Rogue

by Robyn Wideman

  “They are right. This month’s profits are down. The price of ore is down right now, but that is seasonal, and I had them ship less. In two months the prices will start to rise, and we’ll ship more.”

  Lady Grant squeezed her daughter’s arm. “What would I do without you?”

  Jasmin laughed. “You ran this company for fifteen years without me. You’d do just fine.”

  “Perhaps,” Lady Grant said. “However, you have a nose for this stuff. I did what was necessary. I’ll be glad when you fully take over the company.”

  Jasmin was stunned. Take over the company? She’d never thought about doing that. She’d always thought her mother would run it forever. “Take over? Are you sure?”

  “Very sure. I’m tired, my dear. I don’t enjoy it. I’d much rather toil in my gardens, perhaps spend more time with Mr. Hauge.”

  Jasmin smiled. Mr. Hauge was mother’s latest suitor, and the only one in years with the persistence to weather her rejections long enough to become of interest. Jasmin liked Brett. He was kind and gentle and made a good companion for her mother. And unlike many of her mother’s suitors, Brett cared little for money. He wasn’t after her wealth. “I’m sure Brett would like to hear that. But what if I’m not ready?”

  Lady Grant laughed. “Don’t try and con an old lady. I know you have grand plans for the estate and can’t wait to expand.”

  Jasmin couldn’t deny it. She loved the company and making it grow was a dream of hers. The estate lands were vast and had unlimited potential beyond the current mining and lumber interests where they only received a portion of the profits. It was a steady income, but there were other areas they could develop. “Are you comfortable with my plans?”

  “I’m not even sure I know all of your plans anymore. But I have all the confidence in the world in you. So as of now, you are in charge. Proceed as you see fit.”

  Jasmin took a deep breath. It was one thing to have grand plans and dreams, but to be responsible was something else entirely. “Thank you, Mother. I won’t let you down.”

  Lady Grant hugged Jasmin. “It would be impossible for you to let me down. I’m so proud of the young woman you’ve become. Now promise me one thing.”

  “Anything, Mother.”

  “You’ll give one of my dresses to Lilly. That child will give me a heart attack one day. At least my dresses have a chance of keeping her contained.”

  Jasmin laughed and kissed her mother. “I promise.”

  5

  Yosef

  The body of Prince Jalen Drake sat on the cold stone table. King Drake hardly seemed to recognize him. The pale skin, the lack of a smile, even the way his hair was combed was wrong. But the body was definitely his son, despite how wrong it looked. “What do we know?”

  Yosef Rosa looked nervous. “Not much, my lord. Jalen was on a hunting expedition. That morning, one of his men went to wake the prince, thinking he’d overslept. But he never woke.”

  “Natural causes?” the king asked, already knowing the answer.

  “At first glance, it might appear that way,” said Octavios, the gray-bearded physician. “However, as you well know, this is the third suspicious death this year involving the throne. Your son was the last living heir to the throne and the two other young men who died would’ve been next in line. The likelihood of this being a natural death is extremely low. Your son was in fine physical health. That is why I took extra precautions when examining the body.”

  Yosef stared at Octavios. The old man had said nothing earlier about the cause of death. What the old man in his tattered gray robes said next would have a huge impact on the kingdom.

  Octavios stepped up to the stone table. He opened the mouth of Jalen Drake. He then turned to the king. “As I said, at first glance, there appears nothing amiss, but take a look at his tongue.”

  The king leaned in and examined his son. “It’s white and speckled, blotchy-looking.”

  “Yes, and the inside of his mouth is gray. You son was poisoned.”

  The king closed his son’s mouth and leaned down, touching his son’s forehead. “Sleep well, my son. May the gods bring you to their sides.” The king stood and turned. His eyes glistened with moisture but his mouth was tight with anger. “We have an enemy in the kingdom.”

  “Yes,” said the physician. “But who or why is a mystery. The poison could’ve been administered at any time in the last few days before he died. That means anyone who was in the palace—and that was the night of the ball. There were hundreds of guests in the palace, along with normal staff and additional guards. And the prince’s travel party stopped several times at taverns before they went into the mountains. There is no telling who had access to his food.”

