‘I’m not Blood of the Lady,’ said Will, looking at the sheathed Blade on the ground. ‘The Shadow Kings aren’t coming for me.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
VIOLET WOKE FEELING that something was wrong, as if the uneasy remnants of a dream lingered. She glanced over at the place where Will was sleeping.
He wasn’t there; his pallet was starkly empty.
She sat upright, her stomach clenching. The pallet wasn’t just empty. It looked like it hadn’t been slept in.
No, she told herself. He wouldn’t. Would he? But she was already pushing out of bed and pulling on her boots and tunic.
The girls were still asleep; the sisters Katherine and Elizabeth looking oddly peaceful despite the circumstances, while Grace and Sarah lay in a tense sleep of exhaustion. Violet padded quickly downstairs and made for the gatekeep door, only to find it already opening. But it wasn’t Will entering the gatekeep; it was Cyprian, back from a morning excursion, and he spoke to her in a low, urgent voice. ‘Will’s horse is gone.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Valdithar. Will’s horse. He’s gone from the stables.’
The ominous feeling redoubled into a sick certainty, the memory of Will’s untouched sleeping pallet like a terrible premonition. Violet forced herself to stay calm.
‘Has anyone seen Will?’
She addressed the others after returning with Cyprian, and waking Elizabeth and Katherine with a few sharp shakes to their shoulders. Grace and Sarah had slept in their janissary uniforms, both waking jumpily at the sound of the door. Now they were a tense huddle in blue on Grace’s pallet. Katherine was sitting up at the small table, extraordinarily pretty in her white underdress and shawl in the morning light, her sister Elizabeth frowning beside her, her eyebrows too heavy for her small face.
Violet got blank stares from all of them.
‘No one?’ she said. ‘No one’s seen him?’
‘I talked to him before I slept,’ offered Katherine.
‘What did he say?’
Katherine turned red. ‘Just goodnight.’
Violet remembered looking up and seeing the two of them together, Will at Katherine’s bedside, murmuring to her in the candlelight. Her chest tightened, and she pushed the emotion to one side.
The announcement came from an unexpected place.
‘He’s gone,’ said Elizabeth.
‘What do you mean?’
‘He left. He ran off.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘I saw him ride out last night.’
Violet was staring at her. Elizabeth’s tone said, Good riddance. She looked back at Violet defiantly.
Katherine was shaking her head. ‘He wouldn’t leave us.’
‘Well, he has. I saw him in the stables. He said he was going for a ride. That was a lie, and I told him I knew it was, and he said if I said anything he’d get Katherine in trouble, so he’s a bully as well as a sneak.’
‘Elizabeth!’ said Katherine.
‘You know what happens if Simon finds him,’ said Cyprian in a low voice. The Blood of the Lady will return the Dark King.
Violet tried to be reassuring. ‘If Will went for a ride, it was for some purpose. He wouldn’t just leave us, and he doesn’t do things for no reason. We wait here for him to return.’
Elizabeth scoffed. Violet went to search the grounds to make sure Will was missing, and gestured to Cyprian to join her.
Waiting for him at the door, she saw Katherine looking out towards the gate with a strange expression on her face, her hair shining gold in the morning sun.
Violet turned away. A moment later, Cyprian joined her and they each took a different part of the Hall, splitting up to cover more ground.
They searched for the better part of the day, but Will was well and truly gone. With every silent, empty area of the fort that she checked, the truth was rising in her.
When she finally returned to Cyprian in the courtyard, Violet said what she was really thinking. ‘Will hasn’t gone for a ride; he’s gone to fight Simon.’
Cyprian paled. In the grey afternoon light, his face looked drawn, and it occurred to her that staying here with all the memories of the dead must be hard on him. He was still dressed like a Steward, in his pristine silvery tunic. She’d watched him wake early the last few mornings to train, a solitary figure performing the Steward rituals alone.
‘Why would he do that? His blood is the only thing that can release the Shadow Kings.’ Cyprian was shaking his head. ‘You said it yourself, all we have to do is keep Will safe, and out of Simon’s hands—’