“Remember—nothing rash, Eugenie,” said Dorian, far too cheerful for someone whose face was swelling rapidly. “I can take as much pain as I can dole out—and you certainly know how much I can dole out. Don’t worry about me.”
Again, I caught the message to carry out the other plans with caution. There was also, I suspected, a joke in there about some of Dorian’s sexual preferences, which tended to run toward BDSM. I had little appreciation for the weak attempt at humor just now, however. It took every ounce of strength I had to remain hard and impassive to Varia. Otherwise, there was a good chance I’d fall to my knees and beg for Dorian’s release.
“I’m not swearing any loyalty to you,” I told her. “And I’m not going to use the Iron Crown on your behalf. That answer’s not going to change.”
“Suit yourself,” she said. “We’ll see what you say later today.” She gave us a wave of dismissal. “Take them to their respective locations.”
I wasn’t able to exchange another word with Dorian because we were both hurried out too quickly. The urge to unleash a storm surged within me one last time, and I again fought it back. I would do this right. So, I allowed my escort to take me back to my cell on the third floor. They again gave me the faux courtesy of removing my chains before locking the door. Glancing around, I saw that someone had left a covered meal tray on my palette. I lifted the lid and found a piece of bread and some water—and a rat that quickly darted off the tray. Talk about adding insult to injury.
“Oh,” I said. “That’s just lovely.”
Yet, before I finished speaking, I noticed something weird about the rat—mainly, that it wasn’t actually a rat. Instead, it was a rat-sized miniature red fox. I caught my breath.
“No way. Kiyo?”
The rat-fox scurried to the center of my cell. Within moments, he transformed, and I had a full-sized Kiyo standing before me. I cast a wary look behind me, half expecting guards to come busting in. Then, I had to remind myself that his kitsune magic would not be readily detectable to gentry.
“How’d you do that?” I asked Kiyo. “Did a mad scientist give you a shrink ray?”
He smiled, but his eyes looked tired. “Afraid not. It’s just another variation on the shape-shifting, just like I can turn into a super-sized fox. I’ve just never had much reason for the small size. Turns out it’s terribly convenient for poking around a palace.”
“I thought you were a rat,” I admitted.
“So did one of the cooks in the kitchen. I have a new respect for brooms.”
“Is that how you guys escaped? Where’s everyone else? Are they okay?”
He leaned against the wall and ran a hand through his dark hair. “The chains couldn’t stop me, especially once I shape-shifted. Once I had a moment to free myself, I got the chains off everyone else, and then we just kind of busted our way out in the night. Why haven’t you done that?”
“Would if I could,” I muttered. “Varia’s keeping me in check with a few things. First, it was you guys. Then she tacked on the destruction of my kingdoms and finding Isaac and Ivy for good measure. Now she’s got Dorian with torturers and his execution penciled in.” I gave him a brief recap of my morning meeting.
“You were smart not to act then,” said Kiyo, when I was finished. “Dorian’s strong. He’ll hold out.”
I wondered if Kiyo meant that or if he just didn’t really care about Dorian suffering. “You never told me where the others are.”
“Hidden in the city,” Kiyo said. “Your Hemlock friends helped us find a safe place.”
“Hemlock ...” A light went off. “You’re Alea’s scout, aren’t you? You’ve been looking for the room with the talismans.”
“Found it,” he said, in a manner far too casual for the importance of those words. “Like I said, you can get to a lot when you’re rat-sized.”
“Is it in the basement, like Alea said?”
“Well, yes, but there are a bunch of basements here. This place goes as far underground as it does above. The room’s about four floors down and has lots of guards. The objects are inside, in two collections, surrounded by some magic I can’t really figure out. But then, gentry magic isn’t my specialty.”
“Two collections ... let me guess. One for the lands actually in the blight and one for those who’ve sworn allegiance. But obviously, she’d still keep their tokens around as leverage.”
Kiyo nodded. “That’s what I thought too. Not sure if this makes you feel better or worse, but the blighted pile was much larger. More are resisting than giving in.”
“How do you know it was the blighted pile? Did you recognize Maiwenn’s gift?”
“No, but there was a marble bust of Dorian in there, which I figured must have been his kingdom’s ‘humble’ gift.”
