Seela looked relieved. 'Your mother wants you.'
Piro dropped the last of the crumbs for the foenix and hurried over to her old nurse.
'Is everything all right? Did Cobalt suspect? I overheard him arrive,' she explained. 'Mother was so quick to invent that lovers' story.'
'It was not invention.' Seela looked grim. 'Something very like that happened not forty years ago in the Merofynian court. Still, Cobalt was suspicious.'
Piro smiled. 'Even if he is, what can he do?'
'Cause trouble. He has a gift for it,' the old nurse muttered as she hurried down a corridor. 'You've been taking your dreamless-sleep, haven't you?'
'Yes.' Piro only half-lied. 'Why?'
Seela didn't answer. Piro went to take the quickest route to her mother's solarium but Seela caught her arm, urging her to the left.
'Why are we -'
'Nightmares?' Seela asked, panting a little.
'Some,' Piro admitted. With the unistag gone the only surviving Affinity beast in the menagerie was the foenix, and he was too small to absorb much of her power, so it had been building up again. Too much dreamless-sleep made her feel listless and groggy the next day, and too little could not keep the nightmares at bay. She preferred nightmares to feeling half-alive.
'We're going to write down your dreams so Autumnwind can try to interpret them,' Seela explained. 'You were right about the threat to Rolen, even if you had the wrong source.'
Piro felt relieved to be taken seriously at last. They hurried up the servants' stairs to the rear entrance of the solarium. Male voices sounded muffled through the tapestry-covered opening. Seela froze. Piro almost collided with her.
Seela signalled for silence.
Piro recognised Cobalt's voice and her stomach knotted. Other voices joined him.
Seela peered through the gap in the tapestry. 'Cobalt, and he's with several of Lence's honour guard, boys who have more ambition than sense, if I'm not mistaken,' she whispered. 'You stay here.'
Before Piro could protest, Seela bustled through the tapestry hanging, entering the room beyond.
'Here, what's this all about, young Illien?' the nurse demanded.
'He has come to arrest me, Seela,' Queen Myrella said, her voice rich with scorn.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
'How could you, Illien?' the queen demanded. 'You, of all people, should know I'm faithful!'
'I am only following orders, Queen Myrella. Lord Steadfast thinks -'
'That I've been working treason against Rolencia? As if I would!'
'We have proof, madam queen. Written in your own hand,' old Lord Steadfast announced, stepping forwards. He glanced to Cobalt, who reached into his vest and handed something over.
There was a rustle of something being unrolled.
Steadfast cleared his throat. 'This is a description of the steps King Rolen has taken to ensure the safety of his kingdom. I intercepted it being smuggled out of the castle.'
Lence's honour guards murmured disgustedly.
'Let me see that,' the queen demanded. As she studied the paper Piro caught sight of the wax seal her mother had used on her message to the ambassador only this morning. 'A clever forgery. Nothing more. Rolen knows I would never -'
'The king is not here and Lord Cobalt has been appointed Protector of the Castle,' Steadfast said. 'When I intercepted this, I took it straight to him and insisted he act upon it. In good conscience I could not let a traitor wander loose in Rolenhold.'
'I am sorry, Queen Myrella,' Cobalt said, sounding genuine.
But Piro knew what he was capable of. His spies had intercepted her mother's message and he'd used it to forge this message, then arranged for Steadfast to discover it, knowing that the old man would insist he arrest the queen. Her mother had neat, elegant script. One corner of Piro's mouth lifted. It would be much harder to forge her own handwriting which, despite her mother's best efforts, was barely legible.
Cobalt bowed to her mother. 'The honour guard will escort you to the mourning tower, Queen Myrella. You may take anything you need.'
There was a moment's silence, then the queen spoke. 'Very well. Come, Seela. No... we will not need anything. King Rolen will set me free the moment he hears of this!'
There was some shuffling and then the sound of boots marching from the room. Piro leant against the wall, feeling weak-kneed.
The hide of him! Rage surged through her. How dare Cobalt frame her mother!
'Now, we must find the kingsdaughter,' Cobalt said. 'The message was discovered in her drawing satchel.'
Piro peered through the gap. The four young honour guards stared at Piro's satchel, which contained the sketches she had planned to turn into paintings. How had that got into Cobalt's hands?
'Piro Kingsdaughter?' one of the guards whispered. 'But she's Rolencian-born.'
'You doubt me?' Cobalt countered, rolling up his sleeve to reveal something Piro couldn't see because the men were in the way. 'This is where she scratched me when I tried to question her. She's as wild as a wyvern and as cunning, for all that she looks so sweet. Don't listen to a word she says.'
'They say the apple never falls far from the tree,' the first voice marvelled. 'Who woulda thought it of little -'
'Exactly. Find her. Bring her to me.'
'Not to her mother? I thought you'd want her in the Tower with the queen.'
'What, and give them time to concoct their lies?' Cobalt demanded. 'No. I want to find out who she was meeting and if there are other spies within Rolenhold.'
'Very good, my lord. Come on, lads.'
They marched off.
Piro sank to her knees, dizzy with dismay. She had underestimated Cobalt badly. But even so, how could Lord Steadfast and the others believe this ridiculous concoction?
They say the apple never falls far from the tree
, the guard's words returned to her, triggering another memory. The old seer had been right. Cobalt was the bad apple and he was turning the others against them.
She had to get to her father before Cobalt did. Heart thudding in her ears, she scrambled to her feet and backed up until she came to the top of the landing. But she must have made some small noise because Cobalt flung the tapestry open. He stood a mere body length from her.
His eyes widened, then narrowed. 'You heard?'
She nodded.
His lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarl as he lunged.
Piro fled down the stairs with him not far behind. She could not outrun a grown man. What should she do? Already she could hear him gaining on her.
