Queen Intensia looked out at the crowd of locals as if they were the ones she had to speak to and not her own people. Finally, her notice turned to Jamison and his wife, and she gave a slight nod of her head.
"Unanik is my half-brother, born to a castle servant," she said. "Yes, the King knew. No, we did not have an affair. We came up with the idea to get me out of the capital and away from what we knew must be growing trouble. A disgraced queen was not likely to be approached by others for favors, and I let it be known early on that I did not want to dispose of my husband. I pretended to have a delightful life now that I was free. It helped that everyone knew he and I really did have our disagreements. I am sorry to see him gone. I thought you would be ruling by now, Palkin. And your brother off conquering new lands somewhere."
So, that settled a question.
"The New Order of Man should have taken him into their fold," Palkin replied. "Or at least tried to. I suspect he would have surprised them."
"I may have seriously maimed Poltin," Rory admitted. "Kellic is not going to be happy with me."
"We'll deal with it later," Palkin said and seemed to mean those words. "Poltin was too dangerous."
"Kellic told him to kill me," Rory said, drawing more surprised looks. "I believe now that he thought Jamison and I had killed the ambassadors, and I, on the other hand, thought he had killed them."
"And we all wondered who killed my father," Palkin added with more emotion than Rory had expected. "That is my current goal, and yes, I suspect the New Order of Man and Pyrida. However, we've suspected too many others of late for me to name them without proof. More than PYrida's actions. For all we know, that might just be a personal disagreement with Rory."
"I can't imagine why," Zorian and Queen Calladona chorused.
That was exactly what everyone needed. Rory blushed and bowed his head, but he had to agree that this might be personal. "We never got along in the temple, and he wanted me to fail. Why did you send me there?"
Maybe this wasn't the time to ask, and Rory almost apologized -- but he needed information if any of this was going to work out. Answers to many things, but his link in this situation would help him center. He needed that first.
"I had heard of odd things at the Eket temple," Queen Calladona admitted. "I did not suspect Prydia of wrong-doing, but there were questions about unusual guests. These guests were never seen with Pyrida at the gates, and no outsider could get the information -- at least none that I sent."
"You didn't tell me."
"There was magic involved. At least one person I sent was certain his real assignment had been learned that way."
Rory nodded. He said nothing while the others related everything they had seen and done. He knew Callanda looked his way often, but he still had no clear vision of what was happening.
"Why are the three of you here?" he suddenly asked. Still not polite, and he couldn't help it. Something tingled along his skin, and he knew he had little time to figure out the problems they faced.
More than one problem.
Queen Callanda looked his way with a nod. The others had asked no questions, not even this most obvious one.
"We have been working together for many years," she said. "But until now, it had been done by messenger. Simply keeping track of what is going on in the other lands."
"And then Lady Aien arrived," Queen Wendora said. "We learned that not only armies but also gods were on the move."
"Gods," Jamison repeated and took hold of his wife's arm. "Why?"
"No one knows why the gods move as they do," Zorian replied. "They are chaos itself. What about their priests? Are they on the move like Rory and Pyrida?"
"None of my messengers have arrived in the last ten days," Queen Intensia admitted.
"And there had been nothing about the temples for several months," Queen Wendena added. She glanced around the area and then nodded to someone at the right. "Mellie, start scanning the messages, in court and out, for word on the temples or the priests."
"Ragkin, join her," Calladona added with a wave of her hand. "Work together."
"Yes, yes -- you as well, Bitell," Queen Istania added. "You might want to join them, Palkin. You were always good at this work."
"And Rory," Calladona said, looking him over. "If he is able?"
"To sit and read things?" Rory asked. "I might be able to do that for a while, my Queen. I don't know for how long, but the truth is that I also have some coded papers from the late Ambassador Tranthin --"
"Dead? I had feared so when the messengers stopped arriving. His family?"
"All of them dead, including the clerks. I happened to be out gathering my own information when I learned that the King had died. I hurried back, but I was already too late. Kellic was there --"
"Kellic often worked with Tranthin," Calladona said. "It was through their work that we created the sham proposal for my daughter's hand that I turned down."
"But why?" Jamison dared to ask. He looked lost in this web of secrets and was trying to grab any strand and make sense of it.
"We worked that out," Palkin said. "As long as he was crown prince, women wanted him. So we created a lost love to ease the pressure. And it was only fair to a woman who would expect to become Queen."...
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