Chapter 15
Connor had not expected to rest for long. Nothing had felt right since they got back and he knew that the enemy would take advantage of the unsettled state of Northgate Keep.
So, he wasn't surprised when the attack came, though well after midnight. The assassins were careful of their sounds and their magic, and they moved along the outer walls of the building, cloaked in shadows, unseen by anyone. They broke into the room without ever sounding an alarm.
Lucky for Connor, they chose the wrong room.
Someone stronger than the trolls had used magic -- fae magic, Connor feared -- to hide the creatures before they bounded into the room yelling their attack, and became very confused to find no one there. The local guards had come at a run and arrived before Connor and his people and were viciously fighting the trolls.
"Connor!" Someone shouted and sounded relieved to see him. He took that as a good sign as he and his people charged in to help. There had only been a dozen trolls, and while they were hard to kill, Connor's people still won.
Connor, who had at least been wise enough to grab his sword from his room, leaned back against the nearest wall and scanned the area. There were several injured, including Nylia, but the others were already working at healing them. He had a cut on his arm, but Antisha moved up and laid her fingers on it. It hadn't been a bad wound, but he was glad to have it gone.
Captain Beckwith, the head of Guard, stopped in front of Connor and frowned. Antisha's hand had gone to the sword she wore at her side, and Erlis moved up on his left, his sword still in hand.
"You weren't here," Beckwith said. "And we weren't warned about the coming attack."
"Warned?" Connor said, confused.
Beckwith glanced at Liam.
"I didn't see it," Liam replied with a surprising touch of annoyance from the usually calm Seer. "I don't catch everything, you know. If I did, I would have saved myself a lot of pain recently."
Beckwith frowned but nodded. He still looked back at Connor, though.
"I was not in these rooms because they are not my rooms. They belong to Lord Northgate, and I cannot simply pretend that I am now the man he was. Do you think this has been any easier on me than it has been for anyone else?"
Beckwith's face changed slightly, and he gave a nod. Then the Captain turned and left again, working with his people to take care of the dead trolls. Connor, feeling as though he could move again, pushed away from the wall and headed back down the hall to his own rooms. The others went with him, all of them silent. Connor could tell they were not happy and he had the feeling it wasn't just about the trolls. Beckwith had been close to rude, but Connor had no intention of calling him on that attitude. They didn't need to get into that sort of childish game.
Everyone appeared to be up and moving now, he noted. The castle had come alive, and he suspected no one was going to sleep much for the rest of the night, if at all.
"You might as well all come in. It's not long until dawn, and I doubt any of us are going to sleep," he said and held the door open for them.
They filed in, except for Druce who sent Connor ahead of him and then closed and barred the door from the inside. The others had searched the room for trouble by then.
"We can't trust them," Druce said. "We can't trust the guard if they are questioning you, Connor."
"And yet they came at a run and fought the trolls," Connor reminded them. "That's good enough for now."
Druce wanted to argue, but he didn't. It was Liam who went to the window and looked out and then turned back, clearly upset about something.
"I really didn't see the trolls," he said with a shake of his head.
"We don't doubt you," Nylia replied. Her shoulder must still bother her, but she was alive and moving.
"Thank you. But there is more to the problem. Things are moving too wide, too much flux right now. I need to stay close to Connor to see the possibilities that will affect him, and through him, the rest of the keep. You are the focus, Connor, of all change right now."
"I would like to think that the trolls were part of an attack by outsiders," Nylia said. "But not even the guards realized you weren't there, so we can't rule anyone out."
"There is one more aspect of this to consider," Antisha added. She looked around at the others and gave a glare to the window when a breeze rattled the edges of the covering. "Someone appears to be very anxious to get you, Connor. There have been two attempts in a few hours. From the timing, I suspect something is going on, and we need to find out what it might be."
"If it were obvious, someone would have noticed by now," Connor said. He shook his head. "And how can we tell if anything is out of the ordinary when everything seems to be?"
"Oh," Liam said.
He drew all their attention. Seeing him stare out at nothing was actually a relief. They all waited in silence. Then he blinked and shook his head.
"This isn't going to be a lot of help," he said apologetically. "But I have the odd feeling we have to look at history."
"Master Rion," Conner said. He started to stand and then sat down again. "But we'll at least wait until dawn. Rion is not a man to wake in the middle of the night."
They'd just faced trolls without flinching, but no one argued.
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