Chapter Twenty-Eight
Devona reached the conclusion that the Royal Palace in Rin was far too unnecessarily large.
The first clue had been that it had taken nearly a year of non-stop construction to repair it to its exact and former glory... although a large part of that time could be explained by the improvements that Coran demanded be put in place.
She passed underneath one such improvement, a crystal chandelier, but imbedded with a series of glowing light bulbs as opposed to the traditional candles. Such electrical fixtures were abound in the restored palace, as were what Coran estimated were roughly two miles of wiring winding through the walls and flooring.
The warrior began to understand what Coran meant by "the blessing and the curse of technology". Certainly, without the lighting provided by the… "electricity" that Coran had taught the people of Rin to harness, Devona would have been largely stumbling in the dark right now with a candle providing feeble illumination.
On the other hand… without it, she wouldn't have any reason to be stumbling around the palace in the middle of the night with a candle; because the King would be safely and snugly located in his chambers, fast asleep… not jotting near manically on the chalkboard that was taking up ever increasing amounts of his sleep cycle.
"Coran, you should be sleeping." Devona said once she entered his study, fighting back a yawn of her own as she did so.
His body seemed to agree. His eyes looked dark and beady in an attempt to maintain concentration, his face drained and pale, and his fingers were clenched and trembling in the effort to keep hold of the chalk he had been writing with… a piece that had been rubbed down to almost nothing save a tiny white nub.
His voice, or at least his words, did not. "I've almost got this… shouldn't take me much longer at all…"
"Coran, you've 'almost got this' for about three years now." The voice of Yuu interrupted in admonishment. "Since getting you to acknowledge that some things are beyond even yourself will be a worthless errand, can you at least acknowledge it is beyond yourself tonight? I frankly would like to sleep myself, which I cannot do until you are."
"He's done this before?" Devona asked.
"On the odd occasion yes… and he was just as reluctant to listen to those who knew the ungodliness of the hour then as he is now." The assassin grumbled.
"How did you get him to listen?"
"Sleeping draughts, mostly."
Coran regarded them both with a near patronizing grin and said, "While I am tired, I have finally come to understand what I was doing wrong all this time. Just spare me a few more minutes to complete these equations…"
The two women glanced at each other in silent conversation, before striding into Coran's study, taking the fatigued King one to an arm, and forcibly pulling him away from the chalkboard. He didn't resist physically, knowing that to be futile, but did make considerable verbal protest.
"Devona, love… you must understand… I really am close…"
"The only thing you're close to is a sound slap across the back of your head." Yuu replied.
Coran understood that he was not going to get anywhere with Yuu. "Devona, you actually had it right… physical laws don't act the way I thought they did."
Devona blinked twice, but didn't say anything. She had to admit that she was curious what he meant, but at the same time didn't want to encourage him.
But Coran didn't need it. "All this time, my calculations and my work were based on a solid, secure, constant; an unmoving, static, perspective. But nothing in the world, nay, even the universe, exists in such a fashion. Everything is in movement… nothing is concrete… everything is relative."
"Take for example… the three of us right now." Coran continued, his tone starting to lose signs of fatigue as he obviously became more excited to prove his point. "We're obviously moving north, and rather quickly, right?"
"Yes…" Devona said.
"But look at me. We're both moving at, for the sake of argument, the same speed. In your field of vision, I'm not moving. So relative to you, I'm not moving at all. That's what I was missing in my calculations… well, that premise anyway. That's why the mathematic arguments weren't coming to proper equation at the end! That's why the link continued to elude me… I was trying to find a static constant that simply didn't exist!"
"Coran… that doesn't make sense to me..." The warrior said; trying to figure out what two people walking together had to do with a burning log.
Yuu again interrupted, "I'd wager he's not even making sense to himself right now, so don't worry yourself…" Suddenly, the assassin's head jerked straight ahead, and as Devona's eyes followed, she saw three figures come from the right side of the intersection about twenty feet ahead, then exclaim in surprise, drawing something from their backs that Devona couldn't clearly see.
"Get down!" Yuu shouted, throwing herself to the floor, dragging Coran with her and prompting Devona to do the same, followed by the whistling sound of projectiles over her head. Her fighter's instinct kicked in, and she leaped to her feet to close the distance before they could reload their weapons.
But before she could even take a step, Yuu's hand had impeded her progress. "You're not in any condition to fight!" The Shade warned. "Stay back and protect Coran. Let me handle them."
Devona frowned, but then realized that she indeed wasn't prepared for combat. While she did have a short sword at her waist (a force of habit… she felt naked somehow without some sort of weapon when she walked around), other than that she was only wearing an opaque red silk robe… not exactly a warrior's armor… and not terribly good at turning away a bolt from a miniature crossbow or a foe's steel.
Yuu didn't wait to see if her point had been made, charging forward as Devona wisely stepped back, and watched intently, her left arm circling Coran's waist protectively. Then her instinct told her they weren't safe… they had to move.
Her instinct proved correct, as she slid towards the east wall of the hallway, dragging Coran with her, just as the shimmer of a triple-pronged katar cut the air where they had been, followed by the arm, then body, of a Canthan assassin, judging from the headpiece and loose fitting combat attire.
A second katar, and thus a second assassin, forced Devona and Coran apart, and for a brief moment, Devona was near panic, worried that the other Canthan would take advantage of the break to slay Coran. She charged near blindly, drawing her sword, ready to take whatever wounds she would receive in order to return to his side.
