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Chapter 16: Up All Night to Get Stung

I expected to see sleepy Kael'thas there as well, hands stuffed up into his scarlet sleeves, looming with an ugly pout just over his wife's shoulder. Eager to get things over with and herd her back to his bed as fast as possible. He was not.

Saturna was walking up to us when we entered. She was flanked by guards who were hopping around and saluting a little more energetically than expected at this hour. Well, something had happened. I looked for the fear in her eyes.

And then, I pretended to wave my hands about in the air, stepping carefully around any potential invisible Bloodmages.

Saturna looked at me with dead eyes, "You done?"

"I am."

"Let's search the keep, then. Pyorin, you're with me. Heinrich and Solarion, change shifts with the other guards. I want everyone fresh until well past sunrise."

Both men shouted, "Yes, Blood Matriarch!"

"I see that they have to pick and choose whether you're the queen, down here. Just how many fancy titles do you happen to have, Saturna?"

Pyorin finally made a disgusted sigh at me, while both me and Saturna had our backs turned. Well, I guess he'd earned it, by then.

Saturna urged me onward, "You wanted to search the fancy apartments where Kael'thas' friends get their wrists slapped, didn't you?"

"I didn't put it like that—"

"He put it pretty much exactly like that, Saturna."

Suddenly it was intimate. Suddenly, Pyorin was very chatty.

"Come on, then. Let's see how differently the rich get treated here in the jewel city of Quel'thalas."

All the cells were mostly the same. A bit posh and golden to be jail cells, in my opinion, but then again the entire keep was like that. It was an Elf thing, I supposed. Row, after row of empty cells with bars. Prisoners asleep with red blankets pulled over them. When we couldn't clearly see people's bodies or faces, Saturna stopped and asked the guards nearby to assist Pyorin with opening the cells and using an arcane lantern to shine over their faces. The prisoners hated it. Pyorin had to slam into a few to get them back under control.

I felt like a real heel for upsetting so many. As if their situations weren't bad enough. They really were prisoners. They really were unhappy to be there.

Anyway, the way Saturna did it took hours. It was thorough. A cavity search would have been kinder. I thought I'd go mad by the end of it. Her calm voice, all the disruption, Pyorin looking almost like a dead man on his feet as he went through the motions of unlocking gates, pulling people to stand, pushing them back. But he kept up the pace. He'd had to go through worse in his career, I could tell. Likely, in Outland. Black Temple, Tempest Keep… Pyorin had an almost unholy endurance. So what was his old job before this? Rustling wild Fel Orcs?

I'm not making a joke there. Paladins. Holy. Bloodknights. Unholy.

When we were done, Saturna's voice had the effect of waking me up. It was one of those things where I hadn't noticed I was falling asleep until then.

"Sunwalker Turaho, have you discovered any Dwarves during this inspection? Anyone at all who might resemble Greatfather Winter?"

"I should have questioned all of them, too." I was also very stubborn. I refused to let her feel triumphant at all. She wanted to punish me, but this was the way things should have been in the first place, when I first arrived in Silvermoon. And her people were the ones accused of kidnapping the old Dwarf. I wasn't in the wrong.

"Good. We like a challenge. Pyorin, head back that way. We'll do it all over again if we have to."

"And I'll lock him in the last cell on Block D, with the serial killers, when we finish."

Saturna turned to Pyorin, "Go to bed. You're better than this."

Pyorin swept his short dark hair back, stumbled off to do just that.

"Well, so he can't run all night after all."

Saturna waited until we were alone, then she walked a circle around me. Her pacing, I was yet to learn… that was a very, very bad sign. You think I would have learned back in that cave, in Mulgore. I stupidly hadn't.

Saturna simmered, "Well, I truly can't help you now."

"I never asked for it."

"Baine wanted us to work together. He's your chief."

"That was in Mulgore—"

"No, that was wisdom. Good advice works everywhere. Had it occurred to you at all, that Baine was insistent and I was insistent as well, because both Baine and I know and have met Kael'thas before? But you haven't?"

"Kael'thas is a man, not a dragon. Not some god."

"Do you even know what you've done?"

