"Anything?"
"Nothing yet, Lynch," Gansey replies, not for the first time. "And since you can hear as well as I, I'm sure as soon as our messenger returns, you will know."
Sir Richard the third, of the house of Gansey, rebel king and if the rumours are true, rightful heir of the broken line of Glendower, is a patient man. But one of his closest friends is in the hands of their enemy, caught while on a mission he himself had sent the mage on, and their necromancer has chosen now as the best time to disappear, and he has had enough of Ronan of Lunch's angry pacing in what is supposed to be his private tent. He needs space to think, to plan, to somehow rescue Adam from an impossible position, and Ronan is not helping.
"How did this happen, Gansey?" Ronan's voice, deadly as any weapon, is almost loud enough to disguise the panic in it. "He never should have been on that mission! And you know it!"
"I can't keep him cooped up like... like some invalid, Ronan! He wants to be involved, and that transport needed the proper protection to keep it stable! He agreed to go!"
Ronan's laugh is like a punch. "Like he'd say no to you."
Gansey doesn't understand what Ronan's even trying to get at, anymore. "He says no all the time? Ronan, I'm as worried about him as you are, but I need to make some decisions, if they realize who they have," Ronan snarls. "If they refuse the offer, we need to be prepared. We need to have a plan. So please, either calm yourself, or get out."
The tent flap opens, and Blue sticks her head in. "You're making the men nervous," she tells them, her tone sharp. "If you're going to fight, have the sense to not do it in front of them. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence."
There are very few people that can speak like that to Ronan and live. Blue, youngest current member of the Sisterhood of the Fox, possible illegitimate child of the late high priest of the old faith, is one of them. He shoots her a glare, and storms past her and out of the tent.
"I'm going to look for Czerny," he growls, and is gone.
Blue scowls at Gansey. "That goes for you double. People are used to Lynch. When you start to yell, they get scared."
Gansey doesn't bother to chide her on her informal manner with him. Technically, as a member of the Sisterhood, even one with no Sight, she is above their mortal titles. "I am scared," he admits to her, staring at his hands, wishing for a blessing in the form of a brilliant plan. Nothing comes, of course. That is not how their gods work. "Adam Parrish is not only one of my closest friends and advisors, he is of vital importance to this movement. He is also the reason why believers of the old faith are among our strongest supporters. We can't afford-" His voice breaks, and he trails off.
Blue steps fully into the tent, and lets the flap close behind her. She shouldn't be in a man's tent without a chaperone, but even disregarding the fact that she carries the curse of Gwendolyn, his men know and respect her too much to doubt her virtue.
As if one can just disregard Gwendolyn's Blessing.
"Gansey," she says, soft but firm. "People follow you for many different reasons. One of those reasons might be Adam Parrish, but even if-" her own voice falters. All of those in his most inner circle care for each other very much. They'd become a family, and although death always dogged their steps, they'd never have thought Adam might be the first of them to die. Adam Parrish of nowhere, Adam Parrish of Cabeswater, who's soul had left his body and still he walked the earth, his heart still beating. He cannot die. And yet.
Blue has to compose herself before she can finish her sentence. "Even if something were to happen to Adam, the people would still support you. You arte the king of the people. The rightful king."
"We don't know that for sure." Gansey doesn't often doubt, but today all of his darkest fears are at the forefront of his mind. "We are no closer to finding him."
"We will," says Blue, and it sounds like an oath.
Gansey smiles shakily at her. "Thank you, Blue. I-"
He is interrupted by the sound of hoofbeats, and a shout that the men quickly take up. One of their foot soldiers bursts into the tent, a commoner of the old faith who had travelled from the furthest reaches of the nation to join them. In his excitement, he forgets is recent training about appropriate ways to address a commander.
"Sir Noah has returned!" he announces. "He brings news of Manibus!
Manibus is what the most devout call Adam. Gansey stands.
"Thank you." He follows the soldier out, Blue right behind him.