  “Yes, and it was the same with the others. No evidence of who the killer might be,” the king said, clearly frustrated.

  Yosef sighed heavily. “I’m afraid so. However, until they make another move, I don’t know what we can do. None of the deaths were witnessed. No one has made a new claim for the throne, and none of the nearby kingdoms seem to be amassing troops. Perhaps one of our neighbors is behind it and wants to take our kingdom, but so far there is no evidence to support that theory. It could be someone within the kingdom wanting to break the kingdom apart, but again, we haven’t seen or heard anything to support that theory either. We are grasping at straws. Whoever is behind the death of your family members has made no mistakes thus far.”

  “And they know my days are numbered,” the king said. “Regardless of who is behind it, we know they have eyes and ears in the castle. Continue to investigate everyone and report anything even remotely suspicious or out of character. In the meantime, we must deal with the problem of an heir to the throne. Our enemies might not be behind the death of my Jalen, but they will be like wolves at the door once word spreads that we have no future ruler.”

  “What would you have us do, my lord?” Yosef Rosa asked.

  “Find an heir. Go through every genealogy report we have. My family’s bloodlines are long. Surely there is a branch of the family that hasn’t ended. By the laws of the land, all they need is to be under forty years of age and a blood relative. They can be an eighth cousin; as long as there is a sniff of the royal bloodlines, it will suffice. We must not allow the kingdom to descend into chaos.”

  “I’ll meet you in your study, my lord. The library archives will have all of those records, however obscure.”

  King Drake touched his son’s cold body and shivered.

  As Yosef watched the king, he could feel the man’s pain. Not only for his dead son, but for the kingdom that was being threatened by an unknown enemy. Who was behind this? What could they do to stop it?

  ...

  Yosef entered the great library and found Master Kent. The librarian had a bundle of parchments prepared for him. “You know why I’m here?”

  Master Kent nodded. “As soon as we received word of the prince’s death, I got to work. I’ve found two possible heirs. One lives in the Kingdom of Jorra and the other in Riverside.”

  “Riverside? Where is that?” Yosef asked.

  “A village in the far west, right on the border with Vaton.”

  Yosef grunted with dissatisfaction. Two possible heirs, one living in a neighboring kingdom, the other on the border of another. Both could have ties to their enemies. Both would need to be brought the capital for protection. “What else do we know?”

  “The younger of the two is the one in Jorra. Son of the king’s third cousin, Lady Bernice Clott. She is in regular contact with the king, as she receives a royal purse each year, but she’s too old and too frail to leave Jorra. The other is the descendant of Gabriel Grant, a second cousin to the king. There is no record of a royal purse for the Grant child.”

  Yosef frowned. That was strange. Every member of the royal bloodlines was given financial support. Why wasn’t the Grant child? “Thank you, Master Kent.” He needed to return to the king with the news. There was a chance to save the kingdom from
chaos after all. Two chances, in fact, unless they too had been murdered. For the benefit of the kingdom, Yosef hoped no one else knew about the missing royal family members.

  6

  Rogue

  Rogue studied the strangers’ camp with practiced ease. He’d picked up their tracks the previous day and had followed them on a hunch. Two men riding high-quality horses, circling around the Grant estate but never getting close to it. The camp showed that the men were making every effort to avoid notice. Not the behavior of honest men.

  The quality of the horses he could tell from their long, smooth strides. Both animals had been recently shod. In and of themselves, these details meant little, but with the behavior of their riders, a story began to unfold for Rogue. One that needed further study. When the tracks of the riders left the camp, heading towards Riverside, he followed.

