Firekeeper Saga - Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart Part 5

Bride and groom had taken their stations for the ceremony near the center of the dais, away from the encircling ring of guards, but the rest of the royal party stood near the edge. With remarkable clarity of purpose, the guards nearest to the monarchs bounded onto the dais, putting themselves between danger and their rulers. Other guards helped the threatened wedding celebrants down from the dais-all the celebrants, that is, but one.

At the first crash of spear and staff, Firekeeper-who Derian had noted seemed edgier than even her nervousness at taking part in the ceremony could account for-had leapt from her place next to Elise, racing to intercept the a.s.sa.s.sins. Her Fang was in her hand and a furious howl tore from her lips. All illusion that Firekeeper was a gentlewoman vanished with that cry. She was animal fury entrapped by a long gown.

The distant howl that answered hers did nothing to sustain the gentlewomanly illusion.

Firekeeper stumbled slightly against the swathing fabric of her skirt, but she didn't pause to tear the gown short. Instead, with another howl, she flung herself onto the closest of the three a.s.sa.s.sins. The man was slimly built and the impact staggered him, but he retained his balance. Flailing he steadied himself, simultaneously bringing into play a slightly curved knife with a curious, dull sheen to the blade.

Derian heard the words that ripped out of his own throat as distantly as if they'd been uttered by another person.

"Firekeeper! Poison!"

Whether or not she heard him, the wolf-woman twisted away from the knife blade's first thrust.

Unworried about the niceties of civilized combat, she then bit the a.s.sa.s.sin solidly on the throat. Blunt human teeth might not do the damage of a wolf's fangs, but buried in unprotected flesh they did cause pain.

The a.s.sa.s.sin yelled. Against the general uproar that now filled the Sphere Chamber, Derian could notdifferentiate that single voice, but he saw the man's mouth open, revealing stained and broken teeth. The knife in his hand came down, snagging in the swathing scarlet fabric of Firekeeper's surcoat.

Firekeeper had wrapped one arm about her victim's shoulders, forcing him to bear her weight. Her teeth still worrying his throat, she brought her Fang up and into his side. It skidded against some hidden armor, sliding up uncontrolled for a moment before she readjusted.

Releasing the man's throat, Firekeeper spoke to the a.s.sa.s.sin. Again, Derian had no idea what she said, but he was struck by the curious calmness on her face. Elsewhere on the dais, fear, anger, and horror were evident, even on the faces of the professional soldiers. Firekeeper alone fought as if she were hunting-purpose dominating her actions.

Whatever she said to the a.s.sa.s.sin cowed him. The knife slipped from fingers suddenly nerveless. He slumped. Firekeeper snarled at him and he dropped to the carpeted floor, arms and legs spread wide.

Without another glance at her victim, Firekeeper turned to defend the prince and princess, but that battle was over.

Sapphire leaned against Shad, the silver white of her surcoat dyed scarlet, the scarlet soaked with blood.

The high heirloom crown had fallen to the floor and her hair spilled in a dark curtain that hid the nature of her injuries from immediate inspection.

Shad held his newly wed wife close, his face pale with shock. Still, his control was that of a battlefield commander. He saw that some of the guards who were trying to enforce order on the panicked mob of what had been wedding guests were pushing back a single man determined to get forward. In a bellow trained to carry over storms at sea, Shad shouted: "Let the man through! That's Sir Jared of Hawk Haven. He's a doctor!"

The guards, who must have been hearing something similar from Doc's own lips, let Sir Jared through immediately. The mob quieted as one at the sound of the crown prince's voice, their panicked shouts fading to a dull murmur so that for the first time Derian could sort individual voices from the general noise.

As Sir Jared half-ran through the parting crowd he nearly slammed into the one figure who moved to intercept him.

"Elise!" he said in surprise.

"I'm here to help," the young woman said stubbornly.

"Good," Doc answered without pause. "Get someone to fetch my kit or any med kit. Mine's in my room."

Sir Jared hadn't stopped moving even as he spoke. Elise turned to obey his orders and found an inconspicuous brown-haired man coming toward her, the requested kit in his hand.

Derian had no idea how Valet, Earl Kestrel's personal attendant, had gotten past the guards, but Valet had the gift of always seeming to be in the right place at the right time. Doubtless the guards had responded to his purposefulness as something welcome in the madhouse around them.

"Valet!" Elise exclaimed in relief.

"Sir Jared's medical bag, my lady," Valet said, handing it to her with a short bow.

Elise spared no time in thanks, but hurried to where Shad had lowered Sapphire to the carpeted dais.Valet crossed to Firekeeper's side.

The wolf-woman stood with her foot solidly planted in the small of her captive's back, clearly waiting lest she be needed. However, the other a.s.sa.s.sins had been well and wholly dealt with.

Faced with the potential murder of Shad and Sapphire as penalty for anything less than thoroughness, the guards had not attempted to take prisoners. The two other a.s.sa.s.sins who had reached the dais were dead, their blood spreading to stain the snowy carpet crimson. The one who had failed to cross onto the dais was also dead, bludgeoned by several guards impatient to revenge their fellow's death.