Rounding a bend, she came to the top of the next flight of stairs. No side passages. He'd catch her for sure. Only one thing to do.
She pressed her back to the wall, judged how close he was and, at the last moment, stuck her leg out. The impact jarred her whole body, but he was worse off. His stride broken, he missed the top step and fell heavily, thudding into the wall, bouncing off and rolling down the steps.
Piro grinned fiercely. With any luck he would break his neck!
Then she was off, running back upstairs to the solarium. She had only a few moments before Cobalt recovered and came after her. Where should she hide until King Rolen came back? And how could she prove her mother's innocence, when the seeds of doubt had already been sewn? She glanced to her mother's writing desk. If only her mother hadn't written to the ambassador. But Cobalt would have thought of some other way to implicate her in treason. If only she had proof of Cobalt's machinations.
Perhaps she did!
Valens' case of tools and creams. Maybe there was something in it to implicate Cobalt. She dragged it out from under the desk but there was no time to look through it now. Her first priority was to get to her father before Steadfast or Cobalt could. Where could she hide Valens' case?
The last place they'd look.
Piro marched down the stairs into the servants' quarters. Spotting a scullery maid, who was no taller than her with long dark hair bound in a plait, Piro beckoned the girl. 'My mother needs this. Please take it to her.'
The maid did not ask where the queen was, so the news must have travelled all over the castle. Someone was sure to get to her father if she didn't meet him at the stables. Piro hurried through the connecting courtyard. And she was only just in time for she heard the clatter of returning horses.
'Father?' She ran out into the stable yard.
There he was, riding in with Captain Temor and several of his old honour guard.
'The town has outgrown its walls these last thirty years,' Temor was saying, as he swung down from the saddle and handed his reins to a stable boy. 'But, even if it hadn't, the people are better off coming up here to take shelter. Rolenhold will never fall.'
'And if the townspeople are safe within these walls, they cannot be used as hostages to force us to open the gates,' King Rolen agreed, also dismounting. He grimaced when his boots landed on the cobbles, jarring his body.
'Father?' Piro darted through the stable boys, who led the horses away, past the old honour guard. She caught the king's arm. 'Something terrible has happened. Cobalt locked mother in the mourning tower. He says she's a traitor but it's a forgery!'
'Hold on, Piro.' King Rolen patted her arm. 'What are you talking about?'
'Cobalt has framed mother for treason,' she cried.
Her father froze, his gaze going to Captain Temor, who looked stunned.
'Cobalt did warn us that only time would show the queen's true colours,' Lord Steadfast stated, as he crossed the stable yard to join them, with Cobalt at his side. 'Looks like they're Merofynian azure.'
Piro's heart sank. Cobalt looked none the worse for his fall down the steps. Perhaps he was part cat. Snake, more like. She squeezed her father's arm. 'Don't you believe him. The letter's a forgery!'
'Naturally, the queen would say that,' Cobalt agreed. 'And it pains me to have to arrest her.'
Piro searched her father's face. Surely he would not be taken in?
Cobalt bowed to the king. 'You left me in charge of the castle's safety, Uncle. I have only been following your orders.'
'Take a look for yourself, Rolen,' Lord Steadfast nodded to Cobalt, who offered the message which her father accepted and unrolled. Captain Temor and others peered over his shoulders.
'Looks like the queen's writing,' Temor agreed reluctantly.
'It is a forgery made to look like mother's writing,' Piro insisted. 'He's trying to turn everyone against her!'
Cobalt shook his head sadly. 'Uncle, I fear you are in for a double heartbreak because it was your very own daughter who had hidden this treacherous message -'
'That's a lie!' Piro could have wept with frustration.
Cobalt shrugged. 'Say what you like, kingsdaughter. I bear the marks you left on my body, when I tried to question you.' He rolled up his sleeve to reveal two long scratches that had beaded with blood. 'You know what a wyvern whelp she is, when her temper is roused.'
Piro gasped. Everyone looked at her as if she'd sprouted horns.
Her hands curled into fists. She wanted to claw out Cobalt's sorrowful lying eyes. Then she realised something.
'Look!' She opened both hands, holding them out for all to see her finger tips. 'My nails are bitten down to the quick!' These last few weeks she had fallen back into her childhood habit of chewing her nails.
Her father's eyes widened as he took in her ragged nails, which were clearly incapable of scratching anyone.
'They weren't like that when she scratched me,' Cobalt insisted.
The king's mouth settled into a grim, sad line. 'I'm going to see Myrella.'
When he strode off, the others followed. Piro hurried to stay by his side. Captain Temor fell into place on his other side.
'Rolen, if there is any doubt we can't risk freeing the queen,' Temor whispered. 'Only betrayal from within could cause Rolenhold to fall.'
'I know.' Her father sounded bleak.
'Mother is not a traitor,' Piro protested, having to take an extra skipping step to keep up with the men.
'Can you prove that?' Cobalt asked, from just behind them.
She spun to face him. 'Can you prove she is?'
He pointed to the forgery in her father's hands.
'One of you is lying,' King Rolen said. 'Once, I would have said nothing could make me doubt Myrella. But she was the one who encouraged me to betroth Lence to Isolt, and King Merofyn has used this to lull us into a false sense of security.'
Piro's heart sank. Nearly thirty years of peace and twenty-one years of marriage to Myrella were not enough to erase the ancestral mistrust of Merofynia.
They had to mount the stairs of the mourning tower in pairs. The tower had been built one hundred and thirty years ago by Queen Pirola the Fierce to celebrate her wedding but, when her betrothed was murdered, she locked the murderer, her own sister, in its topmost room. Her sister leapt from the top rather than face trial. It had been used ever since to contain royal prisoners.