"He played a prank on me. Oh come on—were you really impressed when he swanned in, stinking of booze and playing that he didn't drop me off someplace? Or did you even bother to check."

I really do say the wrong things to women at times.

"I'm not happy with what Kael'thas did tonight. But I'm more disappointed that you couldn't just get over it."

"Me?!"

"I asked for a professional."

"You don't own me. I don't work for you."

"Silvermoon is paying you."

"Justice works for no one."

"Justice? You're preaching to a Bloodknight, about justice?"

I tried to make a crack about Paladins being better than Bloodknights, but it never landed.

"Upstairs is a man who, yes, did act like an ass, going all over the place in Mulgore. But he did it because he was anxious and worried about what would happen to me. And, as it turned out, there was a threat. A Night Elf rogue was tailing me, and you! But you waited to tell me that, hours after you found out."

"Is that what Kael'thas said?"

"You kept it from me. You have already lied to me. Now, what else are you lying about, to spare me? Go on, out with it. I want a clean slate after this."

I figured Kael'thas wouldn't tell her that Malfurion had put a price on his head, anyway. A husband wouldn't. If Kael'thas had overheard that first conversation. Alessandre would have been careful to conceal himself well, however. I'd have to ride this out for a few more days, gage Kael'thas' behavior, to be sure.

"Saturna, I don't like being jerked around. I wasn't born with a leash around my neck. No one is, but Kael'thas doesn't seem to get that."

"What makes me even angrier, is that you thought you could meddle in my marriage—how dare you!"

"Me?!" I was saying that a lot, "You were the one flirting with me, sliding your hand up my leg. And teasing me on the way over here-"

"That was business."

"Oh, now it's 'just business.'"

"What else do husbands do with their wives in the middle of the night? What right did you have to interrupt us? Whether Kael'thas was making things up to me or… baking me sugar cookies, you had no right to summon me like that!"

"You didn't have to come answer my 'summons' if you thought that was what it was."

"Oh, don't play me for a fool. What kind of queen could you say that I was if I ignored you? And how bad would that look for Quel'thalas?"

"About as bad as it should—"

Saturna stepped in and shoved me, "Stay out of my marriage! You and I? We are not in Mulgore anymore."

It hurt. I wasn't supposed to.

I informed her, "The thing about nasty, red, beady-eyed roosters, they tend to have a few chickens."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

There never would be a good time to bring up the succubus thing, would there? It was such a volatile subject. Anyway, what was the point of doing so now? She was already angry enough with him.

"Well, I hope you didn't roll over so easy for him."

Saturna was disturbed. "Where did you…?" Her breathing quickened, then she calmed herself. "No, just go upstairs. Lady Daphne will be arriving soon. She will be handling you from now on, not me."

What? But we were assigned to work together, weren't we? All our 'fun times' started flashing before my eyes. To believe I once dreaded having to be around Saturna. Somewhere in there, I'd grown to really enjoy her company. She made me feel… secure.

"Now I need to worry about my kingdom as well as my marriage." Saturna's voice faltered and showed how exposed she felt. She pushed one of the studded metal double doors partway open, began to walk out. I reached and held it all the way back. No thank you from her. She was furious. I followed her, glancing around at the guards as we went. They'd probably heard most of it. Right? Unless there were magical seals…

Saturna did not look like she would help me with that information now. Perhaps not ever again.

"…I'm sorry."

Saturna only hiked up the stairs more quickly.

"Please, let me set things right."

"You won't have time. You'll be too busy watching your back."

"For what!" I got offended.

"It's none of your business, but I had no intention of… reassuring him about anything tonight. Kael'thas hadn't earned that with me, yet. So you really dug your grave, tonight. And I also don't feel like smoothing things over for you on my end."

We got to the top of the stairs and palace guardians in red robes pulled back iron gates for us to walk through. A woman in a pale blue dress was waiting nearby, hands politely folded before her. I noted the hulking shape of Pyorin departing far down the hallway. He'd been delayed by talking to her. This would have been his wife, then. Lady Weaver.

"I did warn you." Saturna gave me a final backward glance before veering off to the right, back up a long ramp toward the center of the palace, the throne room, and beyond, the royal apartments.

