Chapter Seven

“She did what?” Rey’s roar almost shook the walls of the chamber.

Leea flinched, closing her eyes. She took a deep breath then opened her eyes and answered as though she couldn’t feel the atmosphere in the room. “The gem is lost in the moat. I am sorry, sirs, but you have had a wasted journey.”

Rey’s fists clenched. “What is lost shall be found.”

He turned to leave. Leea stood, blinking in surprise. She didn’t know the kings the way I did. “You won’t be able to find it.”

Rey paused at the door to face her. “You’d better hope I do, because we won’t be leaving until I have that gem.”

I hurried after Rey, the other kings behind me, Essa and Lady Leea following behind. Leea continued to squawk her protests, but none of us was listening.

“Stop them!” she called as we descended the steps of the keep and started towards the gate and the drawbridge. The guards posted on either side of the entrance stood to attention, unsheathing the swords at their hips.

All the kings tensed, but Vashri moved first. He cast a blast of air that sent the guards stumbling aside. He spun to Leea, who had stopped, her jaw sagging open. “You forget who you are dealing with, madam.”

Leea hurried forward, wringing her hands. “Forgive me, I didn’t… Of course, you may search if you choose, but I fear your search will be fruitless.”

“Don’t allow that to trouble you,” Rey said. “Your fear is not shared by us. We will prove you wrong.”

He strode across the drawbridge and I hurried after him. “Where should we look?” I set a hand on his sleeve and Rey slowed and glanced at me, the fury in his face softening into a smile.

“I’m not sure how precisely I’ll be able to pinpoint it.” His hand covered mine. “But I will take care of this.”

“I’m a hunter, Rey, this is what I do. A gem might not be my usual sort of quarry, but I can do this job. Don’t make me sit and watch.” All I was doing at present was tagging along with the kings. I needed something useful to do, something that would make me feel like the guardian rather than a fraud. I looked down at the murky water at the bottom of the broad ditch that circled the castle. “I’m not afraid to get my feet wet.”

“Get your feet wet? Kyann, I am wounded that you have so little faith in me.”

“What do—” Rey’s hand flicked up and my words faltered to a halt. We’d walked a quarter of the way around the circumference of the moat.

“No one will get their feet wet,” he announced, and started down the steep bank. I couldn’t see how he was going to avoid landing in the water. Moats were designed to be inhospitable. Now he’d started down, there was nothing to stop him.

Until he made a gesture with his hand and the water in the moat below him shifted and rolled aside, bunching into a wall of water on either side of where he set his booted foot into the damp earth at the bottom.

My jaw sagged. Rey turned back and waved jubilantly. “See? Nothing to it.”

Not if you were the king of water. I set my foot on the slope of the moat, then noticed that Leea was standing on the drawbridge, watching us. The other kings and Essa were crowded close to me. I drew Essa to one side. “Could you keep an eye on Leea? I’m not sure whether she’s afraid we won’t find the gem, or afraid we will.”

Essa glanced at the girl, then nodded. “Of course. I’ll see if I can get to know her better.”

“Thank you.”

She began to walk back the way we’d come.

“We don’t need all of us,” Rey called up to the kings. “Kyann and I can manage.”

Axxon stepped forward, opening his mouth to protest.

“We’ll call if we need help,” Rey promised. He held a hand out to indicate that I should join him.

I slipped between Axxon and Fon. “Perhaps you could make yourselves useful about the castle. Leea might get over her dislike if we help her out.”

Axxon frowned. “We are not her servants.”

“Of course not.” I looked away from the castle, to the fields that made up the Baloa lands. “But you are the kings. You are here to bring back prosperity to Charnrosa. Perhaps you could start here, use this as a demonstration to show why everyone should support the four kings.”

His frown eased into a smile. “You’re a wise woman, Kyann.”

The kings turned their backs on the moat to assess the surrounding fields.

“Right, let’s find this gem.” I slipped my way down the steep bank that gave into the moat. The mud in the bottom was sticky, but I didn’t need to even remove my boots.

“That’s not as bad as I expected.” I turned to catch Rey’s smile. “At least we know we won’t be fighting whales to reach this gem.”

He held out his hand and I slipped my fingers into his. I thought Rey might be happy to fight whales. He was in his element surrounded by water. “It’s on the far side, close to the castle walls,” he said. We walked across the moat. It was surreal to glance aside and see the liquid held by Rey’s enchantments, enough water to reach my thighs, waiting to be released.

“It’s hazy, but it’s somewhere here.” Rey came to a halt. He glanced my way, then dropped his gaze to the mud we stood on, which was scattered about with pebbles of all shapes and sizes. “Time to get our hands dirty, I guess.”

“Let’s get to work.” I crouched and began sifting through the pebbles on the surface of the mud.

“We’re looking for a gem that would fit in my palm.” Rey cupped his hand to demonstrate. “It’s clear, tinted with blue. It’s beautiful.” He smiled. “Or once we clean the mud off it will be.”

I nodded and scanned for stones the correct size. Rey crouched beside me, pushing the water out of his way as he poked at the debris on the moat bottom.

