Murtagh stood behind Nasuada as she walked through the Varden camp under the still dark sky, the Nighthawks had decided it would be safer for her to stay in the camp until she had a safe place to say inside the capital. However this created another problem, she had been named the new Queen of Alagaesia and it would not be fitting for a Queen of a empire to not take residence in the capital. They had managed to deceive the people into believing she was staying in a large house that had been mostly undamaged by smuggling her in and out of the city during the night and early morning.
The Dwarves were working on repairing a groups of large buildings so that soon she would be able to stay there. After they were done with that they had promised to build a palace for her to take permanent residence. Nasuada had protested saying that it was unnecessary to have a building so grand but they had insisted it was the least they could do for her, and it would only be right for the new era to be marked by a new building to stand tall for all generations to remind future generations of the great victory over the tyrant king.
They approached the gates of the city and the guards nodded to the cloaked figure that was Nasuada as they opened the gates to let her envoy through. The guards at the gates were some of the most loyal men and had been in the army since the time of Ajihad, they had been personally selected by Nasuada to ensure that no one knew of her comings and goings from the city. The Nighthawks spread out as they entered the city to to prevent any suspicion towards Nasuada, but Murtagh refused to leave her side. He walked with his hand positioned so that Zar'roc could be drawn in an instant, all while he searched the streets for any minds that meant to do harm to Nasuada. Once he had found a mind that had a strong distaste of Nasuada and the Varden and he had attacked his mind nearly driving the main to the point of insanity until he had realised that the mind had belonged to a beggar on the side of the road who had lost his legs in a battle against the Varden. Other then that there had not been any incidents with there secret journeys through the streets of the the Capital. However there had been a number of attempts on her life during the day. So far they had all been unsuccessful him and Elva able to stop all of them apart from one which had been handled by the Nighthawks. However none of that was any comfort to him as even though they had stopped all the assassination attempts continued, as many as twice in two days sometimes, meaning he had to stay alert during the whole day.
They reached the house that they had taken as the headquarters for the time being and they entered through a secret entrance,one of the reasons this particular building had been chosen. They entered a room with a table that had been set with food, Elva was already there eating as if she had been starved of food for a month. Sitting across her was as Angela, she barely acknowledged their entrance other then to glance in their direction before looking back to her knitting. Her very existence puzzled him, she seemed to appear at the most random times and no one seemed to question her presence not even Nasuada. He had wanted to protest her being there saying she could be a possible threat however he saw the way that Nasuada looked at her, the only other people she looked at like that was himself, Eragon and Arya, people she considered friends. Something that confused him even more was the way people treated her, even the Elves treated her with respect.
Nasuada sat down at the table and Murtagh took a seat to her right while the Nighthawks took positions at the door. They ate in silence for a while relishing the taste of the food. Murtagh finally broke the silence "What is it that you plan to do today Nasuada?"
"I plan on holding a audience for the people to let them bring forward there problems to me as I did for the people of the Varden."
At this Murtagh immediately protested "That is a terrible idea! They are still people in the city who refuse to accept you as the Queen, this audience would provide a perfect opportunity for them to try! It will be even harder for us to protect if you put yourself out in the open!"
Nasuada responded with a demeanor that was much more collected then Murtagh's, as if she expected his response. "It is because they don't take me as their Queen that I need to do this, I must show them that they I am a better leader then Galbatorix. By doing this I show them I care about them, something that Galbatorix never did. It will take a while for them to accept this change especially as Galbatorix has been there King since they were born, I cant hid until that happens I will help them to accept the change and one of those ways will be by holding audiences like this. As for my safety I'm sure that no threats will be a match for you and the Nighthawks as has been the case so far."
Angela had put her knitting down and was looking in there direction with a hint of amusement on her face. This just frustrated him further, "Don't you have anything to say about this?" he pointedly said to her.
