Lessons in Etiquette (Schooled in Magic series) (51 page)

“I don’t know,” Alassa said, hesitating. “The duke wouldn’t share everything he knows with his people…”

“But it only takes a few guards to trap us,” Emily reminded her. “Come on.”

She walked to the door leading into the main corridor and stepped outside. Alassa followed her as she started to walk down the corridor, listening carefully for sounds of oncoming guards. It wasn’t easy to hear anything over the roars that echoed through the castle; the entire city could probably hear the racket as the cockatrice fought for freedom. Could the beast actually break free? The cockatrice was strong, far stronger than a human…and the stories she’d read about dragons had talked about them tearing castles apart with their claws. Could the beast she’d unleashed do that?

Emily held up a hand to stop Alassa as they reached a corner. Two armed guards were standing in front of another door, backed up by a magician carrying a long wooden wand. Both guards wore enchanted armor, she realized grimly–and they were nervous. Whatever they were guarding had to be important. King Randor? Emily had assumed that the duke had put his brother in the dungeons, but King Randor might have a secret way
out
of the dungeons. Why not? He could have easily had one installed that responded only to him.

“I’ll deal with them,” she muttered. “You just stay here and watch my back.”

She walked around the corner and threw the strongest disarming jinx she could muster at the magician, then followed up by hitting him with a freeze charm. His wand shattered under the impact, releasing a flash of raw magic; he couldn’t defend himself against the freeze charm at all. Not a real magician, Emily realized, as the guards turned to face her. The leers on their faces suggested that they might not take a girl carrying a sword very seriously, even though they’d seen her do magic. Emily smiled inwardly and triggered
berserker
.

The guards had almost no time to react as she ran forward and swung the blade with superhuman strength. One of them jumped backwards, crashing into the wall; the other staggered as the blade cut deep into his chest. He collapsed to the ground as his companion hesitated, torn between fighting or running, then struck out at Emily with his sword. To Emily, it seemed almost as though he were moving in slow motion. It was the easiest thing in the world to step to one side and skewer him through the throat.

She cancelled
berserker
and staggered, feeling the effects catching up with her. It was just too dangerous to use often, she reminded herself, even if she was stronger than she’d been when she’d started to learn the spell. Alassa came forward and put a hand on her shoulder, then looked at the door the guards had been watching. She didn’t look as though she knew what was inside either.

“They won’t have left my father here,” she said, finally. “This is one of the bragging rooms.”

Emily looked at her, puzzled.

“Big room for the guests,” Alassa said. She found a key on one of the guards and inserted it into the lock. “They come here to tell lies about their great deeds…”

The door clicked open, revealing Prince Hildebrand. He stared at Alassa, then started to laugh. Beyond him, Emily saw the other princes, sitting in the room. None of them looked very happy. They’d been taken prisoner and held for nearly two days. Chances were that holding them like that was a declaration of war. Or was it? Had anyone ever gone to war because a prince had been held prisoner? She honestly couldn’t remember.

Prince Hildebrand hadn’t taken his eyes off Alassa. It struck Emily suddenly that they might feel ashamed of being saved by a woman, even though they obviously hadn’t been able to break free themselves. Prince Hedrick looked as dull-eyed as ever; the remaining princes came to their feet slowly, staring at their rescuers. Emily couldn’t think of what, if anything, they could say to them. Was an internal coup in Zangaria even their problem?

“My father is a prisoner,” Alassa said, into the silence. “Will you help me to rescue him?”

“Yes,” Prince Hildebrand said, simply.

The other princes agreed quickly. Emily wanted to roll her eyes; she’d forgotten that they’d come to court Alassa, the Crown Princess of Zangaria. If they
didn’t
take part in the counter-coup, they’d have to explain their inactivity to King Randor, who would definitely not allow them to marry his daughter. Emily concealed her amusement as she motioned for the princes to take weapons from the guards, surrendering her sword to Prince Hildebrand. Alassa flatly refused to give her weapon to anyone else.

“Take the armor too,” Emily ordered, after checking that there were no nasty surprises attached to the metal. “Hurry.”

The princes hesitated. “Do as she says,” Alassa said, sharply. “Now.”

Emily didn’t bother to hide her irritation as she led the way down the corridor. The roaring seemed to be fading away, leaving her wondering if they’d managed to do something about the cockatrice or if the beast was growing tired on its own. She’d ridden a dragon from Void’s tower to Whitehall and she’d never had the impression that the trip had
tired
the dragon, but the cockatrice was smaller…perhaps it could be exhausted. Or perhaps it had eaten everyone sent to stop it and then settled down for a nap.

“There should be weapons in here,” Alassa said, as they reached a small storeroom. “Take what you need, then we can inch downstairs to the Great Hall.”

The princes rapidly armed themselves, then formed a bodyguard around Alassa as they moved down the stairwell. Emily found herself feeling dangerously exposed, but they reached the lower floor without problems. There was a faint tinge of smoke in the air, suggesting that parts of the castle were still burning. Emily glanced from side to side, then picked the direction that should have led to the Great Hall.

“Stop,” a voice bellowed. “This is none of your concern.”

Emily saw one of the barons standing there, surrounded by armed soldiers. He must have meant the princes, Emily decided. The whole thought of a coup in her country
not
being of concern to Alassa was ludicrous.

“You are a traitor to my father, breaking oaths you swore when he was crowned,” Alassa said, very coldly. If she had any doubts at all, they weren’t showing in her voice. “Surrender now and I promise that you will live.”

But her father might not keep that promise
, Emily thought.
Alassa
wouldn’t suffer if her father was the one to kill the baron–come to think of it, the barons couldn’t have sworn binding oaths to her father, or they would be dead by now. Unless the oaths had been neutralized somehow…she shook her head. Every time she thought she understood the rules, something changed.

