The Shrinemaiden (The Maidens) (30 page)

“How?”

“He described the house, including the color of the gate and of the soaring eagle on top of the wall. I had never mentioned any of those to him. So I took a chance. I went to Nemar’s house and told him. Fortunately, Daken had not yet been entrusted with the names of any other people involved in the rebellion, and he could only relay so much back to his father. He thought that he could use me to learn more about the others involved, especially among the nobility and the military.”

“I heard the rest from Falen. Nemar used his thief friend to supply you with as much details about the safehouse as she was able to.”

Adelai nodded. “I asked Daken to do the same thing, except he gave me a different plan of the house. He re-assigned the guards’ positions and the placement of the rooms so that it was very different from what it actually was. If we had used it, the men would have been ambushed. I knew that they would plan to ship the girls out before that night, so Nemar and Shannika continued to keep sending spies out, and learned about the preparations to bring them to the slavers’ ships that afternoon instead. Now it was just a matter of keeping the earl and his son busy until that night, where everything would be accomplished without either of them knowing.”

Thornton’s hold on her tightened. “If we had been any slower, they could have hurt you. When I burst in and saw him with his hands around your neck, I was ready to kill him.”

“I’m okay now,” Adelai said quickly, sensing the fury that still lingered in his voice. “They don’t matter now, not anymore.”

“Do not belittle your own worth, my love.” He was still angry, but was mollified when her fingers caressed his face. “If any harm had befallen you, the earl would not be alive to enjoy his stay at the dungeons.”

“What’s going to happen now? Surely they cannot expect me to keep my contract with him.”

“Sevrigne’s household is in disarray at the moment, and his attack on you is enough to sever any contracts with him. Your priestess has already received word of this, and I imagine he and the General Kazer have been blacklisted by the temple for kidnapping young noblewomen. The Wolf has taken command of the situation. At present, all of the earl’s and the Jackal’s shrinemaidens are to be my responsibility, according to Priestess Saleia’s decree.”

Adelai sat up, staring down at him in amazement and hoping she had not heard him wrong. “You mean… I am to be…”

“Yes, my Adelai.” The captain grinned up at her, his eyes taking in the growing delight on hers. “It will only be a temporary arrangement, but it will do for now. Until you receive word again from your high priestess, you are to be taking up lodgings with me.”

He barely had time to finish before Adelai pounced him, wrapping her arms around his chest and burying her face there, so happy beyond words. “I do not know how long this can last, Adelai,” she heard him say, his hands at her hair. “But no matter what happens, you are mine, my little maiden.” He shifted her up so he could kiss her, hard.

“And I am yours,” he added quietly.

“It wasn’t very difficult,” Lady Shannika was telling Adelai, when the latter felt well enough to leave her rooms. The shrinemaiden had been embarrassed, feeling she had more than just overstayed her welcome, but the Silvermaiden was quick to disagree. “You’ve actually done me quite a favor,” she said, smiling. “All the businesses and assets the earl shared with my father have been given over to me to manage, pending his trial. If he is convicted, then all his estates fall to his next of kin - a young man I am acquainted with, nobler than his uncle had been. Should that happen, he has already agreed that I manage these on his behalf, an arrangement where we can both expect good profits.”

“He will be convicted,” Khalid grunted. A long, thin wound ran up the length of his forearm, the only sign he had ever participated in the raid, but he was clothed in a more conventional sense now, with a tunic and short breeches. He had also, Adelai had learned, spent some days in bed like she had. His grumblings about being confined had ceased since, Thornton had told her, Shannika decided to join him there.

“It’s not yet set in stone, Khalid,” Shannika told him. “The noblewomen he and Kazer kidnapped were daughters of houses who are not quite supporters of the king’s more recent policies - and the earl knew it. There is a good chance that the king might pardon him, even despite the uproar he could cause with such a decree. Fortunately for us, the two were greedy. They took girls from inns, the streets, and in some other households as well. If they had been satisfied with noblemen’s children the common people might have not cared as much. Now public outrage from both the poor and the rich grow with every passing hour.”