I heard the gentle clicking of a lady's heeled shoes, drawing nearer. I was also reminded that Tauren women's hooves sound nothing like that. I sort of missed it.

"I was once called Daphne the Weaver." Daphne didn't say hello. Nor did she curtsey as her husband would have bowed to a palace guest.

Things I only noticed days later. That's the kind of sleek character this one was.

I was too tired to worry about it. That was the other problem. "I think I need to lay down."

"Come with me." Daphne walked beside me, rather than in front of me or behind me. She was even willing to squeeze a bit through double doors alongside me.

The silence was awkward. I was beginning to imagine all the bad things Pyorin must have confided in her about me.

I just let 'er rip, "It was just a prank, in a way. To match his prank. Kael'thas can't be all that angry with me."

"Ah, but you misjudged. This is Quel'thalas. This is Silvermoon. It is his kingdom and his city and his palace." She smiled, but could have eaten me with that smile, "And, his wife. A man might put his feet up on the furniture in his own house, but his guest shouldn't dare." Then, she lifted a finger instructively, as if we were in a schoolhouse.

"I feel like everyone here keeps forgetting I am investigating a missing person."

"But that missing person is a Dwarf."

"Greatfather Winter is an icon. A symbol. At the very least, a mortal being. Even if he is a scheister. Well, I guess a Bloodknight wouldn't understand."

"I am explaining why we Blood Elves are so relaxed about whatever you presume to be the problem. We have our own quirks for you to be considerate about, don't we? That was always your role, not ours."

The conversation was pointless. She was batting me around like a cat with a mouse. She knew full well that I needed information, that I was clever and was going to try for it at every opportunity. But Lady Daphne was obviously vengeful about her husband.

I blurt out, "Are any of you Bloodknights actually nice people?"

Daphne stopped at a set of white double doors. I looked around. The hall decorations had changed completely. Lots of white, blue and purple.

"Where are we?"

Daphne pointed, her voice sugary and kind, "Just through there is where the dragon sleeps."

"What—"

"Kael'thas is the dragon, Turaho."

Shit.

She shrugged innocently, "My husband told me you were doing an investigation and would like to be as close at hand as possible. This way, you won't miss anything. That is what you wanted, isn't it?"

"Uh, does he know I'm up here?" I lowered my voice to a whisper, "I think I want another room."

Her voice was even more saccharine, "Aww, but this one is all made up. And all your things are here, already put away in the widdle cupboards." She walked inside of the room and opened the closet for me. She swept a hand down elegantly to show me.

Well, the palace servants had done a nice job. My leather harnesses had never before been folded so crisply, but—that wasn't the point!

Daphne stood near the bed next, patted it. She crooked her finger and beckoned me over.

This next whisper was sensual, "Get some sleep."

"I… alright."

"That's it. Just lay back, relax. This is one of the best guest bedrooms in the entire palace. You'll be very comfortable here."

And then, she was drifting back to the doors.

"You said… they called you the Weaver? Why? What did you weave?"

I was at least in it enough to try and figure out that part. When she thought she'd already won, she might just tell me.

"Weave. As in spells."

"What kind of…" I yawned, "spells?"

"All of the spells." Her voice had an odd lilt to it now. It could have been whispering to me from that closet, or out of a childhood nightmare. Daphne stood with her hand on the silver doorknob. She began to walk out and close it for me softly.

"And why you?"

"Because, Turaho, I'm very, very good. I remember… everything." Then she slammed that door so loud, I hopped up and had a real panic. I thought a gun had gone off. I seriously did.

And then I had to wonder where the Blood Elves had stowed away my rifle. The palace staff probably wouldn't be so accommodating with their sovereign sleeping nearby.

I wondered if Kael'thas had put her up to that cheap trick? Or, Saturna?

One thing I could celebrate, there was one more person I could add to my list. Knights of the Blood Nexus? Daphne had to be one of them, too. She had the skillset, both magically and mentally. And Saturna trusted her. She had put Daphne totally in charge of my stay at the palace.

I wasn't so happy to have uncovered that, now that I think back.

… … And was there someone… laughing through the walls?