by Ann Fisher
“You would let her kill your only sister?”
“I’d be dead too. She’d have to go through me first, but we both know she could do that if she set her mind to it.” Dev lifted his chin toward Janek. He’d set Conri on his feet again and was squatting next to him to look at something Conri pointed to on the ground. “Do you want him to stay?”
“Conri should have a father.”
Dev’s brows rose. “That’s the only reason you want him here?”
“As you said, Janek is a sorcerer. He’s spent most of his life at war. He could help us defend Erys.”
“Hmmm.”
The silence that stretched between them was more eloquent than anything Dev might have said about what a great fool she was.
Dev pushed away from the post. “Talk him into it, Lorey. Janek would be of help to us. Caden and Mira are too dangerous to keep.”
She scowled. “That’s the problem, isn’t it? What do we do with them? We can’t just drop them off at the nearest port and wish them the best of luck.”
“Have you spoken with Caden?” Dev asked. “He doesn’t want to remain on Erys. He asked Cinn for passage to Noregh last night. They’ll be safe enough there.”
“They won’t be safe anywhere.”
Dev shrugged. “But that’s hardly our problem, is it? If Caden manages to reclaim the throne, you have his promise to release Erys. If he doesn’t, we have a sorcerer on our side. Either way we win.”
“If we can keep the sorcerer on our side.”
“That is your job, dear sister. I’ve seen the way Janek looks at you. You’re not completely without influence where he’s concerned.”
Dev left her to head down the hill, and she turned back to watching Janek and Conri. Could she do it? Convince Janek to stay and help the rebellion? She didn’t want to trick him into staying. She wanted him to stay because he wanted to. Because he picked her over his loyalty to a dead man and an empire that didn’t even want him anymore.
She wanted him. All of him. But he’d already promised himself away.
He’d have to make up his mind soon. Cinn wanted to leave as soon as the repairs to the Raven were complete. She always went south during the winter months, and Dev would go with her, along with Dani, Jamie and the remaining crew from the Madalie. She’d be alone here on Erys, her and Conri. It would be a bleak winter.
Janek lifted his head to look straight at her. He waved her down to join them. She walked down the winding path to the small yard beside the cottage. The previous owners had used it to pen their goats. She hoped to turn it into a garden. She still had money enough to accomplish that, though not as much as she’d hoped to earn on her final run. They’d lost a good quantity of wine when they’d had to make room for Jamie’s men. And Cinn would want money for the repairs to her ship. Lorel would probably have to take up raising sheep after all.
Janek smiled as she approached. She’d seen him smile more in the last week than in the entire time she’d been at the Keep. He seemed easier here, less guarded.
Conri ran headlong into her legs and she bent to scoop him up. Janek straightened from his crouch, brushing dust from his breeches.
“I plan to take Conri to Beacon Hill this afternoon,” he said. “Would you like to join us?”
Anyone else would have asked for permission to take Conri. She was only grudgingly coming to accept that Janek had a father’s right.
“Why Beacon Hill? It’s a long walk if you only want to watch the ships come in.”
“I want to make sure we weren’t followed. I’ve seen no sign of it, but I’ll have a clearer view away from the village.”
He wasn’t talking about normal sight. He was talking about searching the nexus. Janek had tried explaining to her how it worked, but it was like he’d been trying to explain the concept of color to a blind woman.
“We won’t be a distraction if we join you?”
He smiled and reached out to touch her cheek. “You are always a distraction, but I’ll manage.”
“I could keep Conri here.”
“No,” he said, his voice firming. “I’ve missed too much time with him already. I want to take him along.”
She felt a pang at that, followed by a swift wash of shame. How could she be jealous of her own son?
She hitched Conri higher up on her hip. “I’ll join you then. Just let me feed this little pirate some breakfast and I’ll dig up his old sling.”
She wasn’t looking forward to the walk—Conri already felt heavy in her arms—but it would give her and Janek plenty of time and privacy to talk about the future. It had seemed to her lately that Janek was doing his best to avoid that conversation.
