them confronted, questioned, and locked away for life.

After a few uncomfortable minutes, Kevin redirected the conversation by telling them Marcus was going to pick up the kitten that afternoon. “After he brings it back to the castle, I thought I’d bring it by here, pick up the two of you, and take you to Crinsor Run for a while.”

“That would be fun,” Landis said. “Do you think Ashni would mind if we stayed there for dinner?”

“I’m sure that’ll be fine. Oh, and Cira said she let the kitten live in the house because she figured that’s what you’d want.”

“That was nice of her,” Landis said. “I’d like to send her a thank-you note. Can you have it delivered if I write it this afternoon?”

“Sure,” Kevin answered. “Now, if there’s nothing else, Rhianna and I need to get out to the canyon lands.”

Rhianna stepped beside him and placed her hand on his arm. He gave the key a turn, and a few moments later, they were on the same butte he’d been on earlier with Glendymere.

“Glendymere wants you to work on thunderstorms today. He’s planning to bring you and Landis down here soon to let her start working with wind, and he’ll want you to stir up a good storm and keep it going while she taps into the energy. So, want to make one?”

Rhianna quickly stirred up a thunderstorm and asked Kevin how long she needed to keep it going.

“I’m not sure, but I don’t think we want to have too much rain. Can you keep the wind going without much rain?”

“I don’t know.” She knitted her eyebrows and concentrated on her storm. For the next half hour she built the storm up to the point of rain, calmed it down a bit, and just before it faded away, stirred it up again.

She repeated the process five times before Kevin touched her arm. “Okay, let it go now.”

“Do you mean let it rain? Or let it fade away?”

“Let it fade away.”

Rhianna nodded and eased her way out of the storm. A few minutes later, there was no sign of wind or clouds. “How was that?”

“As far as I know, about as perfect as it can get. Can you do that over and over while Landis practices?”

“I’m not sure how many times, but for a while, yes.”

“Then let’s call it a day. I need to stop by Ashni’s, and then I’ve got to get back to the castle. Ready to go?”

When Rhianna nodded, Kevin took out his key and they left the canyon lands. He dropped Rhianna off at the entrance to Glendymere’s cave and headed for Ashni’s.

Ashni was in the kitchen preparing lunch for Blalick and the kids when Kevin got there. He told her about the plans for that afternoon, and pleading urgent business back at the castle, turned the key again and headed home.

~ ~ ~ ~

Chris was in Kevin’s office when he got back, frowning over a sheet of paper.

“What’s up?” Kevin asked as he sat down at his desk.

“I know I said I’d figure out what to do with our three informants, but I have no idea how I’m going to do that.”

“Do we really need to do something?”

Chris nodded. “Not so much with Trevor, but there’s no way I can let Shana stay in the kitchen, or let Darius anywhere near a horse you might ride.”

“I don’t ride very often. What’s he going to do?”

“I don’t know, but that’s the problem. Neither of us was raised around horses. We don’t know what can go wrong, but I bet he does, and it wouldn’t be hard for him to cause some kind of accident.”

“Maybe not, but I’m a sorcerer. If I start falling, I can catch myself.”

“As long as you think in terms of magic. But it’s like Marcus and that arrow. Without a lot of practice, you’ll fall back on what you did before you knew magic existed, back to when you were a kid. He blocked an arrow with his shoulder. You’d probably use your hands to break your fall and end up with one or two broken bones, or worse.” Chris shook his head. “I don’t want him anywhere near any horse you’re going to ride or any tack you might use, even if it’s only once or twice a year. I’ve got to find another job for him and some way to move him into it without making him suspicious.”

“Last night, after we got back here, when we were talking about Saryn, didn’t Darrell say something about Darius’s arms? Something about Neiven teaching him to be a blacksmith?”

Chris nodded.

“Wonder if Korman wants an apprentice?”

“I hadn’t thought of that, but I thought we wanted to keep these people here, where we could use them if the opportunity arises.”

“We could ask Neiven to take him on, but that’s not going to get him away from the stable area and the horses. I guess we could let Neiven know what Darius is doing and ask him to keep an eye on him.”

Chris shook his head. “If Neiven finds out Darius is spying for Rolan, and that he might have had something to do with Badec’s death, I’m not sure he won’t kill him. I talked to Neiven quite a bit when we first got here. He idolized your father. There’s no way he’d put up with anyone who might have had a hand in hurting him.”

