Royal Exile (23 page)

‘Oh, come now, Dara, I’m sure —’

‘I speak the truth. My son is a very lone individual, Freath. For him to allow you to live is extraordinary enough but to allow you into his inner sanctum has me puzzled. He obviously sees in you what I do.’

‘Which is?’

‘A far more complex mind than you’d like us to believe. You want us to see only the obsequious servant. But I know rat cunning lurks behind that expressionless façade.’

‘Really, Dara Negev, I think you are getting me wrong. I am truly no more than a formerly wronged servant getting his due. I have been completely honest in my desires. But I will give my loyalties to your son, if he’ll allow it.’

‘Well, incredibly, I think he already has, considering what he has permitted you so far. Beware of my other son, though, Master Freath. He lacks Loethar’s finesse and subtlety.’

‘I plan to stay well out of his way, Dara.’

She laughed again. ‘Wise words.’

‘This is the entrance to the former queen’s suite.’ Freath motioned to the double doors at which they had arrived.

‘Lead the way, Freath,’ she said and he heard the hunger in her voice once again.

‘Just give me two moments, Dara.’ At her look of surprised enquiry, he hurried to add, ‘Indulge me, madam.’

She nodded, a look of disdain on her lined face, her lips pinched into a scowl. ‘As you see fit. I shall sit here. Do not test my patience, Freath.’

Clovis and Kirin were still none the wiser as to their purpose. They were currently being held under guard in a small chamber with only a small window, more for air than for seeing much through.

‘Where are we?’ Kirin murmured again.

‘I told you I don’t know. I was bundled up here after you’d collapsed and I was so worried, I didn’t really pay attention.’

‘And they told you nothing about Reuth? Nothing at all, no clue to her whereabouts?’

‘No, I tell you,’ Clovis replied, irate. ‘I thought she was behind me. I thought they all were. But we were separated. I ended up alone here with that creepy Freath fellow.’

‘What did he say … exactly?’

Clovis sighed. ‘He said I was to wait here and not to make a noise and not to draw attention to myself. And if I listened to him I would be safe.’

‘That’s all?’

‘Well, he said he was going to find you and discover what had happened. So what happened?’

Kirin leaned back against the wall and crossed his arms. ‘I pried.’

Clovis’s mouth opened but nothing came out. Kirin waited, and finally the bigger man asked the inevitable question. ‘Who?’

‘Who do you think?’

‘Stracker?’

Kirin nodded wearily.

‘And?’

‘I couldn’t do it for very long. I actually only glimpsed within him because it’s dangerous. As I told you all, he likes men, preferably boys. Killing brings him pleasure, so he usually combines both preferences.’

‘I fear for that boy he took,’ Clovis said, shaking his head.

‘You should.’

‘What else?’ Clovis asked hurriedly.

‘I felt his darkness. The man is evil, angry, cruel. I couldn’t dwell in his mind — as I say, it was dangerous. But then when Freath got me to look into the minds of the others, it pushed me over the edge.’

‘It made you sick.’

Kirin pushed away from the wall, frustrated. ‘It’s not just my health, Clovis. If that’s all it was I’d risk it. To pry properly and to make it yield meaningful information I must have quiet. I need to be sitting still in a dim, peaceful situation with no interruptions. It’s usually best if I have a bed nearby and pail at the side!’ he said, giving a mirthless smile, ‘because I need both immediately after even the shortest pry.’

‘And for long ones?’

Kirin shrugged. ‘I’ve not tried since childhood. I have no idea of the extent of the injuries should I attempt it. The only reason I did it today was because I was frightened for all of us. I can’t be completely sure because I haven’t done it for so long, but I think the person I’m prying into can feel my presence.’

Clovis was taken aback. ‘Truly?’

Kirin shrugged. ‘If I had the courage to feel sick again I’d test it on you but I seem to recall that someone who is well attuned to the spiritual is more likely to feel me prying.’

‘You’re losing me.’

‘The act of prying connects two people. It leaves a trackable trace for a short time for anyone Vested, unless I can snap the link fast enough. I haven’t had enough practice to know what that time span is or whether it differs from person to person. That’s why I pried into Stracker for only a moment or two.’

‘But we still don’t know what he wanted!’ Clovis said, not disguising his own frustration.

‘No. But I do know he wasn’t being honest. We were picked for different reasons. The first group was useful to Stracker and he’s sent them somewhere, who knows where or why. The third group was destroyed for being pretenders or generally useless. Us in the middle? Well, he is using us for subtle purposes but I don’t know what. It has something to do with Freath but I…’ He trailed off, feeling angry, dejected.

