The Hedgewitch Queen
Page 40
“You should have let me have her,” I whispered. “You are responsible for this.”
He made no reply, merely thrashed and choked his last. And as they burst into the room, d’Orlaans’s Guard, I came up from my crouch and met the first few in a clash of steel and confusion. Everything now depended on secrecy, and speed, and how willing I was to kill.
I suffered no qualms. But they took me anyway—d’Orlaans, the king’s brother, had suspected me, and sent his dogs to yap at my heels. He had not sent them unarmed, either. Pieces of the puzzle fell into place when they unleashed the first jolt of Court sorcery, a spell meant to wound and disable an opponent.
So the King’s brother was a far better sorcerer than even I had guessed. It was hardly the first of my mistakes.
I could have screamed, the cheated howl of a wolf when the lamb is snatched from its teeth. Yet I did not, for the howl would have turned into her name, and that I could not allow.
I would not sully her name by speaking it here.
But I thought it. One word, encapsulating the bait for this trap, the lure I had taken unknowing, like any stupid caged falcon at the mercy of its instinct.
Vianne.
I fell into darkness, holding her name behind my lips. The beating they meted out to me was only kisses, after the tearing pain of knowing I had failed, the prize snatched from my grasp at the very last moment.
I was doomed.
* * *
Thief, liar, assassin, and whore. Tale-bearer, spy, extortionist, confidante, scandal-smoother. A knife in the dark, poison in a cup, a shield and a defense on the battlefield as well as in the glittering whirl of Court. Puppetmaster, spymaster, whoremaster, brutal thug, protocol handler, catspaw, pawn, troublemaker, cutthroat, fiend, pickpocket, swindler, brigand, pirate, kidnapper, alter ego, usurer, false witness…
This, then, is the Left Hand.
The Left Hand does what must be done to cement the hold of the monarch on the realm, to protect the king or queen we swear fealty to—even at the cost of our own lives. Even at the cost of our honor. There is only one word never applied to the Left Hand, only one thing a Left Hand has never been.
Traitor.
To be the Left Hand is to be the most trusted of a monarch’s subjects, a position of high honor though none will know your face or name. Most of a Hand’s work is done in shadow, and well it should be. The Hand does those things which are necessary, by blood or by leverage, the things a monarch cannot do. According to the secret archives in the Palais d’Arquitaine, the first of us was Anton di Halier, who created the office in the time of Jeliane de Courcy-Trimestin, the Widow Queen of Arquitaine who depended on Halier for her very life during the great wars, both internecine and domestic, of the Blood Years.
I find it amusing the first Left Hand spent his service under a Queen. Sometimes.
Books by Lilith Saintcrow
Dante Valentine Novels
Working for the Devil
Dead Man Rising
The Devil’s Right Hand
Saint City Sinners
To Hell and Back
Dante Valentine (omnibus)
Jill Kismet Novels
Night Shift
Hunter’s Prayer
Redemption Alley
Flesh Circus
Heaven’s Spite
Angel Town
As Lili St. Crow
Strange Angels
Betrayals
Jealousy
Reckoning
Copyright © 2011 by Lilith Saintcrow
Excerpt from The Bandit King copyright ©2012 by Lilith Saintcrow
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
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First e-book edition: December 2011
ISBN: 978-0-316-18778-7
Table of Contents
The Hedgwitch Queen
Welcome Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Map
The Lady
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
The Captain
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
The Bandit
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
The Traveler
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
The Queen
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Glossary
Extras: Meet the Author
Bonus Material: An Excerpt from The Bandit King
Books by Lilith Saintcrow
Orbit
Copyright