The Lion of Senet (45 page)

PART SIX

THE DEATHBRINGER

Chapter 72

The second sun was well above the eastern horizon by the time Dirk Provin returned from wherever he’d disappeared to after that awful scene on the terrace. Tia still couldn’t believe what she had witnessed, still couldn’t come to terms with the fact that Johan Thorn was dead.

Hugging her throbbing hand to her chest, she paced the room impatiently as young Eryk, Dirk’s loyal, unquestioning servant, slept fitfully, curled up on the edge of the couch. She envied the boy his resilience. He’d been there, seen everything, yet he remained certain that his master knew what was best. If that meant murdering a man in cold blood, then so be it.

Reithan spent the intervening time examining the room in detail. He glanced at the books scattered on Dirk’s desk and spent an inordinate amount of time studying the chess game in progress on the small table near the unlit fire, seemingly uninterested in conversation. There was no point trying to escape. Dirk had taken the precaution of posting guards outside. He claimed it was for the sake of appearances, but Tia didn’t believe him.

At the sound of the door opening, Tia spun around to find Dirk stepping into the room, but his expression gave nothing away.

“Where have you been?” she demanded.

Dirk did not answer. He walked to the couch and squatted down beside Eryk, shaking the boy awake gently.

“Lord Dirk?”

“Are you all right, Eryk?”

“I’m a bit sleepy.”

Dirk smiled at the boy. “Well, you’d better wake up. I need you to pack some things for us.”

“Are we going thomewhere, Lord Dirk?”

“Yes. But just pack a small bag. We can only take what we can carry.”

Eryk nodded and slid off the couch, rubbing his eyes as he walked toward the other room.

“Going on a trip?” Reithan asked.

“With you.”

Tia laughed derisively. “Do you really think we’d have anything to do with you after what you did?”

“I want you to take me with you,” he told Reithan, quite deliberately ignoring her. “To Mil.”

“Are you insane?” she cried. “We’re not taking you anywhere near the Baenlands!”

“Then stay here and face Antonov’s wrath,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll find it on my own.”

She stared at him in disgust. “You’re unbelievable! First you kill Johan and then you expect us to betray our friends and family by taking you back to Mil with us!”

“I don’t think that’s what Dirk is after, Tia,” Reithan suggested thoughtfully.

Tia turned on him angrily. “Then what is he after, Reithan?”

Reithan didn’t answer her immediately. He studied Dirk for a long moment.

“Sanctuary, is my guess.”

Dirk met Reithan’s gaze without flinching.

“Something like that,” he agreed.

Reithan nodded. “It’s not going to be easy. Just getting out of the palace in one piece may be more than we can manage.”

“You let me worry about that. Will you take me to Mil?”

“Are you sure about this? Once you join us, there’s no going back. An empty belly and a few nights in the open, and Antonov’s court may not seem such a bad place to be.”

A fleeting smile flickered over Dirk’s lips. “Trust me, I’ll not change my mind.”

Reithan nodded. “Then, assuming we can get out of the palace in one piece, we need to get to Paislee.”

“Reithan!” Tia cried angrily. “Have you completely lost your mind?”

“Not completely.” Reithan turned to Dirk. “When do we leave?”

“Now,” Dirk replied.

Their escape from the palace itself was uneventful. With the sudden departure of the Queen of Dhevyn and her retinue, the palace was in chaos, and they were able to slip through the confusion with ease. Dirk made no attempt at stealth. He didn’t need to. He was well known in the palace and already the rumors about what had happened on the balcony outside Antonov’s study were beginning to surface. Some of the servants stared at him openly as they walked past, others scurried out of his way. He even ordered the guards to escort them, and then dismissed the men once they reached the stables.

Dirk ordered his mount saddled, and demanded two others for Tia and Reithan to ride. The grooms didn’t question his reasons; they simply hurried to obey.

“You can ride, can’t you?” Dirk asked Tia, as the groom led the saddled mounts toward them. One was a truly beautiful chestnut with a white star on its forehead; another was a mottled gray. The third was a smaller, much less impressive dun that Tia suspected was as docile as Dirk’s horse seemed spirited.

“A little,” she replied, eyeing the animals warily.

He looked at her. “Define ‘a little.’ ”

She glared at him defiantly. “Why didn’t you ask Reithan if he could ride?”

