"But I messed things up so badly!" Alaire wailed. "We were here to try to prevent a war. Now I've probably started one."
"Don't blame yourself, Alaire," Lyam said, trying to soothe him. "Sir Jehan had already made certain there would be a war before you ever arrived. You are not to blame. You simply became a convenient excuse for what he wanted to do anyway." Then he explaine Jehan's machinations.
But that left Alaire with a number of unanswered questions -- one of which was very important.
"What about Kai?" Alaire asked, hesitantly.
"They've got him now, don't they? What happened when he got to his father?"
Captain Lyam answered, not Naitachal; his face and voice completely expressionless. "He tried to explain what happened. Kai's word was against Jehan's; he had little credibility and his father, of course, didn't believe him. They put him in shackles and sent him to the dungeon. They charged him with treason, with con- spiracy involving mages sent by Althea to overthrow his father."
"The dungeon?" Alaire said, his eyes darting back and forth between his Master's and the Captain's.
"Now they're looking for me. It's me they want! We can't go off and leave Kai in prison!"
"And what do you propose we do?" Naitachal said softly. "We barely got out of there ourselves, and that was only because Captain Lyam was my jailer."
Alaire shook his head vehemently. "I don't care. We have to go back. Kai saved my life when he brought me down here."
"Which would make you about even, hmm?" Nai- tachal said shrewdly. "You saved his life, and put your own in jeopardy by performing magic; he saved yours by hiding you. The scales balance, in my opinion."
'There's nothing we can do, Alaire," Lyam said sadly. "Sir Jehan is just too powerful right now. He had the King eating out of his hands, and it would take a miracle to change that. If you go back to try to Kai, and fail, do you know what will be waiting for you then?"
"Yes, I know," Alaire said sadly. "Prison of Souls."
"You do not want to go there," Lyam replied, emphatically. "Kai's fate won't be nearly as terrible.
Trust me, his father will not deliver him to the usual fate of traitors. He'll probably be disowned and made into a slave, under Paavo. Slavery is the usual fate of those traitors who are not considered clever enough to be dangerous." He coughed, embarrassed. "Jehan will probably urge this very move on the King. He would obtain far more enjoyment out of seeing Kai shining his boots than swinging at the end of a rope."
Alaire could not imagine this.
"Kai will never serve anyone but himself," Naitachal said. "I've seen enough of the boy to make that predic- tion."
"But you're wrong," Alaire protested. "He's changed. No, really! He's not the same. When I brought him back, he saw how close he was to dying.
Something happened to him, I'm not sure what." He groped after the words he needed to describe Kai's transformation, but failed to find them.
"Which is all moot, at this point," Naitachal said.
"We can't go back. It would be the three of us against the entire Royal Guard and King's mages, an Swords. We don't have a chance against them.
Alaire slumped, and put his head in his hands. "I guess you're right But how do you plan on getting us out of here?" Alaire downed more of the tea, which helped his headache tremendously. "What's going to happen to you, Captain?"
"I am going with you, young man," Lyam said, wea- rily. "I've burned my bridges to get Naitachal here.
They'll be offering a price for my head as soon as they realize I'm gone, and who I took with me." He scratched his chin, reflecting. "I hope they don't go too hard on that boy I put in charge of guarding you."
"I'm more concerned about Erik," Naitachal said.