That normally would’ve brought a smile to my face, but thinking of Dorian only served to remind me of the trouble he was in because of me. The image of him being punched in the face was etched in my mind.
“We have to expedite things and get out of here,” I said. If Kiyo had talked to Alea, she probably would’ve mentioned me telling Spots that I would free her king. But, obviously, there was a lot more to the plan that Kiyo needed to be caught up on. I quickly explained about the other captive monarchs and how Volusian had been in contact with them. Kiyo’s eyes were aglow as he listened.
“That’s brilliant,” he said. “So long as they haven’t been badly treated, they’ll be a huge force to have on our side.”
I nodded. “Volusian didn’t give me the impression that they’d been physically harmed ... just that some were kind of defeated mentally.”
“Understandable,” said Kiyo. “But if they can fight, we may not need to figure out the key to the enchantment around the objects. You guys can just overpower it.”
“We talked about that too. It’s an option. Still, if there’s any edge we can get, I want it. I don’t want to go down there with my little posse of six or so, only to find out Varia used six hundred to cast her spell and that we can’t even come close to matching that.”
“I can ask Orj and the rest of the Hemlock group about it. Along with some dissidents from other kingdoms, it seems Varia has a number of malcontents within her own borders.”
That was a surprise. “Everyone I’ve met sure seems devoted, though. She’s massively powerful and controls lots of other kingdoms. Seems like her subjects would be happy about that.”
“They’re devoted because they’re afraid of her,” Kiyo pointed out. “And from what I’ve been hearing, the people in her own kingdom don’t always fare much better than those she subjugates.”
That also surprised me, since I regarded protecting my subjects as my main job as queen. Of course, Varia and I were coming from very different points of view, seeing as I also didn’t really feel the need to blackmail the innocents of other kingdoms with death and suffering in order to expand my empire. So, it was reasonable she and I would have different ruling styles in general.
“Well, find out what you can,” I told him. “One thing I know for sure—we need to get Dorian out before we launch our master attack.”
Kiyo shifted uncomfortably. “We might not have time for that. We can get him once everything else is taken care of.”
“We may not have the chance! The whole reason she’s holding him is to ensure my good behavior. If we start some commotion up here, he could end up dead before we get back to him.”
I admit, part of me had been a little amazed this whole time that Kiyo and I had been having such a civil conversation. It was almost—almost—like we didn’t have this history of blood and betrayal between us. Nonetheless, I think I’d been subconsciously waiting for something to pick a fight over, some reason for our tenuous alliance to fall apart. Kiyo, to his credit, seemed to take his time in forming a civil response.
“If you go after Dorian beforehand and something goes wrong, you could end up dead before you ever get a chance to free the hostage monarchs and go after the objects. Or, even if you bring the monarchs with you, there’s still the chance something could go amiss.” He gave me a wry look. “You aren’t all-powerful, Eugenie. You keep talking like all you really need to do is walk out of here, and everything will be taken care of. You’re a badass, but this place is packed full of magic users and soldiers. That can wear even you down.”
He was annoying because he was right. It was entirely possible we could achieve everything—destroying the talismans and freeing Dorian—but the former had to take first priority. We couldn’t risk losing our shot at that. It’s what Dorian would want. And yet ...
“I just can’t abandon him,” I said in a small voice.
Kiyo studied me for a long time before responding. “I’ll rescue him.”
I looked up sharply. “What?”
“I’ll rescue him. You don’t need me for when you break this group out, and really, you don’t need me when you go after the objects. You need magic users for that, not a fighter. In fact, if I go after Dorian when your breakout starts, it might pose a neat distraction to take the heat off you. I can even probably recruit some of the rest of the gang to help me—though you’d probably be better off if Jasmine and Pagiel were with you.”
I stared at him in amazement. “You could be killed.”
Kiyo gave me a dry smile. “I knew that when I set out from the Willow Land.”
“Yeah, but it’d be on Dorian’s behalf. I can’t really say I saw that coming.”
“My priority’s always been the mission. There’s nothing personal about Dorian—that’s what I tried to tell you when he was in the dryads’ trance. If I can save him and help us achieve our goal at the same time ... well, then. So much the better.”