Angel's Deceit (Angelwar Book 2)

by A. J. Grimmelhaus

  What am I waiting for? Rachel asked herself. A sign? Proof?

  ‘Aren’t you interested in Kraven’s purpose here?’ Rachel asked Suranna.

  ‘Or course,’ Suranna replied. ‘That’s why we’re here, isn't it? Ask him.’

  ‘And if Kraven refuses to talk to us? He should be on the Spur by now; the city’s all but empty of knights, so why is Kraven still here?’

  ‘How can you doubt him? An angel chose him – surely you would not doubt an angel?’

  ‘But how well does she know him?’ Rachel asked quietly. ‘They could not have spent more than a day or two together – what if the angel misjudged him?’ She laid her hand gently on Suranna’s shoulder and looked into the woman’s eyes. ‘I want to believe, Suranna, truly I do, but we swore a vow to make sure Kraven holds to his. We must be sure of his intentions.’

  ‘You promised me you were here to help him.’

  ‘I spoke the truth. As long as Kraven holds to his vow, my sisters and I will do everything in our power to aid him. But should he waver, should he turn traitor, then he is an enemy of the church.’

  ‘You’re wrong about him,’ Suranna pressed. ‘See?’ she said as they saw the inn’s door open and two figures step out. ‘That’s one of the Knights Reve. He came to our aid when the city watch questioned us.’

  The four figures down the street spoke briefly, and continued their course north away from the watching Sisterguard, but not before Rachel saw the fourth member of their party. ‘Barely a knight, that one. We met him in Kron Vulder as we stood against the watch. That, Suranna, is Kartane.’

  The low gasp of surprise from behind as Rachel stepped out of the shadows into the street told her that even the Meracians had heard of Kartane. Who hasn’t? she thought.

  Rachel kept the Sisterguard at a discreet distance from Kraven and his companions as they wove their way through the late afternoon crowds. Where are they going? she wondered as Kraven led them towards the city’s outskirts. The rich central district lurked to their right beyond the river, and Kraven soon left the more affluent central area of the western district behind, mercantile establishments and respectable inns giving way to the homes of the poor, and cracked, poorly-painted inns where Rachel thought no sensible woman would ever tread.

  Suranna had at last fallen silent, the Meracian noblewoman probably wondering whether she had made a mistake in trusting the Sisterguard. I hope not, Rachel thought, feeling a knot deep in her belly. Kraven looked worn and tired, but the presence of Kartane and a man who looked just as dangerous was an ominous sign. If the boy’s turned traitor, it won’t be easy. His female companion, tall and broad-shouldered, looked like she knew one end of a sword from another, and Rachel found herself wondering whether the Sisterguard could deliver the church’s justice before Kraven’s three companions intervened. She drew her cloak tighter, hoping that she was wrong, hoping that Kraven hadn’t fallen prey to his traitorous blood. A small hope, that.

  ‘Where are they going?’ she muttered, drawing her little party to a halt as the city gates came into view.

  ‘Fleeing,’ Morafin said as she watched Kraven and his companions pass the gate guards and leave the city behind.

  ‘But where though? Why come all this way and then leave the city behind?’

  ‘What do we do?’ Bruna asked. Morafin sometimes argued Rachel’s decisions, but Bruna had never doubted her for a moment. She would follow me to the Pit. Rachel flashed her friend a smile. ‘We follow them. I think it’s time we asked Kraven what he’s up to.’

  *

  ‘You need to be alive to get the glory.’

  ‘I’ll manage,’ Tol assured her. ‘Once we make it out of the city I can call her.’

  ‘The angel,’ Vixen snorted. ‘And what if she doesn’t answer, what then?’

  ‘Then the three of us and Kartane will have to be enough.’

  ‘Kartane?’ Vixen’s eyebrows knotted together. ‘Where have I heard that name before?’

  ‘He got in some bother a few years ago,’ Tol said awkwardly as the Badger’s door opened. ‘Some kind of, ah, indiscretion.’

  A rich laugh followed Stetch out of the inn. ‘Indiscretion?’ Kartane chuckled. ‘Never heard it put like that before.’ His gaze roved over Vixen, lingering on her chest. ‘Duke Tirian caught me in bed with his sister.’

  Vixen paled. ‘You’re that Kartane?’

  He grinned wolfishly and turned his attention to Tol. ‘Who’s your friend?’

  Tol introduced the pair quickly. ‘I need your help,’ he told the former knight.

