Arthur turned to Brixaby. "We need to talk." He trusted his retinue. What he meant was he needed to talk somewhere Penn would not be able to hear them. Especially now that he had a lead on Master of Spells.
Plus, Marion needed to recover… and it probably would be best if everybody was kept out of the death aura range. Penn could recover on a different level of the hive, with no access to Arthur. That would make both of them feel a lot better.
Cressida understood immediately. "Come on, Penn," she said with an understanding smile. "I'll have Joy fly you to another level where you will have your own room. You have met Joy, haven't you? She is the Rare dragon everybody was vying for during the Rare promenade..."
Penn nodded, though not before he turned to give Arthur an assessing look. Those runes were gone, but the Mind Singer's song was still there. No doubt the runes had been amplifying it, but he still had the compulsion, and plenty of reasons why he didn’t like Arthur.
He didn’t make a move to attack and quietly followed Cressida to her waiting dragon. With her elemental animal summons, Arthur had no worries she could deal with him if he tried something.
But all that was a secondary concern. The new knowledge beat like a drum into his heart. Master of Spells, Master of Spells, Master of Spells. It was within his reach.
Arthur turned to Brixaby with a question on his lips but his dragon beat him to it.
"I have searched for it, of course, using the Call of the Heart," Brixaby said, "but it is nowhere to be found.”
Arthur nodded. "And now we know why."
"Wait, I’m lost. Why is that?" Horatio asked.
From the corner of his eye, Arthur caught sight of an assistant—he didn't know their name—coming out of the stone archway that led to the hive, looking toward them. Kenzie peeled off and walked over to see what they wanted.
As she did, Brixaby explained, "Something powerful blocks even my Legendary card. Now, I believe it is the result of a complex rune array, similar to the one that covered Arthur’s lesser cousin."
“Maybe don’t call him lesser within his hearing,” Arthur said.
The dragon puffed up. “Why not? He vied for my egg and was found unworthy. Therefore it is a fact he is lesser. But Arthur,” he continued earnestly, “you must gain the Master of Spells card. It will expand my understanding of runes immensely."
"I'll work on it," Arthur said dryly. “Can you search for Lionel?"
"That was the first thing I thought of, of course," Brixaby snapped, "but he is similarly blocked."
He ran his hand down his face. "Which probably means he still has the card.”
"I noticed that Penn was silent on what happened to his father," Soledad said quietly. "Do you think he's still under some compulsion?"
"No. He just loves his father and thinks I will kill him for his card."
"Won’t you?" Soledad asked. “I know you’re not usually that guy, but a lot of men would kill for a Legendary power.”
Arthur scowled, though he couldn’t entirely blame her for wondering. He had pulled a lot of shifty moves in the past to gain cards. "Why bother? I can just take it. But, yes, he probably believes I'm that power hungry."
They fell silent as Kenzie returned at a jog. “Arthur, you’re not going to believe this," she said, her eyes alight and dancing with amusement.
"What is it?"
"Carly is here."
"Carly?" It took him a moment to place the name, and then he was ashamed it hadn’t immediately clicked. Carly, the girl he had brought from Buck Moon Hive as his assistant... and then promptly abandoned her at Wolf Moon. Not that the start of his adventures out of that hive had been voluntary, or that he could have returned to take her. Brixaby hadn't had the Dark Portal card until recently. But it still surely left her in a lurch.
"What is she doing here? How did she get here?"
"The assistant said that she bribed a portal dragon," Kenzie said. "With everybody going in and out from the eruptions..." Trailing off, she shrugged.
“Well, that’s not a great sign for our security,” Horatio muttered.
Silently, Arthur agreed. Number 812 on his to-do list. "What does she want?"
"She wants to speak to you, of course," Kenzie said.
Probably wanted to yell at him. If that was the case, she could just get in line, but… something told him he should at least hear her out. The sooner he got this over with, the better. He looked around. "Soledad, work on the security thing. Those portal dragons should have questioned anyone coming in with a guest from another hive. Horatio, get Marion to a bed."
Marion was still sitting on the ground, looking like he was about to fall asleep.
