Casket of Souls

suffer from the shortages.”
    “If it was one of you, you wouldn’t leave them in that pest hole!” a woman across the street shouted, shaking a broom at the Palace. “Bad enough the high-and-mightys are starving us. Now they’re leaving our loved ones to die alone.”
    “Plague don’t strike the nobles, does it?” someone yelled back.
    The roar of the crowd swelled, some demanding their family members back, others shouting for flour and meat.
    Guards with halberds parted the crowd for them. Inside the grounds, all was peaceful except for the distant shouting. A full troop of mounted guards sat their horses near the Palace entrance, armed with truncheons, and there was considerable activity down at the nearby cavalry barracks.
    “This looks serious,” Alec murmured as they left their horses with a groom and went inside.
    “I’ve never seen the like.”
    No one tried to stop or apprehend them as they entered the receiving hall, either. Instead a servant led them to the small audience chamber, a room almost as grim as the palace exterior, and one with which they were already acquainted. It was long and rather narrow, and lit by a row of stained-glass slit windows set just below the vaulted ceiling. At the far end, several rows of long oak benches faced a large throne on a raised dais. The vicegerent’s banner hung behind it, signifying that Phoria was out of the city, and that Korathan dealt with all state business while she was away at war. At the moment the chamber was empty except for the three of them and the servant at the door keeping watch on them.
    “I hate this room,” Thero muttered, sitting stiffly on one of the front benches.
    “So do I,” Alec agreed as he paced restlessly back and forth.
    Seregil sat down beside Thero. “We generally don’t get a warm welcome here. I’d be happier if we’d been taken to Korathan’s chambers.”
    “I don’t welcome possible traitors there,” the prince said as he swept in with a female wizard.
    Alec recognized the woman; she was Korathan’s wizard, Ymany, and a truth knower. He and the others dropped to one knee with a fist pressed to their chest before the dais.
    “I see you’ve preempted my summons,” Korathan noted, sitting down in the ornate chair to the right of the throne.
    “I brought them,” Thero told him.
    “I won’t even ask how you knew before I did,” Korathan said with a sigh. “I suppose you two have come to explain yourselves?”
    “Yes, Your Highness,” Seregil told him, remaining formal under the circumstances and in front of the wizard. “We were aware of the letter and its rather ambiguous contents.”
    “Really? And how is that?”
    “I saw it last night,” Alec told him.
    Korathan raised an expectant eyebrow. “Why would Laneus, who thought you were friends, write such a letter?”
    “Probably for the same reason he tried to have us killed,” Seregil replied.
    “Twice,” added Alec.
    “You’re certain of that?”
    Seregil nodded.
    “And it’s still your belief that Klia has no part in the business, nor supports it in any way?”
    “More than ever,” Thero replied.
    “No one understands the gravity of the situation better than we do, Highness,” Seregil told him. “Laneus’s letter was addressed to
Your Highness
. That could implicate not only Klia, but Princess Aralain or yourself, as well. We don’t want to place you in the position of having to keep our secrets from the queen any more than you already have. But I swear to you by my life that Alec and I are acting only on Skala’s behalf.”
    “That’s not completely true, Highness,” Ymany said.
    Korathan gave Seregil a level look, waiting.
    “And to save Klia.” It was the truth and the wizard nodded.
    “Very well. What new information have you gathered in your mysterious ways?”
    “I believe I may have been attacked by some of Sarien’s men last night.” Seregil took out the bronze charm and gave it to him.
    “Yes, his soldiers wear these,” Korathan said, staring unhappily down at it. “But soldiers give these things away to children and loved ones, too. Anyone could have one.”
    “That’s one explanation,” Seregil allowed. “Or maybe someone wanted to throw suspicion Sarien’s way, although they’d have had no idea that I was going to tear it from the man’s neck.”
    “Then what exactly do you suggest I do?”
    “Give us a little longer to find proof of Klia’s innocence.”
    “And the letter mentioning