“So the answer is no.”

“I can manage.”

“With no experience and a wounded hand?” he asked skeptically.

“You just get me on the beast and let me worry about whether I can ride or not.”

Dirk shook his head but made no further comment. She allowed the groom to help her into the saddle and picked up the reins with her good hand.

Reithan rode up beside her with a frown. “Maybe I should lead the horse, Tia.”

“Maybe you should just concentrate on keeping an eye on your new best friend,” she suggested frostily.

Rolling his eyes with frustration, he clucked at his horse to get it moving and rode up beside Dirk where Eryk sat behind him, his arms wrapped tightly about his master’s waist. Tia repeated Reithan’s gesture, but the beast wouldn’t budge. Finally, she kicked it in the ribs and the dun moved off, following the others at a walk.
Why did we have to ride?
she thought in annoyance.
I can walk faster than this
.

Almost as if he heard her thought, Dirk halted his mount and waited for her to catch up with him.

“If we act like we’re supposed to be riding out of the palace, nobody should question us,” he explained. “Just keep your head up and don’t look anybody in the eye. If someone stops us, let me do the talking.”

“That’s your plan?” she asked scathingly. “If we look like we know what we’re doing, nobody will question us? I thought you were supposed to be the smart one?”

Without bothering to answer, he leaned over and grabbed her horse by the bridle and urged it forward. Tia held her throbbing hand to her chest, and amused herself by imagining any number of painful things she would like to do to Dirk Provin, starting with cutting the tongue out of that smart mouth of his with a blunt and rusty dagger.

They rode through the palace gates without incident. The soldiers on duty waved to Dirk, but didn’t challenge his right to leave or ask who his companions were. Tia glanced back at them as they rode down the wide, tree-lined boulevard that led to the palace from the city, wondering what the men were thinking. Did they wonder who she was? Were they thinking that Dirk was riding into town with some bit of fluff he’d been amusing himself with last night?

“I think we’ve got a problem,” Reithan said, glancing over his shoulder.

Dirk and Tia both turned and looked back toward the palace. The guards who had been so relaxed in their duties a few moments ago were suddenly rushing about, drawing the large wrought-iron gates closed. A mounted figure appeared behind the gates, riding a magnificent white gelding, accompanied by a full squad of Antonov’s personal guard. The rider stopped long enough to speak to the guard commander, and then waved the gates open again before they were fully closed.

“That’s Prince Kirshov,” Eryk said, sounding a little puzzled.

“What’s he doing?” Reithan asked.

Dirk didn’t answer for a moment. By the time he did, the gates were open far enough for Prince Kirshov and his guard to canter through the gap.

“Move it!” Dirk cried, startling Tia with his shout. He kicked his horse into a gallop, dragging hers along with him. Reithan galloped along on the other side as Tia clutched at the pommel, forgetting her damaged hand for a moment. She cried out in pain, but neither Dirk nor Reithan looked to see why. When she looked down, the cobbles rushed past her in a dizzying blur, and the sound of their pursuers drew closer. Clinging to the horse with her thighs, Tia closed her eyes, but discovered that was infinitely worse. She opened them again and risked a glance over her shoulder.

They were far enough away that Prince Kirshov might not recognize them, but Dirk was leaving nothing to chance. As soon as the curve of the road took them out of sight of the palace, he turned the horses sharply into a littered laneway between two shops and hauled both mounts to a halt. He jumped from the saddle and ran to the end of the lane, flattening himself against the wall as the young prince and his men rode past at a gallop.

Tia jumped to the ground to discover she was shaking like a sapling in an earthquake, her hand throbbing in time with her racing heartbeat.

Dirk sagged against the wall and turned to look at them. “Is everyone all right?”

“You think he’s after us, don’t you?”

“And they say I’m the clever one,” he muttered, pushing off the wall.

“But how did he know?...”

Dirk shrugged. “I suppose any one of the several hundred people who know that Rainan left on the
Calliope
this morning could have let it slip.”

“There’s no need to be sarcastic.”

“Come on,” he said wearily, as he walked back to his horse.

“Where do you suppose Kirshov is headed?” Reithan asked.

“The docks.”

“You think he’s heading for the
Calliope
?” Tia asked.

