Poison. Part 19

"There are skills involved-skills of deception and treachery!"

Ariana set Rosie on the ground and took off running, Fred chasing her with a growl and the lumbering gate of a bear. Kyra had only ever played a few times. She hadn't been all that interested in courtyard games. But at least she'd had the chance. Ariana hadn't.

Ariana needed Fred. Not just to marry her and run the kingdom with her-she needed the fun, the playfulness that was all Fred.

They came back and flumped down, breathless. "Don't get too confident," Ariana said. "It was just my first game-next time I'll be prepared."

Kyra patted Ariana on the knee. "I'm sure you will, Ari."

"That game was not," Ariana said, "very instructive."

Fred took the pan off the fire. "But it was fun."

"I wish we knew who was involved," Kyra mused. "Someone helped the obeeka, and not just Ellie-someone inside the palace gave her the information she needed to imitate you. It could be anyone. We don't know who we can trust."

"Just like the game!" Ariana said, plucking a berry out of the pan. Juice dripped from her fingers.

"Who would benefit?" Fred asked. "Who's next in line for the throne after Ariana?" He handed her a clean red handkerchief from his pack.

"In Mohr, succession is through the female line. It would go to Mom's sister," Ariana said, making a face. "The d.u.c.h.ess Genria. Or to her daughter."

Kyra cracked a smile. "Believe me, the d.u.c.h.ess's daughter is the least likely person in the world to be behind this."

"Why do you think that?" Fred asked.

"I've known her all my life," Ariana said. "Not a suspect."

"It could be anyone," Kyra repeated. She reached for the handkerchief to wipe her hands. "I think we need to find the fake princess before we'll know what to do next. I've been searching for her for months, though, and I have no idea where they're hiding her."

"I know where she is," Fred said.

"What?" Ariana and Kyra said at the same time.

"I'm full of untapped knowledge and wisdom." Fred folded his hands behind his head. "I am the groom, after all." He told them the story of how, while on his way to Mohr to start the whole pre-wedding business, a group of couriers had intercepted his traveling party. They'd had an urgent message about the a.s.sa.s.sination attempt, and redirected him to meet the princess at the ducal palace at Avon-on-the-River, where she was in protective custody. "Top secret and all that. Well, I wasn't going to be hemmed in like a poor n.o.bleman who can't do a thing for himself. So I ditched my group and set off. I told everyone I was going to find the a.s.sa.s.sin myself, but I got a bit distracted." He lay back and crossed his legs. "Hey, the fishing in your kingdom is the best I've ever seen. You can't blame a guy."

"You're the man my parents have selected to be the next leader of the King's Army?" Ariana snorted.

"Apparently. I hope the soldiers like fishing."

"Does anyone know where you are?" Kyra asked Fred.

"Besides you two?"

"That's why they postponed the wedding." Kyra twisted the handkerchief into a knot. "It wasn't because of me trying to kill the princess at all. They lost the groom."

"The ducal palace," Ariana murmured. "Interesting place to hide the fake me."

"Why is that?" Fred asked.

"It's where the d.u.c.h.ess lives with the duke when she isn't at the palace in Wexford."

"Which doesn't mean anything," Kyra said. "Except that Ariana and I have both been there, and we know a few ways to get in that aren't exactly common knowledge."

While Fred cleaned up, Ariana and Kyra went through the stock of weapons in the hut.

The walls were lined with a myriad of dangerous items-razor-thin rapiers, broadswords as tall and thick as Kyra's legs, maces, knives, throwing stars, and staves. There were so many spiky, deadly-looking things that the walls fairly glinted with menace.

They stood staring at the weapons, the faint sounds of Fred talking to Langley and the sc.r.a.ping of dishes floating in.

Ariana grabbed a little dagger from the wall. "So?" she demanded, startling Kyra.

"Soooo...what?" Kyra didn't look at her.

