Zara Veylinn's Arc

Chapter 12 of 12

Zara had not yet risen from the floor when a second knock struck the door. Her guard spoke through the wood, faster now. A rider had come in from the north road with word that a kitchen girl had bolted from the palace at dusk. The girl had seen the two Guardians in the hall and was running through the outer wards telling anyone who would listen that the new queen was a witch. If the story reached the lower city by dawn, a mob would form at the gates before the herald could put out any official word. Zara stood up. She slid the ring back onto her finger and unlocked the door. She told the guard to fetch Zex Orionis from his sickbed and bring him to her, awake or not, and to send a runner for the herald. Then she asked the guard how many hours until dawn. Four, he said. She closed the door again and pressed her palm flat to it. The pale hound watched her from the threshold. She knelt and put her hand on its head. She could send it after the girl. A fog wall would drive the servant into a ditch and silence her by morning. Zara held that thought for a long breath and set it down. A queen who began by hunting a frightened kitchen girl would be the witch the girl described. Zex arrived leaning on the guard's arm. His color was still poor, but his eyes were clear. Zara told him what had happened. She said she needed the girl found and brought back before first light, unhurt, and she needed the story turned before the city woke. Zex nodded once. He said the night watch captain still owed his family and could put runners on every gate road within the hour. Zara told him to go. She called the ring. Vorik Zenthall stepped from the air in his plated shoulders. Zyx'tharon Vael came a beat behind him, quieter, his armor catching the lamplight. Zara told Vorik to ride with the watch and find the girl. She told Zyx'tharon to stand at the palace gates in full view of the road so that anyone who came looking for a witch would see a Guardian instead, and remember who Guardians answered to. Both bowed and were gone. The herald arrived out of breath. Zara walked him down the corridor over the gilded marble tiles and gave him her words for the criers. The Guardians were her family's blood-bound protectors, older than the usurpers, older than the court. Any child in the city could look up the name Vorik Zenthall in the old registers. She told him to have it shouted from every well and gate at dawn, ahead of any other story. At first light Zex returned with the kitchen girl walking on her own feet, wrapped in a watch cloak, unharmed. The criers were already at the wells. No mob came.