Prince of the Blood

by Raymond Feist

  James waved his sword a bit. “It’s been done before in the earlier dynasties of the Empire. If a succession was seen as weak, claimants married a cousin or even a sister or brother to bolster the claim on the throne. And with so many related to the Empress, a great many truebloods are cousins.”

  Nirome said, “Just so. But if we are to save your friend, we must hurry. He’s imprisoned in a lower level of the palace and injured.”

  James glanced at Gamina and she said, I can’t tell.

  What? asked Erland.

  He’s very clever and his mind is very agile. He may not know I can read his surface thoughts, but he suspects some magic is at play and keeps his mind repeating what he has told us. There are hints of other images and some feelings … he’s lying about the scope of his role, but I can’t tell how much. You must be wary of him.

  Erland said, “Now, what about Borric being alive?”

  Nirome said, “It’s thought to be true. A slave escaped within days after being brought to Durbin by desert raiders. It is thought he killed the wife of the Governor of Durbin to mask his escape. He matches the description of your brother.”

  He’s … hiding more. But that’s more or less true.

  Erland said, “We have to find someone whom we can trust.”

  A servant arrived at the doorway and Erland’s attention was drawn away for a moment. Nirome struck out with his staff of office, and far more quickly than his weight promised, he dodged James’s blow. Shouting “Get the guards!” to the girl, Nirome swung widely with his staff.

  The girl hesitated only an instant, then ran screaming for the guards through the doorway. James grabbed at Nirome’s arm and got struck with the staff on the shoulder. Erland jumped forward and grabbed the staff, forcing the heavy courtier back. As the Prince brought his sword up to menace the court officer, soldiers of the Inner Legion, led by a Captain of the Household Guard, entered the room.

  Instantly swords and spears were leveled at James and Erland and the Guard Captain, in the white kilt of a trueblood, cried, “Surrender your weapons or die!”

  Erland thought about resistance for only an instant, then gave his sword to a guard. “I need send word to the Empress at once. There’s been a vile betrayal.”

  Guards took James and Erland by the arms and the Captain said, “Shall we kill them?”

  Nirome said, “Not just yet. Take them to the empty wing and for the sake of our lives don’t let anyone see you doing it! I have to find Miya and Toren Sie and we’ll join you.”

  Suddenly Erland realized that this stout man of obsequious manner had stationed men loyal to Prince Awari around this wing of the palace—which was how he was able to murder the Princess Sojiana and cast the blame on Locklear.

  “You killed Sojiana,” Erland said. “And Locklear.”

  Nirome’s manner changed and he became, instead of the fawning sycophant, a grim-faced man of determination and purpose. Picking up a walnut from the table, he crushed it with his bare hand before Erland’s face. “You silly boy. You’ve blundered into matters so far beyond your understanding.…” He studied the Prince. “Had your brother the grace to die in Krondor, and your father to send threatening notes to the Empress, none of this would have been necessary. If you cooperate and don’t cause a fuss, I’ll happily send you back to your father in one still-living piece. I have no wish to deal with an angry Kingdom, and once the Empress accedes to our plan, we have no further need for you.”

  To the guard captain he said, “Take them now, and watch the witch woman. She’s from Stardock and has some sort of power to know what you’re thinking if you’re not careful.” He glanced at her and said, “We may have to keep her. That would prove a useful talent. But if any of them causes you any difficulty, kill them.”

  The soldiers obeyed without hesitation and in a moment were taking the three from the apartment, making sure there was no chance of escape.

  The armed men hesitated a moment, startled by Miya’s unexpected alarm. Borric took no time to think; he reacted. He threw his dirk at the first man to rise, taking him in the chest. Another went down from a vaulting lunge that cleared five feet, and three men withdrew in haste as they brought up their own weapons.

  A coughing scream ended by a sickening crack told Borric without looking that Ghuda had silenced the woman who had lured them here with a quickly crushed neck. Then the mercenary said, “Make room, Madman.”

  Borric knew Ghuda was unlimbering his bastardsword and needed more room for it than the rapier or shortsword that Suli carried. Borric was concerned for the boy, but could not spare any attention for him. There were three angry guardsmen trying to kill him at the moment.

