AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Where are the mines?” he snarled. “Where is Lady Riona?”
“You. Fucking.Stabbedme!”
“And I will do it many more times if you don’t answer my questions. Where is Lady Riona?”
“Who is that?”
Auberon dug the edge of the blade into the man’s neck, and he sucked in a sharp breath. “One more chance, and then I start cutting off fingers. Or maybe,” he drawled, “I’ll take something you treasure more. How much do you think you’d miss your manhood?”
Fear flashed across his face. “Very well. I’m supposed to deliver a message to the king that Lady Riona found the mine. No one is supposed to leave it alive, but she’s the king’s own blood, so the overseer wants approval from His Majesty before he kills her.”
“The king?” Amaris echoed, her voice pinched with panic. “Why would he want Riona dead? And what is this about a mine?”
Auberon ignored her. “Take us to her.”
The stranger nodded. “If you promise to let me go after that, I’ll lead you to where she’s being held. I can’t spend one more day in those damned caves.”
“How do I know you won’t kill us the moment I remove my blade from your throat?”
“My brother works in the mine, too. Promise to help me free him, and you’ll have nothing to fear from me. I swear it on the Creator and all the Old Gods.”
Auberon looked to Amaris for confirmation. She slowly nodded.
Satisfied, he stepped back and sheathed his dagger. “You have five minutes to tend to your wound and get back on your horse. Then we’re heading to the Mountains.”
The man muttered curses under his breath, but true to his word, he made no move to attack. Auberon started back to where he’d left his horse’s saddle, and Amaris fell into step beside him, scowling. “Don’t chastise me for what I did,” he said before she could speak. “It worked.”
“You could have handled the situation with a bit more diplomacy.”
“He was headed to Innislee to see if the king would order her execution. Would you have bothered withdiplomacy?”
Amaris sighed. “I suppose if it brings Riona back safely, then it was worth it. I’ll say nothing more on the matter. You may be an Erdurian savage, but who am I to judge a man for doing what he excels at?”
“I’m not certain whether that was a compliment or an insult.”
She let out a quiet, reluctant laugh. “Neither am I, to be honest.”
Five minutes later, they mounted their horses and set off for the Howling Mountains. The miner had shucked off his tunic and torn it into strips, which he had then bound around the gash in his thigh. It didn’t take long for the fabric to become soaked through with blood—a fact which did not inspire the slightest bit of sympathy within Auberon. The miners had Riona.
We’re coming, aramati,he silently vowed, wishing she could hear him.And I will flay any man who has set a hand on you.
ChapterForty-Nine
The Lady
When she awoke, Riona lifted her head slowly, biting back a groan at the throbbing in her temples. Something dry and sticky was crusted to her face.Blood. She shifted, trying to wipe it off, and realized with a jolt of panic that her arms were bound behind her back. With a concentrated effort, she dragged her heavy eyelids open and winced at the light filling the cavern.
Riona was bound to a chair in the center of the overseer’s quarters. The sheath on her thigh was gone, Auberon’s dagger nowhere in sight. Her wrists were tied together with a length of rough rope, and more circled her chest and upper arms. Her ankles were chained to the legs of the chair, looped through the crossbar so she wouldn’t be able to tilt back and slip the shackles free. In her periphery, she could see the overseer standing in the tunnel outside, exchanging quiet words with someone beyond her line of vision. Two guards stood watch over her, one on either side of the archway.
“All these precautions for a harmless noblewoman?” she drawled, her lips curling into a smirk that would have made Auberon proud. “I would hate to see how you’d react to someone with real skill.”
The overseer stalked over to her. His chest was bare, and thick bandages encircled his torso where she’d struck him with the dagger. “I’m not taking any chances with the niece of the king,” he said as he moved to the desk. “With your luck, you’d free yourself only to stumble into a sinkhole and break your neck. I’m not losing my head because some little rat has no sense of self-preservation.”
“That’s already happened.”
“What?”
“The sinkhole. Except I didn’t break my neck.”
