Valiant

by Sarah McGuire

  “That man had barely spoken a word, and then he started talking to some girl—!” Verras faltered when he saw my frown. “So … yes. I remember. Now tell me about your father. Where is he?”

  Some girl. Lynden hadn’t thought I was some girl. Why couldn’t he have discovered me?

  But I gave Verras directions to our shop. “The Tailor’s sick. He can’t move. He can’t speak. He’ll be scared. And angry. Very angry. You must promise that whoever brings him to the castle will bring the big trunk in his shop. It means …” My voice faltered. I looked down at my boots, trying to breathe around the pain in my chest. “It means everything to him.”

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “He was struck ill soon after we came to Reggen. I dressed as his apprentice to find work for us. We wouldn’t have survived otherwise.”

  “You couldn’t sew as a woman?”

  I crossed my arms. “Noblemen don’t appreciate having a girl fit them. It isn’t done—like advisors to the king hiding under castles!”

  He ignored the jibe. “And Will?”

  “A boy shouldn’t have to compete with dogs for food.”

  He nodded. I could almost see him stitching the story’s pieces together.

  I heard it first: the sound of footsteps in the corridor.

  “We need to leave,” said Lord Verras.

  “What do you mean?” I asked. “If we leave, we’ll walk right into them. And you said we were going to the king anyway!”

  But Lord Verras was already sweeping aside a tapestry on the far wall.

  Chapter 12

  “Follow me,” he whispered. He stepped up onto a bench and squeezed into a recess behind it.

  “You want me to hide behind a privy? Absolutely not.”

  Lord Verras looked down at me, his face like stone. “I’m done arguing with you, Miss Gramton. If you want to keep Will and your father safe, you’ll come with me. Now.”

  I heard the jingle of keys. “Lord Verras! King Eldin commands that you and the champion join him in his suite!”

  Verras had already disappeared. He’d just left, expecting that I would follow. I did hate the man.

  I leapt onto the bench, turned myself sideways, and slipped into the narrow recess, pushing past a hanging of felt. I thought I’d bump into the walls of the chamber—or worse, Lord Verras.

  But the recess was bigger than I’d thought. And dark. Dark didn’t do it justice. Something fell on my shoulder, and I jumped. The pressure grew firmer and gave my shoulder a quick shake.

  Lord Verras. His message was clear: Be quiet.

  I yanked my shoulder away. I wasn’t a girl who’d squeal in the dark. Where were we? Was this a secret tunnel? I groped along the wall behind me with my left hand, but stilled when I heard the thud of a door being thrown open. Then voices. Though it did no good in the dark, I turned toward the opening, toward our hunters.

  The edges of the felt glowed. The men must have swept aside the curtain to the privy.

  “Did you really think he’d be in there?”

  “He’s an underhanded fellow. I wouldn’t put it past him.”

  I looked back and saw Lord Verras in the pale gray light. He didn’t move.

  “Leymonn ought to get rid of him. Have you ever had Verras watch you? It’s like you’re being hunted—”

  The voices faded and the light disappeared, but not before I saw Lord Verras’s small smile.

  His hand found my shoulder and then my forearm, closing completely around my wrist. He tugged me forward, and I followed like a child. I had to take small steps, feeling ahead by sliding my feet forward. Even then, I stumbled on the uneven floor. After a few turns, he released me, and I heard the sound of flint being struck. Those few sparks flared bright as the sun, bright enough to make me blink. Then Lord Verras held a lantern aloft.

  We weren’t in a tunnel. It was a cave.

  It seemed open, but there were so many … pillars. I didn’t know what else to call them. We stood in a forest of stone that looked like it had been poured from the ceiling. But it wasn’t like standing in a forest. I’d never worried that trees would tumble down on me and bury me in the dark.

  Lord Verras began talking, but I kept looking for the end of the cave. I didn’t want him to see how scared I was.

  “—built the palace against the cliff,” he said. “That room was Lord Cinnan’s. He knew about these caves and had the privy built in front of the entrance. He knew no one would want to look beyond it.” I heard the satisfaction in his voice and saw he’d lost the tightness around his mouth.