I should have asked Leea exactly what had happened when her mother threw the gem into the water – I wasn’t sure whether I was seeking a tiny, hard gem, or whether it might have been thrown in a bag, or even a box like the one I’d found at the Silent Castle. I glanced at the drawbridge to find her still standing there. I could go and ask, but I didn’t want to petition for her help. And some perverse certainty in me told me she would lie. I shook myself. I had no proof of that, I simply didn’t trust the girl.

The minutes passed with tedious similarity. I lifted various pebbles from the murk, but when I wiped them on a dry patch of my tunic, they were all just pebbles. I threw each to the far bank when I found them, so I wouldn’t take time checking the same pebble multiple times, but there was a never-ending supply at the bottom of the moat.

“This could take days,” I said, careful not to allow a grumble into my tone. I was the guardian; if it took days to help the kings, then I’d spend those days working as hard as I could.

“We’re close, I know it.”

I didn’t argue, but ‘close’ seemed like it left an awful lot of stones to check. I turned back to the job and we worked in silence for a while.

I found another promising-sized pebble, only to be disappointed when I wiped the mud from it. As I turned to toss it onto the bank, my gaze snagged on Essa and Leea. They hadn’t moved from the drawbridge, although Leea was distracted enough by whatever Essa was saying to her that she wasn’t actively watching Rey and myself.

“I don’t trust Leea. Is that wrong of me on so short an acquaintance?”

Rey followed the direction of my gaze. “No. I don’t trust her either.” He turned back to the work. “I’m not sure whether she’s more afraid we’ll find the gem, or that we won’t.”

“That’s exactly what I thought.”

Rey straightened. “And I don’t believe we’re going to find it here.”

I stood straight and wiped the mud from my hands. “It isn’t here after all? Or you think it’s moved?”

“It’s still where it was.” He turned to scan the wall of the castle where the moat lapped against it. “The impression I get is that we’re searching at the edge of where it might be, instead of looking right in the centre of where it is.”

“You think it’s in the castle itself?”

“I’m starting to think it’s been hidden in the walls of the castle.” He touched the stone to indicate where he meant.

“Hidden is quite a different matter from being thrown away,” I commented. My eyes tracked to Leea, still watching us, Essa at her side. The sun was setting behind them, so their expressions were cast into shadow.

“Isn’t it just.” Rey folded his arms. His eyes sparkled, while his dark hair made his skin look paler than it truly was.

“Do you think she lied to us?”

“I hope not. For her sake.”

“Do you want to bash a hole in the wall of the castle?” We’d have to get Leea out of the way if that was the plan.

“Can you imagine Lady Leea’s face if I did?” Rey winked. “No, it’ll be far more convenient to track the gem from inside the castle.” He held a hand out to me. His skin was warm against my chilled fingers. “Come on. It’s growing dark. There’s little chance of finding anything out here now.”

We discussed our plan as we walked back to the side of the moat, scrambling out on the far bank and joining Axxon, Fon and Vashri who’d been sitting on the ground, either casting spells or just taking in the sights.

The moment we reached the top, Rey relaxed his spell and the moat water rushed back so the surface was unbroken once more.

“Nothing?” Axxon asked.

“Not yet,” Rey said. He gave me a significant look. “But I’m sure we’ll find something soon.”

The five of us rejoined Essa and Leea. Our hostess remained stiff and unwelcoming, but I was sure she was more relaxed now we hadn’t found the gem. She was afraid of us finding it, definitely. I wondered if it was Leea herself who’d hidden it. And why.

She extended Baloa hospitality far enough to offer us food and shelter for the night. A servant escorted me and Essa to the room we’d share, and another brought water for me to wash off the moat mud, along with a spare gown for both of us. I raised my brows but didn’t comment. Clearly, we were dining formally today. I’d try not to disgrace myself.

When the servants left us alone, I turned to Essa. “What did you learn?”

“Not much,” my sister confessed. “Her mother is dead. Her father, head of the family, is away on business. She wouldn’t say what sort of business, she kept changing the subject.” She sat on the bed while I scrubbed my hands. “I don’t trust her, Kyann. It’s not so much that I thought she was lying, but that she wouldn’t give a straight answer to anything. She’s clearly afraid of something, and it’s not the arrival of the kings.” Essa picked up the dress she’d been given and began to pull it on.

“She has nothing to fear from the kings,” I said, struggling into my gown. I wasn’t used to formal clothes, or even particularly feminine apparel. I only ever wore leggings and a tunic, practical clothing.

Essa helped with the buttons, which were stupidly placed down the back of the gown. “You’re supposed to have servants to dress you,” Essa told me with a laugh while I complained.

“Then I’m glad I’m not a fine lady. Not able to dress yourself? That’s just stupid. Here, I’ll help you now.”

I felt uncomfortable when we were done. There was no mirror in the room, so I could only evaluate my appearance by craning down at myself. I wasn’t impressed.

“It’s not that bad,” Essa told me.

I pulled a face. I didn’t like to ask if I looked as bad as Essa did. My sister’s dress was too big for her, moving a second after she did so I couldn’t be sure whether she was wearing the gown, or it was wearing her. “Let’s get to dinner, then. I’m not wearing this monstrosity any longer than I have to.”