Chapter 169: Leaving

We left the east rooms together, with Elizabeth’s guard following. For several corridors neither of us spoke. Then Elizabeth said, "I hate this."

"Walking?"

"Leaving."

"Oh." That was less simple.

We reached the guest stair. She didn’t go up, and neither did I.

"Renn was right," she said.

That was painful to hear from anyone. "About what?"

"This one being my problem. But not every problem being mine personally."

I remembered the map room, and her saying this one still did. "Yes."

"I thought knowing where the line was would make it easier."

"That seems optimistic."

She looked at me. "It doesn’t."

"No."

"You sound very certain."

I leaned against the wall. My chest barely complained now.

"I used to think there were only two choices," I said. "Ignore something, or fix it yourself."

Her expression changed slightly. "And now?"

"Apparently there’s a third one."

"Which is?"

"Make sure the right person has it. Then leave."

She thought about it. "You dislike the third one."

"Very much."

"Why?"

"Because then I don’t control what happens."

Elizabeth looked back toward the east wing. "Neither do I."

That was probably the most honest thing either of us had said all day.

"We could stay," she said.

"We could."

Her eyes came back to me. That answer surprised her.

"We could miss the signing," I said. "Annoy your father. Annoy the beastkin delegation. Make Renn age another twelve years. Stay here until every statement has been taken and every one of them is somewhere safe."

She very nearly smiled. "That sounds appealing when you say it."

"It isn’t."

"No."

"Because we’d still leave eventually."

Elizabeth’s expression flattened. "You’re very bad at comforting people."

"I wasn’t trying."

"I know."

We stood there. Then she said, "Would you have stayed? A few years ago?"

I thought about it. A few years ago I had crossed a border with three beastkin escorts, and all three of them had died getting me home. My father had come for me, and I had been sent away, and I had hated leaving. And then I had spent a long time not thinking about any of it.

"I don’t know," I said.

Elizabeth waited. I appreciated that she didn’t make the question easier.

"Maybe," I said. "Or I would have left and pretended none of it was mine."

"Those are very different things."

"Yes."

"Which would you have done?"

"Whichever needed less thinking."

She looked at me. "That sounds more like you."

"Thank you."

"It wasn’t praise."

"I’ll take it anyway."

She shook her head. Then she was serious again. "And now?"

I thought about Saera, and the thirteen names in my pocket, and Daphne saying cover me, and James using Spatial when he shouldn’t have, and Sophie watching from the greenhouse, and Elizabeth in Merrow’s courtyard telling him to explain the children.

"Now I know their names," I said.

Elizabeth went still. I hadn’t meant to say it, but it was true.

"That makes leaving harder," she said.

"Yes."

"Then why does it help?"

I looked toward the east wing. "Because I’m not leaving thirteen prisoners in a cellar." I tapped the folded paper in my pocket. "I’m leaving Saera and twelve other people with names, with a magistrate, Crown soldiers, healers, and a representative on the way from the west."

Elizabeth followed my hand. "That sounds like something Renn would say."

"Stop insulting me."

This time she laughed, quietly, only once. It was enough.

***

Renn found us ten minutes later with paperwork in one hand, which was becoming a threatening sight.

"The route is finalized."

James appeared from nowhere. I had no idea how long he had been nearby. "Where?"

"Northwest first. Then west."

"Which road?"

"You’ll see it from the carriage."

James frowned. "You’re enjoying this."

"No."

"You are."

Renn handed Elizabeth a folded route card, and James stared. "You gave her one."

"She’s the First Princess."

"I’m aware."

"Good."

Sophie came down the stairs behind him, and Daphne followed more slowly, and Sorel came last. Apparently everyone had been collected. Renn looked at the five of us.

"We leave at first light. No wandering tonight. No north wing. No barracks. No investigation rooms. No helping the Crown search."

James opened his mouth.

"No," said Renn, and James closed it.

Renn looked at me.

"Why are you looking at me?" I asked.

"Experience."