"Up you get, Princeling," Horatio said, reaching to haul him up. Then he threw an arm around the sagging healer’s shoulders to lead him back into the hive.
Arthur said, "Brix, I know, the card's probably in cooldown right now," Brixaby grunted in annoyed acknowledgement, "but see if you can work on any ideas to locate that card. We need it. Kenzie, why don't you come with me.”
Carly was in a lower level of the hive. She had no dragon and no ability to get past any of the checkpoints. The guards had directed her to wait in one of the nicer ground-level offices.
On arriving, Kenzie gestured for Arthur to stop just outside the office for a moment. She frowned as she used her aura reading skills. "There’s a lot of anxiety, but that’s understandable, considering she’s coming to you. Anticipation... maybe. A little fear. Nothing unusual, but there are ways to block readings like this.”
He nodded. That wasn’t anything he hadn’t expected. "What did you get from Penn?"
"He doesn’t like you," she said, "but you just need eyes for that."
"Do you think he’ll betray me?"
"I think he was truthful. But yes, I think he will betray you if the reward outweighs the risk. That being said, from what I can tell, everything he told you in his story—what little of it there was—was the truth as far as I can see it. But Arthur,” she warned, “he’s also a noble. They're trained to guard their emotions."
Arthur never was trained that way. He wondered, not for the first time, if Kenzie could read him like a book.
He nodded and walked in.
Carly sat in a chair at the head of a long table. She had matured since Arthur had last seen her, grown at least an inch, yet had become noticeably thinner—wiry, and whipcord with muscle.
She brightened as he entered. "There you are," she said in relief. "I wasn't sure if they'd let me see you in this creepy hive—oh, I heard you're trying to decreepify it?" she added, blushing slightly.
Arthur took a seat and gestured for Kenzie to do the same. He didn’t bother with hellos or introductions. "And I heard that you've become Whitaker’s little administrative assistant."
"Well, yeah," she said boldly. "I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but some people have to manage that guy. And I was known to be your assistant, which put me at risk. So of course I had to buddy up to him.”
Arthur ignored his flash of guilt. "And now you’ve come to this hive to... what? Buddy up to me?"
"No," Carly said. "I'm warning you because I'm your friend... or I thought I was."
Again, he ignored the guilt. She was smart enough to manipulate him.
"Warning me?" he repeated flatly.
"Yeah. Whitaker is an idiot—I think we all know that—but he just entertained some interesting guests while you were off soloing that eruption.” She gave him a hard look. “Yeah, those rumors have already spread."
A pit of dread settled in his stomach. "Who was he entertaining?"
She stared straight at him. "Desmond and Sybil. Apparently, they're campaigning to get their hive back."
For a second, Arthur almost said, Let them have it.
If he were unencumbered by the hive, he could go search for Master of Skills—for all the cards he needed—right now. Who could stop him?
But no. He had fought for this place, and he wanted to see it better. He wanted to see the lower rankers thrive. A return to the old way of doing things would mean everyone like Wing Purple or the wild dragons he’d taken in would be crushed or completely forgotten. Never allowed to grow to their full potential.
More to the point, this was his and Brixaby’s hive. No one was going to take it from them.
He heard his own voice come out, calm and a bit dry. "I guess that means Desmond and Sybil are recovering from Chester’s influence at last. So, what did Whitaker say?"
"Well, he wants to eliminate you as the hive leader," Carly said. She seemed a little thrown that Arthur hadn’t flown into a full temper tantrum. Maybe she had grown too used to being under Whitaker’s leadership. “Ideally, he would like to kill you.”
Kenzie spoke up. "And how do we know that any of this is the truth?"
Carly scoffed at her, but when she answered, she was looking straight at Arthur. "Look, if even half of the stuff I’ve heard about you is true, you’ve had to make choices you don’t like in order to survive. I did the same. I’m not going to apologize for that. I don’t like Whitaker, but doing his paperwork and cleaning up after his messes meant I was paid well. I had a respected position in the hive, and I could take care of some of the damage he would’ve done.” She paused for a moment in thought, then shook her head. “But this is too much. Everybody says you were the only Leader who even showed up for the second eruption. You and your dragon took it on all by yourselves and came out in one piece. Now Whitaker, who can’t lead his way out of a wet paper sack wants to kill you for it. It’s not right."