The baron gestured and his soldiers ran forward, slamming into the princes as they pushed Alassa back and shielded her. Emily watched the fight for a moment, then joined Alassa in hurling spells at the baron. His enchanted armor rapidly overloaded, leaving him unprotected. Alassa’s final curse tore off his head.

“And so perish all traitors,” Alassa said, her voice shaky. The remaining guards threw down their weapon in surrender. “To the Great Hall!”

The big stone doors were shut and warded, but the wards couldn’t keep out anyone who shared the Royal Bloodline. “Stay here and guard the entrance,” Alassa ordered the Princes. “Come inside if I call, but not before.”

She opened the doorway wide enough to allow her and Emily to step inside before Emily could ask if leaving them outside was a good idea. The throne room was dimly lit–the only source of light was a fading light ball, floating up above the throne–but it was bright enough to allow them to see someone sitting on the throne. Alassa generated a light ball of her own and pushed it towards the figure, revealing the duke. He didn’t respond, even when Alassa hovered the light ball right over his head.

“Stay here,” Emily muttered and walked up towards the duke. He didn’t respond at all as she neared him, then touched his forehead very lightly. It reminded her of how Alassa had also been held in a trance, but it seemed to be stronger in the duke’s case. He was a puppet whose strings had been cut. “I don’t understand.”

“Someone could have been controlling him,” Alassa said. She shook her head in disbelief. “But that should have been impossible…”

“They intended to control you,” Emily reminded her. What had the bird-magician intended to do with Alassa’s blood? Maybe the Royal Bloodline simply required more work before it could be used to control the blood donor. Emily hadn’t had any problems using the link between Alassa and some of her blood to find her, and then plunge into her mind. “What if…?”

She saw the shimmer, an instant too late. Someone was right behind Alassa…a second later, there was a sword at the princess’s throat. Alassa froze, almost as if someone had cast a freeze charm on her. Emily stared as the invisibility spell faded away, revealing a young woman with red-gold hair.

“Welcome back, Your Highness,” Duchess Lithia said. Her face twisted into a wry smile as she looked over at Emily. “I’d advise you not to move, or to try magic. I could slit her throat and…well, where would we be then?”

D
UCHESS,” EMILY SAID. SOMETHING IN HER
mind yammered at her to keep the woman talking, at least until she could get the sword away from Alassa’s throat. “What are you doing?”

“I’m taking control,” Duchess Lithia said. She snorted, rather rudely. “You’re really not very clever, are you? What does it
look
like I’m doing?”

Emily flushed. She’d discounted the duchess, everyone had. Duchess Lithia might have married the duke, but she’d never been part of the Royal Bloodline. King Randor had insisted on it, Emily had been told, just to ensure that Alassa wouldn’t end up with cousins who might have a claim to the throne. Under the circumstances, it might not have been a very smart move.

“You had access to your husband’s blood,” Emily said, very slowly. The bird-magician had clearly thought that he could control Alassa. Why
not
the duke? “That’s how he was able to lie to his brother. He didn’t
know
that he was lying.”

“He issued the orders to have you killed,” the duchess confirmed. “You do seem to have a habit of surviving through dumb luck.”

She smiled. “Crow was very unimpressed with you,” she added. “He thought that you were madly overrated. But you did break into the castle…”

Stall for time
, Emily told herself. “Why are you doing this? What’s the
point
of it all?”

“Power,” Alassa croaked. “She’s the daughter of one of the barons. They could take control of the country using her as their weapon.”

“And turning you into a puppet,” the duchess confirmed. “Of course, you wouldn’t last very long. The barons misread the threat from the Line of Alexis once before. They won’t do it again.”

“You’d be the last survivor,” Emily said, slowly. “The king and queen would be dead. The duke would be dead. Alassa would be dead, presumably after nominating you her successor. You’d be all that was left of the Royal Family. The barons would acclaim you queen and then divide the country up between themselves.”

“And destroy those who spread the new knowledge,” the duchess said. “Didn’t you ever realize,
Child of Destiny
, how much of this is your fault?”

Emily nodded ruefully, never taking her eyes off the duchess.

The duchess smiled, coldly. “They wanted to make sure that no one respected Queen Alassa,” she added. “The girl who grew up here was a brat, with a reputation that they spread far beyond the castle walls. But then she met you and…I heard King Randor cursing, the day he realized just what you’d done. If he’d known that it would take a near-death experience to convince Alassa to grow up, he would have dropped her out of a window.”

Emily frowned. “How can you trust the barons?”

She pushed ahead before the duchess could say a word. “They were willing to settle for having Alassa as a puppet ruler,” she said. “Why would they not want to stick with that plan?”

“Because Zed did a very good job on her,” the duchess said. “Controlling Alassa permanently would be difficult, perhaps impossible. And when she broke free, she might rise up against the barons. Now
that
would be tricky to manage.”

Why
? Emily thought, bleakly.
She’d be isolated, in a castle…in a castle where the wards would be tuned to her
.
Maybe they feared being unable to control her if her thoughts cleared.

“I was the one who encouraged the king to get Zed to teach Alassa basic magic,” the duchess said. “He is a great Alchemist, but a poor teacher. I knew that she would never be able to develop her magic…well, not until you came along. And having the spells she
did
have under her control, she would just become much more of a brat. Which she did.”

“So Zed isn’t part of your plot,” she said, coolly. “You didn’t control everything.”

The duchess smiled. “I didn’t
need
him to be part of my plot,” she pointed out, mildly. “All I had to do was egg him on when it came to raging about a chit of a girl who questioned the work of a lifetime. He didn’t even come to the ceremony because he was so angry at you, Child of Destiny. Wouldn’t his presence have made the coup so much harder?”