"I think that it is a good idea, what good is it going to do Nasuada if she sits within these walls twiddling her thumbs? As for her safety, if you don't think you are up to the task then I can easily ask a member of member of Du Vrangr Gata to take your place." she retorted and she let out a smirk as he grew even more frustrated at the mention of the Du Vrangr Gata.
The groups was the most incompetent groups of magicians ever and he was surprised that they had lasted through the war. The thought of being compared to one of them irked him.
Nasusada turned to him, "Even if this was a foolish plan what gives you the right to stop me?"
The question caught Murtagh off guard and he looked at her shocked as the words left her mouth. "Because I...I..." Love you. He thought in his mind but the words wouldn't come out of his mouth. Nasuda's face softened as if she had heard the words in his mind. "It matters not, I will be holding the audience and if you wish not to attend then I will find a magician to replace, maybe an elf.
Murtagh looked dumbfounded and he closed his mouth and just stared at Nasuada. "That will not be necessary I shall be there." he finally said curtly. As he stared at Nasuada he thought he saw a look of relief flash across her face.
Nasuada and Murtagh returned to their meal and Angela to her knitting and the room fell into silence once more. After Murtagh and Nasuada had finished eating they left, Nasuada to get changed into attire that was more suited for a Queen rather than a cloak, while Murtagh left to take a walk around the house to watch out for any threats.
He resumed his alert pose from before as he walked through the streets of the capital. After a while his previous frustration had mostly subsided and he started to think rationally about the actions that Nasuada had chosen to take. The first and only thing that had been in his mind when Nasuada had first mentioned it had been her safety, but he realised that had been selfish of him. If he truly wanted to help Nasuada he would have to put her wants above his own and as she always wanted to do what was for the benefit for her people he would have to keep them in mind as well. After much thought he found that the audience was a good idea and it would likely help the people accept her as the new Queen. His mind then wondered to the words that he had said in his mind in the dining room. Did he really love her? He had never experience love for another person before so he didn't know how it felt, but he did know that he cared for her very much. Soon he put the thoughts out of his mind as they would only distract him from his duty of protecting Nasuada.
He made his way to the room he knew Nasuada would be in and he waited outside along with the Nighthawks as she got changed. When she finally emerged she requested to view the progress that had been made on the building that was being repaired for her. They stepped out onto the street and waited for a carriage to brought around for her. As they waited he saw the looks people were giving her, some people looked to her in pure awe and others with distaste, however one thing both types of people had in common was the fear that entered there eyes when they looked at him. It is right for them to fear me, I am a rider. Also if they fear me it will help to deter attacks on Nasuada while I am by her side.
The ride to the site was less tense then their breakfast and Murtagh relaxed slightly.
The amount of progress that had been made on the buildings shocked Murtagh as they came into view. The last time he had seen the building there had been a whole in the roof and part of the eastern wall had been missing, now the building looked whole and from the distance they were he wasn't able to tell that the damage had been done. The buildings around the area all looked repaired as well, though not as well as the building that Nasuada had picked. As they stepped off the carriage to approach the work area Murtagh stayed on the carriage even when looked back at him. He was sure that the dwarves wouldn't be friendly to him and it may affect the way the treat Nasuada, and he was sure she would be safe with the elves that were there and he could always go to her side if any trouble did crop up.
Examining the building he worked out the reasons Nasuada had picked it, it was one of the highest building in the area so it would provide a good vantage point to look out over the city. It was also close to the centre of the capital and also not too far from where the regular people lived so she was situated well to access both parts of the city. After a while Nasuada returned and he queried her about the progress.
"The lead builder says that it should be ready for me to stay there by tonight, as much as he seemed uncomfortable with using the helps of the elves he told me that it helped them greatly and the task could have taken them up to three times as longer if they hadn't had their help."
"What about the other buildings, did you ask them to repair them too?"
"Yes I did, I thought it would be good for the people of the Varden to start moving into the city. They have started making small homes inside the building so a large number of people will be able to live there, much more then lived there before."
