Lord Regent Morvus had known Toby was alive before Gareth did.
That realization was more dangerous than the hundreds of soldiers surrounding the southern tower.
Gareth stepped away from the window.
"Move."
Toby remained frozen beside the narrow opening.
Below, soldiers spread across the courtyard in disciplined groups. Archers climbed the adjoining walls. The main gates slammed shut, followed by the smaller servants' entrances.
High Keep was becoming a prison.
"Gareth..."
"Now, Toby."
"But he knows who I am."
"Which is precisely why we cannot be here when his men arrive."
Toby grabbed the miniature portrait and stuffed it inside his tunic. Gareth swept the remaining documents, the woman's ring, and the dagger back into the iron chest.
The silver key Toby carried had stopped vibrating.
Below them came the unmistakable crash of a door being broken open.
"They're inside the tower," Gareth said.
"Where do we go?"
Gareth looked toward the spiral staircase.
Not there.
Then toward the fireplace.
A memory surfaced.
Prince Edric had once joked that no royal nursery was complete without two doors—one for the family and one for assassins.
At the time, Gareth had thought he was being cynical.
Now he crossed to the fireplace.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for the assassins' door."
Toby stared at him.
"That's a real thing?"
"In this family, apparently."
Gareth ran his hands along the stonework.
Nothing.
Footsteps thundered below.
Toby joined him.
"What am I looking for?"
"Anything that doesn't belong."
Toby examined the fireplace.
His gaze settled on a carved stone dragon almost hidden beneath soot.
One of its eyes was missing.
Toby reached toward it.
Gareth caught his hand.
"Wait."
"What?"
"Nothing in royal castles is ever just decoration."
"That's not very helpful."
The footsteps were closer now.
Gareth released him.
"Try it."
Toby pressed the remaining dragon eye.
Nothing happened.
Then his Sovereign Crest flashed beneath his sleeve.
A metallic click sounded behind the fireplace.
The entire rear wall shifted.
Toby's eyes widened.
"You could have warned me."
"I didn't know it would work."
"That's worse."
A narrow passage opened.
Gareth pushed Toby inside and followed with the chest.
He pulled the mechanism shut just as soldiers entered the nursery.
Darkness swallowed them.
They heard voices through the wall.
"Search everything!"
Captain Veyron.
Gareth silently drew his dagger.
Another voice answered.
"There's nobody here."
"Then find where they went."
Toby leaned toward Gareth.
"Is Veyron working for Morvus?"
Gareth whispered, "Everyone in this castle is working for someone."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only answer I trust."
A crash came from the nursery.
Furniture overturned.
Then silence.
Veyron spoke again.
"Open the cradle compartment."
Gareth stiffened.
They know.
Wood splintered.
A soldier said, "Empty."
Veyron did not respond for several seconds.
Then:
"They took the archive."
Gareth looked at the iron chest in his hands.
Archive.
Not hidden treasure.
Not forgotten documents.
Veyron knew exactly what had been concealed beneath the nursery.
Another soldier asked, "Should we inform the Regent?"
"No."
That surprised Gareth.
The soldier sounded equally confused.
"Captain?"
"You heard me."
"But Lord Morvus ordered—"
"I know what Morvus ordered."
Veyron's voice lowered.
"We find Gareth first."
"And the boy?"
A long pause.
"Alive."
Gareth looked toward Toby.
Morvus had ordered Toby killed.
Veyron wanted him alive.
Two factions.
At least.
"Captain," the soldier whispered, "if the Regent discovers—"
"He won't."
"Why protect the boy?"
Veyron answered so quietly Gareth almost missed it.
"Because Morvus is afraid of the wrong heir."
Toby's eyes widened.
Gareth raised one finger to his lips.
The soldiers eventually left.
Only when their footsteps disappeared did Gareth allow himself to breathe normally.
Toby whispered, "What did he mean?"
"I don't know."
"You say that often."
"Today has been unusually confusing."
"Am I the royal heir or not?"
Gareth looked at him.
The boy deserved an answer.
But Gareth no longer knew what truth meant inside High Keep.
"The portrait suggests you're Edric's son."
"Then why did Veyron call me the wrong heir?"
"That is what we need to discover."
They continued through the passage.
It descended steeply through the interior of the tower.
After several minutes, they reached a junction.
Three tunnels.
Gareth stopped.
"I don't remember this."
"You've been here before?"
"Once."
"When?"
"The night of the massacre."
Toby looked at him.
Gareth immediately regretted saying it.
"You were here?"
"Yes."
"With my father?"
Gareth did not answer.
Toby blocked his path.
"Did you know him?"
"I served him."
"Did you see him die?"
"No."
That answer came quickly.
Toby noticed.
"So you don't know he's dead."
"Nobody saw Edric after the massacre."
"Then he could be alive."
"Ten years is a long time."
