Fire - Kristin Cashore [110]
He stared at her with about as much incredulity as such a question, posed to the army’s commander on the eve of battle, rightly deserved. And now Fire was laughing, and the sudden, unexpected lightness soothed her aching brain. All right, all right. I was only testing that you were awake and in your right mind. The sight of you taking a nap against the bookshelf doesn’t inspire confidence.
He was still looking at her as if she might be half-crazy, but he flexed his hand and rested it on his sword hilt, pushing himself upright, ready to go wherever she told him to. He cocked his head at the doorway leading to Nash’s other rooms, where Fire’s guard, a group of messengers, and a small army of soldiers were waiting to assist however they were needed.
Fire stood. The others stopped their chatter and looked to her.
‘Levels seven and eight,’ she said to Brigan, ‘the far northern wing. The rooms overlooking the smallest courtyard. At this moment it’s the emptiest part of the palace, and it has been all day, so that’s where I’ll take Gentian and Gunner. You and Clara go there now. Find whatever empty room you can, on whichever level is easiest to get to without being seen, and I’ll try to lead them as close to you as I can. If you need my help getting through the halls, or if Murgda’s tails give you trouble, call for me.’
Brigan nodded and went to the side rooms to collect his soldiers. Fire sat back down and dropped her head again into the palms of her hands. Every stage of this process required focus. Right now she must monitor Brigan and Clara and their soldiers and their tails and everyone who noticed any one of them. While keeping stock of Gentian, Gunner, and Murgda, of course, and perhaps sending Gentian and Gunner occasional blips of helpless desire; and holding on to a sense of the palace as a whole, in case anything anywhere, at any time, should feel wrong for any reason.
She breathed through a mild headache forming above her temples. She stretched out with her mind.
FIFTEEN MINUTES LATER, Clara, Brigan, and a number of soldiers had found their way to an unoccupied suite of rooms on level eight in the far northern wing. Three of Murgda’s spies and three of Gentian’s were with them also, several unconscious, and the conscious ones boiling with fury, presumably at the indignity of being bound and gagged and shoved into closets.
Brigan sent assurance that all was well. ‘All right,’ Fire said to Nash and Garan. All right, she thought to all those involved throughout the palace. I’m beginning.
She hunched in her chair and closed her eyes. She touched Gentian’s mind and then entered it. She touched on Gunner and decided that he was not oblivious enough for sneakery.
Gunner, she thought to him, warm and flirtatious, gushing herself at him - and then thrusting herself into the cracks that opened with his involuntary rush of pleasure. Gunner. I want you to come to me. I need to see you. Can I trust you to be kind to me?
Suspicion washed along the edges of his gladness, but Fire murmured at it, lulled it, and took harder hold. You must go where I direct you and tell no one, she told both him and Gentian. Now, leave the courtyard through the main arch and climb the central stairway to level three, as if you were returning to your rooms. I’ll lead you to a place that’s safe for all of us, far away from the king and his tiresome guards.
Gentian began to move, and then, more reluctantly, Gunner. Their five henchmen moved with them and Fire expanded her reach, stepping into each of their minds. The seven proceeded toward the exit and Fire skimmed the rest of the courtyard. It didn’t matter who noticed, but it did matter very much who followed.
Three consciousnesses separated themselves casually from the dancing and fell in behind Gentian’s guard. Fire recognised two as Murgda’s spies and the other as a minor lord she’d identified earlier as a probable Murgda sympathiser. She touched their minds, tested, and decided that they were too guarded for her to enter without them noticing. She would have to lead the others