“There’s no need for a sling if it’s packed away,” Janek said. “I can carry him. It’s no trouble.”
They both heard the footsteps on the lane at the same time. Lorel turned and Janek stepped beside her. It sounded like a single person, running at full speed. A child or a slender woman. Lorel started forward to intercept the visitor, but Janek caught her shoulder.
“Wait here for a moment.”
A sword appeared in his hand. Before he’d taken more than a step or two, Mira rounded the corner of the cottage with her skirts lifted to her knees. No one would guess that she was an empress. Her long black hair was loose about her shoulders and she was wearing a pair of loose breeches donated by one of the sailors from the Raven. Her dusky skin was flushed and her blue eyes were wide with fear.
Janek lowered his blade. “Mira? What’s happened? Has the Order come?”
Mira grabbed hold of Janek’s arm and started to frantically pull him back in the direction from which she’d come. “You have to come quickly. It’s Caden. They mean to kill him!”
14
Janek outpaced Mira and Lorel, heedless of the ache in his bad leg that seemed to be a constant companion on damp Erys. He ran down the packed dirt road, slopping through muddy puddles left behind from the night’s rain and barely avoiding a collision with a young woman strolling from the market with a basket on her arm.
He could hear the commotion ahead, the familiar shouts and eager taunts which told of a fight already in progress. When he reached the edge of the crowd gathered outside the tavern, he slowed to take it in.
Most of the village was present. A knot of people surrounded two men who were openly brawling. Caden was one of them. That was bad, but not as bad as he’d imagined. It wasn’t a mob set on murder. It was only a fight.
Bran stood on top of the stone wall that edged the lane outside the tavern. The rebel leader was a sturdy man of medium-height, with sharp eyes and a ready smile. He laughed at a comment from the man standing next to him. Bran could stop this at any moment. Though the village was chieftainless, being a gathering of refugees rather than kinfolk, Bran was their leader. Bran showed no sign of being inclined to stop anything.
It wasn’t even midday. What had so many people been doing in the tavern at this hour? Even as he asked the question, he knew the answer. The tavern served as a meeting place for the rebellion. Messengers came and went at all hours—smugglers, farmers, Keepers, whores. He’d only been inside the place once, but it had been easy enough to recognize it for what it was. Hushed conversations in the corners, maps spread out on the tables in the back room, carpenters bemoaning the quality of the nails brought in from Barisia for ships that needed to be launched by spring. The tavern was the heart of the rebellion even as Haxon was its home. It was a dangerous place for a Ghadrian to wander about alone.
Janek moved forward. An old man at the rear of the crowd turned to glare at him, saw the sword in Janek’s hand and recoiled. Janek let the sword dissipate into the nexus and pushed his way through the crowd.
He didn’t intend to break up the fight unless it became necessary. It might actually do Caden good to release some of his frustration in an innocent brawl.
Caden was shirtless. His young body was darker and leaner than his opponent’s. His blue eyes flashed with fury and det
ermination. He might not look like a prince, but he was very definitely a Ghadrian.
Janek was relieved to see that there were no weapons involved. Both participants were slick with sweat and covered in dirt from the road. They’d obviously both hit the ground at least once, though they were standing now. The Erysian fighter was about the same height has Caden, but he had about twenty pounds on the younger man as well as about a decade of hard living. A sailor, judging by his weathered skin and workman’s hands. Not one of Cinn’s crew, which was mostly female. There were only a handful of men who served on the Raven, and he knew them all now by sight.
Janek felt eyes on him and glanced up to find Bran regarding him curiously. When the rebellion leader had insisted on meeting the Ghadrians, Lorel had done most of the talking—downplaying Janek’s past service to the empire, omitting the fact that he wished to restore the rightful emperor to the throne, and presenting him as a sorcerer with a price on his head who’d be more than willing to help the rebellion in exchange for a safe harbor.