"I haven’t done anything."

"Recently."

That qualifier was unnecessary.

"Sleep," said Sorel.

"I support this plan."

"Actual sleep."

"I withdraw my support."

Daphne walked past me on her way up. "Goodnight."

"That seems premature," I said.

She stopped, very slowly, and looked back, and I realized I had just answered her the way the System had answered me. James started laughing. Sophie covered her mouth. Elizabeth looked away. Daphne stared at me for three full seconds, and then went on up the stairs.

"Goodnight, Alash."

The System wisely said nothing at all.

***

I slept, mostly. At some point after midnight, voices passed under my window: Crown guards changing shift. Later, wheels moved through the courtyard, probably Merrow’s seized carts being moved. I considered getting up. Then I remembered Renn, and Sorel, and the magistrate, and the fact that investigating noises after midnight had caused most of the last three days. I stayed in bed. It was extraordinary growth.

[Agreed.]

’Don’t ruin it.’

[You remained in bed.]

’I noticed.’

[Despite curiosity.]

’Go away.’

The System went quiet, and I fell asleep again.

***

At dawn, Merrow’s estate looked different. Not safer: finished, which wasn’t the same thing. Our carriages waited in the front court instead of the north side. The Crown riders were already mounted. The Academy guards checked the harnesses twice, and Renn checked them a third time, because apparently trust had limits.

James stood beside the carriage looking west. Sophie was eating bread. Daphne had taken the wrapping off one wrist and kept the other covered. I noticed, and didn’t comment, which was more growth. Elizabeth stood with the magistrate near the steps. There was no sign of Lord Merrow, or of the Tigers.

"Where are they?" asked James.

"Still inside," said Sorel.

"All of them?"

"Yes."

"When do they move?"

"After us."

"Why?"

"Because putting the First Princess and five suspected conspirators on the same road at the same time would be stupid."

James considered that. "Fair."

Sorel looked surprised.

"Don’t make that face," he said.

"What face?"

"That one."

I understood him completely.

***

Saera came out before we left: not all thirteen, only her, with the older child. The younger one followed anyway, and a Crown healer trailed after them, looking resigned. Saera stopped near the carriage, and Elizabeth went to meet her. I stayed where I was.

Then the younger child saw Dream Haven. She ran straight past Elizabeth and stopped in front of me, and looked at the pillow, and then at me, and held out half a honey cake. She had saved it. That was either generosity or a poor appetite, and I chose generosity. I broke off a small piece, and she immediately pulled the rest back, which was reasonable.

"Thank you," I said.

She nodded. Then she touched Dream Haven once, a farewell, probably. I decided not to make it strange.

Saera came up beside her. "Go."

"That’s very warm."

"You came back twice."

"Three times."

"Then go before you find another reason."

I looked toward the house. "There are a lot of reasons."

"Yes."

"And you still want me to go."

"Yes."

I adjusted Dream Haven. "Annoying."

"I have been told."

That was my line. I narrowed my eyes, and Saera smiled, properly. Then she held out her hand. I looked at it, and she waited, and I took it. Her grip was stronger than I expected.

"Tell Lyssairia."

"I will."

"South Reed."

"I remember."

"The mark."

"I remember."

"Marrowfield."

"I remember."

She let go. "Good."

I turned toward the carriage, and then stopped, because there was one more thing. I looked back.

"Saera. Who was the tiger?"

Her smile went. She looked at the children, then at the Crown guard behind her, and finally at me.

"His name is Tavrek," she said. "He called himself a broker."

That word felt wrong. "Of people?"

Her eyes hardened. "Of routes."

"Routes to what?"

"To people."

It wasn’t enough. It was more than yesterday.

"Was he from your clan?"

"No."

"The Tiger faction?"

"I don’t know."

"You said he was one of yours."

"Beastkin."

"Not Cat."

"No."

"Did he take you?"

Something changed in her face. "No."

"Who did?"

She looked toward the house, Merrow’s house, and then west. "I don’t know."

