UNMARKED

46: The Beginning

"We need to find her, and get her back, before someone else does."

Despite his effort to keep it low, Rory felt as though his voice was echoing through his cousin's receiving chamber. He had swept into the Palace on horseback, full-speed and demanded an immediate private audience with Briannon. He needed to get Blayre back. Before she got hurt, or taken hostage - assuming those possibilities had not come to fruition already. He was glad of Ripley's unwavering presence beside him. Even if his friend had no more information than Briannon currently did of what was going on.

Rory's cousin paced the room with elegant calm. Hers was not a pacing of nervousness. No, when Briannon paced it was as regal as the Queen she had been born and raised to be.

He fiddled with his hands clasped tightly behind his back. They were clammy, and he knew that he must look disheveled and dirty from pounding down the main road into the city and through it, especially standing in a room with Briannon and Ripley who were both impeccably dressed. That didn't matter though, Blayre was out there, and he wanted assistance so he could get out and find her as soon as possible.

Briannon turned to Rory finally. "Conal reports that she has a dragon egg in her possession."

Ripley's attention jerked up to Rory at that. For a moment Rory wished he had shared that information with his friend ahead of time.

Anger bubbled up in Rory like a pot that has finally reached its boiling point. His voice came out a rumble, "Conal is correct."

Correct, he might be, but Rory wasn't about to let the Crown Mage get his filthy, slimy hands on Blayre. And he was sure that the dragon egg was not the only reason that Conal wanted to get the Seeker back to the capital. And Caval... he suspected that Conal wanted the young Sorcerer back too, and that thought sent a firestorm of jealousy up through Rory's core.

"It seems the stakes are high. And it does seem...quite...important to retrieve the wayward Seeker, if we are to have control of that egg. You will need help. And Conal is willing to assist in whatever way he can."

"No," Rory bit out. "Anyone but Conal. Allow me to choose my search party - it will have to be small, and well-thought out. Forgive me, cousin, but..." He paused and looked away from the piercing green gaze of his Queen that fell on him. The light that poured through the room through the picture window was a dazzling gold, the sun's rays coming through as beams of light as it made the nightly descent that would return the world to darkness.

"Forgive me your majesty," he amended, "But I do not trust the man. Keep your guard up when you are around him." There was pleading in his voice, a pleading that he rarely used. Normally he was about action. It was killing him that he had to grovel at his cousin's feet to accomplish this task. Ripley shifted uncomfortably beside him. A silent rod of support in this ocean of a room.

"What do you know?" Briannon demanded, her voice dark.

"What do I know?"

"Don't trifle with me. What do you know about Conal? What has he done?" Rory had never seen his cousin so lethal. She was staring at him, as if she could read his very expression, and did not much like what she saw in it.

Rory glanced around nervously. "He could have charms on the room..."

"Twelve hells with him! If he's done something, then he should fear me, not the other way around." Briannon snapped, her white-gold hair stirring with the jerking of her motions. Gone was the elegant calm. Snapped into place was a side of Briannon that Rory had rarely seen.

"He has been trying to acquire a dragon egg." Rory admitted. "Did he conceal that from you?"

Briannon's eyes flashed jade. "It would seem he has." She said coldly, taking a seat on one of the damask sofas in the room, much to Rory's relief. His cousin's pacing had become so intense that it was putting him on edge.