“Are you really descended from the smartest man that ever lived?”

“Don’t you take that tone with me, Dirk Provin. We don’t need you or your help. You can just leave us here. We’ll find our own way home.”

“Tia, let it go,” Reithan sighed wearily.

Dirk walked past her without further comment. When he reached Eryk, he bent down until he was eye to eye with the boy who was pale and trembling with fear. “Are you all right, Eryk?”

“Are we in trouble, Lord Dirk?”

“Something like that.”

“What are we going to do?”

Dirk glanced over his shoulder at Tia before he answered.

“We’re going to Mil.”

“The hell you are!” Tia called, fed up with his insistence on that insane idea.

“Keep your voice down!” Reithan hissed. “Do you want to wake up the whole damn city?”

“This charade has gone on long enough, Reithan!” she cried, albeit with much less volume. “We’re out of the palace now. We don’t need him anymore. And we’re not taking him anywhere near Mil! Tell him!”

“Yes we are,” he replied. “We’re in an enemy city, Tia. You’re wounded. We have little money, no food, very few friends and very soon it’s going to occur to the Prefect that we’ve escaped. Just how far do you think we’re going to get without help?”

“
Help?
Is that why he wants to go to Mil? To help us? More likely the Lion of Senet set him onto us, hoping we’d lead him to our people. I’ll bet the two of them staged that whole scene with Johan!”

Dirk glanced at Reithan before turning his back on her.

“Did you toss a coin with Barin Welacin to decide who got to chop my fingers off?” she called after him.

Eryk looked up at her with tear-filled eyes. “Why are you mad at Lord Dirk, Tia?”

“You wouldn’t understand, Eryk,” she tried to explain.

“But he saved my life ... heaps of times.” The child looked quite distraught.

“Don’t waste your breath, Eryk,” Dirk advised, with a look at Tia that spoke volumes.

“And now he’s saved your life, too, Tia. So why are you mad at him?”

Tia looked at Eryk for a moment, but couldn’t answer him. She turned to Reithan, her arms crossed defensively. “I don’t trust him.”

“That’s understandable,” he conceded. “But right now, he’s the best chance we’ve got, Tia.”

Dirk muttered something that sounded like a curse as he fetched their horses, who had wandered up the lane and were nosing around in the trash for vegetable remains thrown out by the tavern on their right. He gathered up the reins and led the horses back to where they were waiting.

“How did you get here, anyway?” he asked.

“We came by boat,” Reithan told him, far too readily in Tia’s opinion. “We landed in Paislee and traveled the rest of the way overland.”

He thought for a moment and then nodded. “So if we can get to Paislee, we can make it back to Mil from there?”

“Yes.”

“Then that’s what we’ll do.”

Reithan took the bridle of Tia’s horse and led it forward. He helped her mount, then swung into the saddle of his own horse. Dirk pulled Eryk up behind him and then, without asking her permission, took the reins of her horse and led them back out into the street.

“Are you a man of your word?” Reithan asked Dirk suddenly.

They had been riding in silence since they left the alley. They were several blocks from the palace, riding through Avacas as it came awake.

Dirk looked startled that anyone had spoken. “Why?”

“Because I need your word on something.”

He shrugged. “Very well. You have my word.”

Tia looked at him closely, but she couldn’t tell if Dirk was lying. Nor was she sure what Reithan was up to.

“We have to make a detour before we leave Avacas,” Reithan said.

“To where?”

“Chandler Street. There’s something there I need to collect.”

All their possessions, all Reithan’s gear, was still at Ivon’s house on Chandler Street. Tia wondered why Reithan didn’t just abandon it until she remembered that the marker proving ownership of the
Wanderer
was hidden among his gear. Without it, they would not be able to claim the boat back from the Brotherhood.

“Are you sure about this, Reithan?”

He glanced at her with a shrug. “We have to risk it. There’s no way to retrieve the
Wanderer
without that damn marker.”

Dirk shrugged. “If you need to make a detour, then we will.”

“And how do we know we can trust you?” Tia asked.

“You don’t,” he told her bluntly.

“The man who owns the house,” Reithan explained, with a frown in Tia’s direction. “He’s a corporal in Antonov’s Guard.”

“And he was helping you and Tia?”