  Borric parried a thrust from one man with his dirk, and took another in the throat with his rapier, ducking under a thrust by the third. A solid crash behind and a scream cut off suddenly and Borric knew that Ghuda had taken out another man. Four quickly down and still no attempt to organize. Borric pressed his attack. He slashed wickedly at a man’s head, taking off an ear. The man fell, crying in pain and unable to defend himself, and Borric killed him with his dirk while slashing at the remaining man.

  Borric heard the solid noise of steel cleaving meat and bone and judged Ghuda had killed or disabled the fifth. The Prince parried a blow toward his own head by the last man he faced and ran him through.

  Borric turned quickly to discover Ghuda kicking one man in the groin while trying to free his hand-and-a-half sword from the man he had just impaled. Suli was backed into a corner, frantically waving his shortsword, keeping two men at bay. But a third was moving to come at him on his left side, and Borric leaped atop a table, sprang, and came down in time to kill the man from behind. He then struck out and wounded one of the two remaining men attacking Suli. But as that man went down, the other thrust with his long sword and the boy screamed.

  Borric hacked with the edge of his blade, cutting at least three inches into the neck of the man who had wounded Suli. The man made a pitiful noise, much like a mouse’s squeak, and collapsed to the floor. Then it was quiet.

  Borric pulled off one dead man who lay atop Suli and knelt beside the boy, who was covered in blood and vainly attempting to hold together a gaping wound in his stomach. Borric had seen such wounds in the field before and knew Suli’s life would be over in minutes.

  Feeling a cold certainty unlike anything he had known before, Borric took the boy’s hand. Suli’s breathing came in shallow gulps and his eyes were beginning to glaze over. His face had a waxy cast to it and he tried to speak. Finally he said, “Master?”

  Gripping Suli’s hand, Borric said, “Here, Suli.”

  “I was your servant?” the boy asked quietly.

  Borric gripped Suli’s hand hard and said, “You were a fine servant.”

  “Then it will be written in the Book of Life that Suli Abul was the servant of a great man, the servant of a Prince.”

  Limp fingers slipped from the Prince’s hand. “Yes, little beggar. You died the servant of a Prince.” Borric had seen death before, but not in one so young. Feelings of impotence at being unable to protect the boy overwhelmed him. For fully a minute he knelt, certain that if he could but think of something, the proper thing to do or say, somehow Suli wouldn’t be dead. He gently squeezed the boy’s fingers, as if to discover a pulse or movement, but all he felt was profound stillness. Then he became angry.

  Ghuda’s voice said, “We can’t linger. There are twelve corpses littering the floor. As soon as someone walks in here, there’ll be hell to pay. Let’s go!”

  Borric was up and moving. He knew that he had to reach his brother or the Empress within the next few minutes. Hostile forces moved within the palace of Kesh, and no one could be trusted.

  They hurried back the way they had come until they reached the hall with the sentries. Borric motioned with his head and walked calmly past one pair into another dark hall. Then, halfway down the length of the dark hallway, he heard muffled voices approaching. As one, Borric an
d Ghuda ducked into the recesses of a doorway, just as another pair of men hurried past.

  The voice of the stout man Borric had seen a few minutes earlier said, “Damn. This is starting to unravel. Awari was not supposed to hear of his sister’s death this soon. He was to be halfway to Arutha’s mythical invading army when he finally found out. Find out who sent him word and kill the man or woman responsible.”

  Borric’s eyes widened. Princess Sojiana was dead! Perhaps that was what all the madness in the palace was about, not a search for four nameless vagabonds who stumbled into the palace, but a search for the Princess’s murderer. Borric signaled to Ghuda to follow and they hung back a little, then darted across the intersecting hallway, getting back within earshot of the two men once more. The stout one continued his complaint. “Awari’s a stiff-necked idiot. He will certainly return to the city within the day and if he marches into the Empress’s chambers and demands any sort of recognition of his claim while she’s this angry over Sojiana’s death, we’ll have open rebellion to deal with; he must be made to lead the army north. The Isleman must be made to look guilty. Where do you have him?”

