Loelle was taken into the library to face Tenger and me. Imri had insisted that she be allowed to attend as well, but I flatly refused. Clearly there was some animosity between Imri and Loelle, and it must have run deep. Imri left the room telling everyone within earshot of her personal verdict, that Loelle be sent to the dungeons until a proper trial could be held.
Once the library door closed, muffling Imri’s anger, Loelle turned to Captain Tenger and me, saying, “Surely the judgment of the Brill carries no weight among the three of us.”
Tenger and I sat on one side of Sir Henry’s desk. He offered her a seat, but she shook her head, insisting that she could better defend herself on her feet.
“Then by all means, do so,” Tenger said.
“I will be vindicated in the end,” Loelle said. “For years, I listened in on the Corack plans, all of them ambitious and well-intentioned, but not one with much chance of succeeding. Finally, we found Kestra, an Infidante with access to Dominion strongholds, and uniquely qualified to unite all of Antora. We might’ve used her to her full potential, until Simon fell in love with her. Then every consideration had to be worked around that, and we were failing again. We all know that.”
“If you wanted a change of plans, you should have taken them through me,” Tenger said.
“And how would you have answered, if I explained I needed to isolate Kestra in All Spirits Forest for weeks, using her magic to rebuild my own people?”
“I’d have said no,” Tenger said.
“We needed the half-lives to get this far, and we will need them until the end. Your decision would have been wrong.”
“That is irrelevant. Even if I had been wrong, that still does not mean what you did was right.”
“I can accept that,” Loelle said. “But it’s been done and I believe my actions will be the key to Endrick’s undoing. If you disagree, then you must determine my punishment.”
Tenger looked at me. “What do you think?”
I leaned forward. “You will return to the service of the Coracks, Loelle, as before, healing anyone you can. In every spare second otherwise, you will work on a solution to help Kestra.”
She shook her head. “Don’t you think I’ve been trying? Simon, the guilt I feel for what has happened to Kestra overwhelms me. I will not work for a solution because of a punishment. I will keep trying because I owe that to her. But I must be clear. Nothing I have tried gives me any hope of helping her without killing her. And I fear the corruption is spreading to the boy who travels with her, Joth. My son.”
Joth had already explained this, but the tenderness in Loelle’s voice was unmistakable. I said, “Get yourself something to eat, and set up a medical station in this home. You must find a solution, Loelle. Please find it.”
She had only barely left when Imri Stout came in with another report on the activity nearer to Endrick’s palace. The Brill had begun patrolling areas around the palace at the closest possible position of safety. It was clear from their reports that Endrick sensed an attack was coming. As far as we could tell, he was drawing all Ironhearts in from every region of Antora, gathering them around the palace like a living fortress.
“If we succeed in getting past so many soldiers, it will come at a high price,” Imri informed me. “There must be another way.”
There wasn’t, not that I had yet figured out. Because it wasn’t only the Ironhearts that concerned me.
He had oropods and carnoxen on the ground and giant condors in the air, searching for any signs of danger. Interestingly, their riders paid us little attention as we patrolled. We suspected their only orders were to search for Kestra.
When the time came, I would use Rawk to fight the condors, but even as powerful as the dragon was, we would be only one against twenty or more.
The Halderian cavalry would be the best matched against the oropods, but the speed and ferocity of an oropod was almost double that of our horses. Even if we won in the end—and that was far from certain—with the number of losses we would endure, it would feel like a defeat.
“You need to get Kestra to talk to us,” Tenger had told me more than once.
We knew where she was. She and Joth had stationed themselves on the upper floor of a tall building that had been abandoned for as long as I could remember. The plaster was crumbling and the wood had begun to rot, but the fact that it was so visibly unsafe likely made it an ideal hiding place, and its height would give them a good view of the palace—perfect for making their own plans to attack.
The Coracks kept a steady watch on the building as we did our patrols, yet the same magic we had encountered before held us back here too. It was possible that Kestra didn’t even know we were trying to contact her. Or if she did, after our last attack on her, she likely had no interest in speaking with us. With me.
“Then we’ll continue watching,” Tenger said. “When she and Joth attack the palace, we must be there.”
“Whether she wants to admit it or not, she will need our help,” Imri said.
“They don’t seem to believe that,” I said. “And your idea of help might be different from theirs.”
Before Imri could make yet another objection, Trina rushed into the library where we had been meeting. “Simon, your cavalry is here.”
I stood and straightened my tunic. “Tell Harlyn.”
I’d barely seen her over the past two days, and in the few times I did, we were always among so many people that we’d scarcely said three words to each other. I’d begun to think that she was avoiding me.
I walked from the library to the entry hall of Woodcourt. Gabe was there, staring out the front window. “You’re their king?” Gabe said. “Those riders are twice your age.”
“They don’t consider me their king,” I replied. “If you want a good laugh, watch them pretend to respect me when I go outside. If I even get that much honor.”
I made a move in that direction, but Harlyn came rushing down the stairs behind me, her eyes wild as if in a panic. “Simon! Don’t go out there yet!”
“Why not?”
She paused to catch her breath, and when she seemed a little more settled, Harlyn said, “I told you that we had to talk. I’ve put it off for as long as I can, I suppose. Can we talk now?” She briefly eyed Gabe, who made a quick excuse that he had to finish dressing for patrols that evening.
Harlyn took my hand and pulled me into a quiet alcove of the entryway. She lowered her eyes and seemed to be searching for a way to begin our conversation.
I waited for her to begin, and when she didn’t, I prompted, “Is this about the cavalry?”
“Yes.”
I was becoming increasingly curious. Harlyn’s personality was so bold, I’d rarely seen her reluctant to speak.
“There were problems in persuading them to come, I assume. Because of me?” I wouldn’t forget that, only days ago, we had overheard them plotting my death.
Still refusing to look at me, she said, “Reese has taken full command of the cavalry.”
I rolled my eyes. “Reese? Wonderful.” Of all those we had overheard, he had been the most opposed to me.
Harlyn’s smile was grim. “They’re all against you, Simon. Commander Reese was just the loudest. When I first asked him to bring the cavalry here, he refused. And yes, it was because of you. He said that to fight for you was to fight under the banner of the Infidante. They know your feelings for Kestra. But I needed a way to persuade them that there was no longer any connection between you and her. I had to tell them something compelling enough to make them come.” Now she glanced up. “I know you won’t like it.”