"To be fair," Arthur said, "Brix and I only took on the demi-scourge by ourselves. The lower rankers from the other hives helped with the rest of the eruption."
"Like that makes it less impressive," she said with a roll of her eyes. "You don’t trust me, I get it. I have my trust issues with you since you abandoned me, even though I landed on my feet." She flicked her gaze to Kenzie, who had been put in the same position. Apparently, Carly was well aware of that. "So if you don’t trust me, trust that I know when to jump ship and buddy up, as you said, with the stronger leader. No flattery, Arthur. That’s you."
Arthur was a little flattered. It might be insincere but it still was nice to hear someone thought he was doing a good job.
"All right. I’ll take that into consideration," he said. "What can you tell me about the plans to kill me?"
Her shoulders relaxed a touch. "Not much,” she admitted. “It’s just three of them so far, but they’re serious, Arthur. They want to see about swaying the other Legendaries to their side since none of them are happy with you right now. But the vague plan is to attack you during a scourge eruption. Make it seem like you got in over your head. No one knows how strong you are, and everybody’s afraid of your dragon, so they'll wait for you to do something stupid and heroic—”
“Going by history, that means it will be in a few days’ time," Kenzie added with a strained grin.
"And then they’ll hit you and make it look like it was a powerful scourgling," Carly finished.
"So, nothing concrete, but definitely a threat."
Kenzie’s amused expression dropped and she looked at him worriedly. "You should read in the rest of the retinue about this.”
Arthur shrugged. “Sure, they should know what to expect when Whitaker and his new followers start the plan.”
“Wait.” Carly looked back and forth between them. “You’re not going to, uh, ride out and confront them?”
"If someone makes a move on me, I’ll show them why Brixaby and I can take on a demi-scourge all by ourselves."
And they didn’t know it yet, but he was going to be a Mythic soon. Just the moment he finally got his hands on those cards. He would rather know now, rather than later, who dared to oppose him.
… Maybe he was spending too much time around Brixaby.
Forcefully, Arthur focused back on Carly. “So, what do you expect now? I could get you back to Wolf Moon without anyone the wiser.”
She face him, chin up, though the slight tremor to her bottom lip displayed her nervousness. "You can. It’s not a death sentence. I haven’t spent all my time cleaning up after Whitaker like I’m his personal maid. It's been my base of power. I have my hidey-holes there. But I… I think I’d be more use to you, here…”
She went on, half bravado. And he knew Kenzie was picking up on it too, by the looks she was giving him.
But Arthur wasn’t listening. Her words echoed in his head.
It’s my base of power. I have my hidey holes there.
He stood up so fast the chair fell over with a crash behind him. "I need to go. Need to speak to Brixaby and Penn. No, forget Penn.”
He felt like he was buzzing out of his skin.
Lionel’s base of power was Rowantree estate.
If he could oppose the Mind Singer, why would he abandon it? He’d been there all his life, had managed it after his brother—Arthur’s father—had been stripped of his rank. It was everything he’d worked for over a lifetime. If he had any choice in the matter, why would he leave?
Ignoring Kenzie and Carly’s alarm, he started to rush out of the room. Then he paused, whipped around, and stuck his head back in. "Kenzie, set her up in an office on my level."
"Arthur!” Her eyes cut to Carly. “Are... are you sure?"
"No. But I did a bad turn to her and the least I can do is give her a soft place to land, same as I did to you.” Besides, he was about to grab the Master of Spells card and become that much more powerful. Whitaker could throw whatever fit he wanted, he was already weaker than Arthur and was about to fall further behind. Arthur aimed a hard look at Carly. “If you betray me it’ll be the last thing you do.”
Carly nodded and gulped. “You didn’t used to be this scary.”
“That was like three Legendary cards ago," Arthur said. It was actually more Legendaries than that, but he was wasting time.
Turning around, he sprinted out, yelling for a messenger Purple to take him up to the Leader’s Ledge.
Next chapter: Tuesday Jan 27th 9PM PST