“We had believed him to be a King's Guard at first,” said the professor. “He was wearing the armor when you arrived here. But now he’s joined your research team. Who is he? An envoy of the palace?”
Ru considered several possible explanations for Fen, and finally decided that she should be truthful with the professors. “He’s a friend,” she said. “He came to my rescue after… at the Shattered City. He’s a traveling historian. He saved my life. Three times, in fact.”
Professor Obralle’s face remained passive, but Ru could tell she was rolling this information over and over in her mind. “I see,” she said at last. “He’s a wandering man who appeared seemingly out of nowhere, just after you experienced an unspeakable trauma, became immediately inseparable from you, and then proceeded to save your life multiple times.”
“Yes,” said Ru, knowing how it sounded.
Obralle sighed and leaned back again, eyes to the ceiling. “Well, I can understand why you’d be so taken with him. And you trust this man completely?”
“I do,” Ru rushed to reply. She had only known Fen for a matter of days, but they shared a connection now that no one could question or undermine, a resulting trust that defied reason. Their bond was for her and Fen to understand, and nobody else.
“Very well,” said the professor, somewhat resigned. “I take it you believe he’ll be a useful mind at work in your studies, and not just…” she waved her hands, “a distraction?”
Heat rose in Ru’s face again. Why was everyone so eager to interrogate her about her feelings for Fen? Yes he was handsome, yes they shared a bond, but their interactions had only ever been platonic.
While waking, anyway.
She chewed her lip, willing the blood to drain from her face; she knew she was blushing furiously. “He won’t distract me.”
Obralle raised a skeptical eyebrow.
“I promise.”
The professor shrugged and stood, pushing her chair back from the desk. “Very well, very well. You’re an adult, and a fourth year at that, I can’t stop you from being silly.” This was all said in a mutter, almost to herself, which Ru pretended not to hear.
Obralle continued on as they exited the office, “Keep an eye on those Children for me though, will you? Don’t let them observe anything too closely.”
“I won’t.” Ru had no reason to fear the Children, but she also had no reason to trust them. When it came down to it, she only trusted three other people with the study of the artifact, and they were already on her research team.
CHAPTER23
Ru hurried to the dungeon. Arriving at the stairs that would lead down into its cool depths, she found that two King's Guards already stood sentry there. She nodded a silent greeting to the stoic figures, heading down the narrow steps.
Cold air embraced her almost immediately, the sound of her boots on centuries-worn stone echoing before her, announcing her presence. As she came out into the long open room that had once been a dungeon, she braced herself for the presence of the Children. But they were nowhere to be seen.
Ru would have to use her time wisely now.
Fen and Archie seemed to have formed a kind of tense truce, and while they weren’t friends by any means, they had been efficiently productive in setting up large tabletop oil lamps throughout the lab, which provided a bright glow in the circle of workspace. At the center of the room, with four worktables situated around it at even intervals, sat the artifact, still wrapped up like a present on a circular wooden table. If Ru hadn’t known better, she might think it a loaf of bread, wrapped up to keep its warmth intact.
Almost as if in greeting, as if it sensed her nearness, the artifact swept a delicate touch along the edges of her senses, like a tickle along the curve of her skull.
Gwyneth, Archie, and Fen were already there, moving about the warmly lit room. They were busy setting up the various devices sent by the regent, all talking in slightly hushed tones. At the sound of her footsteps, they quieted, looking up.
“Thereyou are,” said Gwyneth. Then her eyes widened questioningly, and she gestured behind Ru, indicating the guards at the top of the stairs.
“Just ignore them,” said Ru, picking up a spherical brass instrument and twirling one of its little extrusions with her finger. “They don’t care what we’re doing down here. If anyone does, it’s the Children.”
“The Children?” demanded Archie, fuming in a way that suggested he’d been fuming for a while now. Ru suspected he’d been that way since she turned away his advances the previous night. “You mean the creeps in white?”
“How can we possibly ignore anything about this?” Gwyneth demanded, her voice a crescendo.
“They’re notreallycreeps,” Ru said futilely. Archie and Gwyneth had clearly whipped themselves into a small frenzy while she was with Professor Obralle, unlikely to listen to reason. “They’re—”
“I don’t trust them,” interrupted Fen, setting down the intricate metal device he’d been setting up — an astrolabe. “I didn’t trust them in Mirith, and I don’t trust them here.”
“Everyone calm down,” Ru said, frustrated by what felt like a subtle mutiny of thought from her own team. “We should keep our emotions under control around the artifact. If it’s magic, we don’t know what it might react to.” She lowered her voice. “And of course we can’t trust the Children. They’re here to keep tabs on us for the regency, that much is obvious. But we don’t know why, do we, so there’s no reason for antagonism. Besides, I met their leader, Lord D’Luc. He was very progressive.”
Fen bristled and Ru felt it, even across that large stone room. “Lord D’Luc is very charismatic,” he said, “to the point of it seeming purposeful.”