Outside, a crowd has swarmed Sir Noah, who looks tired and not at all triumphant, as he dismounts from his horse.
"I didn't send him," Gansey mutters to Blue, and she can feel the tension rolling off of him, the concern in his words. Then he straightens, and he is their promised king once again. "Sir Noah! Do you bring us news?"
Noah looks pale, paler even than usual. He gives a subtle shake of his head, and Ronan must have seen it too, because he's right there, grabbing Noah's arm. Those who crowd Noah immediately part for their Greywaren. The two men make it over to Blue and Gansey, and Gansey motions to his tent.
"Shall we?"
The four of them retreat back into Gansey's tent, and the inside feels cavernous, because usually they four are five, the five young conspirators turned rebels. The three others try to give Noah a moment, but Blue isn't known for her patience.
"What happened, Noah?"
Gansey is frowning. "I thought I sent Sir Henry..."
"Did you see him?" Ronan is a bow string, ready to fire, and Noah sees this like he sees everything, and answers Ronan first.
"Briefly." There's a pain in his eyes. Noah, more than any of them, is kind. While the rest of them found their own way here, Noah was dragged here, quite literally. It is not his friends' fault, and he loves them too much to begrudge them things beyond their control, but it is hard, sometimes. "I just caught a glimpse of him, Ronan. Where he was, there were wards, so no amount of sneaking would have helped. He is alive." There's a collective release of tension, as they all remember to breathe again. Alive means he's not beyond hope. Alive means there's a chance.
Blue knows Noah best, though. She can see that hesitation. "There's something else, isn't there?"
Noah nods. "It's Kavinsky. Kavinsky's troops are the ones holding the pass. Kavinsky is the one who has Adam."
Gansey swears, which is so out of character for him that Blue echoes the word in surprise. Ronan goes a step further. Hands balled into fists, he aims a kick at one of the closest trunks. There's a loud 'crack!' Noah hopes it was the trunk.
"I'm going to guess he turned down our request, then." Gansey sits down, looking older than his twenty years. "Did he say anything?"
Noah shrugs, not looking away from Ronan, who can't seem to stop moving, pacing the width of the tent like some caged beast. "He thought I was just a regular messenger. If he knew who I was," What I was, is what he doesn't say but what they all hear. "I doubt he would have let me leave so easily. He said..." Noah blinks in and out of sigh, like he does when he is most upset. "He said Ronan would get him back when he's done with him."
Silence. No one wants to look at Ronan. The statement is enough to shock him into stillness.
Gansey must know what he's going to do at the same time as Ronan does, because when Ronan goes to leave, Gansey already has a hand on his arm to hold him there.
"Ronan." He's still using that voice he keeps for his friends, not yet resorting to that commanding tone that even Ronan cannot disobey. :You can't just rush off to him. It's exactly what Kavinsky wants-"
"Last time," Ronan's gaze is dark, there is a storm brewing and Ronan Lynch is the eye of it. "Last time I rushed and I still wasn't fast enough. So tell me, Gansey, what do you think will happen this time?"
Blue and Noah watch the two men in silence, knowing the conversation has gone beyond them, back in the boy's history to a place they don't have the right to follow. Noah tries to stay present, even though he knows his strength is waning. Blue's hand finds his elbow, grounding him, and he smiles gratefully at her. She didn't take her eyes off of Gansey and Ronan, but still knew that he needed her. Blue is a blessing, their binding. Noah loves her with all of his unbeating heart.
"This isn't last time." Gansey sounds more sure than he feels. "This isn't Matthew. This is Adam, who's more capable of defending himself than any of us. And we will help him. But we can't be hasty. There is too much at stake to throw our lives away trying to save him without a plan." It's a good argument, a logical one, and Gansey isn't quite done. "Also, if you get us killed in some stupid move? Adam will hate you."
