Chapter Fourteen: The Shrine

  Leo got up at first light. Ean rolled over to track him as he picked his way to the altar. When he stayed there, frowning over the tiles, Ean closed his eyes and went back to sleep. He got up a couple hours later and spent the morning practicing the Earth dances. Leo stayed affixed to the altar, like a leashed dog. Flora joined him for a while and Ean heard them debating language and translation. Asali visited and they discussed riddles and double meanings. Chadwick stopped by and they mapped out the various routes on the altar display and looked for any similarities between the paths. Ean had nothing valuable to offer, no insights or wisdom or historical knowledge, so he brought Leo lunch. The Prince ate it while haphazardly rearranging the colored tiles.

  Ean waited for some bolt of inspiration to strike the party, some half-formed thought to slip the clues into place. But there was no spark of genius or shock of realization. The afternoon passed much the same as the morning, and when evening fell, they were no closer to solving the puzzle.

  Ean glanced between the others as they ate dinner and wondered if any of them would bring up the obvious. They stayed silent, so halfway through the meal of stewed meat and fruit, Ean cleared his throat.

  “How long are we planning on staying here?”

  Asali shot him a dark look. Chadwick shook his head, like he was telling Ean to stop.

  Leo looked up from his plate. “What?”

  Ean rephrased the question. “Are we going to set a limit on how long we stay here?”

  “We’ve been here one day,” Asali said. “We can stay a little longer.”

  “And we can still explore the woods,” Chadwick said. “Look for a trail if needed.”

  They were speaking for Leo, defending him against Ean’s questions like he couldn’t answer for himself. Ean shifted to face the Prince directly. “How long?”

  Leo looked away. “As long as it takes.”

  Ean scoffed. “That’s not a real answer.”

  “We don’t need to consider anything else right now.”

  “Don’t need to consider it?” Ean repeated. “Are we going to keep sitting here, trying to answer an impossible question until we go gray?”

  Leo gave a shrug, still not meeting his eyes. “Like Chadwick says, we can also search the mountains. The altar gives us possible routes to follow.”

  “And you’re going to try every single route? Do we even know how many there are?”

  “Twenty-four,” Leo said promptly.

  Ean was startled for a moment, not expecting the answer so quickly.

  “It’s a simple permutation,” Leo said, like it was obvious.

  “I don’t know what that is,” Ean said.

  “It’s a mathematical equation—” Leo cut himself off with a shake of his head. “It doesn’t matter. There are twenty-four possible paths to the Villa.”

  “We can’t possibly try each one.”

  Leo put his plate down and finally met his gaze, a stubborn set to his jaw. “Why not?”

  Ean stared back, wondering why he was being so obtuse. “Because that would take months and you’re the Crown Prince of Eastmere. You can’t be gone that long.”

  “Then we figure out the riddle.”

  “But we don’t know the answer,” Ean said, frustration coloring his words. Leo was talking in circles, skirting around the prospect of defeat.

  “You’re not helping, Ean,” Asali told him.

  Ean turned on her. “I’m just trying to plan ahead.”

  “You’re planning for failure, and that’s not what we need right now.”

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  “You said I should speak up if emotions were getting in the way of reason,” Ean countered. “I know you all want the sword, but we need to consider the possibility that this is as far as we get.”

  “Roarke sacrificed himself to get us here,” Leo said. “I will not let his death be in vain.”

  “That doesn’t mean we have to die up here too,” Ean snapped.

  As soon as he said it, he knew he’d gone too far. Leo’s face tightened. A muscle clenched in his jaw. He stood up and stalked into the orchard.

  “Well, aren’t you a royal bastard,” Chadwick said.

  Ean dropped back onto the grass and looked up at the evening sky. “Could be,” he agreed. There was no point defending himself when he deserved the censure. He blew out a breath and tried to release his frustration. He knew that this trip was important. He even agreed that they should stay longer than a few days, but they weren’t guaranteed success. He wanted someone else to acknowledge that truth.

  “You offended him,” Asali said, coming to stand over Ean.

  “I was hired to kill him not too long ago,” he reminded her. “This is hardly the worst thing I’ve done.”

  She kicked him in the side, the side that was still healing from the sword slash. Pain flared and Ean jerked up, cursing her with every oath he knew.

  “If you didn’t see that coming, it’s no wonder you can’t catch an arrow.” She tipped her head towards the orchard. “Go fix it.”