That answer mattered, and she saw me understand it.

"Tavrek sold us afterwards," she said.

"After what?"

"After we had already been taken."

I stopped. That changed the shape of it. The Tigers hadn’t necessarily captured the thirteen. Tavrek had sold them, and someone else had taken them first.

"Sold you to Merrow?"

"I heard Tavrek bargain with one of Merrow’s men. I never saw the lord himself until this house."

It was evidence, not certainty. "Did you tell the magistrate?"

"Yes."

Good. I didn’t need to carry that one. The realization came strangely easily.

"Then she has it."

Saera nodded. "Yes."

I looked at her, and then at the estate, and then at the road waiting beyond the gate. "Good," I said, and this time I meant it.

***

The convoy started moving five minutes later. Merrow’s estate went past us slowly: stone wall, iron gate, Crown soldiers, and then trees. I sat against Dream Haven and watched until the roof had disappeared. Nobody spoke for the first mile. Then James gave in.

"Tavrek?"

I looked at him. "You heard."

"Everyone heard."

Elizabeth sat across from me with Sophie beside her, and Daphne was by the window. The five of us again, in the same seats, with everything else different.

"So he didn’t capture them," said Sophie.

"We don’t know that," said Elizabeth. Saera would have approved.

"She said they’d already been taken before he sold them," I said.

"That doesn’t mean he wasn’t involved earlier," said Daphne.

"Correct."

James leaned back. "A broker."

"Apparently."

"Of people."

"Of routes to people," Sophie corrected quietly. Nobody liked that wording, including me.

Elizabeth looked down the road ahead. "If the same mark is in Marrowfield..."

"Maybe," said James.

Everyone looked at him. He frowned. "What?"

I smiled. "Nothing."

"I can say maybe."

"Apparently."

He looked offended, which was good.

After another mile, the lead rider changed direction. We left the western road entirely and turned north onto a narrower stone track through farmland. James leaned to the window.

"So this is the secret route."

"Try not to announce it," said Elizabeth.

"There’s no one here."

"You’re here."

"That doesn’t count."

"It frequently does."

I closed my eyes. It was almost peaceful.

Then hoofbeats came from behind us, fast, and more than one horse. Everyone in the carriage went still. The escort reacted before we did. Renn’s whistle cut through the air: one long call. Hold position. The convoy slowed and stopped. I hated stopping. It usually meant paperwork or violence, and sometimes both.

James was already at the window. "Riders. Two."

A minute passed. Then Renn appeared beside our carriage with a sealed envelope in his hand. The wax was black. Not Crown blue, not Academy silver, but black, and pressed into it was a cat’s head.

I sat up. Nobody said anything. Renn held it through the window.

"For you."

James looked at me. Elizabeth looked at the seal. Daphne looked at my face. I took the envelope. The wax was still warm.

"From the representative?" said Elizabeth.

Renn nodded. "They reached Merrow’s estate less than ten minutes after we left."

I looked back through the rear window. There was nothing but road, and trees, and distance.

"Who?"

Renn’s expression was strange: not worried, and not relaxed either. "The rider gave the name Miarielle."

For a second, I forgot about being tired.

"Mia?"

Renn looked at me. "You know her."

It wasn’t a question. I looked at the black seal, and nearly four years disappeared very quickly: a cave, golden eyes, stone walls, three black envelopes, three escorts, a woman telling everyone to be quiet. And then a road I hadn’t wanted to remember.

"Yes," I said.

Nobody spoke. I broke the seal. There was one line inside. I read it twice.

James leaned closer. "What?"

I folded the paper. "Nothing."

"That’s very obviously not nothing."

Elizabeth held out her hand.

"No," I said.

Her eyebrows rose, which was dangerous. Daphne looked at me.

"What does it say?"

I looked down at it again. One line. Mia had always been efficient.

I have the thirteen. Get to Halden. All of you, this time.

I closed my eyes. The System stayed quiet, and I was glad. Some messages didn’t need commentary.