Shadow Heir

Varia continued. “And believe me when I say that my professionals make Garik’s attempts here seem quite childish. No offense, Garik.” The punching guard gave a bow of acknowledgment to his queen. “Fortunately for the Oak King, his pain will be short-lived—either because you’ll make the right decision or I’ll be forced to kill him at suppertime.”

“Remember—nothing rash, Eugenie,” said Dorian, far too cheerful for someone whose face was swelling rapidly. “I can take as much pain as I can dole out—and you certainly know how much I can dole out. Don’t worry about me.”

Again, I caught the message to carry out the other plans with caution. There was also, I suspected, a joke in there about some of Dorian’s sexual preferences, which tended to run toward BDSM. I had little appreciation for the weak attempt at humor just now, however. It took every ounce of strength I had to remain hard and impassive to Varia. Otherwise, there was a good chance I’d fall to my knees and beg for Dorian’s release.

“I’m not swearing any loyalty to you,” I told her. “And I’m not going to use the Iron Crown on your behalf. That answer’s not going to change.”

“Suit yourself,” she said. “We’ll see what you say later today.” She gave us a wave of dismissal. “Take them to their respective locations.”

I wasn’t able to exchange another word with Dorian because we were both hurried out too quickly. The urge to unleash a storm surged within me one last time, and I again fought it back. I would do this right. So, I allowed my escort to take me back to my cell on the third floor. They again gave me the faux courtesy of removing my chains before locking the door. Glancing around, I saw that someone had left a covered meal tray on my palette. I lifted the lid and found a piece of bread and some water—and a rat that quickly darted off the tray. Talk about adding insult to injury.

“Oh,” I said. “That’s just lovely.”

Yet, before I finished speaking, I noticed something weird about the rat—mainly, that it wasn’t actually a rat. Instead, it was a rat-sized miniature red fox. I caught my breath.

“No way. Kiyo?”

The rat-fox scurried to the center of my cell. Within moments, he transformed, and I had a full-sized Kiyo standing before me. I cast a wary look behind me, half expecting guards to come busting in. Then, I had to remind myself that his kitsune magic would not be readily detectable to gentry.

“How’d you do that?” I asked Kiyo. “Did a mad scientist give you a shrink ray?”

He smiled, but his eyes looked tired. “Afraid not. It’s just another variation on the shape-shifting, just like I can turn into a super-sized fox. I’ve just never had much reason for the small size. Turns out it’s terribly convenient for poking around a palace.”

“I thought you were a rat,” I admitted.

“So did one of the cooks in the kitchen. I have a new respect for brooms.”

“Is that how you guys escaped? Where’s everyone else? Are they okay?”

He leaned against the wall and ran a hand through his dark hair. “The chains couldn’t stop me, especially once I shape-shifted. Once I had a moment to free myself, I got the chains off everyone else, and then we just kind of busted our way out in the night. Why haven’t you done that?”

“Would if I could,” I muttered. “Varia’s keeping me in check with a few things. First, it was you guys. Then she tacked on the destruction of my kingdoms and finding Isaac and Ivy for good measure. Now she’s got Dorian with torturers and his execution penciled in.” I gave him a brief recap of my morning meeting.

“You were smart not to act then,” said Kiyo, when I was finished. “Dorian’s strong. He’ll hold out.”

I wondered if Kiyo meant that or if he just didn’t really care about Dorian suffering. “You never told me where the others are.”

“Hidden in the city,” Kiyo said. “Your Hemlock friends helped us find a safe place.”

“Hemlock ...” A light went off. “You’re Alea’s scout, aren’t you? You’ve been looking for the room with the talismans.”

“Found it,” he said, in a manner far too casual for the importance of those words. “Like I said, you can get to a lot when you’re rat-sized.”

“Is it in the basement, like Alea said?”

“Well, yes, but there are a bunch of basements here. This place goes as far underground as it does above. The room’s about four floors down and has lots of guards. The objects are inside, in two collections, surrounded by some magic I can’t really figure out. But then, gentry magic isn’t my specialty.”

“Two collections ... let me guess. One for the lands actually in the blight and one for those who’ve sworn allegiance. But obviously, she’d still keep their tokens around as leverage.”

Kiyo nodded. “That’s what I thought too. Not sure if this makes you feel better or worse, but the blighted pile was much larger. More are resisting than giving in.”

“How do you know it was the blighted pile? Did you recognize Maiwenn’s gift?”

“No, but there was a marble bust of Dorian in there, which I figured must have been his kingdom’s ‘humble’ gift.”