Bran knew exactly who Janek was, including the fact that Janek was Conri’s father and that Lorel had personal reasons for wanting him to stay.
Bran hadn’t killed him yet because he was still working out how best to use Janek’s presence to the rebellion’s advantage. Lorel envisioned Janek fighting side by side with Bran and his people. Bran, Janek was certain, did not share in that vision.
If Bran wasn’t so short-sighted and focused only on what occurred on Erys, he probably would have figured out who Caden and Mira were by now. Really, it was only a matter of time before he put it all together.
Bran nodded at him in acknowledgement, and Janek turned back to the fight.
Caden had one arm hooked around his opponent’s neck and was pummeling the man’s abdomen with his other fist. The Erysian twisted free and staggered back a step before coming in for more. This time, he feinted with a straight jab at Caden’s face, and when Caden pulled back to avoid it, the Erysian rushed him, lifting Caden off his feet. Janek winced at the sound Caden’s body made when it hit the ground with the heavier Erysian on top of him. Caden would feel that in the morning, but it didn’t slow him down now as he somehow managed to break free.
Caden had been trained by the best fighters the empire had to offer. He could hold his own in a fight. In fact, the boy was holding back now.
Caden knew both Crisad—a hand-to-hand combat technique favored by the Karaeli—and Noreghan grappling, but he wasn’t using either technique. He was fighting the man on his own terms. Of course he was. Caden would do the honorable thing, even when it cost him. A fine thing when you were emperor. A dangerous weakness in a hunted man.
When the Erysian landed his next hit—an elbow to Caden’s jaw—Caden’s head struck the ground. It was probably a strong enough blow to daze a man, but it wasn’t enough to knock him completely senseless. Janek pulled a thread of power from the nexus and shoved Caden into an unconscious state. The boy’s legs went limp and his arms fell to the ground. The Erysian wasn’t expecting it and struck Caden again before realizing that he’d won the fight.
A cheer went up from the crowd. Mira shrieked and rushed toward her brother. Damn. Janek had hoped that Lorel would keep Mira away from this mess. He went to reassure her that he had everything under control while the crowd gathered around the bloody Erysian, slapping him on the back and offering him drinks as they moved toward the tavern. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bran hop down from the wall. His companion joined the crowd entering the tavern, but Bran lingered, watching while Janek wrapped an arm around Mira to pull her away from Caden who was already coming groggily awake. When Bran took a step in his direction, Lorel intercepted him.
Her voice was low and furious, chastising him for allowing one of his men to “beat up a defenseless boy.” Janek hid a smile when Bran lifted his hands in the air as if to defend himself. Lorel’s distraction gave Janek the time he needed to get Caden back on his feet and drag him a ways up the road.
He hustled Caden past several cottages and then turned the first corner to get out of sight of the slowly dispersing crowd. Mira followed behind, silent but tense and clearly unhappy.
What had she expected? That he would rush into the crowd and fight them all? That he would punish the man who would dare strike the Ghadrian prince? Probably. That’s probably exactly what she’d expected him to do. It would have accomplished nothing except to make the three of them bigger targets than they already were.
He threw Caden up against the wall. “What the hell were you thinking?”
Caden’s left eye was nearly swollen shut, and there was a trickle of blood running down his chin from a split lip. He glared at Janek. “Why did you interfere? I had him.”
“Why were you fighting? The people here already consider us their enemies.”
“Then a fight won’t change that, will it?”
Janek swallowed a growl. “The only reason they didn’t kill us on sight is because Lorel spoke for us. You would put her in danger?”
Some of the fight drained out of Caden’s body. He lowered his gaze. “No. Of course not.”
Janek released him and took a step back. “Our situation is precarious enough without you stirring up trouble. What happened?”
When Caden refused to answer, Mira stepped forward. “I wanted to go to the tavern, to meet the rebels and see for myself if they stood a chance against the Order.”