The four club wielders had fared only somewhat better. Two had been knocked out almost immediately.

A third had apparently experienced a surge of initiative and had moved toward King Allister. The king's guards had made short work of him.

The fourth club wielder had fled into the crowd, but had made the mistake of choosing the section of seats occupied by the denizens of Bright Bay's minor but extremely warlike Shark Barony. Required by law to always bear arms, the Sharks proved that their elaborately bejeweled belt knives were more than decoration.

In fact, Derian thought, the speed with which the a.s.sa.s.sins had been dispatched spoke poorly for the entire plan. What a waste of eight lives-for the three a.s.sa.s.sins who had survived would doubtless be executed. What purpose had the attack served?

True, Sapphire was wounded-perhaps badly-but there was ample medical a.s.sistance near. True, there would be those who would speak long and loudly about the ill omens of this wedding. Still, that alone didn't seem enough to merit such an act-not when the same eight a.s.sa.s.sins could have done their work elsewhere and with greater hope of success.

Frowning thoughtfully, Derian turned and joined those few remaining wedding guests who were now filing from the balcony.

What purpose had the attack served?

Elise took the medical bag from Valet and, snagging her skirts in one hand, raced up those same steps that, what seemed like a hundred years ago, she had mounted with all due decorum, worried only about the many eyes watching her every move.

A small group was cl.u.s.tered around the crown prince and princess, but Elise shouldered her way through without ceremony.

She extended the bag to Sir Jared. He glanced up, the worried frown on his face making his Kestrel family nose look even more beaky than usual.

"Hand me several small separators, would you? Then get out the blue bottle labeled sterilizing wash-the blue one, mind."

Elise did as ordered, finding the requested items easily. Sir Jared had given her some emergency medical training when the recently ended war was in the offing and she'd become familiar then with his personal organizational system.

She became rather worried when he requested the blue bottle of sterilizing wash. From past experience she knew that this was the concentrate he kept and usually diluted before use. Indeed, a glance showedher that there was a pale green bottle containing the dilute solution ready in the bag.

Sir Jared used the separators to hold open the edges of a long nasty slash that began low on Sapphire's right rib cage and extended below her right breast, rising into her left breast and stopping just below the aureole of her left nipple.

"Princess," he said to his patient, "this is going to burn worse than salt and vinegar. I suggest you scream."

Crown Princess Sapphire was, despite the amount of blood she had lost, quite evidently conscious.

However, she was so pale that the white oval on her forehead had vanished into the general hue of the surrounding skin. Her reply was prefaced by a small, defiant smile: "I'll take your suggestion, Doc."

The fingers of one of Sapphire's hands were wrapped around Shad's. He squeezed them gently.

"Ready?" the young groom asked his bride softly.

Doc, however, knew better than to give warning. With a nod of thanks to Elise, he took the blue bottle and splashed the undiluted solution into the open wound. It coursed down from the peak of Sapphire's breast, flowing through the wide slash and across her side.

Sapphire screamed, a shrill, raw sound, and promptly pa.s.sed out.

"Well, that's for the good," Doc muttered. "Lady Elise, let's remove the fibers from the cut while she's out, and then close. Someone get us some better light."

Elise didn't know who obeyed the knight's command, but the area over them brightened almost immediately. Working quickly lest Sapphire reawaken, they used tweezers to remove the worst of the intrusive material lest it foster scarring and infection.

"Let's close now," Doc said.

Elise nodded and turned to remove clean needle and heavy thread from the kit bag. In the near distance, she could hear a self-a.s.sured voice insisting: "But I am Lord Rory Seal, the Royal Physician, the medical attendant to the royal family. I insist on being let through to the crown princess! I would have been here sooner, but I was seated-quite improperly-toward the back and couldn't get here."

Firekeeper's husky voice answered him.

"Doc is with them. Others are hurt. Go there."

Lord Rory was clearly indignant. "I tell you. I am the physician to the royal family! The t.i.tle has been in my family for seventy-five years!"

"Go."

Firekeeper must have made some threatening move, for when next heard, Lord Rory's voice was slightly more distant, but complaining still: "Treating guards and va.s.sals is beneath me! I am physician to the royal family!"

Elise sighed. Firekeeper possessed a fine sense of hierarchy but no patience at all with those who had notproven themselves to her personal satisfaction.

Holding the edges even, Elise held Sapphire's wound closed while Doc st.i.tched through the pale flesh. A certain tension in the muscles under Elise's fingers told her when the crown princess returned to consciousness, but since Sapphire chose to play possum, Elise respected her wishes.

"Unhappily, there still may be a scar unless we are very lucky," Doc said, placing his hands over the wound. The vague look of intense concentration that indicated he was using his healing talent came over his face. "But the breast was not cut deeply and should still function, and the poison on the blade should have been washed out of the flesh. We are fortunate that her wound bled so freely and the knife didn't tag an organ or the circulatory system."

