The Queen's Executioner

by Christopher Mitchell

‘You can use your powers to do that?’

  ‘I could,’ she said, ‘but I won’t need to. As soon as I get back to Rahain, I’m breaking him out.’

  Chapter 24

  Daphne, Vision Mage

  Rahain Capital, Rahain Republic – 2nd Day, Second Third Spring 505

  Killop had nothing to do but think about Keira, and imagine what the Rahain intended to do with her.

  The day before, she had been hauled in front of his cell for a second, brief, meeting.

  Whatever they had ordered her to do, she must have demanded that she be allowed to see him again, which meant, well, he didn’t know what it meant, but it couldn’t be good. She had looked exhausted but defiant, still insistent that she was going to escape, and that she would come for him when she did. Killop had barely time to say anything, before she had been dragged away again, her chains scraping against the ground.

  Apart from his sister, a few others had come to see him. Officers went by now and again to check he was all right, and a small number of well-dressed nobles had come to gawk.

  He had lost count of the number of days he had been imprisoned in the small, dark, windowless cell. When food was brought to him he ate, and when he was tired he slept, lying on a dirty, straw-filled mattress. The chains attached to his wrists and ankles had rubbed his skin raw, and then the healed tissue had been rubbed raw again, over and over. He still had scarring from his previous time in chains, and it would probably never fade. A single lamp in the passageway outside his cell provided the only light, its cold blue flame flickering through the bars.

  He heard the door at the end of the corridor open, and the guards outside the cell snapped their heels to attention. As footsteps grew nearer, Killop got to his feet.

  ‘Prisoner,’ a guard called through the bars. ‘Stand back, you have a visitor.’

  Killop rolled his shoulders, and waited.

  A man dressed in an officer’s uniform approached the bars from the left. He looked at Killop with a critical eye.

  ‘Have you come to say anything,’ Killop said, ‘or just stare like the others?’

  The man’s tongue flickered. ‘Tomorrow,’ he said, ‘I’m being posted to the Rakanese front, but before leaving the city, I wanted to lay eyes upon the slave that ruined my father.’

  ‘You are Likiat.’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘You captured my sister.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘A mistake.’

  Likiat frowned. ‘Looking at the ripples it set off, I might be inclined to agree. It was supposed to elevate my father. Instead it brought him low. Now he sits in mourning, wasting his tears on a dead slave and a captured savage.’

  ‘Your father’s a good man,’ Killop said.

  ‘He’s soft in the head and unfit to be a councillor,’ Likiat said. ‘He has proved that, by loving slaves.’

  Killop said nothing.

  ‘You will never leave this cell, do you know that?’ Likiat went on. ‘Have they told you that? Do you understand? You’ll be kept alive, but you’ll never leave.’

  He gestured to a guard, and strode back down the corridor, the door slamming shut behind him.

  That, Killop thought as he sat back down, was the longest conversation he had enjoyed in many days.

  He dreamed he was back in Kell. The land was empty of people, and the heavy grey clouds loomed over the wet grass and tumbling hills. Someone was looking for him. They called his name, but their voice was lost in the cold wind as it scoured the forsaken countryside. He was running, he realised, his feet stumbling over the rocks and turf that were barely visible in the fading light. Thunder rumbled through the bank of dark clouds.

  Killop! the voice cried again, and this time he recognised it. His heart pounded, and he stopped running.

  Killop, she said. You are dreaming.

  She appeared before him. She was standing on the grassy hillside, the wind blowing through her dark hair, her green eyes shining. He had never seen anything so beautiful.

  ‘You seem more real now,’ he said to her, ‘than when I dreamt of you before.’

  That’s because I’m in your mind, she smiled. I know I shouldn’t have entered without asking, but I need to speak with you.

  Killop laughed. ‘Are you dreaming too?’

  No, she replied. I’m standing about twenty yards from your cell.

  Killop woke with a start and sat up, sweating. His cell was silent, and dark, except for the faint blue light from the corridor. He shook his head. She had seemed so real, as if she had really been in his head.

  I’m still inside your head, Killop, she said, and he could hear the smile in her voice.

  ‘How are you doing this?’

