Fox’s Tongue and Kirin’s Bone

Chapter 20: Can’t Talk Treason if There’s No Royals To Hear

The library fey whod helped him out of the dungeon took in a gasping breath. Then another, steadier. Her cloaks hood had fallen back, and in the dim light he could make out red hair, light eyes, and the rosy blotch of a wine stain birthmark spilled across the left side of her face. Straw peppered her clothes.

She was younger than hed thought. Twelve or thirteen at the most. Or at least, thats all the older she lookeda man never could tell, with her kind.

A certain tension left Aarons shoulders. After a moment of thought, it came right back.

Sorry, he said, taking a hasty step away.

She pulled her hood back up, tucking herself safely under its shadows. Her other hand clutched at the front of her cloak, just below where hed pressed his arm to her throat.

Sorry. Really. I thought someone was up here, but I didnt know it was you.

Do you make a habit of accosting people in stables? She tried to make herself sound properly offended, but she was breathing a bit too hard to pull it off, and pressing a bit too close to the wall.

This is a first, I admit. He took yet another step back, for good measure. Thank you. For your help the other day. And the warnings, even if I didnt read them right.

She took in a deep breath, and straightened herself up. It didnt make her much taller, but it seemed to help with her confidence. What would you have done? If I wasnt me?

There were squares of hay behind him. Aaron sat himself down. Id have figured something out. Probably. To be honest, hed been expecting either a Kindly Soul or one of the Raffertys hires. He knew how to deal with each, in their own way.

She frowned. Probably?

Probably. What are you doing up here? If I may ask. I thought you were a library fey.

She gave another tug to her hood. He wasnt quite sure, but he thought he saw a blush under there. After a moments pause she joined him on the hay bales, keeping an arms length between them. Just watching. Listening. The stable is the best place for hearing things.

Try the kitchens sometime, Aaron suggested. Especially while the bakers boy is getting a letter scribed.

Her gaze was serious and without humor. He stretched out his legs in front of him and took great interest in staring at his hand-me-down boots.

So what do they say? he asked. The stablehands.

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That the king is dying.

I suppose he is, at that.

Dont you care? Her vehemence startled him. You work for him. It is the kings family that gives you food and shelter. Dont you feel a a debt of loyalty to them?

Was that what fey felt towards those who housed them? It was clearly too serious a thing for him to make light of, but he couldnt just sidestep the question, either. She deserved better than that, with what shed done for him. Aaron leaned back on his palms.

I didnt mean offense. But it was you who gave me a chance, and John, and Mrs. Summers. Even one of the guards. The kings had nothing to do with me. The only time Ive seen the man was during the foxs attack. He and his family wouldnt know me from a sparrow on the roof. Loyaltys an earned thing. What have they done to deserve mine?

But she began, then started again: But you I

He interrupted her eloquence, his curiosity getting the best of him. Dont you ever feel the same? If the royals dont know were alive, why should we care if one of them dies?

Thats treasonous talk, she said sternly. You could be hanged for saying such things.

Could be, if I were stupid enough to say it to their faces. He raised an eyebrow. And anyways, sneaking around His Majestys stables at all hours of the night isnt the most loyal behavior either, last I checked. No matter how many books youve dusted.

She sniffed. A little majestic sniff, whose purpose was apparently to change the subject. Have you been leaving offerings for me?

Did you find them, then? I wasnt sure where to leave them. Going back into the dungeons didnt seem like the best idea

Stop it. I dont need your stale bread.

It wasnt stale when I put it out. A weak defense at best, but the only one he had. What else was he to do? Bread and cheese were the only things safe to leave sitting. He wasnt sure if fey could be food poisoned, but he didnt expect shed like him testing the theory. He wasnt about to insult her with dried meats, either. He didnt know if the Gentry felt the same about that as doppels did, but with as many shapes as they could take on, he wouldnt be surprised.

Thats not the You cant leave stale bread tucked between books. Its Its Words seemed inadequate to describe her distress at the thought. Do not put offerings in a library.

Oh. If it was only that. Where would you like me to put them, then?

Her hood had inched back again; she tugged it forward with more force than strictly necessary. Dont leave me offerings at all. You say you dont care about any of this; why are you still in the castle, then?

Hed been leaning back too long. His palms were covered in straw, and even when he picked the pieces off, one by one, the impressions remained. I like it here, I guess. And I dont have anywhere else to go. What about you? Why are you here?