  It was obvious that the men were not familiar with the territory. The path they took was winding and poor compared to several other options known to the locals. Nor did the strange path give them the most cover, so it wasn’t intentional. This wouldn’t bother Rogue normally, but the fact that they’d spent so much time circling the Grant estate before heading in the general direction of Riverside was strange. Had Lady Grant enemies? Or had she hired men to protect her interests, men who were just learning the territory? Lady Grant was by far the richest person in western Deytar, but the vast majority of her wealth was in land, not in coin. The last few years had been fruitful for the Grant family. The mines and lumber industry were doing rather well and she was bringing in respectable coin, so her being a target for thieves or hiring protection against that threat were both logical possibilities.

  As Rogue entered town, the riders’ tracks were lost in the muddle of everyday traffic along the busy village’s main road. However, Rogue wasn’t worried. Riverside was a busy village with plenty of strange men, but this was a weekday, and most working men who weren’t from the village were at the mines or logging camps. Rogue headed to the first of the three liveries in the village. Examining the horses in the stable, he saw no animals that matched up with the tracks he’d found in the mountains. He went to the second livery. There he spotted the pair of horses. Rogue walked up to the stable and examined the first horse, a long-legged bay mare. He checked the hooves and found them recently shod. He didn’t bother looking at the other horse. He knew it would be the same. These were the two animals he’d been tracking.

  Rogue found the stable master, a crotchety old man named Quinton. “Two riders come into town in the last day or two?” Rogue glanced over his shoulder, indicating the bay.

  Quinton pulled the bit of straw out of his mouth. “They came in yesterday. Paid for a week, but said to keep both animals close by and to be fed oats. Didn’t sound like they planned on sticking around long. Couple of real salty-looking characters. I didn’t see where they headed, but I didn’t want to know either, if you know what I mean.”

  Rogue nodded. “Thanks, Quinton. Mind giving my stallion a rub down and a handful of oats? I might need to leave town in a hurry too.”

  Quinton tilted his head as he examined Rogue’s horse. “That is one ugly sumbitch. Only you’d ride a hammerhead roan like that. I suppose he’s a biter.”

  Rogue nodded. The stallion was cantankerous, there was no doubt. But the beast was the best mountain horse Rogue had ever seen. “Yes, be careful on his right side. He likes to pretend he’s going to bring his head down to his front hoof and then he bites at your leg.”

  “I figured as much.”

  Rogue handed Quinton a pair of copper coins, twice the normal rate. “For your troubles.”

  Quinton pocketed the coins. “Be careful, Rogue. Those men aren’t the normal loud-mouth miners you’re used to dealing with in Riverside. These are the real deal.”

  Rogue nodded. Quinton was the kind of man who had been over the mountain more than once and knew what he was talking about. Leaving the old stable master to deal with the stallion, Rogue headed up the street.

  ...

  Going over her notes, Jasmin couldn’t help but smile. Her first project was going to be an interesting one. Lake Horton was one of the largest bodies of water in all of Western Deytar, and it was only accessible from Grant lands. The lake was also teeming with corta fish. The large fish—averaging over twenty pounds apiece—were considered one of the tastiest of the freshwater fish, and in high demand in the cities. Lake Horton was filled to the brim with corta fish.

  Jasmin was going to establish a fishing camp on the lake and sell them to the larger cities in Deytar and Vaton. She’d also sell to the traders who traveled from Deytar into Vaton and Chambia. The kingdoms of Jorra and Mure were too far away to bother with. But between the villages and cities within a week’s travel, the potential market for the fish was huge.

  The first step was hiring men to build a proper camp. She’d already organized for wood and supplies to be sent to the location of her camp, and she had an old hunter who kept the Grant estate lands clear of predator animals who was excited to become the leader of the fishing camp.

  Kent White was the first person on Jasmin’s list of those to visit. An excellent carpenter, Kent was the perfect person to build the camp and the fishing boats. After putting her notes on the desk, Jasmin left the office and headed into Riverside to meet with Kent. It was over a mile to town and normally she would’ve ridden in, but it was a beautiful day and she wanted to enjoy it. She had plenty of time to get to Riverside and her scheduled meeting.