Thus, she nearly didn't believe her instincts when she sensed both assassins turn their attention towards her… and only reacted just in time to dodge the attack from the one behind her, his katar cutting and tearing her robe… but not quickly enough to evade the lunge of his comrade, the steel arching true towards Devona's unguarded chest…
… only to be turned away abruptly by a light blue aura, the assassin's surprise giving Devona the opening she needed, striking swiftly, her short sword, seeking, and finding, the vital arteries in her opponent's neck, biting and slashing as she drew her blade across, a mortal blow that would completely neutralize the first threat.
A second attack from the remaining assassin was turned aside, and Devona finally had the clearance to see Coran, his eyes closed, left hand raised… she had seen this posture and aura only once before… Shield of Deflection, clearly Coran's elite prayer of choice.
She forced herself to move, knowing she didn't have much time before its power faded, and she'd be painfully vulnerable.
Thus, she attacked almost desperately, and she instantly regretted making the dangerous final thrust she performed, as she felt Coran's prayer abruptly falter, and the large opening her attack had made. Of course, her Canthan foe took advantage, ducking and slashing upward, katar aimed for her side, what would prove to be a fatal blow to her heart.
But once again, she was spared… the blade sank, but there was no blood, and the wound instantly sealed as the weapon was pulled away… instead small tufts of glimmering pale blue energy drifting from what should have been a torrent of escaping life. Again, Coran had saved her, this time with a spell she knew quite well… it had rescued her twice; Divine Intervention… a swift chanting prayer with just this sort of scenario in mind.
This assassin didn't seem terribly surprised, as his eyes immediately turned in Coran's direction, but didn't focus on the King for long, shifting his attention back towards Devona and moving in on the attack.
This time, Devona was more cautious, not determined to kill swiftly, taking confidence in her betrothed's skill. He had clearly remained in good practice, even if she had never seen him in such training very often.
Thus, she dug in, focused on her own training, biding her time for the opening that would eventually emerge… an opening that her opponent wouldn't have the benefit of a monk to protect him from. And surely, she found it… his left hand katar drifted in slightly too low and late as his right hand swept high, allowing Devona to sidestep and stab, the blade piercing smoothly between the assassin's ribs as the parted directly over his heart.
He fell off the blade with a satisfying squelch, and Devona almost instinctively rushed to Coran, embracing him even as he did the same, silently taking comfort in each other, with the knowledge that they were unharmed.
Yuu's voice interrupted their silent thanks. "Mercenaries. That's a relief… it means they weren't sent by Cantha. The Emperor wouldn't trust such a mission to blades for hire."
"How do you know they are mercenaries?" Devona asked. "They could merely be disguised…"
"No… there's no icon on their shoulders." Yuu replied, swiftly ripping the right arm of her Shade armor off, and displaying a black tattooed character on her almond skin. "Every legitimate assassin family in Cantha has such an icon, even my family, who fled Cantha almost sixty years ago. Traditional assassin garb leaves this mark exposed for quick, silent identification. These men bear no such mark… trained, but not officially part of any family… perhaps due to dishonor, or simply trained by the last of a line, looking to keep the knowledge alive. At any rate, the Empire would never send assassins of dubious training on a mission like slaying a king."
"They were hired by someone who knew the lay of the Royal Palace." Coran then said, any signs of the fatigue of mere minutes ago completely gone, his posture and voice now thoughtful. "But I don't think I was in any danger."
"How can you say that?" Yuu said, almost aghast. "These men are trained to kill swiftly, even a monk far more skilled in protection than you."
"I'm not saying they aren't." The King answered. "I'm saying I wasn't their target. As a matter of fact, I suspect they were given orders not to harm me."
"What?" The Shade replied in disbelief, even as Devona started to think on the skirmish herself. Something hadn't been right that she hadn't allowed herself to analyze while in the heat of battle…
Coran held one finger. "First; the fiends had an opportunity to strike me, but they didn't. This is unusual in two ways. I am the King, to begin with, if you're attacking a royal palace, one would logically think I'd be their target… and generally, if given the opportunity, any warrior worth his weight knows to take out the monk first. This is why I suspect they were under orders to leave me unharmed."
He then raised another finger, and added, "Secondly, the bowmen at the end of the hall came from the right. As I'm sure you both well know; both branches lead to dead ends. On the left are my and Devona's chamber… but we are very untraditional as engaged royalty go. Normally, a king and his queen don't often share chambers, even after marriage. That's why to the right, is normally the chambers assigned to the Queen… and where she would traditionally be at this time of night."
Coran then looked down at Devona, his features grim, his eyes seeping with slowly fading fear. "These assassins weren't after me; they were after you, my dear."
"But… why?" Devona asked.
"That, I don't know… but now I wish we had left one alive to find out. As it stands, if I wasn't so abhorred by the idea of resurrecting one of these s who dared attack my bondmate…"
At that moment, they heard shouting from the other end of the hall that extended towards the throne room. The shouting became clearer as the source came closer, someone calling out for Coran in panic.
At first they thought it was a guard coming in response to the sounds of battle… but apparently the skirmish had remained rather quiet, as the soldier who appeared recoiled at the carnage before him. "Your… highness! What happened? Are you all right?"
"We're fine… and when you're done relaying whatever was so dire that you came charging in, you can stir up the guard who obviously aren't as swift in response as they should be." Coran said disapprovingly.
The soldier gulped, not looking forward to giving the King bad news when the monarch had already had his share of ill intent for the night… but it couldn't be helped. "The night operator of the telegraph received an urgent message from Fort Ranik."
"The Charr? Then why aren't you stirring the army first?" Coran said, disdain turning to anger as his fists clenched.
"No… not the Charr, your highness! It's… Lord Darrin. He was… found dead not even twenty minutes ago…"