  He liked the cave. Liked it. He reached for my arm, ready to go farther in.

  I pulled away. “We’re going to walk through the caves?”

  “It will be the only chance I have to talk to you before we reach King Eldin. Think of it as a shortcut. Stay close.”

  What a stupid thing to say.

  “Do you really think I’d wander away from you?” I asked as I followed him. “That I’m silly enough to lose myself in this hole?”

  He didn’t bother to reply, just pressed farther into the darkness, his lantern making the shadows of the stone forest dance. “We’ll reach Eldin soon. Tell me what happened.”

  I sighed, then settled back into the memory as I picked my way through the cave.

  “The giants had Will,” I said. “The older one was holding him upside down, by his foot.…” I hated the way my voice shook. You could hear everything in this cave. “So I ran out and told them to put him down.”

  “And they did?” he asked.

  I shrugged, even though he couldn’t see it. “I was yelling and throwing stones. I think it surprised them. The younger one tried to stomp me.”

  “They were tall enough to do that?” asked Lord Verras. “I couldn’t tell.”

  That was what he focused on? Not that I’d almost died, but how tall the giants were?

  I gritted my teeth and pushed on. “My head almost reached their knees. He had to bring his foot up high, but …” I saw the young giant’s boot above, felt its shadow cross my face. My breath knotted in my chest, the memory so vivid I almost dove away.

  Lord Verras’s voice pulled me back. “When I reached the bridge, they were throwing boulders. Was that a ritual of theirs?”

  “Nothing like that!” I laughed, and the sound chased away the image of the boot. “It was a game of strength. Will needed time to get back across the bridge.”

  I told Lord Verras about squeezing water from stone and throwing rocks so high they forgot to fall back to the earth.

  “The giants believed you?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “I’ve read everything I could about them—stories gathered from older times. All the tales describe them as witless brutes.” His voice grew distant and I knew he was thinking. “Perhaps they became that way over time. The giants that laid our foundation stones—if it was giants—must have been intelligent.”

  “These giants weren’t witless.”

  He looked over his shoulder as if he didn’t quite believe me. “They thought you could squeeze water from a stone.”

  Enough. I’d help him, even follow him through caves. But I wouldn’t be treated like a child.

  “You’re not thinking, Lord Verras! What did the giants wear?”

  He turned to me, irritated. I didn’t care.

  “You remember what ‘some girl’ says months after she’s said it,” I taunted. “Surely you remember what two giants the size of trees were wearing?”

  He flushed. I could see it even in the lantern light. “The bearded one wore a coat and breeches, with stockings and boots. The young one wore the same, except he had a jerkin—leather, I think.” He folded his arms. “That was all I could see before I reached Will.”

  Sky above, he really did see everything. But seeing wasn’t the same as noticing.

  “Do you know how much work it takes to tan the leather for that jerkin? Or the skill it takes to sew a coat? You have to
measure, which means they have some grasp of numbers. And you need thread to sew and yarn for those stockings, which means a farmer grew and then harvested some sort of fiber or sheared sheep. And then someone—an idiot, I’m sure!—carded the fiber and spun it fine enough that another imbecile could sew or knit with it.” I raised my chin. “They are not witless.”

  The Tailor would have struck me if I’d spoken to him so. King Eldin would have had me beheaded. But after his first surprised look, Lord Verras listened, his gaze fixed upon my face.

  “You’re absolutely right.”

  I stared at him.

  “Miss Gramton,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I meant it when I said I’d do whatever I must to save Reggen—even if it means listening to ‘some girl.’ ” He half smiled. “Shocking you is merely an added pleasure.

  “Believe me”—he swung around to follow the trail again—“if I thought it would irritate you, I’d go so far as to thank you.… Now, what else did you notice about the giants? How did they move? Act? Did they have any weapons?”

  It took a moment to gather my thoughts as I scrambled after him.