  As she walked, Jasmin’s mind was buzzing with ideas. There were thousands of acres of land in the Grant estate, and while a significant portion of them were forested and mountainous, there were plenty of sections of fertile land that could be developed into farmland or grazing land. The mining camps and lumber camps had grown to the point where basic food supplies were being brought in. The local farms simply couldn’t keep up with the increased demand. By developing farmland, they’d diversify their income while reducing costs at the mines and the lumber camps.

  So caught up was she in her plans that Jasmin never noticed the two men watching her, and when she walked by the alley between the merchant’s store and the diner, Jasmin felt a hard bump and stumbled into the alley.

  Jasmin’s head popped up in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you.” She mistakenly thought she’d bumped into the man.

  The man shoved her again, this time sending her to the ground. She looked at the man in shock as a second man joined them in the alley.

  Jasmin frowned. What was going on? The grim looks on the strangers’ faces sent a rush of fear into her. Her heart pounded. She knew something bad was about to happen. Crawling backward, she tried to escape, but the alley was narrow and had only one exit. The men had picked a perfect ambush spot.

  “You are Jasmin Grant, daughter of the late Gabriel Grant?” asked one of the men.

  Jasmin was too afraid to answer. “Who are you? What do you want?” She tried to get to her feet, but the first man pushed her back down.

  “Answer the question. Are you Jasmin Grant?”

  From behind her came another voice, low and menacing. “It isn’t nice to push around young ladies.” There was something about the voice that she thought she recognized, but her brain wasn’t registering where she remembered it from. She was too confused by the situation.

  The two men looked past Jasmin into the deep shadows of the alley, squinting as if it would help them see into the shadows better. They drew their swords. “Who’s there?” said the man who’d pushed her into the alley.

  “I want to talk to you two alone,” said the voice. “Let the girl.”

  “Kill her and be done with it,” hissed the second man. The first one nodded and stepped towards Jasmin, his sword raised.

  Jasmin scurried backward like a crab, moving as fast as she could, trying to get away from the two men.

  As the first man tried to impale her with his sword, a shadow crossed in front of her, blocking his
strike. The man made a low grunting sound and stepped back, holding his side.

  The second man rushed forward, trying to attack the man who’d stepped out of the shadows. But Jasmin’s new protector pushed the first man back into the second one, sending them both to the ground. The man from the shadows flicked his sword and casually sliced the throat of the second man as he attempted to get up. He then sat on the chest of the first man and leaned down towards the man’s face. He whispered something to the man, who cried out in agony. The man from the shadows pushed against the other man’s wounded chest and again whispered something in his ear. The man shook his head and yelled, “I don’t know who! We only received a contract telling us who she is and where to find her. I don’t know who ordered it.”

  The man from the shadows cut the throat of the would-be assassin and then stood up. He glanced back at Jasmin, then turned and walked out of the alley.

  When she saw who it was, Jasmin was in shock. Never in her life had she ever imagined such a horrifying situation. Assassins looking to kill her? And the man who’d helped her could’ve easily been the one attacking her, his reputation was that black.

  That the assassins had been hired to kill her seemed surreal. Who in the world would hold a grudge against her? But the men—they’d known who she was and where to find her. And her protector—Rogue—had he known what was about to happen? Why else would he have been lurking in the shadows of a dead-end alley? He had murdered those men in cold blood. Had he done it to save her, or did he have his own reasons? Why would he take an interest in her? And why hadn’t he stuck around?

  Jasmin picked herself up and scurried past the two dead bodies. As she exited the alley, Jasmin looked around. Her protector was gone. And no one on the streets had even noticed what had happened. She glanced around, unsure what to do. The threat was gone, but her body was still shaking from fear. She should go home—but then she remembered her appointment. She was late. Instead of running home, she turned and continued up the street to meet with Kent White. Part of her argued that it was crazy to go to the meeting now, but logic wasn’t running her mind at this point. Her instincts pushed her forward towards her meeting. Business could take her mind off of what had just happened. She would need time to figure things out. Talking about fish with Kent White seemed far easier than going home and explaining the attack.