Ronan recoils like Gansey hit him. Even Blue is shocked. That was harsh, especially coming from Gansey. But it was what Ronan needed to hear, it seems, because he shakes Gansey's arm off, and gives him a curt nod.
"Understood?"
"Yes, your Majesty."
Ronan exits his king's tent dramatically for the second time that day. There's hurt on Gansey's face, and Noah is gone. He doesn't like it when they fight. Blue opens her mouth, but Gansey waves a hand at her.
"Can I get the lecture later, Blue? I would like to be alone."
This gets her hackles up. She wasn't going to give him a lecture, she was going to tell him he did good. But if he doesn't want to hear that, then fine. She turns on her heel and leaves Gansey to his own thoughts.
Ronan hasn't gone far. He's a few feet into the forest, Morning Glory on his arm. He rants at his raven while she preens and adds in the occasional caw of agreement.
"Haven't needed a nursemaid in a long time, Sargent."
She doesn't question how he knew she had followed him. "Could have surprised me, Lynch." She sits down on a fallen log, and watches two squirrels chase each other up the trunk of a tree. "Are you going to run off, then?"
Ronan's shrugs always make him look extra birdlike, more a lifting of his shoulder blades than his shoulders. "Maybe. I'm considering it."
"If you don't come back, Gansey won't take it well."
Ronan responds with his father's tongue, a language that makes even the kindest pleasantries sound like a threat, and Blue is willing to bet that whatever he said was not a sweet nothing.
"He needs you here."
"We need Parrish here!"
Finally he turns to look at her. Morning Glory doesn't like his sudden movement, taking wing and heading towards a perch that is a little less angry. If Blue didn't know better, she would think Ronan might have been near tears.
She stares him down, but although she is good at staring contests, he is better. She is the one to first look away, but she throws in a comment to even the field.
"You're acting like a child. I don't know what this Kavinsky is like, but I can't imagine this is the frame of mind you want to be in when dealing with him."
Ronan is silent for a long time, long enough that Blue thinks he might intend to ignore her until she leaves. But just as she stands, he speaks up.
"When we were all training together, he crippled my brother. He thinks he knows people better than they know themselves, and he is cruel. Crueler than our mockery of a king." These are more words than Ronan usually strings together at one time, and Blue is as surprised by that as she is by him volunteering information. She has heard stories of their childhood in the palace, and of the early days of the rebellion, before she found them, but it has all been from Gansey and Adam. Ronan has never been one for reminiscing.
"Adam knows cruel." It's the sad truth. "And he's strong." Stronger than he was when they met, when he looked like he was never quite present. Who knew that taking a soul out of its shell could make the shell strengthen.
"Not like this." Ronan sounds sure. "And I know Kavinsky. This is not about Parrish, or even Gansey. This is about me. So whether I go now or later, with Gansey's blessing, I will have to go."
Blue can't ever recall seeing Ronan scared, so she's not sure what that would look like, but if she has to guess, she would guess it looked something like the boy in front of her right now.
"Just don't go alone." The wind picks up around them, and she can almost hear words in the movement of the trees around them. Ronan cocks his head, like he can understand what they're saying, and maybe he can. As the Greywaren, he is closer to Cabeswater than her. He walks there in the dreaming, whereas she only catches glimpse in mirrors and the rain.
"What are they saying?" She asks, and he shushes her, not unkindly.
"They're saying... Manibus will come." The open expression on his face as he listens to the trees suddenly clouds, and once again Ronan Lynch shuts the rest of the world out. "And that he will bring death."
The whispering of the trees doesn't sound gentle, anymore. It sounds dangerous.
"What do they mean by that?"
Ronan doesn't answer. Above them, Morning Glory keraws, and the wind vanishes.
Blue is a practical girl. But she is also of the Sisterhood, and she knows the signs of an otherworldly presence. She makes the sign against evil across her chest, and returns to camp. Only once she is out of the forest does she look back. Ronan and his raven are gone, like they'd never been there at all.