"What's the story with you and Hal?" Ariana flipped the dagger up in the air and caught it in her hand. "Still planning to marry the doofus when this is all said and done?"

Kyra plucked a sleek metal sword from a bracket on the wall. "It's over between me and the pretty idiot. The final straw was that he didn't trust my instincts about you, and now he's helping hunt me down. But it was over before that."

"Is fake me so convincing?" Ariana laid the dagger across her hand, checking the balance, then tossed it up, caught it, and threw it into a pocked practice board nailed to the wall.

"Not at all." Kyra experimentally swung a thin sword down one-handed and darted forward in the small s.p.a.ce, testing the weight. "G.o.d, you should see the wedding dress fake Ariana had made. It is so incredibly hideous, it might actually make you throw up. But there was more to it than just the dress.

"I'd only been back a few days when I had the vision." Kyra's voice went quiet. "It was of you-or fake you-using the Nuptial Bond to suck the life right out of the kingdom. It was horrible, a vision of the world turned to black ash. I tried explaining to Hal, and he wouldn't listen. No one would believe me that something was wrong, not even your mother."

It was quiet in the hut. Ariana had stopped playing with the dagger. "Why didn't you ever tell me you were a Seer?"

"I couldn't. I knew how you felt about witches."

Here it was. All out on the table. Kyra wished she could dig a hole and hide in it rather than face her friend's condemnation.

Ariana had a puzzled look on her face. "What do you mean? We never talked about witches."

"That first day we met. You said they weren't even human."

"Kyra." Ariana reached over and put a hand on Kyra's arm. "I was twelve. I'd never even left my room. What did I know about anything?"

"I thought you'd stop being my friend if you found out."

Ariana pulled her into a hug. "Kyra, I don't know anything about witches, but if you're one, it must be a good thing."

Kyra's eyes welled up.

There was a cough behind them, then Fred's voice. "Are you two going to be hugging every time I walk into a room? I mean, I could get used to it, I just need to know."

Kyra pulled herself from Ariana's arms. "Don't you have something you need to be doing?"

"I just came for this." He grabbed a long staff off the wall. "I thought I should do some practicing before we storm any castles." He walked off with the staff over his shoulder, and the girls watched from the doorway as he began going through a series of drills.

Kyra's vision came back to her. There was the real Fred carrying one of her staffs, the tip glowing green with her poison. So her Sight hadn't lied to her about that.

She could only hope that her vision of the false Ariana and the dying Kingdom of Mohr never came true.

WEAPONS STRAPPED TO THEIR sides and backs, tucked into sleeves and boot tops and leg holsters and anywhere else they could find, they set out toward the ducal palace. Kyra was back in her usual black clothing, her hair tied up tight, securely held in place with a wooden hair stick.

She followed behind Fred and Ariana, trying not to pay attention to the easy way the pair chatted and joked together. He was good for Ari, she reminded herself.

"Kyra?" Ariana said, over her shoulder. "Will you tell this pinhead how I'm the most knowledgeable person in the entire kingdom-and possibly the world-on the subject of hunting dogs, and if I say terriers are more reliable than hounds, I know exactly what I'm talking about?"

"She's the most knowledgeable person I know-at least on the subject of hunting dogs."

"See, I told you." Ariana smiled smugly.

"In fact, I wouldn't get her started, because she will go on and on for days."

"Kitty!"

"What she might NOT have mentioned is that she doesn't actually hunt with them. She has them flush out birds so she can watch them fly."

Ariana shot Kyra a dirty look before turning back to Fred. "Only the head groom knows, because I'm required to bring him with me. If you tell anyone, I swear you won't live to hear the laughing."

"Doesn't anyone notice that you don't come home with anything when you go hunting?"

"They just think I'm a terrible shot."

Fred laughed. Kyra couldn't see his face, but she knew that laugh, knew the smile that came along with it.