  Kartane nodded. ‘Chatty told me. Time’s a-wasting.’

  Stetch led the way as the four worked their way through High Mera’s streets. Tol told Kartane about Lord Calderon’s message and the knight’s face darkened as the implications sank in.

  ‘We know where the boy is?’

  ‘Royal hunting grounds,’ Tol said, his breathing fast and shallow as their pace took its toll on him. ‘Katarina’s sister might be with him.’

  ‘That’s why Chatty’s so tense. Damn near drew on me when I tried to finish my drink.’

  ‘He thinks there could be a dozen of them. Even if the bodyguards take out a couple that still leaves—’

  ‘Plenty for us,’ Kartane finished. ‘But you don’t look so well, boy. You get in trouble after we split up last night?’

  ‘Something called hanwell root,’ Vixen chimed in. ‘And trust me, he looked a lot worse earlier.’

  ‘Hanwell root?’ Kartane said quietly. ‘Well, well, boy, aren’t you a surprise. Knew a man poisoned that way once – left him a gibbering wreck.’ He thumped Tol on the back. ‘Still, you weren’t that smart to begin with, so that’s probably why you’re still with us, isn’t it?’

  He asked the question innocently enough, but Tol saw the suspicion in Kartane’s beady eyes. He knows, Tol realised. He knows how lethal it is and that I shouldn’t be alive, let alone upright and talking. ‘It’s complicated,’ he mumbled.

  ‘Aye, I figured.’

  They travelled in silence after that, finally leaving High Mera as the orange smear of sundown blossomed to their left. A hundred yards along the road, the four veered off and covered another few hundred yards before Stetch brought them to a halt, the city walls at their backs and the first tall trees of the forest looming ahead of them. He gave Tol a hard look. ‘Now.’

  Tol turned his head skyward. ‘Kalashadria,’ he shouted. The exertion brought a cough, and he had to take a few breaths to steady himself before continuing. With Kartane and Vixen flanking him and Stetch facing him, Tol felt embarrassed. Before, he had always been alone when he had tried to contact Kalashadria, but this time it was different. Feels like they’re watching me pray.

  ‘That it?’ Kartane asked. He sounded disappointed.

  Tol didn’t dare use the angel’s full name. It was bad enough that the three people with him knew her first name; for any of them to learn Kalashadria’s full name could spell danger for the angel.

  ‘Kalashadria,’ Tol shouted again. Alimarcus will hear, he told himself. I don’t need to use her full name. ‘It’s me, Tol.’ Now I feel like a fool. ‘I need your help.’ Tol kept his head craned to the sky and quickly outlined the discovered plot against the royal family. ‘They’re somewhere north-west in a forest,’ he shouted, his voice getting more hoarse by the moment. ‘I’m going there now, but it may already be too late.’ Tol took one last breath. ‘Please. I know it’s dangerous, but if you can, I need your help.’

  Tol lowered his head, working a kink out of his neck as Stetch eyed him carefully. ‘She’ll come,’ Tol told the man.

  Stetch just grunted. His eyes flitted over Tol’s shoulder, gaze narrowing. ‘Company.’

  Tol turned back the way they had come. Four women were hurrying across the open ground towards them, all clad in light grey cloaks.

  ‘Sir Tol!’

  He recognised a breathless Suranna first, and a grunt from Vixen on his right confirmed t
hat she too recognised the Meracian noble. Stetch appeared on Vixen’s right, one hand already on his sword as the four women approached.

  ‘I know them,’ Tol said as he recognised the other three women.

  ‘Nuns,’ Kartane said, his voice halfway between wonder and lechery. ‘They fought with us in Kron Vulder.’

  ‘They call themselves the Sisterguard,’ Tol said as the nuns came to a halt in front of him, Suranna puffing along in their wake with a peculiar expression on her face.

  ‘We need answers, Kraven,’ Rachel said. ‘Where is the Truth? We know that’s what Mother Beatrice gave you.’

  ‘Hello, Rachel. What are you doing here?’

  ‘The Truth, Kraven. Where is it, and what are you doing here?’

  ‘It’s safe. I can’t tell you more.’

  Suranna slewed to a halt alongside the others. ‘They think…’

  Tol glanced at her as one of the nuns – Tol recognised her as Sir Brounhalk’s sister – stepped past Rachel, an earnest expression on her face.

