Rise of the Seven (4 page)

When we reached the hall, Grey and Steed were
standing together, deep in conversation. Ruby released her grip on
me and immediately started a new discussion with Grey, drawing him
down the hall with her.

Steed shrugged and laughed, apparently
resigned to finishing his exchange with Grey later. “Hungry?” he
asked.

“
Ravenous.” I smiled and
walked with him toward the dining room.

When we were alone in the corridor, he slowed
his pace. “I’ve been meaning to apologize.”

I glanced at him curiously.

“
If I had known... Frey, I
never would have...”

“
Oh,” I stopped him. “No, I
cannot blame you for that.”

He smirked. I smacked his arm.

“
What I mean is,” I
explained, “I can’t charge you for what neither of us
knew.”

“
Still,” he said, “I do
express my regret.” And then he smiled. “To you anyway.”

I tried to bite down on my grin. I couldn’t
expect him to be sorry for the irritation he’d caused Chevelle by
his advances. Besides, Chevelle had thrown him across the room and
into a wall. I was pretty sure they were even.

“
It was Asher,” I said. Our
slow pace came to a halt as Steed turned to me. I wasn’t sure why
I’d said it, probably because of the fresh memories brought up
earlier. All that had come back to me the last few weeks. But once
I’d started, I couldn’t seem to stop. “He found out.”

Steed placed his hands on my arms in a
comforting gesture.

“
I’d hidden it from him. I
knew I must. But he figured it out.” I drew a quick breath. “He
used it against me. He decided to take Chevelle for his own
purposes. It would keep me in line.” A harsh laugh escaped. If he’d
only known. “I hadn’t realized he’d caught on. I thought it was a
banquet, a show of power, just like any other. But the room was
crowded and he had me in a gown, not the clothes of a warrior. I
stood beside him, his second.” I could still see Asher as he moved
to silence the crowd. I shook my head. “When he announced the
arranged marriage, all my training vanished and I couldn’t stop
myself from finding Chevelle across the room. You should have seen
his face.”

I looked into Steed’s dark eyes. “I couldn’t
let him. I stepped forward and refused.” I took another shallow
breath. “I denied him. For everyone.”

He was speechless. I had meant for him to be
released of guilt. There was no one who knew the truth of it but
us, Steed couldn’t have but believed it to be fact. But I could see
my explanation had only made it worse.

“
Later,” Steed asked, “when
Sapphire was taken?”

“
Yes, I decided to run with
him. And they killed his mother.” I tried to keep the shame from my
voice.

Steed pulled me against him and we stood in
silence. My cheek against his chest, I finally breathed deep. I had
never spoken of it. I couldn’t have. But Asher was gone now.

I was so wrapped up in thought, I didn’t
realize the sound was advancing footsteps until I saw Chevelle step
around the corner. And then, when I felt Steed shift, was struck by
the fact that we were locked in embrace.

Apparently, he’d shifted to see who was
approaching, because his arms dropped from my back and his chest
slid away in a decidedly abrupt movement. I kind of just hung there
for a moment, watching Chevelle’s frozen form at the end of the
corridor.

Steed cleared his throat. I straightened.
Both of us resisted the urge to explain it was not what it looked
like.

I wasn’t positive how long the three of us
stood so, but it seemed like an incredibly long moment before I saw
Steed’s mouth quirk out of the corner of my eye.

“
Well,” he said, “I’ll see
you in a bit, Sunshine.”

I turned just in time to catch him wink at me
and casually continue down the corridor in the direction we’d been
heading. He began whistling a tune and I could only be thankful it
was the opposite direction from Chevelle.

We stayed frozen for an eternity, and then I
picked up Steed’s cue and smiled at Chevelle, as if everything were
completely normal. “Hungry?”

He finally opened his mouth to answer but the
clatter of metal on stone caused us both to pause. When no other
sound followed, I waited for Chevelle to respond, his hearing
superior to mine. I held my breath until he rushed toward me, and
then I spun to catch him on his way past. He was heading for the
noise, and he didn’t look happy.

