Page 14 of The Night Prince 3
Finley nodded. “All the more reason not to bring in extraneous information he doesn’t need to know now. We need a plan for all of this.”
“Right. Clever boy.” He touched Finley’s cheek again.
Finley froze for a moment, but then leaned against his hand. “Yes, yes, well, everyone is wondering what’s happening with us.”
And he was right again. Elasha was staring at them. Helgrom grimly stroked his beard while regarding them. Snaglak… Well, Snaglak was urging Glom to eat faster so he wasn’t paying any attention to them. And on the other side of them, Aquilan and Declan were approaching, hand in hand.
Despite everything that Finley had said, despite the fact that he wasn’t going to admit it all now–or maybe ever, his mind whispered–he couldn’t get the thought out of his head that…
All is lost.
Questions He Will Not Ask
“The rifts to Illithor are deeper down. By the tracks of the L station,” Declan said, pointing with his kitchen knife into the darkness ahead of them. “There are stairs that lead to a platform. That is where we will find Darcassan… if he has not already found a rift to Illithor.”
“How do you know, Lord Declan?” Elasha asked, all agog.
Though the truth was that Aquilan was wondering the same thing, but he found such questions dying on his lips. Questions like: what happened in the hallway before he and Rhalyf turned the corner? How had Declan killed over a dozen of the Leviathan with a broken kitchen knife that seemed to appear and disappear randomly? He knew that Declan had done it. Not Darcassan. He knew it.
So many questions.
And yet he found himself remaining silent.
Did he not want to know? Did he fear knowing would change these growing feelings he had for Declan? Was he afraid of the answers for any other reason?
No.
The answers simply didn’t matter.
Declan was what he was.
Declan could do what he could do.
Declan was his Shadow, who shouted Iefyr in his dreams, who carried his books and cared about the things that would delight him from sweets to where his bedroom should face. Declan was good. He knew this. He felt this. Down to his bones.
Yet…
No human can do what he has done here.
So the real question–perhaps the only question–was what was Declan? But he couldn’t imagine ever asking that. Not here in any case. Maybe tenderly over wine and food with gentle prodding to see if the young man knew himself. But not in the dark, corrupted world of the Leviathan.
Declan could have prevaricated when he had answered Elasha’s question. Aquilan saw him hesitate. But then he simply answered, “I can sense them.”
Sense them? Magically? Yes, it must be. He cannot be human if this is the case.
Elasha’s eyes went wide. “You can sense–”
Rhalyf let out a slightly hysterical chuckle as he cut her off, “The location spell confirms that Darcassan is down deeper. We really must not delay getting to him. I have a very bad feeling that if he gets to Illithor and takes anything from there–”
“He must not,” Declan said firmly. His voice was soft, but commanding. He meant what he said.
Aquilan found himself adding, “No, he must not.” Then with a feeling as if he were stepping off a cliff, he added, “It would be disastrous.”
His own fears were suddenly reflected in multiple sets of eyes and he didn’t feel so alone in this. It also meant that his fears were more like realities. But having everyone on the same page about this was crucial.
“But why?” Elasha asked, her eyes flickering from one of their faces to the other.
“Because, like Helgrom said earlier, King Vex will know if he steals something,” Finley said as he pushed his glasses up his nose. “And it could start a war between the Kindreth and the Aravae.”