“It will be another reason to protest against him,” Thornton noted. “The people do not want another war, to be forced to serve in the army and risk death. Harvest season is coming, and their crops will be left to rot in the fields. The king has exhausted the coffers spending lavishly on himself rather than on the schools and irrigation he had promised. All are now aware of his eccentricities, and call it madness. The merchants do not want another war, for it has never been good for business. Only the rich who dabbled in slavery profited from the last one with Highrolfe, as costly as it was.”

“You’re welcome,” Khalid said, with a grim smile.

Thornton looked at him. “Both Sarcopia and Highrolfe suffered heavy losses, and the outcome did not change it,” he said quietly. “I am sorry that we had to conquer Highrolfe the way we did, and I am sorry that we started this as enemies. I am sorry that you had to be coerced into helping us now, even as we plot and plan against our own king. If the circumstances had been different, we could have been friends, I think.”

Khalid stared back, acknowledged the sincerity in the other man’s eyes. “If the circumstances had been different,” he finally admitted. “And in this matter I am not being forced into anything. There is something… someone… that I wish to protect.”

Small spots of color appeared on the Lady Maestre’s cheeks.

“How very touching,” a voice by the doorway said, though with lesser derision than the words conveyed. The Wolf strode into the room, followed closely behind by Kinlee who, like Khalid, no longer wore her slave clothes, but instead was in a plain woolen dress. The slave-general scowled at him, but General Falen paid him no notice. “Unfortunately, my cousin is very astute. I have just received word that both the earl and his son had been installed in cells at the Watch’s barracks, and are being treated with more courtesy and decency than I would have liked. I believe Kazer is enjoying the same kind of surroundings - whatever he can perceive from the remaining eye he can still see with, at least.” The bleak satisfaction in his voice gave no question as to who was responsible for the Jackal’s injuries.

“The king intends to wait out the waves of resentment from the people and quietly give them back their lands and their estates once the furor has died down.” Thornton said. “He has already been sent men to escort them back to the palace dungeons.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that,” the Wolf said.

“We need to act now, Connor.” Shannika said. “If you think that the king would give them comfortable rooms and treat them like guests rather than criminals, then it would be better to hand them over as soon as we can. We can spread the word that all three men are dining on fine wine and roast in their gilded prisons while many people whose daughters they had taken away can barely feed themselves.”

“I have people who are ready to disseminate that information at my signal,” Thornton said, “by the end of the week the people will be up in arms, and the king will not be able to wait.”

“I’m acting on information that putting them in the king’s hands would serve as a hindrance.” The Wolf retrieved several rolled up pieces of paper and placed them on the table. “There is more to what the earl has been letting on. His house provided more information on the slavery business he runs than what we had uncovered at Kazer’s - after I had my men take an ax to every conceivable wall, floorboard, and hiding place he might have.”

The Wolf, Adelai thought, was being true to his reputation.

“We might not have found the royal documents commanding assassins to kill King Belair, but we have found something else that will do just as well.”

Thornton had picked up one of the papers and unrolled it, and Lady Shannika did the same with another. The woman gasped, and the captain looked shocked. “What is it?” Adelai asked, and Thornton responded by placing the paper back on the table, face-up, so that all in the room could see the king’s own royal seal, red against the white of the parchment.

“The king knew all about what they were doing at that safehouse,” General Falen said. “Even worse - he was aiding them. This seal does not lie.”

“If we hand the men over to the king,” Adelai whispered, “then the king would only kill them, wouldn’t he?”

The Wolf nodded. “Stabbed in their cells would be my best guess. He’ll come out the hero, the people will love him for the justice he had meted out, however unconventional, and no one else will need to know about his hand in this. With his co-conspirators dead, he will be able to move against us without being compromised himself.”

“Then it was a good thing you found these, Connor,” Lady Shannika was pale. “If the king had taken the men, then everything we planned for would have amounted to nothing.”