Chapter Five

Pretender

As we ran, it occurred to me Chevelle was
holding back. I was far from able to keep up with him when he was
at full speed. What I didn’t know was whether he was setting the
pace to stay with me, as my guard, or if whatever he’d heard wasn’t
such an immediate threat. We met Rhys and Rider in the corridor and
the four of us turned into the dining area to find Steed, sword to
the neck of a small male elf on the stones before him.

The scene made me pause, as I’d not seen
Steed use a sword, and then I realized the clanking metal would
have been this elf’s sword hitting the stone floor where he now
lay, arms bent behind him as if he planned to crawl backward, away
from the very intimidating form of an angry dark elf. I was a
little proud of my guard, he looked quite impressive at the
moment.

Steed had heard us enter, was aware of who we
were and that we were not a threat, so he didn’t take his glare off
his captive. “Bind him.”

“
Done,” Chevelle
answered.

Without turning, Steed tossed the sword back
for Chevelle, who caught it by the base of the blade and did a
cursory examination of the handle. Steed grabbed the prisoner by
his arm and hefted him up to walk beside us as we crossed to a more
secure location.

Two doors down, Rhys and Rider were posted
outside while Steed tossed the elf into a chair and bound him to it
while Chevelle sealed the room. They did quick work and I simply
stood in the center of the room to stare at this strange character.
He wore particularly nondescript clothing, no markers of any kind.
His hair was muted brown. He definitely did not have the look of a
light elf, not that inner glow or glistening eye, but he didn’t
appear to be of the northern clans either. He was young. He looked
scared.

“
What’s this?” Chevelle
asked, suddenly beside me.

“
I am not exactly clear on
that,” Steed answered. “But it seems he has some business with our
lord.”

Chevelle threw the sword at the elf’s feet. I
could feel the anger roll off of him, but his tone was smooth.
“Business?”

Arms bound, stuck in a chair, the prisoner
lifted his chin defiantly. Both Steed and Chevelle took a step
forward. He swallowed as he gathered his courage. “Bring me to
her,” he demanded. Neither man glanced back at me.

So, he didn’t know who I was. Then what was
he doing here?

“
What do you want with her?”
Chevelle’s voice was abruptly deadly and I could only imagine the
glare that accompanied it.

“
I will see the pretender,”
he hissed.

Well, that was telling. I elbowed past my
guard and leaned toward him, showing him my eyes.

The green was significant and my approach was
pretty effective. He was speechless. I was confident we would break
him, so the small silver blade that materialized in an instant and
shot toward me caught me completely off guard. Instinct caused me
to turn, but as I rolled away from the dagger, it sliced the meat
of my shoulder.

I spun, landing in a defensive crouch, just
in time to see the blow Chevelle landed on the young man. Danger
thwarted, both men turned to me.

“
What the fuck was that?” I
yelled. They stared at me. “No. What the fuck was that?” Neither
appeared to fully comprehend my agitation. “Did he just pull
silver
out of the
air?”

They reacted to my words then, eyes landing
first on my arm, which was now wet with blood, and then to the
floor behind them.

A flat shard of metal lay on the stone.
Chevelle’s gaze returned to me, but Steed’s went back to the chair.
Rhys and Rider were suddenly there, struggling to take in whatever
had happened.

Chevelle moved toward me and I became aware I
was near panting. I straightened and slowed my breathing, hands and
thighs still tingling with adrenaline. He examined my arm as I
watched Steed pick up the sword at the feet of the corpse. He
appeared thoroughly confused and his gaze returned to the blade on
the floor behind him.

Feeling returned swiftly to my arm and I
jerked, but Chevelle had a tight grip. “It is a clean wound,” he
informed me. He bound a strip of fabric around it to stop the
bleeding and instructed Rhys to find Ruby.

Chevelle turned. “Rider, this was an attempt
on Elfreda.” No one missed that he’d used my official name and each
in the room tensed at the severity, myself included. “We know
nothing, but can assume he did not travel alone.” Chevelle’s tone
deepened to something resembling an animal. “Find them.”