  ‘…you betrayed…’

  Tol’s attention snapped back to Suranna. Something’s wrong, he realised as the noblewoman struggled to speak.

  ‘…the church,’ Suranna finished as Brounhalk’s sister took a second step forward. Her face twisted into a mask of anguish as she lunged forward and buried a dagger in Tol’s chest.

  ‘Traitor!’

  42.

  Tol’s mind was still processing Suranna’s words as the dagger lanced at his chest, but years of fighting students in Icepeak’s frozen grounds had honed his instincts. His right arm moved automatically across his body as he twisted his left shoulder back to avoid the blow. His palm connected with the nun’s forearm as the dagger struck, missing his heart and sinking partway into the meat of his upper chest just below the shoulder. Something fizzed across his vision as the pain blossomed.

  ‘Morafin!’ he heard someone shout as Vixen buried a dagger in the nun’s neck. Tol stumbled backwards as the nun dropped to the ground.

  Betray the church? Tol thought as he gasped with pain. Stetch and Kartane already had swords in their hands, and Tol saw the look of horror on Suranna’s face as Rachel’s large friend reached for her own weapon. Why would they think that?

  ‘Stop,’ he groaned as Vixen’s sword slid free from it’s sheath. ‘Wait!’ He lunged forward, and grabbed Vixen’s sword arm.

  ‘Don’t get soft because they’re women,’ his friend snapped. ‘We can’t leave them at our backs.’

  Rachel stood in front of him, whitened fingers gripping her sword. It was still sheathed, Tol noticed as he met her gaze. She looks surprised, he realised. He looked down at Brounhalk’s sister, blood already pooling on the grass around her neck. She was the one who tried to kill me at the convent. From the expression on Rachel’s face, the attempted assassination hadn’t been part of the plan. But, Tol realised as his friends stood stirred beside him, they thought it might come to that.

  The big nun shifted her weight, and Tol sensed he only had moments before she tried to seize the advantage and strike first. ‘I serve the church,’ he said quickly, relieved that – at least for the moment – the heavyset woman stilled herself. Tol searched Rachel’s face. ‘She acted too soon, didn’t she? You think I’ve broken my vow, but you wanted to be sure.’ He drew in a ragged breath. ‘You made a mistake.’

  Rachel’s fingers slid from her sword hilt. ‘Prove it. All the knights have already gone to the Spur, but you’re here instead of with the others.’

  Kartane coughed. ‘I’m a knight, and I’m here.’

  Rachel spared him a cool glance. ‘Not much of a knight.’ She returned her attention to Tol. ‘We both swore a vow, Kraven, and it looks like you are running. Again.’

  ‘Don’t have time for this,’ Stetch said. ‘Kill them and let’s go.’

  ‘We’re trying to save the church,’ Tol said, ‘and if we don’t go now it will be too late. You want to keep your vow? Then help me, come with us and stop what’s about to happen.’

  Rachel hesitated. ‘I need answers first. What have you done with the Truth?’

  ‘I already told you: the Truth is safe, but I can’t tell you where it is without revealing one of the secrets within the book.’

  Rachel turned reluctantly to Kartane. ‘We fought beside you in Kron Vulder. Is Kraven telling the truth?’

  ‘Yes,’ Kartane growled.

  Rachel looked to the remaining nun and got an answering nod. ‘We’re with you,’ she told Tol.

  ‘About fucking time,’ Stetch grunted. He slammed his sword back into its scabbard and stalked off into the trees.

  ‘I’m coming too,’ Suranna said.

  ‘We’re outnumbered,’ Tol told her. ‘It’s going to be dangerous.’

  Suranna shrugged. ‘Then you’ll need all the help you can get. Sir Tol… I’m sorry about,’ she gestured at the nun on the ground, ‘that.’

  Tol nodded, unsure what to say. He wrapped his fingers around the hilt of the dagger still stuck in the top of his chest, and yanked it out with a gasp. ‘Let’s go,’ he told the others. ‘Stetch won’t wait for us.’

  ‘What about Morafin?’ Rachel asked, peering at the nun’s prone body, the pool around her slowly spreading.

  ‘Leave her,’ Vixen said, ‘she’ll bleed out soon enough.’

  ‘How about you, boy?’ Kartane asked. ‘How bad’s that wound?’ The knight spun Tol around easily, parting the fabric of his ripped tunic and peering through at the dagger’s entry point. ‘Hold still,’ Kartane told him, poking a finger through the fabric before Tol could object. Tol groaned through his teeth as Kartane probed the flesh around the wound. Tol felt Kartane’s finger trace a faint weal above the wound, a souvenir from his battle with the demon in Norve. Kartane grunted, apparently satisfied, and withdrew his finger.

