A sick feeling rose in her throat.These seasons, these weeks, it had all been too good, too perfect.Nothing ever lasted, not for her.Aramal was still focused on Ussin, but his glance strayed to Ritathan crumpled on the ground.The pain in his eyes…
“I’ll go,” Halithe choked out the words, rising to her feet, breaking the silence that held them all.“If you leave him be.”
“No,” Aramal protested.“Leeda, no—” He gripped his staff, but his eyes dropped once again to her Papa.
“You sure, girl?”Ussin asked.“He’s not long for it, a head wound like that.”
“Let them see to him,” she said, nodding, “and I will go with you.”
“Leeda,” Orval said, gently, “there are other ways.We could—”
“No,” Ussin said.“Him, or his head, and the girl.Those are my orders.”
Halithe felt cold and numb.Then she lifted her chin.“His chains,” she said, “and the Ring of Xy.He has them.”
She heard Rosalind gasp and saw the Lord High Baron blanch.Everyone else was staring, wide-eyed.
“The Ring?”Ussin gaped at her.“King Xyrath has searched high and low for that Ring.Wants it more than even an atira blade.”Ussin narrowed his eyes and jerked his head toward Ritathan.“How didheget it?”
“Does that matter?”Halithe said.“But that is the bargain.The chains, the Ring, and myself.”She swallowed hard.“That or—”
“Your death,” Orval said.“Here and now.”
Ussin’s eyebrows jerked up at that, but the Lord High Baron’s face was set and firm.Halithe breathed out; she hadn’t been sure he’d support her.She looked around, then, and saw that the other men were just as grim-faced.
“I don’t know,” Ussin said slowly, looking at the scattered dead.He was breathing heavily, his weapon still up, his shield still raised.
Halithe opened her mouth—to beg, to argue, she wasn’t sure—but Roth was the first to move.
“What a pity,” Roth said slowly, as he knelt and wiped his sword on the dead warrior’s trous, “that the mage took your men out before you took him down.”
There was a pause, then Orval spoke, shaky but firm.“What a shame that Ritathan used his magic to make me think he was a scribe.”
Ussin frowned, giving them all long, considering looks.
Orval sheathed his dagger, nodding to the bodies.“The Queen will not want her commands known, will she?Better that she thinks they failed.”
“True.”Ussin grimaced.
“You’d be under more threat there than here,” Roth said as he rose and sheathed his sword.“If the Queen thought her plans were known.”
Ussin eased his stance slightly.“Unless the mage took them out before they could act,” he said, musingly.“Never seen anything like it, the way he turned their own weapons on them.Poor bastards never had a chance.”
Aramal still glared, still held his staff as if to attack.
Ussin focused on Halithe.“Only way this works is if you stick to the tale.”
“You leave him here, as he is, and I will,” Halithe said.“I swear it.”
“Even after he’s dead?”Ussin asked.
“Until the sun fails to rise,” Halithe said.“No one will ever hear different from me.”
“No,” Aramal stepped forward, raising his staff ever so slightly.“I won’t allow—”
“Da,” Halithe said, her heart bursting.“Da, Papa needs you.”
Ussin stepped back a pace.“So be it,” he said.