  “One of them had a pick. The other had a knife, but I didn’t see anything else.”

  “So they possess some sort of ironmongery … but they didn’t carry the weapons a soldier would.”

  I tried to force the memories into an order that would make sense. “And they talked about the duke. I think he wanted them to kill any humans—they had a word for us that I can’t remember—on sight, but the giant with the beard said that Oma wouldn’t like it.”

  Lord Verras glanced back to me, a question in his eyes, but I didn’t give him a chance to speak it. “I have no idea who Oma is.”

  “A captain in the army, perhaps? Someone who might challenge the duke?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Lord Verras sighed. “Anything else?”

  “The young one caught a cannonball right out of the air. And their hearing … they heard my heart beating.”

  “What?” He stopped so suddenly that I nearly walked into his back. Then he turned, holding the lantern so he could see my face. “What did you say?”

  “The young one caught—”

  “No! The other part.”

  I licked my lips. “They heard my heart beating. They’d knelt down to see me squeeze water from a rock—the cheese, I mean. The young one could hear my heart racing.”

  “How do you know?” His voice was rough with curiosity and something I couldn’t place.

  “Because they said they could hear it. And my heart was racing. And … I knew they could hear it. I was sure enough that I feared they’d hear the wings of the bird I threw. That’s why I waited until the cannons fired.”

  Lord Verras stared at me, as though waiting for me to change my story. But I couldn’t. I stared back while water dripped somewhere in the darkness. Then I saw the fear in his eyes.

  “I sent Restan and Tannis after the giants,” he whispered. “If the giants hear as well as you say, they’ll know the rangers are coming.”

  “Maybe the giants won’t hurt them,” I said. “Maybe Oma—”

  “Boiled bones! You remember hearing that on the road, don’t you? Bones that looked as though they’d been gnawed! An army led by a duke who can’t be bested. Esker … Kellan … wiped off the plains!” He pulled in a steadying breath. “Where was this Oma then?”

  I had no answer.

  Lord Verras lowered the lantern. Without a word, he started back up the steepening path.

  I followed, lost in my own wretchedness. All I’d wanted to do was save Will.…

  Lord Verras didn’t speak until the path leveled out. “We’re almost there. Is there anything else I should know? Anyone in the court whom you’ve sewn for? Anyone who might recognize you before Eldin learns the truth?”

  I stopped. He was going to hate me and I didn’t blame him. Why hadn’t I thought to tell him?

  He turned to face me, eyes narrowed. “What is it?”

  My mouth was dry. “I sewed for King Eldin. Those new coats of his …”

  “And when were you planning to mention that?”

  “I wasn’t trying to keep it from you!” I hated that my voice rose like a scared child’s. “There was so much to tell: Will, the giants—It’s not good, is it?”

  Lord Verras shook his head and blew out a long breath. “It might make Eldin more understanding about how the entire city could be tricked, or …”

  “Or?”

  “He might—” Lord Verras couldn’t bring himself to tell a comforting half-truth. “I expect he will be angry that he was deceived … and that you saw him in a state of undress.”

  “That’s what will decide my fate?” I fumed. “I’ve kept the Tailor alive. I’ve saved Will from two giants. And my life depends on whether the king is embarrassed that I saw him in a ‘state of undress’? He’s a conceited child if he thinks I was ever tempted by seeing—”

  I snapped my mouth shut. Lord Verras was my one ally—and cousin to the king.

  “Are you finished?” His voice was cold.

  “I am.” I was frightened that I’d said something so foolish. But not sorry, not one bit.

  “Is there anything else?”

  “I told the giants I was a tailor—and that there were men stronger than me in Reggen.” It had seemed such a bold move at the time. But I didn’t see how it would help me when I met the king.

  It didn’t even help me with Lord Verras.

  He nodded, then continued on. After a few paces, I saw a lantern tucked behind one of the stone pillars. Lord Verras must have one hidden near every entrance to the caves. How many were there in the castle?

