The Gates of Winter - Mark Anthony [21]
“I'd like to know what you uncovered,” Falken said. “That is, if you two can stop hissing and spitting long enough to tell us.” The bard held his lute but had yet to play a note. As usual, a black glove covered his right hand. Melia sat next to him, amber eyes thoughtful, Tira on her lap. The girl hugged a black kitten with eyes the same color as Melia's.
“We found this,” Vani said, setting the sack on the table.
Aldeth rubbed his neck. “Actually, I found it, and you shook it off of me like a common cutpurse.”
Despite all that had happened, Grace found herself smiling. Something told her two shadowy types were one more than a single castle could comfortably contain.
“What is it?” Tarus said.
Vani untied the sack and turned it over. Fine black dust poured out in a steady stream.
Durge shoved back his chair and leaped to his feet. “Get the candles away!”
Lirith and Sareth hastily snatched a pair of candles from the table and snuffed them out. Most of the others looked at Durge in confusion, but Grace understood. She had smelled the sharp, acrid odor on countless gunshot victims in the ED.
“It's gunpowder,” she said.
Durge nodded. “I worked with black powder such as this in Castle City. It is a perilous alchemy, one used to power dangerous weapons called guns. There is enough powder here to kill many men.”
“Or to destroy two towers?” said a booming voice.
They all looked up to see Boreas striding across the hall toward the high table. Behind him came a pair of guards and Prince Teravian. All those around the table leaped to their feet. Aldeth wove first one way then another, hunting for a path of escape.
“Don't act as if I don't see you there, Spider,” Boreas said as he ascended the dais. “No matter what you might believe, I'm not that dense. Besides, Queen Inara told me in her last missive you were here.”
Aldeth stopped in his tracks and stared at the king. Aryn stared as well.
Boreas gave them a smug smile. “I'm not the only one around here who has secrets.”
“You should be resting, Your Majesty,” Grace said.
Teravian rolled his eyes. “That's what I tried to tell him.”
“And when you're king, if you should be so fortunate, people will obey you,” Boreas snapped, and the young man turned away, his shoulders crunching in.
Lirith gave the young prince a worried look, and Grace agreed that the king's words seemed harsh. Then again, it had been anything but a good day for Boreas. Grace moved to him, probing the bandage on his head. Belatedly she realized she should have begged his permission to touch him, but it was too late now, so she finished her examination.
“You're going to be fine,” she said. “I imagine you'll live forever.”
“That's an ill curse for a warrior, my lady,” Boreas growled. “I'm not familiar with this g'hun powder you speak of, Sir Durge, but it's capable of working great deviltry, as we saw today. I wonder how it got into my castle.”
“Perhaps we should ask the one who brought it,” Aldeth said, and all eyes were instantly on the spy.
Vani advanced on the Spider. “Did you see someone? Why did you not tell me?”
“It's surprisingly difficult to talk when you're being strangled,” Aldeth said, giving her a sour look. “I saw him not long before the explosions, leaving the room where we later discovered the sack of black powder. Several guardsmen were passing nearby, making a good deal of noise, and the fellow ran off. I suppose he left the powder in his haste.”
Beltan stole the uneaten venison from Lirith's trencher. “So that's why there was only one explosion in the guard tower instead of two. He hadn't finished his work.”
“It seems to me he did well enough,” Sareth said, gazing at his hands. He had washed them