Her cousin snorted. “I wish I could take more credit, but the bastard Kazer started bleating as soon as he realized we were going to turn him over to the king. He knew his life would not be worth a penny with Garrant, and so he started babbling about the documents Sevrigne possessed, even gave me directions to the few hiding places he was aware of. The thought of the Jackal inadvertently saving our skins, even if it was only to save his, makes my blood boil.”

“Then we have no choice,” Thornton conceded, “we’ll need to interrogate them, get them to implicate the king in their own words. To protect them is one thing, but to have collaborated with them in taking Sarcopian citizens against their will, is another.” A small smile appeared on his lips. “I think I will enjoy questioning the earl and his son.”

“As will I,” General Falen said, the same gleam in his eye, “with the Jackal.”

Lady Shannika sighed.

“What about us?” Kinlee asked quietly. The redhaired girl had said nothing all throughout the impromptu meeting, content to sit in her chair and listen to them. “What will happen to us?”

“I will not allow anything to happen to you, Kinlee,” the Wolf said sharply.

Kinlee shook her head. “If the king is aware of those who rebel against him, then he might seek to hurt any of you through us. But if you send us away, perhaps to Atalantea where we can seek refuge, then he will not be able to seek revenge.”

“I will protect you with my life, Kinlee. He will not be able to - ”

“You don’t understand. I don’t want you to have to give your life to protect me. The king could have other spies in the city, and he might attack you through us. I do not want to be protected if the possibility is seeing you dead because of it.”

Kinlee’s head was held high, stubborn. She refused to back down even under General Falen’s glare.

“She has a point, cousin,” Shannika said. “At least think about it.”

“I will stay here,” Adelai spoke up.

“No!” Thornton turned to her, angry. “The king will look for you. Belair can protect you in Atalantea - ”

“That the king will be looking for me is exactly the reason I must stay here.” Her own voice shook. “He will not have me killed - other kingdoms will be quick to rise against him if he did. But I am responsible for all this, his potential ruin. I’ve seen him enough times to know that he is a vindictive man. He will be more malleable if I remain in Arbentide, if he thinks I am at his mercy. I can be a distraction, if nothing else.”

“No!” Thornton took her shoulders, his voice desperate. “You do not know what kind of man he is, Adelai. I will not have you anywhere within distance of Garrant.”

“And risk the rebellion in the process?”

“Yes!” The truth cut through the air, sharper than knives. “You have sacrificed too much already on my behalf, Adelai. I will not have you suffer any more.”

Adelai lifted herself up on her tiptoes, kissed him in full view of the others. “My love,” she said gently, “You may be willing to risk the rebellion, but I will not. We’ve both come too far to stop now, dearest heart, and for better or for worse, we must see this through. He might be cruel, but he will not destroy me, Thornton. I promise you that.”

Thornton had no choice, and he knew it. Adelai could see it in his eyes - the fury, the struggle, and finally the quiet acceptance of her words. This time it was he who kissed her, barely hearing Shannika’s murmured words as she turned the conversation elsewhere, to give them what little privacy they could have, given the circumstance.

“So help me, Adelai,” he whispered, “You are more a patriot than I. But the gods help me - if you are wrong about the king, I will kill him myself.”

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Into the Den

The next two weeks were the best days Adelai had ever spent in Arbentide. True to his word, the Wolf released both her and Caera into Thornton’s custody, pending any further decision from the Temple of Inne-Anneah. A letter from Saleia herself had arrived the day after their conversation in Lady Maestre’s parlor, asking the captain of the guard to protect both girls.
They have every right to rest after everything that has transpired
, she had written.
In return for seeing to their welfare, I wish to offer you patronship for them both for the time being, without payment
.

The letter had elated Adelai. To offer someone patronship of a shrinemaiden was the same as enjoying a contract with her, which only the high priestess Saleia could endow on special cases. It required consent from both girls, and Caera, relieved to no longer be servicing the Jackal most nights, was only too happy to accept.