  ‘Doesn’t look too deep,’ he said. Kartane wiped his hand on his trousers. ‘Missed anything vital. You’ll live, I reckon – least till the next battle.’ He looked round at the four women surrounding them. ‘You still here? Catch up with Chatty and tell him we’re on our way. We’ll be right behind you.’ Kartane gave Tol a strange look as the women headed after Stetch. ‘Come on, we’ve got a ways to go yet.’

  Tol turned towards the forest, the sudden spin causing a brief wave of dizziness and drawing a sigh from Kartane. The knight came round to Tol’s right. He lifted Tol’s arm and draped it over his shoulder. ‘Lean on me, lad.’

  ‘I can manage!’

  ‘Never said you couldn’t,’ Kartane said, ‘just thought you might like to save your strength for what’s coming. Ain’t you learned anything since we met?’

  Tol bit back a curse and let the knight bear some of his weight. ‘Lead on,’ he mumbled.

  ‘About time you grew some sense,’ Kartane said as he started off after Stetch and the others, Tol lumbering along beside him.

  ‘Nasty looking sword wound in your shoulder,’ Kartane said as they approached the first trees, ‘where did you pick that up?’

  Tol stumbled, and Kartane steadied him. Damn it, Tol thought. For a moment, he had thought Kartane wouldn’t ask about the fresh scar. ‘Demon.’

  ‘Looks deep.’

  ‘It went right through,’ Tol said. ‘Pinned me to a tree.’

  ‘Careless of you.’

  ‘You ever fight a demon?’ Tol snapped.

  Kartane laughed. ‘I ain’t that stupid.’ They passed under the high branches of the first trees, the others a hundred yards ahead. From what Tol could see, Vixen was arguing with Stetch and trying to convince him to wait for Tol and Kartane. That girl’s going to get herself in trouble arguing with Stetch when he’s this mad.

  ‘That wound healed pretty quick, considering it’s less than two weeks old.’

  Tol didn’t reply.

  ‘And now you’ve gone and recovered from hanwell root, too,’ Kartane continued. ‘Folk might call it a miracle.’

  ‘Just lucky, I guess.’

&n
bsp; ‘Me and you know better than that though, don’t we,’ Kartane continued, ignoring Tol’s evasion. ‘Seems I remember reading about angels healing quickly. A suspicious man might think you’ve picked up their trick for recovery. Tell me, Kraven, how long till that hole from the dagger knits itself together and looks good as new – a bell? A day?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Tol replied truthfully. ‘Sooner than it would have done, but not as fast as an angel.’

  ‘It’s the blood, isn’t it?’ Kartane said quietly. ‘It works both ways.’

  ‘I was dying. She did it to save my life after the fight with the demon.’

  ‘Anyone else know?’

  ‘No, of course not. Kartane, if anyone else finds out…’

  ‘Make sure they don’t, boy. Word of that gets out and even men of faith will be hunting angels. Nobody can ever know.’

  Tol sighed. ‘I know.’ Another secret. I seem to collect them wherever I go, and they are never small ones.

  ‘And that includes—’

  ‘I know.’

  The others had stopped, and Tol and Kartane caught up with them in time to hear Vixen berating Stetch, seemingly unaware of how close the Sworn man was to simply executing her.

  ‘They could be anywhere,’ Vixen said. ‘We could be searching for a day and never find them.’

  ‘The best game will be further in,’ Tol said. ‘That’s where the prince will be.’

  Stetch nodded and promptly turned back around, stalking deeper into the forest without a glance back.

  ‘He won’t wait for us,’ Tol said, taking his hand from Kartane’s shoulder and following in Stetch’s wake. After a moment Kartane and the others ambled along after him.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ Suranna said. ‘If this is a church matter, why is he here anyway?’

  Tol glanced at Vixen and she shrugged. ‘I explained what we’re doing out here while you were catching up,’ she said.

  ‘Stetch is one of the Sworn,’ Tol told Suranna. ‘He’s here because one of the Black Duke’s daughters might be out there with Prince Julien.’ He gave Vixen a pointed look. ‘That’s why it’s not a good idea to provoke him right now; to him, the safety of Duke val Sharvina’s family is as important as the church is to us.’