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Chapter Five
Part Four

Valeria was talking to Alban when Rai’s imp reached her. Her foster son had been begging her to give his weapons back when the sparkling creature shot through the window and hovered in front of her. She stared at it for a moment before holding out her palm for it to land.

“That looks like Rai made it,” Alban said.

“Yes, he did.” She closed her eyes and drew it and the memories it carried into herself. She jerked back and heard a loud crack. Alban grabbed her hand and pressed something soft against it as she opened her eyes. Blood was soaking through the white hankerchief he was wrapping around her hand and she realised the crack was from the crystal goblet she’d been holding.

“That must have been a pretty bad message,” he said softly.

“It seems Huldre is directly involved in the plots going on. I’d hoped I was wrong… It wasn’t just coincidence you saw him talking to Maran and Sirin.”

“I told you so,” Alban said mildly. “What’s happened to convince you?”

“An attempted coup at Dariad’s court. Mind control which has people believing lies over what a blood and truth mirror reveals,” she said. .

“Oh that,” he said. “How did Rai know about it?”

“Uh?” She blinked perplexedly before realising. “You saw it via the bond?”

He nodded. “He murdered a dwarf for helping them and tried to frame them for it.”

“Speakers enslaving other speakers in defiance of everything we are.” She rubbed her forehead.  “The world’s falling apart since two years ago. It’s all the water warriors fault! He’s the only thing that changed.”

“You’re wrong, mother,” Alban said softly. “This is one thing that you can’t blame on him. For one thing, the dragon knights first appeared two years ago as well. For another, the world has been falling apart a lot longer than that. It’s just the past two years that the symptoms have become obvious. If anything, Kyle’s fall was a symptom, not a cause.” He finished bandaging her hand and looked down. His pale blonde hair fell forward, obscuring his azure eyes, but there was an edge of sorrow in his tone that suggested he was crying. “I’ve said more than I should.”

Valeria frowned at him. It was certainly more than he’d said on the issue in the whole of the last two years, and the first time he’d mentioned the traitor by name. She reached out and pushed his hair away to see that he was blinking back tears. “You really need to talk about it, Alban. And not because I want to know what happened.”

“I can’t talk about it.” He wiped at his eyes. “What are you going to do about Huldre and Sirin?”

“I don’t know yet. I’ve only got a few people I trust unreservedly at the moment, so I don’t dare arrest them.” She came to a decision and pulled his daggers from her desk. “You can have these back. If they are planning a coup you’ll need to defend yourself.”

“And you,” he said firmly. “I’m not letting anyone hurt you. What about my bow?”

“I’ll keep that. It’s not much use at close quarters anyway.” She considered what he said. “And don’t get any ideas about getting pre-emptive. That’ll make it worse.”

He gave her a long look. “So why is Rai spying on Caerdu?” His eyes narrowed. “He isn’t, is he? You’ve sent him after Karen! What the hell are you thinking?”

“Alban,” she began but he cut her off.

“If you hurt her I’ll never forgive you.”

“I won’t have you spend your life as a slave.”

“I’m not a slave!” He looked away. “It’s not like that all.”

“I don’t believe Darya would have betrayed the Core of his own free will. I’d known him since he was a baby, he wasn’t like that. The water warrior must have made him.” She stopped as Alban made a soft choking sound that sounded like a laugh. “What?”

“I shouldn’t tell you this. The Core won’t like it, but Darya fell first. He was furious on Kyle’s behalf. Kyle only fell when he found out what Darya had realised.”

“What?” She shook her head. “What do you mean? What did he realise?”

Alban swallowed visibly. “That the Core…” He went white and collapsed to his knees, clutching his head. “Stop please!”

“Alban?” Valeria touched his shoulder. He looked up at her and she recoiled at the sight of blood leaking from his eyes.

“I-I can’t tell you, mother. It won’t let me, and without Karen I’m vulnerable.” He passed out on the floor.

***

“Karen! What’s wrong?” Lydia knelt by her sister. She’d been practicing with her sword when she’d heard Karen shriek and had run into the other room. She’d found Karen kneeling on the floor, Andrew already kneeling beside her. “What happened?”

“I don’t know! We were talking and she just screamed and collapsed.”

“Alban,” Karen whimpered. “Alban’s hurting.”

“Queen Valeria wouldn’t hurt Prince Alban,” Eyvindr said. “Not even to get to Karen.”

“It wasn’t her.” Karen got up and staggered to a chair. “It stopped. I think he passed out, but it wasn’t her. Something was hurting him because he tried to tell her something.”

“I’ve seen something similar happen to Ema,” King Dariad said from the door. He was holding a bracelet set, with a diamond, and a pair of intricate multi-bladed throwing axes.

“Who’s Ema?” Lydia asked.

“She’s the Earth Warrior’s heart friend, one of the daoine – the earth haltia. She used to live here, but she left a few months ago. Just before then she tried to tell me what happened. Someone really doesn’t want the details of what happened two years ago to come out.” He walked over to Karen and held out the bracelet and axes. “It is my honour to return these to you, light warrior.”

“Thank you.” Karen reached out and took them. She slipped the bracelet onto her wrist
and looked at the axes. “These are beautiful. I’m not sure weapons should be things of such beauty.” She gave Dariad a sly look. “But all this makes me wonder if our memories were really wiped because we were traumatised, or someone didn’t want us talking. Not that it makes much odds, I’m pissed off about it either way.”

“It does make me wonder,” he conceded. “But it’s speculation. The fact that Valeria has someone trailing you isn’t. I think she’s ordered him to capture you.”

“Because of Alban?” Karen asked. He nodded and she pulled a thoughtful face. “Perhaps we should consider playing along.”

“Eh?!” Lydia exclaimed. “You can’t mean that!”

“Yes, I do. We need Alban and I together. This would be easier than trying to sneak in.”

“You’re mad!” Andrew said.

“No, I’m not. Just listen…”

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