  Using my mage skills, she said. I’m here to rescue you.

  He knew she wasn’t lying. Without any rational justification, he knew he could rely on her. A surge of emotions swept through him, surprise, anticipation, and the slow building of an animal longing for her, an ache in his heart. She was so close, so near. He imagined touching her…

  Stop, Killop, she said. I can’t concentrate when you feel like that.

  ‘Daphne,’ he whispered.

  Listen to me, she said. I need you to distract the two guards outside your door. Can you do that?

  ‘Aye.’

  I’ll be with you soon, Killop, she said. He felt her leave his mind, and the gap she left seemed enormous, as if part of himself had also gone.

  He rolled off the mattress and onto the stone floor.

  ‘Guards!’ he called out. ‘Help me! Help!’

  Within moments, two soldiers appeared in front of the bars, their crossbows slung over their shoulders.

  Killop clutched at his throat. ‘I’m choking, please help!’

  The two soldiers looked at each other, then there was a blur of movement behind them, and they fell, collapsing to the ground.

  In their place stood Daphne, dressed in black. She leaned a long wooden stave against the wall, and took a set of keys from a pocket.

  Killop pushed himself to his feet and waited, watching her as she fitted a key into the door of the cell. Her hair was tied back, and he noticed she was holding her left arm out, as if it were injured. He took in every detail of her face, she was just as beautiful as he had remembered from his dream. Nervous anticipation grew within him.

  The cell door swung open, and Daphne entered, reaching for another, smaller key. She crouched down, and unlocked the shackles from his ankles, as he stood motionless, his heart racing, and his desire for her growing more intense with every second. He felt her hand brush his leg as she stood up. He held out his hands, his eyes never leaving her, and she unlocked his right wrist, then his left. The chains fell to the floor with a clattering thud.

  She gazed up at him, and their eyes met for the first time since all those thirds before, back in Laodoc’s academy. He had never wanted anyone more than he wanted her at that moment, and his desire filled him, pushing out all other thoughts.

  He touched her face, his palm against her cheek, and with his other hand pulled her by the waist towards him. Her face tilted up, she closed her eyes and they kissed, while he held her body close to his. She put her arm around his neck. He tasted her, smelled her, drowned himself in her.

  Killop started to pull her clothes loose.

  ‘Ow!’ she yelled, as he tugged at her sleeve. ‘Careful with the arm,’ she whispered, but a smile was on her lips, and as she looked up at him he could see his desire mirrored in her own eyes.

  They kissed again, and pulled each other down onto the mattress.

  He held her close, while she rested her head on his chest, her hair tangled over him. He had never felt so alive. His mind was spinning. He kissed her. This was the woman he was meant to be with, he knew with a fierce certainty.

  ‘I love you, Daphne,’ he said. ‘I have since the moment I saw you.’

  ‘Me too,’ she whispered, smiling. ‘But we have to go.’

  He started to remem
ber where he was, where they were, lying in his dark cell, with the door wide open.

  She rolled off him, and started to gather her clothes. He watched as she pulled her black tunic over her left arm, which was encased in an armoured, close-fitting shell made of dark stone framed in metal. It ended at her wrist, and her left hand was bare, the fingers withered and twisted.

  ‘Old injury,’ she said, noticing his gaze as she finished dressing. ‘I usually keep the armour on to protect it. Does it bother you?’

  Killop shrugged. ‘It’s part of you.’

  She tied her hair back, and went to the door.

  He forced himself to stand, and got dressed.

  ‘How did you get here?’

  She shrugged as she glanced out of the door. ‘It’s what I’m good at,’ she said, stepping out into the corridor.

  Who was this woman? What did he really know about her? He stood in a daze, barely able to believe what had happened.

  ‘Help me,’ she called from the passageway, and he went out to find her dragging one of the soldiers towards the cell.

  ‘Are they dead?’ he asked, picking up the ankles of the other guard.

  ‘Just a little concussed,’ she said. They hauled the two guards into the cell, then stripped them of weapons. Each had a sword, which felt more like a long knife in Killop’s hands, and a crossbow.

  ‘Do you know how to work these?’ Daphne said.

  ‘Aye,’ he said. ‘Plenty of practice in the war.’