‘It’s all right, Kirin. We’re alive,’ Clovis calmed.

‘Coming from you that’s meaningful. I thought you wanted to die.’

Clovis closed his eyes for a moment, before wandering across the small chamber to try and catch a gust of air from the small space serving as a window. ‘I thought so too,’ he said, breathing out loudly. ‘Until death beckoned. Then I realised how frightened I was. And someone who welcomes death isn’t scared of it. I heard those people screaming and I knew I wanted my life to go on.’

‘Who could blame you?’ Kirin said softly. ‘If we’re going to remain alive we have to fight. We can’t just become barbarian puppets or we make a mockery of your family, of the royals who’ve lost their lives right around the Set, and of all the innocents whose lives have been snatched.’

Clovis was nodding. ‘I agree. I’ll fight with you in the subtle way you suggest.’

For the first time it seemed that Kirin had something to smile about.

Gavriel had followed Leo for a long way in silence. Now he gave a low whistle and the king turned in query.

‘Do you know where you’re going?’

‘No, I’m just mindlessly strolling, Gav.’

Gavin’s expression turned droll. ‘I’m much bigger than you, Leo. King or not, I can punch you senseless, and no one will ever know.’

‘Except you won’t. You and Corb were always an empty threat.’

Gavriel ignored the taunt. ‘So we’re close, are we?’

‘Mother’s suite is just up ahead — that small flight of stairs will bring us behind it.’

‘I can’t believe your father allowed you here.’

‘He didn’t.’

‘But you know it so well.’

Leo smiled sadly. ‘I always wanted more time with her. Once I was Piven’s age, father felt it was time for me to “leave my mother’s skirts” as he put it. I followed his wishes with gusto but sometimes I’ve looked at Piven playing five sticks or “stalk the donkey” with mother and …’ He shrugged.

‘What?’ Gavriel asked gently.

‘I felt jealous,’ Leo confided. ‘And the really silly part is they’re not even playing the games properly. Piven just moves the pieces around randomly but I see how mother loves to watch him playing and how much pleasure he brings her, even though he’s so unreachable. I imagine she would have felt like that about me when I was younger. My best days with mother took place when I wasn’t really aware of it. I can’t imagine how she’s coping.’

‘We all cope in our own way, Leo,’ Gavriel said. ‘You are withstanding all this sorrow in the best way you can and her way is to withdraw within herself. Like Piven, in a way.’

‘Yes,’ Leo said, ‘but I would see her once more and say goodbye in my own way … even if she doesn’t know I’m there or that I’m farewelling her.’

‘It doesn’t have to be for keeps.’

Leo looked up at him, their tiny candle flame casting an eerie glow onto his darkly golden hair and Gavriel saw an old man’s expression in the young king’s face. ‘I think we both know that it is. I am here to say goodbye to my mother because I know I’m never going to see her again. He’s already forced her to lose herself and I imagine her death at his hand, or by someone close to him, is not long away. I don’t want to be around to watch both my parents die.’ Then he looked ashamed. ‘Gav, I’m sorry. I realise I’m not the only one suffering.’

‘I’ll save my grieving until I’m reunited with Corbel.’

‘When we get out of here, the first thing we must do is find him.’

Gavriel smiled. ‘That may not be possible.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because I have absolutely no idea where he was sent. Only our two fathers knew and they have died with the secret.’

‘Why a secret?’

‘Ask me that another time, Leo.’

The king frowned and, as if grasping that the subject was too tender to press Gavriel further on, he simply nodded. ‘Let’s go,’ he murmured and Gavriel gratefully fell into step. ‘By the way, we can’t hear anything in mother’s room. We can only watch.’

‘Why?’

Leo stopped. ‘We’re here,’ he whispered. ‘I don’t know, probably because even old Cormoron must have felt it was vulgar to eavesdrop on the queen. This suite has always been the royal apartments for the king’s women.’

Gavriel nodded. They found a series of peepholes, but no thin walls so they couldn’t hear anything through the thick stone. Set in the wall was a small old timber box that looked like it had been there a while.