  Ean rolled his eyes but pushed himself to his feet and stumbled into the darkness. Truth was, he had seen the kick coming. Sometimes it was better to take the blow to get it over with.

  He found Leo sitting at the opposite edge of the orchard, staring into the dark woods.

  “Look,” Ean said, coming up beside him and leaning against a nearby plum tree, “I’m not a nice person.”

  “Oh,” Leo said, his voice thick with faked surprise. “Well, that makes everything better. Now that I know you’re not a nice assassin, I guess everything’s forgiven.”

  Ean glowered at his tone of voice. “Sarcasm doesn’t suit you.”

  “And apparently apologies don’t suit you.”

  Ean bit back a curse. Dark stars, the Prince was irritating. He pulled in a breath. “I get it, Leo. I get that this mission is important, and I understand that we are going to face setbacks. But you have to admit that we may not win this one.”

  “No, I don’t,” Leo said stubbornly. “We still have a chance at the sword. Yes, it’s a small one, but Westenvale is threatening war and I have an entire kingdom to think about, a kingdom full of people who need protecting. I will walk into those mountains and climb every last one if that’s what I have to do to keep my people safe.” He turned around to face Ean. “And you’re coming with me because you committed an act of treason when you tried to kill me. This is your punishment. Do you understand that?”

  Ean did. He didn’t agree with it, but he understood it. And he understood that he had no option but to go along with him.

  He gave a mock bow of acquiescence. “As a bird understands flight.”

  It was too dark to see it, but he knew there was a scowl on Leo’s face as he asked, “Why do you get to be sarcastic?”

  Leo got up and brushed past him. The question was rhetorical, Ean knew that, but he couldn’t help but call after him, “Because I’m not a nice assassin.”

  Ean thought he heard Leo swear back at him, but it was so faint, he couldn’t call him on it. That was fine. He deserved it.

  They stayed in the meadow the next day. Leo and Flora camped out in the pavilion, re-reading the inscription, and shifting the tiles on top. Ean didn’t realize anything was amiss until dinner that evening when Leo asked Chadwick to pass the oranges, the oranges that were in front of Ean. Chadwick raised his eyebrows, but did so, and Ean suddenly realized that Leo hadn’t said anything to him all day. He glanced about the group, surprised and confused at the Prince’s silent treatment. Asali snickered behind her hand.

  Leo didn’t speak to him the next morning either. Ean wasn’t entirely sure what to do about it. He wasn’t inclined to apologize, but neither did he care for the awkwardness. He hung about the pavilion as Leo and Chadwick traced out all the altar maps and laid them next to each other. Chadwick sketched out a route that would intersect most of the paths and then headed out on a solo tracking mission, searching for any signs of a road to the Scholars.

  Ean stopped by at the altar after lunch, hoping he might be able to strike up a conversation, but Leo took his appearance as a signal that he needed break and walked away. Ean sighed, Flora gave him a sympathetic smile, and he spent the next hour re-arranging the tiles on the altar out of sheer boredom. He couldn’t make sense of the riddle, but he stared long enough at the altar that the colors started to look familiar, like he’d seen them before in a painting.

  With Chadwick gone, Leo’s silent treatment became even more aggravating. Ean finally asked Asali about it on their fifth morning in the meadow. She got up early for target practice and Ean followed, uninvited. He wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity for practice of his own.

  “It’s actually quite impressive,” she said, after he broached the subject. She lined up a shot over his shoulder and loosed the arrow.

  Ean grabbed for it and missed, as usual. “What’s impressive?”

  “Leo’s not good at grudges.” She drew another arrow. “Should I tell you when I’m going to release?”

  Ean shook his head. “It doesn’t help.”

  She gave a minute shrug and fired. Another miss.

  “How is someone bad at grudges?” Ean asked.

  “He’s too nice to stay angry. But you got him really pissed.”

  “I’m being logical. It’s not my fault if he takes that personally.”

  “You’re doubting him.”

  “I’m not doubting him; I’m just not lying to him.”

  Asali readied another arrow, held for a moment, then released. Ean wasn’t even close this time.

  “I’m not saying to lie to him. I’m saying you could be nicer. He gets doubted enough by—” she cut herself off. Ean waited for her to finish her sentence, but she didn’t, just loosed another arrow.

  He reached up to grab it. Heat seared across his hand.