  He stopped by the pillar and snuffed out his lantern. The darkness pressed against me, the way the cave would if it collapsed.…

  Lord Verras’s hand found my wrist and he pulled me after him. Much as I hated to admit it, the contact comforted me. Straight ahead, a few steps, then right, then left, then a light so dim I thought it was a trick my eyes were playing on me.

  A muffled swish of heavy fabric as Lord Verras swept a curtain aside. We stepped into a small room—a storage chamber of some sort—then picked our way from behind two sets of shelves. Verras stopped, his hand on the door that would take us back to the castle. He squared his shoulders, as if he was preparing for a fight.

  “Now what?” I asked, even though I knew. My heart was already racing.

  “We tell the king. Make sure your secret doesn’t go any farther. I’ll do everything I can to protect you.”

  I wanted to stay in the caves. I didn’t even care if I didn’t have a lantern. “What do I do?”

  “Walk in like a lad. Don’t let anyone guess the truth until we’re alone with the king.”

  “And then?”

  “Stay ali—” He bit off the word. “Stay safe.”

  I hugged my arms to myself. “It’s that bad?”

  “It might be.” Lord Verras opened the door. “Let’s go.”

  I stood rooted to the floor like one of the caves’ stone pillars, poured into place when the world began. It wasn’t my fault that the king had been so foolish, so weak. Why couldn’t the tailor just disappear? Why did I—?

  Lord Verras turned back. “Miss Gramton—” He stopped when he saw my face, and I braced myself for his rebuke. “Above all else … no matter how much you think about it, you should never … never … discuss whether you were tempted by seeing my cousin in his underclothes.”

  Had he gone mad?

  Then I saw a spark of humor in his eyes, right there with all the worry about giants and advisors. It accomplished what no reprimand could have—I discovered that I could move again.

  I almost smiled. “Not a word. I promise.”

  He nodded once. “Excellent.”

  Chapter 13

  Lord Verras and I threaded a few more narrow turns before stepping into a fine, wide hallway that I recognized. Sunlight poured through the ar
ched windows, and a rumble like the Kriva rose up from the courtyard.

  A man jogged up to meet us, then fell in step beside Lord Verras, talking quietly. A moment later, he hurried away. Verras nodded after him. “He’ll see to your father.”

  There was no time to answer. Pergam scowled and left the guards clustered around the doorway to the throne room.

  “We looked for you everywhere! Even in Lord Cinnan’s”—Pergam spoke the name as if it had a bad taste—“old chamber. Lord Leymonn was not pleased.”

  “I brought the champion through the back corridors,” said Lord Verras. “I thought the king would wish to see him before every servant in the castle did.”

  Pergam grunted, then ducked inside the hall to alert the king. The remaining guards barely acknowledged Lord Verras, though they stared at me, eyes wide with disbelief.

  I wanted to run. I wanted to cry. Instead, I straightened my shoulders and put my hands in my pockets, as if I were bored—as if I wasn’t trying to hide how they shook. Make them think you’re a lad. I stared back at the guards, hoping they’d believe they couldn’t scare me after I challenged two giants.

  Pergam returned and held the door open. “His Majesty will see you now.”

  Lord Verras whispered, “Stay here. Don’t come until I call for you.” Then he walked in and pulled the door closed behind him.

  Pergam, however, stopped the door with his foot. Lord Verras would have no privacy. I could hear his footsteps even above the roar from the courtyard.

  I looked out the window. People crowded below, shouting for the—

  “Where is the champion of Reggen?” called King Eldin. “Where is he? I want to meet the man who can defend us so well. He must tell me how he killed all those giants.”

  The king was frightened—I could hear it—and he was about to discover he had good reason. I clenched my hands in my pockets.

  “Your Majesty.” Lord Verras’s voice was even and calm. “I must speak with you first.”

  “And that’s more important than meeting the champion and learning how he triumphed?” It was a different voice. Slow, almost drawling. Contemptuous. Leymonn, I guessed. “You’re supposed to bring me information, Verras, but I thought you’d have better timing than this.”