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and their minions one-handed, I suppose, and there's no dissuading you. Well,
wish me luck."
She stood as he vanished into starlight and streaked away toward the shadowy
bulk of the palace towers. "Luck," she whispered.
THE ELEMENT OF FIRE
249
12
THOMAS WOKE BEFORE dawn,
the wound in his leg stiff and sore. Despite the fire, the room was frosty and
he sat on the bed and struggled into his doublet. He stood and limped around
until he could walk without obviously hobbling, then tried to do a fencer's
full extension. He got halfway down and needed the help of the bedpost to get
back up.
Phaistus was sleeping in front of the doorway, rolled up in a rug and snoring.
He hadn't stirred when Thomas was bumping around the room and didn't wake when
he stepped over him and opened the door.
The anteroom was lit only by two candles on the mantel, their soft light
making the blue wallpaper dissolve into shadow and hiding the disarray of the
fine furnishings. Kade was sitting on the floor with the contents of an ebony
trinket cabinet spread out around her. It was probably the silver-gilt
curiosities and mother-of-pearl boxes that had attracted her attention, but it
was the seashells, the baby's skull, and the ostrich egg that had undoubtedly
kept it.
She looked up at him and said, "Are you going back to the palace today?"
It was too early for this. He dropped into an armchair. "Wouldn't that be an
extraordinarily foolish thing to do?"
"I don't know. I don't think about things that way." She held up a seashell
with her bandaged hand, passed the other hand in front of it, and the shell
disappeared. "I suppose it
would depend on why you were going. And who went with you." She pulled the
shell out of her right ear. "Do you want to find the keystone?"
Thomas watched her for a moment. She was giving the shell the sort of
concentration usually reserved for a deep philosophical problem. He was
certain Denzil had returned to the palace yesterday, and he meant to discover
why. He'd thought the keystone was a lost cause. "Would that do any good?"
"The wards themselves are still there, drifting about over the older parts of
the palace, and the other wardstones are still in place. If we replace the
keystone, it will pull the wards back down into their original courses, and
the Host will have to leave or be trapped inside."
They knew Grandier must have taken the stone, probably soon after he had
arrived at the palace, but that still didn't leave them a clue of where to
look for it. "He could have hidden the keystone anywhere inside the palace. Or
more likely, he handed it to Dontane, that night at court when he was there,
to hide somewhere in the city. It would be like looking for one certain rock
in a quarry."
"But it's a very special sort of rock. If I could get to one of the plain
wardstones, and take a chip from it," Kade said slowly, "I might be able to
use it in a spell, to find the keystone."
Thomas frowned. "How?"
"Years and years ago when all the stones were placed in the matrix of the
warding spell, they became one. Even when the keystone has been removed, and
the matrix isn't diere anymore, the stones remember. It's like using a lock of
hair to find a person." She stared at the shell in her hand, vexed. "I should
have thought of this before we left the palace yesterday."
"There aren't warding stones in the Old Courts. It would have been just as
dangerous to go into the other part of the palace then as it is now," he said.
And you had other things
250
MARTHA WELLS
THE ELEMENT OF FIRE
251
to think about. "If you came with me, you could do this spell while we were in
the palace, and discover if the keystone is still there?"
Kade considered this a moment, her eyes moving through the collection of
curiosities on the floor. "No. Am I a fool for being honest?"
"No. Am I a fool for expecting you to be honest'" Even as he said it he
realized it was true. He had been prepared to believe her answer, even if it
had served her purpose.
Kade didn't look up at him, staring instead at the shell lying quiescent on
her bandaged palm. "So, whatever are we going to do?" She closed her hand, and
opened it again. The shell had vanished.
"Don't play coy; it ill becomes you."
She pulled the shell out of her ear again and for the first time looked at him
directly. "All right, will you say I can come with you or do we have to have a
loud fight about it and attract the attention and speculation of the entire
house?"
Thomas sighed and looked at the ceiling. "I don't know, I could do with a loud
fight. Gets the blood moving." He had seriously considered asking her to come
already. She could escape any danger far more readily than he could and with
her help his chances of accomplishing something increased to the point of the
almost possible.
Kade made the shell vanish again, stood to lean on his chair arm, and
apparently found it in his ear.
This time he saw it come out of her sleeve. "Get away from me," he told her
cordially.
Kade smiled. "I'm going with you, am I not?"
He said, "Yes. We'll both be fools together."
Falaise did not complain when told she had another long ride ahead of her. She
seemed just as anxious to go as they were to send her on her way.
The Queen's presence had assured them the loan of some of Aviler's horses, and
the servants readied them in the large roofed court that held the house's
stables. The large chamber
was warmed somewhat by the presence of the animals and was probably one of the
more comfortable areas of the house. This did not entirely account for the
number of city guardsmen who had ostensibly shown up to see them off, probably
on Aviler's orders.
Thomas was sending all the guards who had survived the flight from the palace,
even the most badly wounded. Aviler would probably interpret this as the
basest form of distrust, but at the moment the last thing Thomas cared about
was the High Minister's opinion of him.
He drew Lucas aside while Gideon was helping Falaise to mount and said, "I'm
not going with you. I'm going back to the palace."
He hadn't thought this would be well received and he wasn't mistaken. Lucas
stared at him incredulously. "Why?"
They keep asking me that, Thomas thought. Do I seem bored, that I have to
invent these things to keep myself busy? "Why do you think? That's where
Denzil went. He must realize that we'll get the Queen out of here, and with
her gone he's not likely to come back."
"What if he isnt there?"
"If he is, it's the best chance I'm likely to have at him. If he's not, I can
at least have a look at what's happening there before I go on to Bel Garde."
He didn't know if Aviler had sent someone to follow Denzil or not; probably
not, and he didn't want to give his own plan away by asking. It seemed
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