Shad looked relieved. "Thanks, Doc."

He bent to kiss Sapphire's face.

Sir Jared started to smile, aware of the honor inherent in the prince's informality; then he stared at a small ripped patch on the young man's left shoulder.

"Why didn't you tell me you'd been hit?" he snapped, holding the young man in place and taking a closer look at the nearly bloodless puncture wound.

"It was only a small cut," the prince protested. "She ..."

Without pausing for words, Sir Jared grabbed for a knife to clear away the torn remnants of the prince's waistcoat and shirt. When this action was completed, he bent Shad forward with one hand and held him in place.

"Blue bottle," he barked at Elise. Then to the prince, "Where poison may be concerned, there is no such thing as a small wound."

"Yes, sir," Shad said. What Elise could see of his face suddenly looked young and scared. "Sapphire was so covered with blood and my wound didn't hurt very much..."

Shad's apology ended in an abrupt shout of pain. Sir Jared had splashed the remainder of the undiluted sterilization wash into the puncture wound.

"I apologize, Prince Shad," Jared said, letting his patient sit upright again. "But I didn't care to delay longer."

He sopped a bit of cloth in the solution running down Shad's back and pressed it over the wound.

"We'll need," he said, "to keep this rag right here until I can get more solution. Lady Elise, if you would hand me some of the long bandaging strips?"

Elise did so. As she finished helping Sir Jared tie the bandages snugly in place, she became aware that the small crowd gathered around them-which before had mostly consisted of guards-had been augmented. The queens Pearl and Elexa were now present along with a man with silvering hair who must be Lord Rory.

"I wouldn't have overlooked the crown prince's injury," he was saying to Queen Pearl. "I know my duty to the throne of Bright Bay. Ever since my grandsire's day when our family was first honored with this position, we have taken the health and well-being of the royal family most seriously..."Queen Pearl nodded absently, almost, but not quite, ignoring Lord Rory entirely. Without regard for her gown, she knelt on the blood and medication soaked carpeting next to Sapphire and Shad.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come earlier. We had to do something about the panic and," she glanced up at Lord Rory who was now expostulating to a blank-featured guard, "we knew you were in good hands."

Sapphire, no longer feigning unconsciousness, lifted a hand and took Pearl's.

"Thank you, Mother," she said simply. "We never doubted your concern."

Shad, still holding Sapphire's head on his lap, nodded agreement.

"And," quavered Queen Elexa, her anxiety apparent despite her best efforts to remain calm, "what is your a.s.sessment, Sir Jared?"

The doctor rose respectfully to his feet and bowed, even while making his answer.

"I am hopeful," he said, "that both will recover. Princess Sapphire has lost a great deal of blood and should be given liquids-especially beef broth and teas containing strengthening herbs that I will supply-and restricted to bed. Prince Shad..."

Sir Jared looked grave. "Prince Shad may have taken some poison into his system. I recommend that he be kept quiet for at least a full day. Exertion would speed any poison through his system. With Your Majesties' permission, I would like to inspect his wound again as soon as he is settled in bed."

Elise had spent enough time with Queen Elexa to realize that the sudden tranquility that descended over her features was more indicative of concern than any hysteria would be.

"I see," Elexa replied very softly. "Pearl, what do you suggest?"

"The young people's suite," Bright Bay's queen replied, "has been prepared for them. However, it is hardly furnished as an infirmary."

Elise saw both Shad and Sapphire look vaguely embarra.s.sed and realized that this should have been their wedding night, the consummation of their union. Doubtless, Jared's concern about exertion spreading poison-not to mention the raw nature of Sapphire's wounds-would make that final ritual impossible.

Queen Pearl continued, "There is a room here on the ground floor that could be refurnished as an infirmary. Then they would not need to be carried as far."

"Is it," Queen Elexa asked, "secure?"

"We will make it so," Pearl said firmly.

Peripherally, Elise noted that stretchers were being brought into the Sphere Chamber. Doubtless some servant as efficient as Earl Kestrel's Valet had antic.i.p.ated the need.

After kissing her son and his bride, Queen Pearl rose to give orders. Shad looked about somewhat anxiously.

"My father," he said, his voice making the words a question, "and the others. Tell me, who else was injured?"

Firekeeper, who had been standing a few paces away in watchful silence, took it upon herself to answer."Two guards were killed," she said, "and three others wounded enough for a doctor's care. The kings were not hurt-the guards made sure of that."

Her expression was grave. Looking up at her report, Shad and Sapphire saw the ruin of Firekeeper's gown and generally disheveled appearance for the first time.

"They attacked you?" Sapphire asked, a slight note of incredulity evident despite the weakness of her voice. Elise thought she might have even been jealous.

Firekeeper, however, replied with a short, barking laugh.

"Oh, no. They no attack me. I attack them."

"Lady Blysse," Queen Elexa said with a fond smile for the wolf-woman, "captured one of the a.s.sa.s.sins.