Rider disappeared from the room without
another word and then Ruby was in the doorway. She had some choice
words for the scene, but hurriedly attended my injury.

Steed was standing over the offending blade
and now that I was taken care of, Chevelle joined him. They didn’t
seem to want to touch it. Ruby was pestering me with questions and
poking at the gash in my arm, so I didn’t catch what they were
saying. I stood and walked over to join them. My head spun a little
and Ruby protested like a wild monkey, but she followed me, working
as we went.

Steed glanced at me. “It doesn’t seem to be
of the same metal.”

“
What does that mean?” I
asked.

“
He didn’t pull the element
from anything on him. I checked his person myself. If it wasn’t the
sword...” He trailed off.

“
How is that possible?” Ruby
asked.

No one answered. There was no answer.

Chevelle straightened to face me. “What did
it look like?”

I was confused for a moment, but realized
neither he nor Steed would have been able to see it from from their
vantage point. I had a feeling neither was happy that I’d pushed
past them and stuck my nose in the attacker’s face. “It was quick.
Smooth but not liquid. His eyes were connected with mine and he
never lost focus. There was nothing, and then silver.” I sighed.
“I’m not even sure I realized it was a blade until I was
moving.”

Ruby glanced at the chair. “Who bashed his
skull?”

Steed and I gave Chevelle matching accusatory
glares. He didn’t budge.

“
Well, we’ll never find
anything out now,” she complained. “What do you suppose he wanted?”
Her gaze flicked to my shoulder. “Aside from Frey.”

Chevelle really didn’t like fairies. I
answered to save her. “He must have been put up to it.”

“
He snuck through the
kitchens,” Steed put in. “There’s no way anyone with knowledge of
the castle would have sent him that route.”

“
Did he say anything else?”
I asked. “When you found him, what did we miss?”

Steed shrugged. “He immediately demanded to
see you, sword drawn.” He met my gaze with a kind of apology. “I
had no idea he was a threat. He seemed so weak.”

I waved it off and looked back at his
lifeless form. It didn’t seem possible. “He’s just a boy.”

“
No one of note helped him,”
Chevelle said.

“
You seem sure,” I
answered.

“
They would have
waited.”

The banquet. Why hadn’t he attacked tonight,
when I would have been vulnerable? He could have walked right up to
me and had done with it in front of every clan leader. “Was he a
warning?” Unease filtered through the group. “Maybe he was never
meant to succeed?”

“
But the silver,” Steed
said, shaking his head.

“
Maybe he thought he was
strong enough to do it. The talent made him special where he was
from so he decided he would just raid the castle,” Ruby suggested.
“Where
is
he from,
by the way? He doesn’t look right.”

“
We didn’t find out,” I
answered, and we all looked at Chevelle again.

Still nothing.

Grey came in, a wild energy lighting his
face. I’d seen him quick before, but never on task. It made a
difference. “Witnesses saw a similar youth matching the description
come in with the deliveries. He seems to have been working alone,
as he was unaware of a few customs and didn’t appear to have a
defined purpose. No one accosted him, they presumed it was merely
due to inexperience,” he reported. “We would like to confirm the
identity with the witnesses.”

Chevelle nodded. “Very well, but keep him
from anyone else’s sight. Resume the search within the castle and
surrounding the gates but only until the guests begin to arrive. I
want no one to know what has happened here.”

Chapter Six

Banquet

As I lay back in the tub, letting the warm
water ease the strain caused by the morning’s events, my mind kept
returning to the dull eyes of the boy who’d nearly killed me.

It had been so close. I’d been exceptionally
stupid, so confident. In a matter of hours, I would be facing every
figurehead in the north. I could not make the same mistake. I would
have to make my position clear, leave no doubt. The banquet might
be my last chance.

I sank lower into the tub, allowing the water
to soak my patched-up wound. It burned horribly and I closed my
eyes, letting the pain sear my memory, keeping it as a reminder of
what my slip could have cost me.