Rory struggled to his feet and looked around. No one appeared happy. "What is going on now?" he asked softly. "They weren't upset before."
"There are many more forces wandering around than they thought," Jamison explained. He looked bothered. "And more questions every time we sit down to talk, with no answers for any of them. Prince Palkin is convinced his brother didn't kill the king, though."
"I'm not so certain of it myself," Rory said. "But what are his reasons?"
"My reasons," Prince Palkin said from just behind him. Rory turned with a start, "is an agreement the two of us made just last year. I would rule -- and he would get my support and an army to conquer some barbarian land, away from any of our allies. It appeals to him, you know, and he wants that kind of excitement and fame."
"I --" Rory began. He shook his head but stopped at the rush of pain. Jamison had caught his arm, and he hadn't even noticed. "But --"
"Are you alright?" Prince Palkin said and looked worried.
"Bad few days," he admitted and took a deep breath. "You really think Prince Kellic doesn't want to be king?"
"Considering your kind of work and that you must have been studying my brother for some time, so you know his temperament. Do you think he misjudges what it would mean to be king?"
"I would not presume to --"
Palkin gave a frustrated sigh. Rory rethought what he would say.
"Your brother is not a stupid man," Rory said, drawing Palkin's notice again. "He has been impatient, but my observations and reports on him almost always mentioned battle plans. I assumed it was a war when he took the throne."
"But did he ever talk about what he would do as king?" Palkin asked.
Rory considered it. "Not that I recall."
"This does not mean he couldn't have killed Father in an attempt to get things moving faster, but I've had the impression of something else going on."
"I thought he would have claimed the throne immediately -- no matter how your father died," Jamison offered. "That he had not by the time we left the city makes me think he was hoping for you to turn up -- but that doesn't explain the matter of the ambassadors' apartment building."
"All of them dead," Palkin said with a shake of his head and a look of dismay.
"No one tried to escape the fire," Jamison replied. "So they must all --"
"Maybe not all dead," Rory said. "We didn't check. Someone could have left before we got there. My guess would be the Trakolan people since they're allies with Atria and were clearly in the city for something other than peace accords. They got messages from Atria sometimes, but never more than a warning to be ready."
"And we missed when they got the go-ahead," Jamison said, putting himself in the same work and knowing the same things. "I don't know how we both missed ... maybe we didn't."
"What do you see?" Rory asked.
"A new theory," Jamison said, and he didn't even look at Palkin. "What if the warning was the death of the king?"
"Warning that now was the time to strike the other ambassadors? Maybe, though, why --"
"I would guess, given what we saw, that your people were the main targets and all the others to make more confusion."
"And Kellic being there?" Rory asked and then lifted a shaking hand before either could answer. "Lured in to either kill him or get him blamed. And he was quick to go after me, so I suspect someone had pointed him that way. This is mostly predicated on the idea that Kellic doesn't want to be king. You're certain?"
"Have either of you ever watched Kel at a Council meeting? Did he look like someone anxious to take the next step up?"
"Excellent point," Jamison replied with an emphatic nod. Rory mimicked the nod, having seen Prince Kellic at other meetings. "But that still leaves us with the question of why any of this happened."
"We're not going to find out running around in the woods," Prince Palkin replied.
"You want to go back to the city," Rory said and began to understand the looks of displeasure all around.
"I will go back," he said. "Even if I have to go there with no more than your people at my back. They are sworn to me by your Queen, you know."
Rory didn't argue with him. That would be Temple Master Pyrida's job if he wanted to take it on. Rory was only a priest. He kept telling himself that as he limped off with Jamison, who kept shaking his head. Rory didn't bother to ask how they'd gotten into this mess. He could trace the path as well as Jamison and could make no sense of it, either.
General Unanik and General Junal stood together still and focused on their conversation. Pyrida stood with them, but he clearly didn't understand much of what they were saying. The man looked relieved when Rory arrived, though he only nodded and walked away.
"We make him nervous," Unanik said with a nod toward Pyrida. "But not you, priest."
"I've been told that I am still too worldly," he admitted. "But that's what I need right now, isn't it? You are going back to the capital with Prince Palkin?"
"Of course," he said, and his look dared Rory to ask about loyalty.
Rory did not. It wasn't his country, and he'd know soon enough if anything was going on with the Queen. He had enough to worry about with Palkin and wondered what Kellic was doing. Who killed the ambassadors? Who killed the king?
Rory's head hurt. He looked to General Junal and found her amused.
"Yes, I'm going," she said. "I wouldn't miss this show. Besides, we were already heading that way, you know."
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