The small wooded path they were on broke out onto the edge of a large orchard abloom with apple blossoms before dipping back into the woods on the other side. Normally, Kyra would worry about being so out in the open, but she knew this area, and knew that the farmer would be working on his spring asparagus and pea crops on the other side of his land. Also, he was half deaf. She had been one of his customers when she'd lived in Wexford, making the hike out to buy his fruits and vegetables directly from him, and they'd mostly communicated by shouting at one another.

She pictured him standing in the sunshine in his work clothes, a hat pulled low on his head-the perfect silhouette of a hardworking farmer.

Kyra was struck with an idea.

"Hey, Fred," she said, coming alongside the two royals. A gust of wind blew stray apple blossom petals around them. "How many changes of clothes do you have?"

"That's an awfully personal question."

"And yet, I still need to know the answer. If you aren't going to give it to me, I'll have to take your bag by force and rifle through it myself."

He held up his hands, fending her off. "I have some extra clothes."

"You're quick to give in," Ariana said. "You aren't afraid of our Kitty, are you?"

Kyra ignored her. "Perfect. We'll need two sets."

"I get it," Ariana said, picking up on Kyra's thinking as quickly as she always did. "You think we should dress as men, right?"

Kyra nodded. "I don't have any male glamours, so we're going to have to try disguises."

"Why don't you have any male glamours?" Fred asked.

"Because I never thought I could pull off being a man. It's not just about how you look, it's all about how you hold yourself and walk."

"How are you going to work a disguise if you can't do a glamour?"

"You are going to give us man lessons."

Ariana let out a sharp bark of laughter, her eyes twinkling. "Him? Are you kidding? He's going to give us man lessons?"

"We don't need to look super convincing as men close up," Kyra said. "We just need to give the impression of men Fred's taken into his service. If you saw a potion bottle with a red stamp on it, your brain would make you think it was a red skull, and you'd think it was dangerous even if the stamp was actually a grinning squirrel." Kyra looked at Fred skeptically. "I'm sure Fred can give us a few tips, at least, of how to act like men."

"Hey! I am more than capable of giving man lessons." Fred smiled broadly at Kyra. "What do you want to know?"

"For one thing, we need to know how to walk."

"No problem. I've been walking most of my life." Fred held up a hand. "Stop and watch."

The girls leaned up against an apple tree with Rosie at their feet.

"First, you aren't just acting like any kind of men; you're going to be especially manly men. I picked you up to work for me, after all, and I wouldn't choose just any men for that sort of thing. I need men who can fight and lift heavy things. You might want to spit occasionally."

"Why?"

"It helps keep you from looking too smart. Now, because you are so manly, it naturally follows that you have large upper-arm muscles. Huge muscles, really. The way you let people know this is by slightly bending your elbows and holding your arms out from your body, like your muscles are so big they're getting in the way."

Kyra and Ariana bent their elbows and pushed their arms a couple of inches away from their bodies.

The edges of Fred's lips quirked as though he was trying to restrain a smile. "Then you need to let them know that not only are you muscular, you're confident of your abilities in all areas. You accomplish this by swaggering when you walk. Langley, stay." He pointed for the dog to sit next to the girls.

Fred sauntered away from them under the lacey white boughs of the trees in a masculine strut.

"Your turn."

The girls copied Fred's walk while he stood back and watched.

"A little less hip swinging, Kyra."

"I'm not-"

"And don't walk so close together. Imagine there's at least one invisible guy between you at all times."

Ariana leaned over and whispered in Kyra's ear. "He wants us to imagine him between us. Guys are so weird."

"Men don't whisper, but if you have to do it, at least do it the right way."

Ariana and Kyra stopped walking and turned back to Fred.

"If you find you need to whisper, you don't get up close to the other person and lean into their ear. Stay where you are, a person's-width apart, and put a hand up on the far side of your face like a shield." He demonstrated with his hand out straight from one side of his face. "Then turn your head slightly to the other person and say what you need to say."

The girls exchanged a look.