She shied back, but under her hood, he glimpsed a face set in obstinate lines. I dont have anywhere else to go, either.

He looked at the far wall, out the window. The moon was out of sight from this angle, but there was a silver framing to the stone sill. He cast her a sidelong glance. Do you really live in their walls?

She gave another little sniff. Did you really live in their basement?

Its a spacious basement, to be fair. Twokins could fit more folk than the upper town.

The walls are spacious, too. If there had been a trace of humor in her voice, hed have laughed; but she was serious, and that was all.

Is there space in there, then?

She nodded slightly and did not comment on how stupid it was that hed half-wondered if she was walking in solid stone. Theyre the old ways. Theyre all over the castle. Its how the royal family was supposed to escape, if the castle fell.

Was?

Theyre all dying, now. The books say they used to go all through the castle and the plateau itself, but whole passageways have collapsed. You can barely get from the royal quarters down to the ground now, and the way into the Downs is all blocked by rocks. The Downs: she called it the same as most uptowners did. Two Kingswas a bit blasphemous a name for them. Theyve been sealed up, and no ones been tending them since Rillans time. Its disgraceful.

Rillan?

He ruled before the Regent Queen. The kings grandfather. Sensing his continued confusion, she added one last descriptor. The Executioner.

Ah. She could have just said that to start with. The man had ordered the islands kirin killed, and their puss-in-boots; even the unicorns. Hed died bloody in his bed. The official story was that a beast got to him, but everyone knew the Iron Captain had left that same night for the fey border and not come back north for twenty years.

Aaron shrugged. If its Letforget, its better to leave it die, isnt it?

But why? Its so much knowledge, and theyre just theyre killing it. Another topic of passion for her.

Aaron rubbed his heel along the floor, clearing the straw off the boards in a little half-moon. Cant say I know much about it. But its the people who knew it best that decided not to pass it on, isnt it? Thats the kind of decision folk are better off respecting.

She was quiet for a moment. Then she asked, almost hesitantly; Is it true? That the old castle still stands in the stone caves?

Thats a fancy way of putting it. Not wrong. Not even half wrong. But fancier than hed ever heard and with a lot less swearing than he was used to. Yes. It does.

She leaned in. Have you been inside? Whats it like?

He shivered a little. The Letforget is still awake down there. Whatever the OSheas did when they sealed the place, they didnt leave any chinks. Ive seen men die just from brushing against the outer walls. Ive only looked at it from the bridges. And not the nearer ends of them, mind.

The OShea line had sealed it for a reason, and it wasnt because their new castle was grander. He didnt know what that reason was, but a man didnt need to understand fire to know that sticking his hand in was a fool idea.

I want to go there. I want to see it. There was a force to her longing that was painful to hear. I dont want to stay trapped up in here forever.

Then dont. His words startled him. But he couldnt stop speaking them, now that they were out. You said the way into Twokins is blocked, but can you get out anywhere else? Outside the castle walls, I mean.

She sat up a little straighter. Theres an entrance on the south wall, under the guard tower.

Of course it was under the guard tower. Well, hed work with what he could get. Meet me there. A week from now.

At the Wake for the Old Year?

The? Yes. Yes, exactly; at the Wake. Ill show you the lower town. Its a better offering than stale bread, isnt it?

The little fey thought about it very seriously. Then she nodded.

They set the details: a week from today, just after sunset.

For long moments, he stared at the place where she left. It looked like just a wall to him. The same stone that everything in the plateau was made of. He rose and examined it closer. Set a hand against it, tentatively. It was rough and solid. But when he pushed, when he thought Are you open?, his hand slid through as if it wasnt even there.

* * *

The doors into the old ways stayed open after she left. He wasnt sure for how long, exactlywasnt sure whether they ever really were closed, or whether hed just forgotten where to touch. Once hed lost them, he couldnt find them again. But if he saw her come or go, if he didnt take his eyes away

Aaron experimented. He put his hand through, then his head. The next time he was smarter and brought a shuttered lamp.

The feys doors let into the stone of the castle itself. To straight and even corridors, and simple flights of stairs. She was right about themthey were dying like a spider, the side halls atrophying and crumbling, or simply dead-ending. But the main passage, the one that connected the ground floor with the royals apartments, clung to life.

Aaron didnt explore much. He didnt want to run afoul of the halls Fair occupant. He stepped back into the castle proper and blew out his light.

A week would be enough.