The Kingless Land - Ed Greenwood [155]
The corners of the king's mouth twitched. "And have them tearing apart the castle looking for me?"
Sarasper shrugged. "It'll give them something useful to do."
The king's mirth built into a roar of laughter. When he could speak again, he turned to the Lady of Jewels and said, "I know I can trust you. Lead us to your secret place."
Embra bowed her head and did so. The secret place proved to be a small, ornately paneled room crowded with a small table and some large, comfortable chairs. The king's brows rose in pleased surprise at the sight; Embra gave him a grin and said, "As I'm sure you've already discovered, the Silvertrees made a few changes to your castle. I hope this one, at least, meets with your approval."
"My lady, it does," the king told her.
She turned and did something to a panel. It slid aside to reveal a window overlooking a long avenue of trees into the gardens. Outside, all was green and beautiful. They heard the King of all Aglirta gasp in pleasure.
He leaned forward to admire the view, spreading his hands flat on the table, and Embra calmly sat in the nearest chair and put her delicately booted feet up.
Her three companions eyed her, then shrugged and found themselves comfortable seating, too. The king seemed unsurprised at their dispositions when he turned around again.
He gathered their gazes with his own and said simply, "Have my thanks. Neither I nor Aglirta can ever properly repay you. I had hoped to shower you with land and gifts, bring out the best Silvertree vintages, and spend a month talking with you, getting to know my kingdom again. But that's not to be; that month is time none of us has."
"A task for us, then, not a revel," Craer murmured.
The king nodded. "This is not," he added quietly, "a time for celebration."
He started to pace in the tiny room, restlessly, looking up to its ceiling and seeing not gloom and shadows but something in his memory. "Two nights ago, I dreamed of the missing Stones."
"Shall we go and round them up for you?" Craer asked. "A grand quest for the King's Champions?"
The Risen King shook his head, his eyes large and dark. "The dream changed, Craer."
He seemed to stand taller, looming over the Four. "The people cry out in joy for their king restored-at least for now-and the barons cry out with them. Yet not a one of my loyal barons has joy in his eyes when he comes here… and all of them have men skulking here and there, answering only to them, sniffing out ways to make the River Throne weak or even topple me from it to make room for their own masters. I am besieged here among the silks and gold, one man encircled by wolves. The River Throne will fall if I leave it unwarned for as much as twenty days, and I have no army that is not beholden first to this baron or that. As you just saw, I find myself cloaked around and about by glib-tongued men whom I know not, who seek to raise themselves by clinging to me and speaking in my name… I dare not leave this island to do what must be done."
The procurer raised an eyebrow. "And that would be?"
"Find the unfriends who aren't here," Embra Silvertree murmured. "The ones who keep hidden, biding their time and building their power-because they now hold other Dwaer stones."
The king nodded slowly. "You freed me, never knowing why I slept." He leaned forward and asked in a low voice, "What were you told would happen when I awakened?"
"The king will rise," Sarasper replied, in mellifluous mockery of the voice of a sage, "to restore peace and bounty to the land."
King Kelgrael nodded. "And yet that was never my task. In a time when the realm was strong and needed no king, I agreed to sleep, to await the time when I would be needed to fight a great foe of Aglirta. By freeing me, you-"
"Oh, no!" Embra gasped. "Three save us, no!"
The King of Aglirta nodded grimly. "You awakened that foe, too. Others less than friendly to Aglirta were alerted, too. Some of the Stones have fallen into cruel hands."
As he spoke, the Dwaer riding in Embra's bodice