  A voice, one familiar to Borric, spoke. “In a grain shed, near the servants’ lodgings on the lower levels,” said Toren Sie.

  “Move him to one of the empty servants’ quarters and then let the guards find him. Have the Captain report the man was found and killed resisting arrest and let it circulate among the Gallery that he was killed to keep him silent. Then have the guard Captain who finds him die mysteriously. I will denounce the plot in the Gallery. By being the first to raise suspicion, we’ll divert it from ourselves for the time being. By the time anyone begins to question things, it will be too late. Beruck’s men should be in place shortly.”

  “But won’t that exonerate Isles?”

  “No,” replied the stout Keshian, “but it will again make everyone wonder who knew, who took a hand, and how high up the conspiracy went. Every rival in the Gallery will be convinced his adversary is in league with Isles. All I need for the next two days is confusion and uncertainty. I have to have the time to ensure that those supporting Sharana and Awari are equally vocal in the Gallery. Things are coming to a more violent, bloody end than I had wished, but they are also coming to fruition much sooner, and that, my friend, is a good thing.”

  The two men reached the door of the room Borric and Ghuda had vacated and continued on to a room at the far end of the hall. “And where is Miya?” asked the stout man as he turned to open the door. He must have glimpsed the two figures following after, for he called, “Who is that?”

  Borric walked up, out of the gloom, and saw the two men before the door. The thinner of the two said, “You!”

  Borric smiled a grim smile as he leveled his sword and said, “Ghuda, I have the honor of presenting Lord Toren Sie, Ambassador of Her Majesty, the Empress of Kesh, to the Prince’s court in Krondor.”

  The second man turned as if to bolt into the room, and Ghuda moved to cut him off. “And that,” said Borric, “is one who is unknown to me, but his clothing is unmistakably that of another member of the Royal House of Kesh.”

  Toren Sie said, “If I shout, a dozen guards will be here in seconds.”

  Borric said, “Shout, and you’ll be very dead when they get here.”

  Toren Sie glared. “What do you expect to gain?”

  Moving so that his sword point was leveled at the Ambassador’s throat, Borric answered, “An audience with the Empress.”

  “Impossible.”

  Borric motioned with the point of his blade, making a dramatic whooshing sound right below Toren Sie’s chin. “I don’t know everything that is going on here,” he said, “but I do know enough that should we live to reach the Empress you are most likely a dead man. If you have any hope for avoiding that fate, you had best begin by telling me what I need to know.”

  The stout man said, “We will tell you what you wish to know. But we can do it better inside this door. We can sit like civilized beings.”

  Without waiting for a response, the stout man opened the door and only Ghuda’s quick reaction kept it from being slammed in their faces. The large mercenary shoved hard against the door, forcing it open, then suddenly the resistance ceased and he almost fell through. Borric grabbed Toren Sie by his gold torque, twisting the woven gold collar so that it constricted the man’s breathing. Dragging him through the door after Ghuda, Borric entered in time to see the stout man running with unusual swiftness for the door on the other side of the reception chamber of the complex. Ghuda was at the door when the man sprung through, shouting, “Kill them!”

  Borric didn’t hesitate, but struck the Ambassador hard in the side of the head with the hilt of his sword. The man slumped to the floor, unconscious, as Borric sprinted toward the next door.

  When he got there, he found Ghuda standing in open amazement, and the stout man dangling a foot off the ground. Around the room a full dozen guardsmen in the uniform of the Inner Legion and a few of the trueblood lay stunned on the floor. Also unconscious were Earl James, Lady Gamina, and Erland.

  Sitting atop a large round table was Nakor, grimacing strangely and making odd noises as he pointed two fingers at the floating man. Seeing Ghuda and Borric, he stopped his grunting and said, “Borric! Ghuda!” Instantly the stout Keshian fell to the floor with a harsh thud, and Ghuda reached out to grip the man by the neck.

  Borric crossed to where his friends lay and said, “Nakor, what have you done?”

