The Rogue Guardian

Chapter 68: History Repeats Itself

So, I'm annoyed that it's taken me so long to update, but pretty proud of this chapter name, so... I hope you guys get it lol

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It was good to be home.

I studied that feeling closely for a moment, wondering when Maenar had become something more than the maze I was stumbling around in my quest, then I let it go. So, maybe Maenar and the Phoenix were my home now. The castle certainly wasn't anymore, with Jaden gone and nearly all my enemies—suspects—concentrated in that area. Maybe that wasn't a bad thing. Maybe this was growing up, finding a new home.

I dropped my traveling bag into the mess I'd left behind in my haste to get on the boat to the capital a week ago, and collapsed into bed. It was early evening, but I needed a decent amount of sleep before everything Joshua and I had planned for tonight. There wasn't much time. Joshua was expected at the Assassin's Court tomorrow morning.

But before my eyes had been closed for more than a few seconds, the door swung open and Evvie's voice intruded, loudly. "Get up, we have to talk."

I groaned and tried to roll over, but she pulled me into a sitting position. "God, no manners," I grumbled. "What?"

She pushed my feet out of the way and sat on the bed. "I just wanted to catch you before you start doing whatever you've been smirking about the whole way here."

"Congratulations then, consider me caught. Can I go back to sleep?"

"No. This is about something serious."

I sighed. "Isn't it always around here?"

"Yes, because revolution is a serious business. I know you don't always see it that way. It's true, all the tricks we pull can be exciting and fun, but everything we do has consequences." She looked worried. "I need to know that you know breaking us out of prison—out of a royal fort, no less—is going to have some very significant ones."

"Significant how? You aren't going to try and make me feel bad about it, are you? Because leaving you there wasn't an option, and I won't apologize for it."

"Don't be silly. Of course we're all very thankful you pulled it off." She squeezed my hand in a comforting way, and I started to feel worried as well. "But I saw how you reacted when Liz mentioned the princess being responsible for our capture, so I think someone needs to talk to you about this."

"About...?"

"Well, about how getting us captured isn't the only active role the princess has taken lately. Our spies in the capital have been saying for a while that there's something going on, a political shift taking place, one that started just a little while before you showed up in Maenar. We don't have a lot of concrete information. It's hard to get royal servants to talk these days, and harder still to plant spies that close to royalty. But the little bits of information we're getting back each other up. The princess is starting to demand a much bigger role than she's ever had before, and it looks like she's surrounding herself with Inigrit influences, notably Irina Laycreek. I don't know if you've heard of her, but she's dangerously astute at pulling puppet strings."

I couldn't suppress my shudder. Dangerously astute Irina Laycreek around Nemia... She didn't deserve this. I should have done something when I was there, interrupted the kiss, blown my cover. Someone had to protect her. But that wasn't what Evvie was warning me about. "I know Magali's gotten bolder. That's my fault for encouraging her, before I had to run away."

"It's worse than you know, I think. The entire sphere of politics doesn't shift just because a princess starts doing her job."

"Then what does it shift for?" I had never been all that interested in Caer's lessons on politics, unless they involved some battles and exciting things mixed in.