  ‘Take them both, then,’ she said. She fastened a scabbard across her left shoulder, and slung the sword over her back.

  ‘Do you have a plan?’ he asked.

  ‘Yes,’ she laughed. ‘Do you think I would have come without one?’

  ‘I don’t know what to think,’ he said. ‘I haven’t the first idea what’s going on. I feel like I’m dreaming. Who are you, Daphne?’

  ‘I’m a woman who loves you,’ she said. ‘But you’d better wake up quick, because I’m going to need you if we’re getting out of here alive.’

  They left the cell, and Daphne picked up the wooden stave from where she had placed it against the wall, spinning it in her right hand.

  ‘Ready?’ she asked.

  He nodded, and they started to walk towards the door at the end of the corridor.

  ‘Wait,’ he said.

  She turned.

  ‘The others,’ he whispered. ‘We can’t leave them.’

  ‘Of course not,’ she said. ‘We’re getting them out too.’

  They looked at each other in silence, in the blue flame of the corridor’s only lamp.

  ‘I’ll tell Kallie,’ he said, ‘once we’re free of here.’

  ‘What is she to you now?’

  ‘I care about her,’ Killop said. ‘She seems tough, but she’s vulnerable, and has been through a lot.’

  If Daphne was satisfied with this answer, she didn’t show it. She turned again, and they made their way in silence. Killop tried to clear his mind, but his emotions were in turmoil, and he didn’t know how he felt about Kallie at that moment. Did he love her? Part of him was relieved at the thought that their relationship was ending, but mostly he felt the heavy hand of guilt weighing down on him. He had betrayed her. He had abandoned himself to Daphne, for just a few precious minutes, but it was enough. He didn’t feel like the same man he had been an hour before. When he looked at Daphne, his heart soared, but it didn’t seem real. He groaned. If they managed to rescue Kallie, she would sense that something had changed, yet he didn’t regret a single moment.

  Daphne raised her hand for him to stop, and crouched down, to peer through the keyhole.

  ‘Two guards to the right of the door,’ she whispered. ‘Stay here.’

  She got back to her feet, tensed herself, then threw the door open. She leapt out, and swung her stave in a double arc. Killop heard two dull clangs, followed by the sound of bodies falling to the ground.

  He walked into the corridor, and saw Daphne standing over two unconscious guards, her stave twirling in her fingers.

  She smiled at him, then motioned for him to help her. They pulled the two soldiers back into the first passageway, took their swords, then closed the door.

  ‘This way,’ she said, as she led him to the left. There were blue-flamed lamps every ten yards or so, and they walked in silence down the stone corridor.

  ‘Not many guards tonight,’ she said. ‘Most are up in the city, dealing with the latest riot.’

  ‘There are riots?’

  ‘The peasants again,’ she said. ‘More being press-ganged into the army, and more shortages.’

  They paused when they came to a crossroads.

  ‘The way is clear,’ she whispered, and they set off again.

  ‘Can you see round corners?’ he said. ‘As well as enter people’s dreams?’

  ‘I’m a vision mage,’ she said.

  They came to a door, and she crouched by the keyhole.

  ‘Guardroom,’ she breathed. ‘Eight of them inside, sleeping.’

  They padded to the next door.

  ‘This is the one,’ she whispered, opening it. They went through into another corridor, this one short, and coming to a dead end ten yards ahead of them. Running down the walls were barred doors, three on each side. Daphne pulled out her set of keys.

  At the first door, Bridget sprang to her feet, and rushed over from her mattress.

  ‘What the fuck?’ she cried. ‘You two! I mean, what the fuck?’

  ‘Good to see you too, Bridget,’ Daphne smiled through the bars. ‘We’ve come to rescue you.’

  Killop heard a noise from the cell door behind him, and turned. Kallie was standing by the bars, looking sleepy and bemused.

  ‘Are we getting out of here?’ she asked.

  ‘Who’s there?’ came a voice from a third cell.

  ‘It’s Killop!’ Bridget said. ‘And Daphne, they’ve come for us.’

  ‘Daphne?’ Kallie said, peering through the bars into the darkness.

