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But schools and the security risks that went with them. Heaven help him.
Ana and Sophia weren’t in Lor’s kitchen and he didn’t think they’d be anywhere in the garden. His pilot had barely been able to land the helicopter, given the limited visibility. Only the latest navigation system had allowed them down safely, and even then his pilot had been cursing.
They weren’t in the Queen’s quarters or the sunroom Ana had claimed as her office.
They weren’t in the bathhouse.
They weren’t in the library.
Ten minutes later he got the sinking feeling they weren’t in the fortress at all, especially once Lor told him Ana had been going to take Sophia for walk.
By the time his guards had checked the aviary, the stables, the gardens and every other outbuilding in existence, his unease was evident. Every last member of staff had been accounted for. Not a security guard or groundsman was missing.
Ana and Sophia were the only ones missing. ‘Search the fortress again from top to bottom. Every room, every passageway, every goddamn cupboard!’
‘They were going for a walk,’ Lor said, and not for the first time, only not one of his guards had seen them venture beyond the walls.
‘They were headed for the stables,’ added Tomas.
‘Which would be of help if they were still in the stables. Which they’re not. Search the grounds again. Now.’ People nodded and refused to catch his eye as they melted from sight.
He never roared. In all his years Casimir had never roared. Until now.
He wondered, with an increasing sense of being out of control, whether he should release the wolfhounds. The dogs would scent their trail. One would, at any rate. The dog and his daughter were damn near inseparable. ‘Where’s Jelly?’
‘In the kitchen with her puppies,’ said Lor.
The big wolfhound was happy to see him and seemed to know what he wanted when he put one of Sophia’s shoes to her nose. She led him to the stables and scratched at the door that led to the bridle path, so he saddled the big black stallion he usually rode while Tomas saddled a nearby mare.
Members of his security team were already fanning out beyond the walls, although what good they were if they could let a six-year-old girl and her mother slip through their fingers…
‘I’ve seen them follow the bridle path before,’ Tomas said in a voice tight with worry as they followed the loping wolfhound out and onto the bridle path. ‘Following butterflies. Picking flowers. They do that.’
That was all Claudia had been doing too, when they’d taken her. She’d been inside the garden walls and supposedly well protected.
And then she’d been gone.
‘I stirred up the northerners.’ Out here, with a man he’d known since childhood, Casimir could finally voice his greatest fear. ‘I’ve been pushing them.’
‘No.’ This time his falconer’s voice came firm and hard. ‘You’re giving them a chance to sit at the negotiating table again. They won’t refuse that. They won’t make old mistakes again.’
‘You don’t know that. I don’t know that.’
‘I know there are no strangers about. There’s no one lying in wait for the opportunity to take Sophia and Ana away from you. I flew falcons today. Falcons trained to circle at the presence of humans. They would have known.’
‘You trust falcons?’
‘More than I trust people,’ said Tomas.
They headed in the direction of the mountain pass, the dog confident in her direction. This was the bridle path that wove through the outer pastures before joining the road. A tempting walk for a woman and child. He hoped.
He called for them at intervals, Ana’s name, and then Sophia’s, and he could hear the fear in his voice and so smothered it with anger.
No one had taken them. He had to believe that.
History could not repeat itself.
They were just lost.
* * *
They were sitting on a rock beside the bridle path, singing, when he and Tomas finally reached them. Jelly had led them straight to them. He could give the dog a medal later. Name a valley after her. He reined the stallion in and slid to the ground, his fury barely contained.
‘See?’ Ana said by way of greeting. ‘I told you someone would find us if we sang.’
