Ruthless. Greedy. Power-hungry.
The soldiers walked out of the stables without Marcus. Sage scowled. Had they killed him? Distress bubbled inside her, but she firmly pushed it down. She didn’t know what they had done to him. But the image of them beating Marcus made her feel angry. And helpless. Shaking with the thought of the soldiers harming Marcus, she took a deep breath to calm her emotions. She knew she had to wait for the right time. It would do her and Marcus no good if they were both captured.
One soldier took up a position in front of the stables, and the other moved around the side of the inn. If they were guarding the stable, Marcus was not dead. Relief swept through her.
Her gaze centered on the stables and the one soldier. How long would Guillume wait here before he took Marcus somewhere else? When should she act? And how was she going to get Marcus away from them?
She observed the inn until the sun was at the edge of the horizon before settling in at her hiding spot behind the trees. She pulled the book from her armor and stared at it. A simple leather-bound book. She had seen many at le Bezu. This was what Guillume wanted. Why? What was so important that he would betray a family member? That he would try to kill Marcus? Frustrated, she shook her head. And why couldn’t she crack the code?
She had to keep busy. Occupy her mind. Come up with a plan.
And yet, the book called to her. As if an itch she couldn’t quite reach, it annoyed her. She should be able to figure out the code. What was wrong with her? She knew exactly why she couldn’t decipher the book. Her mind was distracted with kisses and touches. The way Marcus’s lips moved over her skin and the way he looked at her.
She glanced at the stables again. Nightfall would be her best chance to sneak up on them. She would have to delay any action until it was dark.
She pulled the parchment with the code from her boot and studied it. She straightened the parchment out on the ground, running her hands over it to smooth it. She focused with a frown, gazing at the list of letters she had written on the parchment. Beside these letters were letters she and Marcus had decoded or believed they had. A dash was drawn through some letters and a new letter written beside it because they had discovered their first guess was wrong.
She scanned the list. So many letters were still to be decoded. So many... And then something caught her attention.
Three of the letters in the center of the list that they had deciphered correlated toX-Y-Z. They were consecutive.X-Y-Z. Just as in the alphabet. What if the other letters were in alphabetical order?
Damn it. Her quill was in the saddlebags on the horse. She glanced longingly through the branches of trees in the direction the horse was hidden. Then, she looked back at the stable. She couldn’t leave in case they moved Marcus.
The sun was setting. Her light was fading. She didn’t have a lot of time.
She glanced back at the parchment with the code on it. Her pulse quickened in excitement. Could she be right? She focused on the first word in the text on the parchment. They had decoded three of the four letters but had not figured out the final one. The undeciphered letter was aQ.T,A, blank,E.
She went through the code on the parchment and mentally said the alphabet until she got to theQ. If that letter made a word... But she couldn’t jump ahead of herself. She forced herself to relax by taking a deep breath. She drew her finger down the letters on the parchment, mumbling the alphabet.Qwould be...K. When she substituted theKfor theQ, the word formedT-A-K-E. Her lips moved to form the sound of each letter. She had to sound it out a couple of times quietly. “Take,” she said out loud. Take what?
In the second word, they had figured out two of the letters. She chewed her lower lip in thought. The two letters they had not figured out wereSandT. She traced down the code again, her finger skimming each letter as she assigned them a letter of the alphabet.SwasM.TwasN.
She looked at the second word and substituted the letters.M-A-I-N. She tried to sound the word out. “Ma,I,n. Mah In.” Frustrated, she shook her head. Maybe one of the letters was silent. “Min? Man?” She scrunched up her nose. Could it be the name of a street?
“Take man road east to first crossroad,” she whispered. The bookwasdirections!
She opened the book to the first page. The next line was “mu tuxzn.” They had already figured out some of the letters. She knewUwasO. But they had not figured outM. She turned back to the code parchment, wishing she had her quill. She repeated the process to find the coded letter, mumbling the alphabet. “G.” She turned back to the book. “Go,” she whispered.
The second word was longer. They had already figured out most of the letters.
She looked around on the ground until she found a rock. She carved the letters they had decoded into the ground. She had just figured out that theTwasN. What was the coded letterN?
Her hand trembled with excitement as she traced the path over the letters to decode theN.H. It wasH. She stared at the word etched into the ground. “North.”
She had done it! She had figured out the code. Exhilaration filled her. She gaped at the book. They would be able to read it all now. She had to tell Marcus.
Marcus.She swung her gaze back to the stables.
She wanted to rush in right then, free him, and triumphantly report her victory. She inhaled deeply, but her entire body shook with success. She wiggled her fingers and clenched her hands in an attempt to calm herself. She needed to wait and be patient.
She folded the parchment with the code and shoved it into her boot. Then, she picked up the book and gazed in triumph at the cover. She did it. She could read, and she had figured out the code. Joy and exhilaration charged her as if a fuse were lit. She replaced the book in her armor and looked at the stables. Her heart hammered in her ears. She couldn’t wait to tell Marcus. She couldn’t wait to see him.
A twig snapped behind her.
Sage froze, and her stomach dropped. Every instinct she had warned her to be careful. She turned slowly.
A soldier stood two feet from her, the tip of his sword pointed toward her. “Where is the book?”
Marcus hung his chin on his chest. Pain wracked his entire body. He had been beaten, even though he could not tell them what they wanted to know. Sage and the book were long gone. He imagined they would kill him once they realized she was not returning for him.