  “I was having fun with the guards, playing a merry game of ‘catch-me,’ and they got lost. So I went looking for them. I saw you, or so I thought, being led away by guards and thought to inquire how you managed to find such splendid clothing, and where you had lost my friends Ghuda and Suli. Where is Suli?”

  Ghuda glanced at Borric, who said, “Suli is dead.”

  “That is sad,” said the little man. “He was a good-hearted boy and would have been a good man. He most likely will be when next he travels the Wheel. Is this your brother?” he asked, indicating Erland.

  “Yes,” said Borric. “What did you do to them?”

  “Oh, I came into the room and everyone got very excited. Some of them were not very pleased to see me, and I was growing tired of the game, so I stunned everyone. I assumed you would come along, sooner or later. See? I was right.”

  Suddenly the tension dissolved in Borric and Ghuda and they laughed. “Yes, you were right.” They found they couldn’t stop as the grinning little man seemed to enjoy the merriment as much as they. At last, with tears running down their faces, Borric said, “You stunned everyone? How did you manage that?”

  Nakor shrugged. “It’s a trick.”

  Borric laughed again. “What now?”

  Nakor reached into his rucksack and said, “Want an orange?”

  “I never thought I’d say this to you,” said Erland, “but I have missed you.”

  Borric nodded. “Same here. Now, what are we going to do about this mess?”

  James was shaking off the effects of Nakor’s stun while Gamina was still barely conscious. Ghuda stood watch over the reviving guards and looked convincingly ready to cut in half anyone who moved, so they sat quietly and gave no trouble.

  Erland had been the first to revive, something to do with being the youngest, according to Nakor. The brothers had spoken about what each knew and had come to the conclusion that many double-dealings had taken place.

  James said, “Perhaps if we get word directly to the Empress herself …”

  “How?” asked Borric.

  “Gamina,” answered Erland.

  Borric looked uncomprehending and Erland said, “She can do mind speech, remember?”

  Borric nodded, then his face reddened. “I could have ‘called’ for help with my mind when I first got in the palace and she would have heard.”

  “Why didn’t you?” asked James as Gamina began to rouse.

  Borric’s grin was sheepish. “I didn’t think of it.”
>
  “And,” said James, “how did you escape her mind touch when she stumbled across you earlier today?”

  Borric hiked a thumb at Nakor. “He sensed it and somehow blocked her out.”

  James said, “You’re a magician?”

  Nakor made an unpleasant face. “No. I’m a gambler. Magicians are somber men who work in caves and do terrible and serious things. They do great magic. People don’t like magicians. I just do a few tricks that make people laugh. That is all.”

  As Gamina fully roused, James said, “From the look of the guards and our fat friend over there, yours are no mean tricks, and not always funny.”

  Nakor’s grin widened and he said, “Thank you. I’m pretty good at what I do, and I thought this was pretty funny.”

  Gamina caught sight of Borric and said, “You’re alive!”

  “Apparently,” answered Borric with a laugh.

  Gamina gave him a hug and said, “How, then, couldn’t I find you in the desert?”

  Borric’s look showed he didn’t understand, then comprehension registered. “Of course. That bloody robe I won before we left. The slavers took me for a magician and clapped some manacles on me that somehow prevent magicians from using their powers.”

  “Bah!” said Nakor. “That couldn’t happen if those magicians knew what they were doing.”

  James said, “Perhaps. In any event, the next question is, how do we get from here to the Empress?”

  Borric said, “We overheard something about men loyal to General Beruck being in place soon.”

  Erland said, “Of course! Everyone is searching the palace looking for Locky. As the Imperial Guards move to the lower portions of the palace, Beruck slips in more of his legionaries and surrounds the Empress’s hall.” Turning to Nirome, Erland said, “What is the plan?”

  The stout man looked defiantly at Erland and said, “To bring order to the chaos that is now Kesh, you Isle pup!” He then glared at Borric. “And had you the decency to die when required, none of this would have been necessary.”

  James pulled his rapier and put the point of it against Nirome’s throat. “I think you’ll provide safe passage to the Empress, my friend.”