Gavriel put his face close to the wall, blinked to focus properly through the small openings and immediately saw Queen Iselda standing and staring blankly through her tall open windows. He tried to imagine what her view would be from this part of the palace and decided it would be very beautiful, overlooking the royal private gardens and the northwestern tip of the Deloraine — the great forest that stretched south, tapering to a straggly thicket by a town called Minston Woodlet. Between the gardens and the forest Gavriel imagined Iselda could see across to the jagged, ruggedly beautiful coastline.

‘Mother loves the view from that window,’ Leo whispered.

‘I was just imagining how lovely the scene that she’s looking out upon must be. Makes me want to see it, too.’

‘Someone’s here,’ Leo murmured.

Gavriel flicked his gaze to the door and felt his breath catch. Freath had just entered the queen’s chambers.

13

Freath knew he had only a minute or two. The queen was standing at the window, her back to him. He hoped she was lucid. Her grief and confusion had plunged her into such a state of silence and loss that most hours he could not reach her.

‘My queen, forgive me, but the crone of the Steppes comes. It was all I could do to keep her outside for but a minute more.’ He held his breath, only releasing it when he heard her beautiful, sad voice respond.

‘It is over, loyal Freath. You have done all you can. Let her and her son do what they will. There is no reason for me to take another breath.’

‘But, your majesty, think of Piven and —’

‘Piven is already lost. And from what you say he is a novelty for the barbarian. Perhaps that will save my little boy’s life.’ Her voice carried away thinly into the soft wind outside.

‘But there is Leo to live for, highness,’ Freath pressed, mindful of the seconds he had left.

‘Are you sure? Give me proof.’

‘I grow weary, Freath,’ called an ominous voice from behind the door.

‘Just making her presentable for you, Dara Negev. A moment more,’ he begged, quickly turning back to Iselda. ‘I have no proof, your majesty,’ he whispered across the room. ‘All I can say is that I believe he lives.’

‘Why?’

‘Genrie said that food she left out in the kitchen disappeared.’

‘Is he alone?’ she asked fearfully.

‘I feel sure Gavriel De Vis is still with him. Prepare yourself, majesty, she comes. Lose yourself if you must and say nothing. Pretend you hear nothing for I know she will take pleasure in punishing you.’

The Queen of Penraven turned and gave Freath a heartbreaking smile that arrived and left within a blink of an eye. ‘She can no longer hurt me. I don’t want to live, Freath. Do whatever you must do to preserve Leo. Don’t let me be used against him.’ Then she turned away.

Freath opened the door to be confronted by a slit-eyed Dara, the line of her mouth equally thin. ‘I’m sorry, Dara Negev. She is lost to us this hour — as she is most hours — but I have made her presentable for you. Please come in.’

Negev pushed past, strutting in, looking every bit like the fantailed farla hen with her bright array of coloured skirts peculiar to the people of the Steppes.

‘Ah, Iselda, we meet at last,’ she said, ignoring the royal title and any protocol. She laughed. ‘I’m sure Valya is actually looking forward to meeting you more than I but I am pleased to look upon the common slut that this kingdom once called its queen. And from Galinsea, no less. Pah! And they call us barbarians!’

Although Freath hid the wince he felt at the cruel words, he noticed his queen did not react at all to the baiting. She didn’t even turn from the opening through which she stared out mournfully across the Penravian vista. He moved to stand behind her.

‘As demented as her son!’ Negev spat.

The words of bait seemed to snap Iselda into the present and back into her normally dignified disposition. Finally straightening her shoulders, she turned to focus on the barbarian woman. ‘Perhaps, but from what I hear there still remains a Valisar heir at large. I believe he will one day return as a man to cut you and your barbarian spawn into pieces and serve you to the palace dogs … for that is all that you are worth, you hag. Go back to your beggared life while you still can.’ She glanced at Freath, pointing angrily at him and he realised what she planned to do, what she demanded of him. ‘I hope you burn in Lo’s pits for your treachery. Do your worst, traitor, for you can no longer hurt us. May King Leonel deliver your death in most hideous fashion,’ she said in a dark voice he never thought he’d hear from his beloved Queen Iselda. ‘I will not be used by the usurper for his cause or for his amusement.’ That was his cue. Freath closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, forcing back the sob that wanted to escape his throat, before he grabbed the back of the queen’s garments and, letting out a roar of anger, lifted her easily onto the ledge of the window and flung her out. She screamed lustily as she fell — no doubt for everyone else’s benefit, for her courage was never in question. He leaned against the wall near the opening, pretending to watch her hit the ground, but surreptitiously closing his eyes.
Let her die
immediately
, he beseeched Lo.