“I didn’t realize he felt that strongly.”

“He does. We do not want him to know about Darius. Korman’s a possibility though.”

“It’s just an idea. You may come up with something else.”

After a few minutes of silence, Kevin frowned. “But you know, if there’s a connection between him and Rolan, no matter how tenuous, I don’t want him anywhere near Nikki, and if Marshall’s going to be looking after her, she’ll be around the stable area. No, we’ve got to find some other place for Darius.”

Chris laughed. “Protective, huh?”

“Seems I am.”

“Korman’s starting to look really good.”

“If Korman will take him on, we’ll keep paying him. That way it won’t cut into Korman’s profits.”

“Provided we can afford it. Have you figured out how much money we have at our disposal?”

Kevin shook his head. “Every time I bring it up, Cryslyn tells me to give her a list of what I want and she’ll take care of it. I don’t know if it’s common practice for the Master Sorcerer not to get involved with the money end of things, or if she just doesn’t want me involved, but either way, I haven’t been able to find out anything.”

“Maybe we should ask Laryn about it,” Chris said. Then, after a moment, he said, “Wait a minute. Didn’t we try to talk to her about that already?”

“Funniest thing, something interrupts us every time we bring it up.”

Chris made a note. “I’m going to see her in a few minutes about Shana. I’ll ask her then.”

“Good luck. I feel like there’s this conspiracy to keep us in the dark about finances. And Karl hasn’t had any more luck than we have.”

Kevin stood up. “I’ve got to take Serra to Ridgeville to have lunch with her grandparents today. When I get back, I’m going upstairs until time for lunch, maybe catch a quick nap. Find me after you talk to Laryn. And don’t let me forget to take the kitten to Crinsor Run this afternoon. Rhianna’s already mad enough at me for not arresting the informants. I don’t want to give her any more reasons to yell at me.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Kevin fell asleep as soon as he stretched out on his bed and slept until the middle of the afternoon when Chris came in to wake him up.

“Hi,” Chris said as he set a tray down on the coffee table. “I brought you a sandwich and some coffee.”

Kevin sat on the side of the bed for a moment and wiped his hands over his face, trying to wake up. Finally he got up and walked over to the couch, picking up the cup of coffee as he sat down. “Thanks.” He lifted the cup towards Chris. “I needed this.”

Chris sat down. “You need some food, too.”

“Did you see Laryn?”

Chris nodded.

“And?”

“Are you awake yet?”

“Awake enough,” Kevin said, picking up the sandwich. “What happened?”

“Laryn wasn’t sure whether Shana was born here or not, but she remembers her as a young girl. But the main thing is she wasn’t at the castle when Badec was poisoned. She came later, during the summer after he was in the coma. So there’s no way she had anything to do with his tea.”

“Okay.”

“I did ask some questions about your father’s evening tea though. According to Laryn, it was a well-known habit, almost a ritual. There were two shelves in the pantry for his teas. One for the standard teas, and another for teas people sent in for him to try.”

Chris took a swallow of coffee. “Great marketing idea, actually. Send some tea to the castle with a note saying it’s a unique blend made especially for Badec, and you could claim your tea was part of the Master Sorcerer’s private stock. It wouldn’t matter whether or not he liked it, or whether or not he ever tried it. If it sat on his shelf, the claim is true.”

“Who picked out his evening tea?”

“He did. If he wanted a particular blend, he’d tell one of the guards. They’d let the kitchen know, and whoever was in there would fix his tea and take it to the guard at the foot of the stairs, usually Rupert. If he didn’t have a preference, he’d tell them to surprise him, which is when they’d use one of the teas that had been sent in.”

“Luck of the draw.”

Chris nodded. “And that’s why Laryn has been so careful about letting people know what happened. Most of the people at the castle have been here a long time and are protective of the House of Nordin. She doesn’t want a kitchen worker or guard to feel guilty because he or she happened to pick up or deliver the wrong packet of tea.”

“Did you mention moving Shana over to her house?”

Chris nodded. “Laryn said she’d take her. She said she remembered something about Shana’s parents having to leave, which is why she needed to go to work. Now Laryn’s wondering if Rolan was behind it. She’ll see what she can find out.”