Royal Assassin

Chade hopped up and down in frustration. “Damn and damn! Tell them anything! Tell Shrewd you had a dream of the Pocked Man scrying it in a pool of water! He at least should understand that! Tell them an Elderling brought you the news! Say anything, but get them to act and now!”

“Right!” I raced off down the hallway, skidded down the steps, and raced down the corridor to King Shrewd’s chambers. I hammered on Shrewd’s door. At the far end of the hall, Burrich stood beside his chair outside Kettricken’s door. He looked at me, drew his short sword, and took a ready stance, eyes darting everywhere. “Raiders!” I called down the hall to him, not caring who overheard or how they reacted. “Five Red-Ships in Neatbay! Rouse Her Majesty, tell her they need our aid now!”

Burrich turned without a question to tap on Kettricken’s door and be immediately admitted. It did not go so easily for me. Wallace finally opened the door a grudging crack, but would not budge until I suggested he should be the one to race down the stairs and inform Regal of my tidings. I believe it was the prospect of making a dramatic entrance and conferring with the Prince before all the merrymakers that decided him. He left the door unguarded as he hurried to his small antechamber to make himself presentable.

The King’s bedchamber was in total darkness and heavy with the reek of Smoke. I took a candle from his sitting room, kindled it at the dwindling fire, and hastened in. In the darkness, I nearly trod upon the Fool, who was curled up like a cur at the King’s bedside. I gaped in astonishment. He had not so much as a blanket or cushion for comfort, but huddled on the rug beside the King’s bed. He uncurled stiffly, coming awake, and then alarmed in an instant. “What is it? What’s happened?” he demanded.

“Raiders in Neatbay. Five Red-Ships. I have to rouse the King. What are you doing, sleeping here? Are you afraid to go back to your own room anymore?”

He laughed bitterly. “More like I fear to leave this one, lest I never be allowed in again. The last time Wallace locked me out, it took me an hour of yammering and hammering before the King realized I was missing and demanded to know where I was. The time before that, I slipped in with the breakfast things. The time before that—”

“They seek to separate you from the King?”

He nodded. “With honey or a whip. This night, Regal offered me a purse with five bits of gold in it, if I would make myself presentable and come down to entertain them. Oh, how he did go on after you had left, over how badly I was missed at the court below, and what a shame it was for me to waste my youth shut away up here. And when I said I found King Shrewd’s company more congenial than that of other fools, he flung the teapot at me. Put Wallace in a fair bit of a huff, for he had just brewed up as nasty a mess of herb tea as would make one long for the perfume of farts.”

The Fool had been kindling candles and poking up the fire on the King’s hearth as we spoke. Now he drew back one of the heavy bed curtains. “My liege?” he said as gently as one might speak to a sleeping child. “FitzChivalry is here with important tidings for you. Will you awaken and hear him?”

At first the King made no response. “Your Majesty?” the Fool called to him again. He damped a cloth in a bit of cool water and patted the King’s face with it. “King Shrewd?”

“My King, your folk have need of you.” The words tumbled from me in desperation. “Neatbay is besieged by Red-Ships. Five of them. We must send aid now, or all is lost. Once they have a toehold there—”

“They could close Buck Harbor.” The King’s eyes opened as he spoke. He did not move from his prone position, but he squeezed his eyes more tightly shut as if clenching them against pain. “Fool. A bit of the red wine. Please.” His voice was soft, scarce more than a breath, but it was the voice of my King. My heart surged as if I were an old dog hearing the voice of a returning master.

“What must we do?” I begged of him.

“Every ship we have, down the coast to them. Not just the warships. Roust out the fishing fleet. We fight for our lives now. How dare they come this close, how came they to such boldness! Send horse overland. On their way tonight, within the hour, I say. They may not get there until day after tomorrow, but send them all the same. Put Keen in charge of it.”

My heart flip-flopped in my chest. “Your Majesty,” I broke in gently. “Keen is dead. Coming back from the mountains, with Burrich. They were attacked by highwaymen.”

The Fool glared at me, and I instantly regretted my interruption. The command faded from King Shrewd’s voice. Uncertainly, he said, “Keen is dead?”

I took a breath. “Yes, Your Majesty. But there is Red. Kerf is also a good man.”