Fortune's Blade by Karen Chance

Author:Karen Chance [Chance, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-01-17T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

I expected her to head to the forest in the next room, but instead she flew the other way, across a considerable space of uninterrupted flagstone to a hallway hiding in the gloom to the right of the table.

A bevy of tiny bodyguards swarmed through the air after her, but a glance over my shoulder showed that some had stayed behind, I supposed to guard her guests—or to watch them. The Pythia didn’t seem to care, having already gone back to eating, using bread to sop up the juices on her plate and calling for more wine from a tiny steward. She had seemed the most unbothered by my presence, and appeared equally so by my absence.

But she was the only one.

Marlowe was talking urgently to Mircea—I could tell from his expression and the way he leaned in, although his lips weren’t moving. The two were speaking mind to mind, probably to avoid being overheard, and thus his words were likely important. But I wasn’t sure that father noticed.

His eyes were on me and nowhere else as we disappeared into the hall and I lost him from view.

The queen did not speak as we made our way past numerous darkened doorways, some of which had loud snores emanating from them that could only belong to trolls. I had learned that music well enough on the road with the Wanderers, where I’d questioned why they bothered with stealth when they brought thunder with them wherever they went. Those rooms often had cracked or open doors, as if the occupants were unconcerned about being attacked here.

But others were tightly closed and slightly ominous, with misty, neon-colored wards gleaming in the air outside them.

We went to one of the latter, where three of the queen’s guards muscled past us to break through the ward. And then flying inside to check the place out, zipping about the small room as if determined to examine every square inch. I did not know what danger there could be in a magical castle hidden in another realm and disguised as a sandstorm, but they were taking no chances.

They finally allowed us inside and there was a forest in there, too, although not a real one. But it looked almost lifelike, with painted boughs and pinecones that almost sprang off the walls they had been so cleverly done, and then enchanted to sway slightly as if in a small breeze. A riot of spring flowers likewise decorated the bases of the trees, and I swore that I could smell them with the aid of Ray’s excellent nose, shedding a subtle but sweet perfume.

It was an enchanted glade at nighttime, I realized, staring about at the walls and ceiling and floor, with glistening mushroom caps pushing up through the rich soil and shimmering dewdrops on delicate insect wings. There was no sky, with the boughs closing overhead like a protective embrace, and no windows. The room looked as if it might have been a converted closet, something that probably seemed enormous to pixies, yet would be of little use to anyone else.

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