The disgusted expression on Mira’s face told Janek her opinion about the rebellion’s chance of success. She waved an arm toward the tavern. “One of the men in there was toasting Father’s death. He was glad of it, the fool. As if Serat will treat them more gently. They’re like children bragging about winning a game they don’t even understand how to play.”
Caden swiped the blood from his mouth. “I should have cut out his tongue.”
Janek shook his head. “You’ll hold your tongue is what you’ll do. What do you think these people will do to you if they find out the truth? Think about that for a moment.”
Bran would kill Caden, Mira, and Janek. He’d accuse Lorel of being a traitor to the cause. Lorel was the one who’d insisted they not tell Bran the full truth. Janek had objected at the time, saying that it would be impossible to hide their identities forever. It would be impossible, but Lorel had been right. Now that he saw how things stood here, he didn’t trust Bran either.
Caden paced several steps down the alley and then turned back. He pushed his hands through his hair. “We never should have come here. These people can do nothing to help us.”
Janek could have taken control of the Raven and used Jamie’s crew to sail them straight to Noregh. It would never have occurred to Caden to betray Lorel. It had occurred to Janek. But he’d wanted to meet his son.
“We need every ally we can get,” Janek said calmly, watching as Caden passed from rage into grim resignation.
“The sooner we leave the better,” Caden said miserably. “I hate this island.”
“Believe me, I know that. I have no more love for Erys than you do. It won’t be much longer. We leave when the Raven sails, a few weeks at the most. You…”
Janek trailed off at the expression on Mira’s face. He followed her gaze to see what had disturbed her. Lorel stood at the mouth of the alley, clutching Conri to her chest. Her skin was dead white, her eyes wide and vulnerable. She’d been close enough to hear, then.
His heart sank like a stone. He’d been dreading this moment, not wanting to tell Lorel that he intended to leave with Caden and Mira when he knew that she wanted him to stay. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her, and… Damn it. He’d wanted a few weeks to have a family of his own—a woman who welcomed him into her bed, a son who looked at him with absolute trust. He had two weeks here, maybe three. He hadn’t wanted to spend that time arguing with Lorel. Had it really been too much to ask?
“Lorel…”
She turned and walked quickly away. He didn’t follow. He couldn’t console her, not without
agreeing to stay and that he wouldn’t do. There were things they needed to discuss, but they were things better discussed with a clear head.
“I’m sorry,” Caden said.
Janek looked at the boy. “For fighting? Good. Don’t do it again, whatever they say to provoke you. Our fight is not with Erys.”
“You should talk to her. Explain—”
“I don’t need your advice, Caden.”
Caden’s smile looked ghastly in his swollen face. “I think that you do. Perhaps you should stay.”
Janek gave a sharp bark of laughter. “Would you stay here?”
“Of course not.” Caden straightened. “I have a duty to my people. But you—”
“Then it’s impossible.” Janek glanced down the empty alley. Lorel would be at the cottage by now. “I’ll return to Lorel and Conri once you’re safely on the throne.”
Hopefully by then it wouldn’t be too late.
15
Lorel fed Conri and then rocked him to sleep. It was early perhaps for a nap, but he was tired and she wanted to hold him. He was asleep within moments, and she watched him, tracing the fine arch of his brows and the line of his cheekbones, smiling when he smiled in his sleep. When she’d made that run for Cinn it had torn out her heart to leave her son behind, and that had been a safe, short trading mission.
How could Janek come here, meet his son, love his son, and then abandon him forever?
Hearing footsteps outside the door, she looked up, but no one entered. She knew it was Janek outside. She didn’t hear Mira or Caden with him. Janek was waiting for her in the yard, and she was half tempted to let him wait there all night. She pressed her lips together and looked at their son. No. It was better to have it out now while Conri was asleep. Laying him gently upon the bed, she went out to get it over with.
When she stepped through the door, Janek straightened from where he’d been leaning against the stone wall that separated the yard from the lane into town.