"That's not the same as dead."
Gareth stared at the boy.
Again, that stubbornness.
Edric's stubbornness.
"No," Gareth admitted. "It isn't."
They chose the western tunnel.
It led downward until the air became colder.
Soon Gareth smelled water.
The passage opened into an ancient underground cistern beneath High Keep.
Stone pillars disappeared into darkness. Black water covered much of the floor.
A narrow walkway crossed it.
Toby stared into the water.
"What's down there?"
"Hopefully nothing."
Something splashed.
Toby moved closer to Gareth.
"That sounded like something."
"Keep walking."
They crossed.
Halfway over, Gareth noticed symbols carved into the pillars.
Dragons.
Dozens of them.
Each faced downward.
Toward something beneath the water.
Then Toby's crest began glowing.
The black water rippled.
"Gareth."
"I see it."
A golden light appeared beneath the surface.
Then another.
Then dozens.
They were not reflections.
They looked like eyes.
Gareth grabbed Toby.
"Run."
They sprinted across the walkway.
Behind them, the water erupted.
Something enormous struck the stone bridge.
The entire cistern shook.
Toby nearly fell.
Gareth caught him and dragged him through the opposite doorway.
A massive claw broke the surface behind them.
Black scales.
Each larger than Gareth's shield.
Toby looked back.
"What was that?"
"Something the royal family should have mentioned."
They slammed the iron gate behind them.
A deafening roar shook dust from the ceiling.
Then silence.
Toby stared through the bars.
"Was that a dragon?"
Gareth looked at the boy's glowing crest.
"I sincerely hope not."
They continued.
Eventually, daylight appeared ahead.
The tunnel opened outside High Keep beneath an abandoned stone bridge.
Gareth checked the surrounding woods.
No soldiers.
For the first time since meeting Toby, they were beyond Morvus's walls.
But not safe.
Never safe.
They entered the forest.
After nearly an hour, Gareth stopped beside a stream.
"We need to examine the archive."
He opened the iron chest.
The dagger came first.
Its blade was black.
The woman's ring bore the Vale family crest.
Then the documents.
Marriage records.
Letters.
A royal physician's report.
And one folded parchment sealed in red wax.
Gareth broke it.
His eyes moved across the page.
Then stopped.
Toby watched him.
"What?"
Gareth read it again.
"No."
"What?"
"This cannot be right."
Toby snatched the parchment.
The language was formal, but he could read enough.
Certificate of Royal Birth.
Male child.
Tobias Aldren.
Mother: Lady Seraphine Vale.
Father—
Toby's eyes stopped.
"Gareth."
Gareth said nothing.
"This doesn't say Edric."
"No."
The name written there was not Crown Prince Edric.
It was:
ALDREN II, SOVEREIGN KING OF THE NORTHERN REALM.
Toby stared at Gareth.
"King Aldren?"
Gareth felt sick.
King Aldren had been Edric's father.
Which would make Toby not Edric's son—
but his brother.
The old king's secret child.
Another document lay beneath the birth certificate.
Gareth unfolded it.
A confession written by Lady Seraphine.
If you are reading this, they have discovered that Tobias survived.
My son was never Edric's child.
We allowed the court to believe that lie because the truth would have destroyed the royal family.
King Aldren was his father.
Gareth lowered the page.
Toby's voice was barely audible.
"So my father was the king?"
"According to this."
"And Edric?"
"Would be your half-brother."
Toby sat silently beside the stream.
For once, he had no questions.
Gareth understood why.
In a single morning, the boy had gone from orphan to prince, from prince's son to prince's brother.
And there were still twenty-six years of royal lies Gareth did not understand.
Then Toby noticed something.
"The letter has another page."
Gareth turned it over.
A second sheet had stuck beneath the first.
He separated them.
Seraphine's writing continued.
But Gareth's face changed as he read.
"What now?" Toby asked.
Gareth handed him the page.
There were only four lines.
Aldren believed Tobias was his son.
I allowed him to believe it.
Mara knew the truth.
Only one other man knew.
Toby looked up.
"She just said King Aldren was my father."
"Apparently that was another lie."
"Then who is?"
Gareth looked toward the final line.
Toby followed his gaze.
At the bottom of the page, Seraphine had written:
If Tobias ever returns to High Keep, Sir Gareth must never learn that the boy carries his blood.
Neither moved.
The forest suddenly seemed unnaturally quiet.
Toby looked at Gareth.
Gareth looked at Toby.
And for the first time, Sir Gareth saw something in the boy that had nothing to do with King Aldren.
The shape of his eyes.
The line of his jaw.
The small scar-like crease beneath his left eyebrow.
A feature Gareth himself had carried since birth.
Toby's voice trembled.
"Sir Gareth..."
Gareth could not answer.
The boy held up the confession between them.
"Is she saying you're my father?"