Page 19 of Kingdom of Spirits
Tahlia and Fara went to stand by the rest of unit one.
“What is this all about?” Tahlia asked Titus, whose arms were crossed as he studied Marius.
Titus glanced at Tahlia and Fara and nodded in greeting. “The High Captain hasn’t said anything yet. But it can’t be good.”
Dread slithered up Tahlia’s spine.
Marius cleared his throat and clasped his hands behind his back. “I have terrible news to report. I never thought this day would arrive so soon. Our Commander Gaius is dead.”
Tahlia gripped Fara’s hand as a chill swept down her back.
No. They’d just seen Gaius a few hours ago. He had been upset, maybe a little pale, but he had seemed as healthy as anyone.
“It has to be a mistake,” Fara said quietly. “Right?”
The other knights grew eerily silent, a mark of how shocked they were.
Marius showed not an ounce of emotion as he addressed the crowd, but Tahlia knew he was crushed. The commander was a father figure to every knight in the Order of the Mist Knights.
Fara chewed her thumbnail and looked wide-eyed around the hushed crowd. “…has to be a mistake.”
“High Captain Marius doesn’t make mistakes,” Claudia said from the other side of Titus.
Marius touched the ring of black adamant he wore on his smallest finger. His steely stare found Tahlia. Her heart jumped, and she expected him to give her a meaningful look, but he grimaced and turned away as if the sight of her hurt him.
He cleared his throat and addressed the crowd again. “Our Healers say that his death happened mid-morning. They don’t know the cause, only that there was no obvious wound despite the blood found at the site. Lady Ophelia reported his door was locked and that he wasn’t answering her knocking or shouts from outside. She called out, and…” Marius’s hand strayed to that ring again and he covered his mouth and cleared his throat once more. “And the castle guards worked the door open.”
A twinge of unease bit at Tahlia’s heart. Ophelia hadn’t been able to get through the door? But she had been there already when Tahlia and Marius had met with Gaius. Had she left and then been unable to return? The commander’s door had been unlocked when Tahlia had been there, the chambers open to those people the guards permitted onto the platform.
Titus stepped away from the others and weaved through the churning group of Fae, no doubt heading for Marius.
Tahlia looked around the crowd on tiptoe. “Where is Ophelia now?” she whispered to Fara. “Do you see her anywhere?”
The wind whipped across the courtyard and the scent of rain filled the air.
Fara began searching too, craning her neck to see past Justus’s wide frame. “I don’t. But she hasn’t been around lately anyway, right? She hasn’t yet returned to training?”
“Not regular training,” Tahlia said, “but she showed up for my session with Maiwenn.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I honestly didn’t want to dwell on it.”
Fara clicked her tongue and pursed her lips. “Laundry is preferable to those two, yes.”
“Exactly.”
“But why are you asking if I saw her here?”
“Because earlier, before our terrible and oh-so-special training, I saw her in the commander’s chambers.”
Fara frowned. “You did?”
Marius had started laying out the plans for the funeral, his voice strained with cloaked grief. “…and we will host a Blessing Procession here for the town as is called for considering his position.”
Tahlia tilted her head toward Fara. “I’ll tell you more later,” she said quietly.
Fara’s eyes widened, then she nodded. “Understood.”