Murtagh nodded, he could see this area becoming the new home of the Varden.
Much of the day went by as Nasuada went about her business and Murtagh followed her around like her shadow. His days seemed so much more different than during the war they seemed much more calm, however he preferred them this way. Fortunately by the time came around for Nasuada's audience there had been no assassination attempts on her.
The audience was being held at the building that was currently their headquarters, it would probably be the last time that it would be used by them and as they entered they saw that many of the rooms had been emptied. A large room which may have been intended to be a dance hall had a stage erected on it along with a grand chair that looked like it was supposed to be Nasuada's throne. Nasuada took her place upon the "throne" while Murtagh stood to her right then three Nighthawks standing to either side. Guards had also been placed at the doors, Murtagh had asked Roran to also ensure a few soldiers would be in the crowd of people with orders to keep there eyes open for any threat. Even with all these precautions Murtagh still stood as alert as ever eyes and mind scanning the crowd for any signs of a threat.
Some of the cases that people brought forward were from the people of the Varden who had moved into the capital however a large number of people were people who had already been living in the capital which surprised Murtagh. No matter how boring the case and frivolous the cases Nasuada judged them all with seriousness and a fairness. Similar to how Nasuada's attitude stayed the same the whole time Murtagh stayed just as alert too.
Eventually only a few remained from the crowd and soon they too were gone. Nasuada's eyes showed traces of drowsiness and Murtagh went to offer her his arm as she started to get up from her seat, at first she hesitated but then she took it and gave him a look of appreciation. She used him as a support up until they were leaving the building. As they reached the exit of the building he saw a large crowd of people outside a man stood in front of the crowd shouting out to them as if he was preaching. Nasuada and Murtagh came to a halt as they heard his words.
" ...he pretended to be our hero, to protect us from the army knocking on out door yet the whole time he had been planning to take the throne from Galbatorix, he planned it all from the beginning he had out old King fooled and now he has our new Queen acting as his own puppet. Do you see how he follows her everywhere, he must have her under a spell. We finally find ourselves free of one tyrant and now we are going to be under a new one. And this one will be worse, he used lies to take the throne and he has not the stones to put himself on the throne. He uses a woman as his puppet to try and fool us. I say we end this and win ourselves our freedom."
The words hit Murtagh like a wall, even though he and Nasuada knew that they were untrue the people seemed to rally and there anger seemed to grow with every passing moment.
A member of the crowd had noticed them and suddenly the whole crowd was looking at them. The man who had been talking then drew a sword pointed it at him and started towards him. "For our freedom!" he bellowed and soon much of the crowd was following him and they were slowly picking up speed.
"Get Nasuada away from here, go out through the secret entrance make sure she is safe!" he yelled at the Nighthawks. "I will hold them off."
He watched Nasuada and her bodyguards hurry away down the corridors and he turned to face the crowd, he reached out for his magic as he had done many times before but he failed to access. Starting to feel anxious he tried again but he failed once again. The leader of the crowd was a few feet away from him so Murtagh took up a defensive stance with Zar'roc. He brought Zar'roc to parry the first blow but as he brought it up the sword slipped from his group and the blow sent him sprawling onto the floor. His head spun and when his vision cleared he saw the man standing in front of him with a crazed smile on his face. The man brought down his sword to ram it into Murtaghs heart.
Murtagh sat upright and gasping for air as his eyes shot open. What is wrong little one? Asked Thorn's deep voice in his mind. He felt his heart racing inside him as he continued to gasp for air. It was nothing just a bad dream. I am fine.
Thorn puffed out a ring of smoke from his snout and before long he was sleeping once again. Murtagh sat and his breathing finally returned to normal. The crazed smile of the man who had been about to stab him stayed in his mind. Dreams about Nasuada had been common for him over the past few days however this was the first of his dreams that had ended in this way. When his heart began to beat normally again he lay back down and tried to push the dream out of his mind as he once again drifted off to sleep.