We were halfway through Krew explaining that the king didn’t yet know I had magic and why we were trying to keep it a secret for as long as possible when there was a knock on the door.
Owen looked to Krew and Krew shook his head.
“I will answer it,” Owen said nicely to my mother. And then he gave me a look as if he expected it to be Will or something. As soon as he hit Krew’s sound barrier, it fell.
Owen opened the door and from where I was sitting, I saw Beau Jones, Theodore’s father, standing with one of Krew’s guards. I wasn’t sure if he was the outright leader of the disloyals in Nerede, but I assumed he was. Either the leader or near the top.
Owen turned toward Krew. “Your Grace, it is Beau Jones.”
Krew gestured with a hand for Owen to bring him forward. My mother got up to move to the kitchen, offering him her seat and leaving to grab another place setting. Krew put up another sound barrier at the door.
After looking bewildered at the magic covering the walls of my mother’s townhome for a moment, he turned to me. “I am so sorry to interrupt on your time with your mother.” He bowed his head toward Krew. “Your Grace, the disloyals in Nerede are becoming more and more restless. I have urged for them to wait, but there is a plan in the works that is nothing short of reckless. I fear more Nerede blood will be spilled—”
“So you’ve come to let us know?” Krew said, not unkindly.
“Yes,” he again nodded at Krew. “I am still feeling the weight of the responsibility for the attack on you, Your Grace. I don’t wish for what happened that day to happen again. I’ve come to warn you, and to also ask for your help.”
For the next ten minutes, Beau filled us in on how there were a group of Nerede men who wanted to overtake one of the carriages sent for goods, hide among the supplies, and ride it back up to the castle into Kavan Keep. They even had a specific carriage rider in mind who they thought was a disloyal sympathizer.
“And if they manage to pull it off and ride it all the way up the mountain?” Krew asked.
“Find a way to get to the king, obviously,” Beau added.
I brought a hand up to my temples. “So while we are proactively trying to keep the king from raising taxes yet again, you all are scheming another reckless plan.”
Krew shot me a smile. “This one, at least, is a little better thought out.”
“The king wants to raise taxes again?” Beau’s head went back. “That will crush us. After the fires that will absolutely—”
“I know,” I told him. “I know.”
“We have three weeks until the next joint parliament session with my father, so we need for there to not be any other reasons for him to punish you right now,” Krew explained.
Beau put up a hand. “I hear you, Your Grace. Even just the knowledge that there is a tax raise in play might calm everyone down.”
“Or send them over the edge,” Owen offered from his position at the window where he was now leaning, arms crossed over one another.
“The idea of having more disloyal in Kavan Keep itself is alluring though,” Krew offered. “I need for you to pick three or four men. Men that can handle themselves well enough to keep their cool. Men who know if they get found, it will likely result in death. And if they still wish to come, I can get them servant jobs in the stables or barracks. No smuggling in, they can just walk right in.”
I was looking from one to the other. “That’s dangerous.”
Krew gave me a look. “I know, love. But if they are reckless enough to try to ride up the mountain to Kavan Keep, they’re already playing at a dangerous game. This will give them a way in, though I will request no one move until I say so.”
Beau’s eyebrows were up. “That is—I am sure that at least two of the men would jump for that opportunity.”
Krew leaned in. “But do you trust them enough to listen to me and wait until the time is right? Because if they get impatient and start making their own plans, they are signing their own death certificates.”
Beau started nodded as he was thinking. “I will personally vet them out. Even just this alternate plan should delay things a few more weeks. Hopefully three.”
“I appreciate your cooperation,” Krew said. He looked at me and then I felt him say through the bond,Show him what you can do.
I looked to him shocked.What?
Nerede needs hope right now, love. They need something to hold on to after the tragedy of the past few months. Show him.
You trust them enough to keep it quiet?
I do. My father hasn’t found out I’m a disloyal yet.
