Chapter Nine

“How did you do that?” Rey continued to stare in surprise. Axxon edged me aside and thrust his hand into the gap.

“No magic. It’s vanished.” He watched me, his expression bemused. “Kyann, you’ve destroyed the spell.” He said that as though it shouldn’t be possible. I swallowed, my mind flooded with memories of the night with Essa when she’d tried to share her magic with me and I’d destroyed it instead.

“I—” I looked down at the bag in my hand, the solid lump inside the material. “That’s a good thing, isn’t it? Under the circumstances?”

 “Yes.” Rey took the bag from me. “That’s very good.”

“Except that we couldn’t break it.” Axxon watched as though he expected me to sprout two heads or turn to smoke.

I forced a smile. “Well, I am the guardian. There has to be some use to me.”

“We’d be stuck without you right now,” Axxon said, but that tone of anxiety didn’t leave him.

Rey no longer cared about the mystery. He loosened the drawstring top and tipped the bag’s contents into his palm. He sucked in a breath as the gem touched his skin.

“It’s the right stone?” Axxon asked.

Rey nodded without taking his eyes from it. “Oh, yes.”

The Tears of Giera was as he’d described, and yet, nothing like I’d expected. It filled Rey’s palm, a regular oval, its facets sparkling in the torchlight. Its transparent clarity was tinted the palest shade of blue as though it had been sculpted from deep ice. It was beautiful. And compelling. It seemed to glow, a light shining in the centre of the gem. My fingers itched to touch it.

Rey folded the gem inside his hand, closing his eyes with an expression of bliss.

“Do we just leave now?” Axxon asked, his voice a low rumble that stayed within the circle of light surrounding us.

“We have what we came for,” Rey said.

The idea of running away without challenging Leea over what she’d done raised my hackles. “No. You’re the four kings. Not sneak thieves. Lady Leea should never have hidden the Tears of Giera from you. The Baloa family ought to support the four kings. If they don’t, we need to know why. And we must change their minds. We can’t run the risk that Leea runs to the Emperor as soon as we’ve gone.”

Axxon nodded slowly. “Kyann is right. We have the gem, but that’s not enough. We need the support of all the families for the sake of Charnrosa’s future.”

“Do we challenge Leea?” I asked. “Demand to know why she hid the gem?” Now we had proof, perhaps she’d be more forthcoming. Although, perhaps not. I wondered if she was working to her own plan, or whether she was following the instructions of her absent father. I’d dearly love to know what “business” he was about.

“She has deceived us from the start,” Rey pointed out. “I’m not sure an open challenge is the best approach. We should watch her for a day or two, see what we can discover.” He looked from Axxon to me. “We can spare two days to ensure the family will be on our side.”

“I agree.” Axxon looked down at Rey’s closed fist, then at the hole in the wall. “In that case, we should replace the gem, so she won’t know we’ve discovered it.”

“No.” Rey’s fist tightened. “The Tears of Giera stays with me.”

“Leea will know it’s gone as soon as she checks,” Axxon said, not condemning, just stating a fact.

“We can put the brick back in the wall.” I was glad now that I’d stopped Axxon destroying it. Provided Leea didn’t actually get the bag out, she wouldn’t know anything had changed. If she did… “What if we put a pebble in the bag? Then, she might not realise the gem’s gone.” I glanced at the floor by my feet, seeking a suitable piece of debris. I’d have kept a pebble from the moat if I’d known it would come in handy.

“We can do better than that,” Axxon said. He shifted the torch to inspect the ground, tracking the surface more closely than I’d done, taking two steps and swooping to snatch something from the ground. He tightened his fist and muttered a few words, unleashing his magic.

When he opened his fingers, a perfect duplicate of the Tears of Giera lay in his palm. It lacked the inner glow of the real stone, but you’d need a close inspection to see that.

“Wow.”

“Just a little magic,” Axxon said, although the corners of his lips tilted up at my praise.

I took the bag from Rey and held it open for Axxon to slip the fake gem inside. By the time I’d put the bag back into its hidey-hole in the wall, Axxon was holding the brick ready to return into its gap. Together, we jiffled it back into place. Axxon swept the torch one way, then the other to check that everything was back in order. There was no trace we’d been there.

We made our way back into the well-used part of the castle, dousing the torch once we got high enough for windows to allow the moonlight inside. When we reached the corridor where all our rooms were, the nearest door cracked open and Vashri’s head popped out. “You’re back quickly,” he said. “Were you successful?”

“Yes.” Axxon grabbed Vashri’s arm and pulled him onwards to the last door on that side. “We’ll only tell the story once,” Axxon said as Rey swung open the door. Axxon pulled me and Vashri inside.

The final door, of course, led into Fon’s room.

Axxon and Vashri seemed to have woken due to anticipation – or perhaps a link to Rey that had alerted them that something was happening. Fon wasn’t troubled by that magical awareness.

He was sound asleep, sprawled crosswise on his broad bed, the covers rucked up so one slim foot, the opposite arm and half his chest, sprinkled with red-gold hairs to match those on his head, were revealed. I studied the floor while Axxon poked him awake.

“Wha—?”

“We’ve found the Tears of Giera,” Axxon stated, dropping onto the bed beside Fon. Rey displayed the gem between thumb and forefinger.

Fon scratched his head. “News that couldn’t wait for the morning for what reason?” He scowled.

“Because we intend to hide that fact from Lady Leea,” Rey supplied. “She’s up to something and we need to know what. Watch her. Carefully.”

“Now?” Fon’s voice raised on a squeak. He glanced around, perhaps looking for a weapon to fend us off, on the expectation that we were there to drag him out of his bed.

Vashri rolled his eyes. “Not now. In the morning.”

Fon fell back against his pillows, trying to pull the covers out of Axxon’s grip. “Again, something that could have been communicated to me after I woke.” After a brief tussle, Axxon let go and Fon pulled the blankets over his head with a groan.

“You are awake,” Rey pointed out.

A grunt was his reply.

“If we’d waited for the morning, Leea might have been listening,” Vashri explained.

“Fine,” Fon mumbled through the covers. “I’ll watch her. In the morning. I’m sure you can find the door without my help.”

Axxon cuffed the hair that showed above the blanket.

“We’re all agreed,” Vashri said. “Lady Leea doesn’t take a step without us knowing about it.”

“Agreed,” Rey and Axxon both said. Another grunt sounded from the humped form in Fon’s bed.

“Who wants first watch?” Axxon added.

“I’ll do it,” I said. “I can hide outside her room, in case she goes to fetch the gem before morning.”

Vashri caught my arm. “I’ll do it. You get some sleep.” His dark eyes were warm, comforting.

But I didn’t need to be taken care of. “I’m the guardian. Let me guard.”

He opened his mouth to protest.

Rey put his hand on my arm. “Don’t hog all the fun, Kyann,” he entreated. “Let Vashri make himself useful.”

Vashri watched, waiting for my decision. I caught the gleam of amusement in his eyes. I guessed Rey was right – he and I and Axxon had already had a nighttime adventure.

“Fine. I’ll take a turn in the morning.” As I turned to the door I had to stifle a yawn. “Thank you, Vashri.”

His hand caressed my shoulder through my tunic. “No thanks are required, Kyann. You are the guardian. We work together.”

That warm, glowing sense of safety sent me straight to sleep when I reached my bed. I was asleep almost before I’d settled next to Essa.