  Daphne found the right key, and the door swung open. Bridget ran through and jumped into Killop’s arms, a broad smile on her face, while Daphne moved down to Lacey’s cell.

  Killop laughed, and put Bridget down.

  ‘Here,’ he said, handing her one of the crossbows.

  ‘Fucking beauty,’ she grinned. ‘Armed at last.’

  ‘Hi, I’m Lacey,’ Killop heard the Lach woman say, as Daphne opened her door.

  ‘Hi Lacey, I’m Daphne.’

  ‘So I already heard,’ Lacey replied, stepping out into the corridor, and staring down at the Holdings woman. ‘You’re the one that Killop was dreaming about? What are you doing here? I notice you freed him first. Why? Did he make you come for us?’

  ‘Lacey, shut up!’ Bridget said. ‘We can argue this shit when we’re out of here.’

  Lacey looked from Daphne to Killop, a knowing smirk on her face.

  Daphne ignored her, and went to Kallie’s door.

  Kallie stepped back, waiting.

  As the door swung open, the corridor fell silent. Killop looked from woman to woman. Lacey had a slight scowl on her lips, while Bridget glanced at Kallie, her eyes wide.

  ‘Thank you, Daphne,’ Kallie said, as she came out.

  ‘Kallie,’ Daphne nodded. ‘Sword?’

  ‘Aye,’ she said, taking the offered weapon.

  Lacey held out her hand, and Killop passed her the other crossbow.

  ‘What’s the plan?’ said Bridget.

  ‘We’re getting out the same way I got in,’ Daphne said. ‘It’ll be a tight squeeze in places, but there are hidden tunnels and passageways riddling this part of the cavern. It’ll take us a few hours, and we’ll come out somewhere by the Tile Market, where I have a wagon waiting.’

  ‘And how do you know all this?’ Lacey said.

  ‘I have been over every inch of this tower, and all the tunnels that lie beneath it.’

  Lacey stepped closer to Daphne, and glared down at her. D
aphne looked small, surrounded by the three tall clanswomen, but stood her ground.

  ‘How?’ Lacey repeated.

  ‘I’m a mage,’ Daphne said, looking her in the eye. ‘I can see things.’

  ‘Kallie,’ Killop said. ‘Remember Kalayne? How he could see things that were far away? She can do the same.’

  ‘Kalayne?’ Daphne said.

  ‘A mage from Kell,’ Killop replied. ‘He has the same seeing powers as you.’

  Daphne crinkled her brows in confusion. ‘Wait,’ she said, ‘is he the one who can see into the future?’

  ‘Aye,’ Killop said. ‘How did you know that?’

  ‘He prophesises,’ Kallie said, staring at Daphne.

  Daphne held her stare. ‘I know about the prophecy,’ she said. ‘Kylon told me.’

  The atmosphere in the corridor froze. Bridget looked incredulous, Lacey sceptical.

  ‘You spoke to Kylon?’ Killop said. ‘Did you go into his dreams?’

  ‘No,’ she said. ‘I met him. He’s in the Rakanese city, protecting their mage leader.’

  ‘What the fuck’s he doing out there?’ Bridget cried.

  ‘Quiet,’ Killop said. ‘There are guards sleeping in the next room.’

  ‘There was another prophecy,’ said Lacey, frowning. ‘Kalayne said he had a vision of Kylon with the Rakanese, so Keira sent him off there, to save their mage from some catastrophe that’s supposed to happen. I thought it was stupid. We lost Kylon, Kalayne, and one of our best squads, all on some pointless mission. If Kalayne had still been there, Keira and I would never have been captured.’

  Killop noticed that Daphne and Kallie were still staring at each other, paying no attention to the others. Pyre’s bollocks. This wasn’t going to be easy.

  There was a sound from the main corridor outside, and Daphne’s attention snapped back to the door. She drew the sword from the scabbard on her back, and moved up the passageway.

  ‘Well done, Bridget,’ Lacey scowled.

  ‘Crossbows,’ Daphne whispered, pointing at Bridget and Lacey. ‘Cover me.’

  She stole to the door, peering through the crack.

  ‘Two of them,’ she breathed. ‘Come to see what the noise is about.’