Page 82 of A Divided Duty

“Nope. But sometimes I have to pretend hard enough that I believe it if I want to get my job done.” I looked back to the door. “I’ll give him a minute, and then try again.”

As it turned out, I didn’t need to. The door opened almost immediately after that, and there was Eion, still wearing his uniform, eyes tired and expression slack. Then he saw me. His eyes went wide as the weariness fled, replaced by understanding that verged on terror.

“Hi, Eion,” I said. “We came here to talk to you about my ward, Rayseline Torquill. You got a minute?”

He spun to run deeper into the suite, slamming the door as he did. I sighed heavily.

“I hate it when they do this sort of thing,” I said. “Come on, Chelsea.”

“What are we doing?”

I grabbed the doorknob, twisting it hard and shoving the door open. “Going off half-cocked,” I said, and ran.

SIXTEEN

THE SUITE WAS LARGE, even for a member of the royal household: it had to be, in order to house five people. The central room could have held all five of them and a guest for each, spilling easily into a dining room whose table would seat ten without adding extra chairs. The attached kitchen was equally spacious, well lit and airy, with windows positioned to capture the sunlight bathing the arbor and light up the whole workspace. It was some cunning design, working with the way the knowe worked, and giving everyone who used it their best chances at success.

I pushed deeper in, Chelsea close behind me, until I was faced with a series of smaller doors leading into private quarters. I took a deep breath, stilling myself, and closed my eyes.

Chelsea tugged on my sleeve. “What are you doing?” she hissed.

“Shush,” I said, and then, more loudly, “I am Sir October Daye. I serve your mistress as a Hero of the Realm. The man who lives here, Eion, has been dishonest in his oaths to her. He is a danger to your mistress. Arden lives. Help me keep it that way. Show us where we need to go.”

“You can’t ask the knowe to help you with … everything…” said Chelsea, voice tapering into confusion as one of the doors ahead of us swung slightly open, the latch releasing with a soft click.

“You were saying?” I asked, starting forward without waiting to hear my reply.

Chelsea followed.

Tuatha de Dannan are teleporters, as I think Chelsea had handily demonstrated by this point. They can go from any point within their range to any other in the blinking of an eye. That would make them unthinkably powerful, if not for the fact that they’re limited by the need to know where they’re going. When Chelsea had helped to ferry my wedding party across the continent, she’d been opening portals based on pictures and personal knowledge.

When she’d still been a changeling, she’d demonstrated one of the dangers changelings really do represent, because she’d been able to open portals to places she’d never seen before, and keep them stable long enough to jump through. Now that she was fully fae, she had the limits on her magic that should have always been there, the limitations that would keep her safe. She was sticking close despite her desire to charge after Eion, because she didn’t know where he was going, and until she’d seen all the possible places he could run to, she couldn’t jump ahead of him.

The door opened on a short, dark hall, passing a small bathroom and ending at a round bedroom with multiple curtained-off windows set into the walls. There was no sign of Eion.

Potted spider plants hung around the perimeter of the room, and every flat surface other than the bed was covered in smaller pots, the room a riot of growth. There was even a small potted tree in one corner. I paused, then walked toward it, lifting my chin as I sniffed the air. The magic that lingered there was too faint for me to pick up the scent of it, but its presence was undeniable, and stronger around the tree.

“You can come out now,” I said.

Nothing happened.

So we were doing it like this. Great. I pulled the horn knife from my belt and leaned forward, pressing the edge of it against the trunk of the tree, a few inches above the soil. “If I cut this here, it’s going to die,” I said. “It won’t kill you immediately, but it’ll hurt, and you’ll have to live with the knowledge that you could have saved this tree. If you’re all right with that, well. I won’t judge. But I’ll be sure to tell your wife that in addition to everything else, you were willing to sacrifice a tree to save yourself. Not a great look, Eion. Especially not if you want me to believe that you were acting in good faith.”

“Do you talk to everything?” asked Chelsea, exasperated.

“Only the things that might answer me,” I said, and wiggled my knife, just a little. The edge cut into the bark, not even deep enough to scar.

The tree shuddered, and then Eion was stepping out of it, somehow pulling the body of an adult man out of a tree no bigger around than my thumbs. I pulled the knife away and stepped back, not sheathing it.

He looked at me, exhausted. “Why?”

“Why what? Why did I threaten the little tree? I could tell you were inside of it, and I needed you to be out. Why did I come here? Because I knew you were the one who told Blind Michael’s Hunt where Raysel was going to be. I even know why you did it, although I don’t agree with the decision. She’s just a child. She doesn’t deserve to be punished for what the grandfather she never knew did. That wasn’t her fault, and you know it.”

“Do I?” he asked, voice going flat and distant. “Or do I know that she’s been a pampered Duke’s daughter her whole life, that she got to have a life, while my brother didn’t get anything but screams in the night and the sound of hooves? It wasn’t his fault either. No one protected him.”

“Did the Riders you spoke to tell you that they wanted Raysel so they could restart the Rides? If I don’t get her back, more children are going to suffer like your brother did. Maybe your children. Your younger daughter is still in the range that Michael used to target. They’re hoping Raysel’s power can do what his did, that she’ll be able to unify them and open the Roads for them again. And you gave her to them. Why?”

“It wasn’t fair,” said Eion. “He was supposed to live forever. He deserved the chance to live forever, not to die because no one was willing to protect us. Well, now it’s time for them to learn what it feels like not to be protected.”