Shadow Heir

“Okay.” I was starting to feel stupid. “I’ll just talk and hope this gets to her. Tell Alea that I have the means to free her king. I also know how to break Varia’s hold on all of us, but I need help. I know Alea and her people are willing to give in to Varia to keep their land safe, but if they work with me, I really believe we can overpower Varia and be free of her tyranny. Here’s the thing. Somewhere in this palace, there is a very heavily guarded room. I mean, there’s probably a bunch of rooms like that. The dungeons, Varia’s bedroom, her dogs’ kennel, whatever. But I feel like this is going to be really guarded. I don’t expect Alea to get anywhere near it, since I’m guessing subjects’ access only goes so far. That’s the thing. Alea probably won’t even see the masses of guards because this room is going to have a huge perimeter around it. That’s probably one clue. The other is that it won’t be obvious why it’s so guarded. Dungeons make sense. This won’t. So, if there’s any way she can figure out where this is at and let me know, that would be huge.”

I paused then, wondering about that last part. I was banking on the bird magically communicating my words to Alea. How hers would get back to me was less obvious. Well. That was a problem for later, and we had plenty of others before we reached that point.

“Having some idea of that place’s location will make a big difference when I bust out her king. And I will, by the way. Him and all the other captive monarchs. So, if she knows any other disgruntled emissaries from other lands, tell them to be ready for a huge coup in the next day or so.” Until that moment, I hadn’t realized I was truly going to stage one ... but, well, why else had I come here? “But again, the key is figuring out this stronghold of Varia’s. We can still stage a nasty rebellion, but the threat of the blight isn’t going to go away until we get to what she’s hiding.”

Spots groomed his foot. I wasn’t sure if he was simply listening and multitasking or had grown bored.

“Can you tell her that?”

For a moment, I thought nothing would happen, and then Spots made some kind of chirping noise. He worked his way back out through the bars and flew off.

“Well,” I remarked. “Not the weirdest thing I’ve ever done by far ... but it’s up there.” I then realized I was talking to myself and wondered if that was better or worse than speaking to a bird.

It was hard for me to sit still and wait. My nature usually required that I do something; it was why I’d had such a difficult time in Alabama. At least while there, I’d known my patience would pay off for the twins’ safety. Here, I was constantly pressed with the knowledge that every day meant more of Varia’s reign, more suffering in the blight, and more dangers for my friends.

As evening fell and my cell darkened, I summoned Volusian back. Maybe it was a trick of the lighting, but his appearance seemed more substantial now. “You can move around this hallway. I want you to go and talk to each of the monarchs and give them a heads-up on what’s going on. Tell them there may be a commotion soon and that we’ll be freeing them from their chains to go take on Varia and the blight once and for all. Let them know I’ll have more details when the time comes.” God, I hoped that was actually true. “Give them my description so they know I’m the one with instructions. And Dorian. Give them his description too. In fact, go to Dorian first and catch him up on everything. He may not know about our fellow cellmates. And tell him I talked to the bird.”

Volusian gave me a long-suffering look. “This may be a new low for me, mistress.”

“Hey, it’s necessary for the bigger plan. Besides, I figured you’d be all about getting closer to our endgame with Varia. I thought you wanted to prove something to these Yew people.”

His eyes narrowed. “Mistress, you have no idea just how much I want that.”

He vanished, and I was left alone again. I didn’t know how many monarchs were in the hall exactly, but it took a while for Volusian to make the rounds to them and Dorian. I had actually dozed off when my minion returned. Waking up to those red eyes in a dark room is not a fate I’d wish on anyone, not that I let him know how much it freaked me out.

“And?” I asked. “How’d it go? Did you talk to everyone?”

“Yes, mistress.”

“How many others are there besides Dorian and me?”

“There are five.”

Five. Somehow, I’d been hoping for a dozen or so. Still, five gentry with magic on par with Dorian and me were nothing to scoff at. We could do some serious damage to this place. “Did they say they’ll help?”

“Three were quite zealous. I believe they would have attempted an escape right then, with or without a plan. The other two have been here a considerable time. Their spirits are broken. They were listless in responses, seeming to have little hope that we could actually accomplish anything.”

An uneasy thought occurred to me. “They aren’t so desperate that they’ll report on me in some attempt to buy favor, are they?”