The Songbird

Chapter 14: Come and Find Me

The dungeon was ripe with the stench of dust and unease.

The four knights stood shoulder to shoulder before the King, who paced in front of a now empty cell with his brows drawn tight, black cape trailing behind with each turn.

"He couldn't have just escaped," Izan spoke first. "He was locked up with a layer of my glass surrounding it."

"Quite right," Abbott muttered. "He had help."

The unspoken notion of betrayal became suffocating in the silence, winding around their bodies. Abbott ceased his pacing, coming to a stop in the middle of the open cell before hitting his fist on the doorway.

The sound made Samuel jump, and Jesmyn grimaced.

"It can be no coincidence he escaped when you four were out," Abbott said. "Someone was waiting for you all to leave so that they wouldn't be stopped. Every staff member will be interrogated until we find our traitor. We were close to getting answers from Talmage, I'm sure of it. He won't evade us again."

Dante harbored doubts about how close they were to making Talmage talk, but he could do nothing else except nod his head.

"Dismissed," Abbott said. "Keep an eye out, and if you see any suspicious activity, I am to be informed at once."

Jesmyn, Izan, and Samuel filed out of the dungeon, but Dante stayed behind. 'Dismissed' almost never applied to him unless Abbott specified it, and in this instant, he hadn't.

Abbott looked down on him for a long while, his silvery eyes alight with tension he tried so desperately to conceal. But Dante saw it all, could always see when the King was on the brink of an outburst fit to explode the walls around him. Of course, he'd never actually seen Abbott lose himself to that extent, but it would come one day. Of that he had no doubt.

"Tell me you have something," Abbott said. "After today, I'm not sure I can take another disappointment."

Dante reached into the pocket of his coat, hand closing around a fistful of jewels before depositing them into the King's palm. He turned them over for examination as if the answer were written on their sides, but after a minute, he fixed Dante with an annoyed look.

"If this is a joke, I'm not laughing."

But Dante couldn't repress his smile.

"She had been there. Not by the time we got to it, but she was there at a point. Those caves hide jewels, and the walls looked like they had been blown apart, scattering them everywhere. She must've been panicked, and her power leapt out. It matches Jesmyn's vision."

Abbott turned his eyes back to the jewels, some of the harshness easing out of him at Dante's words.

"So she was there, but there's no guarantee she'll be back. How do you expect to find her?"

"No one goes in those caves unless they need something from it. I suspect she collects jewels for a shopkeeper in the Blue Alley. We need only hunt them down and get the names of their suppliers. After that, she won't be able to hide much longer."

And then Abbott smiled in earnest, a rare sight that sent Dante's relief soaring to untold heights. The King dropped the jewels on the floor to clasp his hands together, beginning to pace again.

"Wonderful news at last," he said. "When do you expect to begin questioning shopkeepers?"

"Collection day is tomorrow, so I propose the day after that."

Abbott stopped in front of Dante, resting a proud hand on his shoulder much like a father would do for his son.

"Good man," he said.