AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The cold in her fingers had gone from numbing to burning,and her nail beds were turning blue. She raised her and Kalun’s clasped hands.I have to let go for a short time.He nodded his understanding and released her hand.
Zaredis’s panicked bellow nearly made her jump out of her skin. “Bring him back! Kalun!” He leapt at Siora, dagger drawn and blade to her throat before she could draw another breath. “Bring him back,” he repeated, baring his teeth as if he’d forget the knife and clamp his jaws on her jugular to rip and tear.
The sounds of a nearby scuffle teased her ears, but she concentrated on taking the shallowest breaths. Even those didn’t ease the press of the blade, or the tiny stings that sent ticklish ribbons of warmth down her neck. Terror made it hard to speak. “Your brother is still here, lord,” she whispered. “He just let go. I was growing too cold.”
A chilly brush of air on the back of her hand, and Kalun flickered into view for a brief moment. Zaredis’s exhalation steamed out of his nostrils like fog and disappeared with Kalun. He lowered the dagger and released her. “Now you know what will happen if you lie to me, shade speaker.”
Siora swayed for a moment and blinked back tears of relief at finding herself still alive and breathing, her jugular intact. She resisted the urge to touch her neck where a warm wetness tickled her skin. Her knees trembled so hard she feared she might fall.
He’s always been the more hot-tempered of the two of us, and the most protective, though I’m the oldest.Kalun wore an apologetic look.
How much older?
A few moments only. The midwife told our mother when I came out that Zaredis had his hand wrapped around my foot, unwilling to let go.
Siora latched on to that small bit of information and passed it on to Zaredis as further reassurance of his brother’s continued presence. She’d guessed rightly. They were twins.
Once more the barest hint of softness settled briefly on Zaredis’s face before it turned grim again. He’d blocked her view of Gharek and when he moved, Siora gasped at seeing the cat’s-paw no longer standing but on his belly, the side of his face pressed into the carpet while a soldier knelt on his back and wrenched his arms even higher behind him. A groan of pain burst from his mouth.
“Stand him up,” Zaredis ordered. He glared as Gharek was hauled to his feet. “How you came to be with a shade speaker is a question for pondering later, cat’s-paw. She seems honest enough, but my reasons for distrusting her are based on the fact she’s keeping company with you.” He was almost standing on Gharek’s toes and lightly brushed his dagger’s edge along Gharek’s neck this time. Gharek didn’t cower or shrink away. “Why,” said the general, “should I believe what you say about the palace? Why shouldn’t I kill you right now?”
Siora admired Gharek’s calm. She was sure she hadn’t looked so serene with that same knife at her throat.
“I wouldn’t believe me either,” he said. “But in this I’m telling the truth. As for why you should believe me, again, I am—was—the empress’s cat’s-paw. It was my duty to know every corner and stair tread of the summer palace, every secret door, every spy hole, and hidden room. Not only to know where they all were but how to navigate such a maze without being seen.”
A murmur rose among those in the tent observing the exchange. Even Zaredis’s eyebrows had risen, and he’d lost a small bit of the fiery anger that so obviously tempted him to disembowelGharek on the spot. He tilted his head to one side, considering his prisoner. “And why would you give up such valuable information?”
“I’m not giving up anything. I’m negotiating,” Gharek said.
There it is, Siora thought.The bait to dangle.
“You want inside the palace. Conquest from within is always easier and less bloody than from without. I want to live.”
Siora noticed the nods and thoughtful looks exchanged between Zaredis’s men. Gharek’s proposed exchange had merit. It also had value. Information for a life.
Zaredis didn’t look at all impressed. “I have no guarantee you won’t slip away and disappear the moment your guard looks away. You’ll probably even betray me to the current usurper for a price—coin or measure of power in the new court.”
“You have my word.”
Siora’s own disbelieving snort matched Zaredis’s louder one. “The word of Herself’s cat’s-paw is worth less than a pile of dog shit.” He gestured with a lift of his chin to one of the guards at the doorway. “Tell Rurian I want to see him.” The man bowed and slipped out of the tent. Much to Siora’s relief, Zaredis finally sheathed his knife and stepped away from both her and Gharek. “You’ll meet my sorcerer,” he said, and he bent that same derisive smile from before on Siora. “Not a lowly shade speaker,” he said.
Siora held her tongue though her thoughts whirled. A sorcerer, and Zaredis had admitted his presence in front of many, completely unconcerned that someone might report back to those currently controlling Domora. He was very sure of his power and place, this fierce general, flaunting the abilities of a man Dalvila herself would have set her dogs on had she even a whiff of his presence inside her borders.
My brother has always been a confident man,Kalun bragged beside her.A man worthy of it, ever since he was a boy.
Imagine that.He wasn’t telling her anything she hadn’t observed or concluded so far. Even now Zaredis and Gharek held a silent contest to see who could outstare the other, both wearing stoic expressions and no doubt thinking how much they’d enjoy killing each other.
The staring battle continued in the tent’s awkward stillness. It lasted until another chill, not made by Kalun, surged down Siora’s arm. She glanced at him, belly clenching at the new terror in his face. She’d seen its like recently.What’s wrong?she asked, though she already knew.
Darkness.He spoke the words with all the horror of one who’d looked upon the nightmare hiding in writhing shadow and prayed with an acolyte’s fervency for deliverance. He reached for her, wrapping both hands around her arm as if to find purchase, an anchor to hold him in place.
As terrified as he, Siora stretched out her other arm to the perplexed Zaredis, acting on a desperate hunch. “Hold on to me! Now!”
A quick glance at the now visible Kalun’s face and Zaredis didn’t hesitate, grasping her forearm and hand with both of his—just as Kalun did—with a strength that slowed the blood flow to her fingers.
She stared at Gharek, who had turned a shade paler, his eyes wide. Siora didn’t invite him to grab on to her. Even if the thing he and Kalun sensed rushing toward them now tried to bewitch him, it would have to fight a crowd of soldiers just to force him out of the tent. Held fast in the grip of three, all with sword points aimed at his torso, he didn’t move. His face looked as it did when she foundhim lurching toward Midrigar, fighting every step of the way. He wasn’t lurching now, but his knees were bent and his back hunched as if braced against the relentless pull of an unseen leash.
“It comes,” he said in the eerily hollow voice that reminded her of how the dead spoke in her mind.
