by Sharon Green
“You can be here doing something important for your family,” Renni agreed with a thoughtful nod. “It won’t be a lie, and Aunt Orra and Uncle Camdin understand about family responsibility. Yes, I think we can get away with it. What name do you want me to use when I introduce you?”
“Call me Sentor,” Elissia said after a moment of thought. If she’d used Lodris and one of the savage’s people heard it “I’ll want to rest for a while, but later I need something else. Do you know anyone who’s a criminal but who can still be trusted?”
“Why would you need someone like that?” Renni demanded softly, but then her expression changed.
“As a matter of fact I do know someone like that, but I’d still like to know why you need him.”
“We – I’ve come up with the theory that Waysten is using the criminal element of this city to keep Gardal wherever they have him,” Elissia explained. She’d almost mentioned the savage, but there was no need to do that. “Even if your acquaintance isn’t one of those in on the secret, he can at least help me to look around.”
“And he’s trustworthy enough to keep you safe,” Renni said with another nod. “His name is Wyole, and he ran into trouble with one of Prince Waysten’s new laws. If he hadn’t left his family and hidden among the thieves and beggars of the street, he would have been arrested and condemned to a place on one of the work gangs. That’s been happening to too many people in the city lately. But the kidnapping of a neighboring Prince by a man out to conquer everything in sight has taken people’s attention away from how frightened and unhappy they are with Prince Waysten”
“I think you’ve just found one of the major reasons Waysten had Gardal kidnapped,” Elissia said dryly when Renni’s voice trailed off. “I’m sure there are other reasons, but that one by itself ought to be enough to wipe away doubt about Waysten’s guilt.”
“I’m very much afraid you’re right,” Renni said with a sigh, then she turned brisk. “Let’s get you inside and to a room, and once you’re settled I’ll keep a watch out for Wyole. He usually stops in here to sell firewood at least once a day, and happily he hasn’t arrived yet.”
Elissia nodded and followed Renni inside, and a minute later she was being introduced to Orra and Camdin. The inn’s hostess was a pretty woman of average size with brown hair and eyes, and her husband Camdin was a husky man with the same hair and eye color and a warm, welcoming manner.
When they found out that “Sentor” was a friend of Renni’s and was in the city on private family business, there was no mention made of putting the name in the inn’s guest register. Elissia was given a room key by Renni for a part of the inn that wasn’t used unless the rest of the rooms were taken, and then she was shooed off to find the room.
Elissia had to climb two flights of stairs to the third floor, but once she did it wasn’t hard to find the room. No one else had a room on that floor, and Elissia opened the door to find a small but neat and pretty room. The walls were newly whitewashed, the bed had fresh linens and quilts and fluffy pillows, and the wood floor was swept clean. There was also a table with a basin and pitcher with a towel beside them, and a straight-backed chair standing in front of the window.
Closing and locking the door took only a moment, and then Elissia opened the window before stretching out face down on the bed. She still hurt quite a lot from what the savage had done to her, but she wasn’t about to let that keep her from doing what was necessary. When that man Wyole showed up she’d finally be able to get started with a serious search, and then it would only be a matter of time before Gardal was safe.
And then she could get on with the rest of her plans. Once Gardal was on his way back home to their father and mother, she would be free to find an end to constant pain – of all kinds.
Derand, now dressed as the husband of the family, followed his man Kravil back to where the rest of his men were. The false beard pasted to his face itched slightly, but that was a small price to pay for being able to walk right past a group of guardsmen without having them recognize him. And without having to wear a dress to do it. All men who entered the city were examined carefully, so any man already inside must have been passed by the gate guards.
Kravil led him to a much nicer neighborhood than the one the blue house was in, and to a house much larger than the one bought for him and his “family.” But rather than go up to the front door they circled around to a narrow side street, one which led to the closely fenced back area of the house. A triple knock brought the sound of the fence gate being unlocked, and a moment later they were being admitted to the area. The man on gate duty seemed startled by the “stranger” Kravil had brought with him, but a wave of Kravil’s hand let them continue to the house.
Another pair of guards stood just inside the back door, and one of them allowed the new arrivals to enter while the other studied them carefully from a short distance away. Derand was about to call them by name when the one closer to them laughed abruptly.
“I almost didn’t recognize you, Your Majesty,” he said with a bow that the other man hastily copied.
“Hearing about what you would look like and actually seeing it aren’t the same thing at all.”
“Let’s hope the city’s guardsmen continue to have the same trouble,” Derand said with as much of a smile as he could manage. “Is Listan here?”
“In the study at the front of the house, Your Majesty,” the man supplied. “Would you like an escort?”
“Kravil’s enough of an escort,” Derand said with a headshake. “You two stay at your post.”
The men bowed again as he followed Kravil toward the front of the really large house, and a moment later he was being led through the door Kravil had knocked on once before opening. Listan looked up from the desk he sat behind, then got to his feet showing confusion.
“My king, what’s wrong?” he asked at once. “Why have you changed your plans?”
“I had the plans changed for me,” Derand answered as he walked closer to the desk, then he turned to his escort. “Thank you for showing me in here, Kravil. You can go back to your usual duties now.”
“I was supposed to cook you a really good meal, Your Majesty,” Kravil replied with a bow. “I’ll go and see to it right away.”
Derand no longer had an appetite for that meal, but he made no effort to say so. He waited until Kravil had closed the door behind himself, and then he turned back to Listan.
“When I returned to the house, I found that Princess Elissia was gone,” he told his friend as he lowered himself into one of the chairs standing in front of the desk. With the pillow stuffed into the front of his clothing it wasn’t exactly easy to sit down, but Derand knew he’d better get used to it if he meant to move freely around the city.
“Are you saying she was taken by the guard?” Listen asked worriedly. “What if they make her tell them what she knows?”
“All she knows for certain is that I’m in the city, along with one of my men,” Derand said at once to calm his friend. “There was no need to tell her about the rest of you, so I didn’t. But I don’t think she was taken by the guard. I think she decided I wasn’t doing enough to find her brother, so she went to work on the problem herself. Do you have any men to spare for a low-key search?”
“At the moment, no,” Listan admitted with clear disturbance. “The only ones left in the house are on guard duty. But some of them should be back in an hour or two, and I can send them out again then. Whatever possessed the queen – the princess – to do something like that?”
“Yes, there’s something I’m not mentioning,” Derand admitted, answering the question Listan had left unasked. “If you needed to know the details I’d have already given them to you, so all I’ll say is that she and I had a serious disagreement. Because of that I did something to her I shouldn’t have, and now she’s gone. She didn’t take her possessions with her, but I don’t consider that a sign she means to come back. She wanted to melt into the city’s population as quickly as po
ssible, and she wouldn’t have been able to do that carrying a grip.”
“I know any number of men who wouldn’t have understood that point,” Listan said as he took his seat again. “Does that mean we have to worry that she really might find her brother at the worst possible time?”
“She does happen to know the proper direction in which to look,” Derand told him with a sigh. “She and I worked on the question of where Gardal might be together, and that’s how we came up with the idea of checking the criminal element. I know she’ll do something with that bit of knowledge, I just don’t know what.”
“I’d love to warn the men already in the warehouse, but if we try to contact them we might ruin the whole plan,” Listan fretted, pulling at his lip as his thoughts turned inward. “They must have already found a place to dig in where the thieves won’t find them tonight, so finding them ourselves won’t be easy. Do you want me to have some of the men try anyway?”
“No,” Derand decided after a moment’s thought. “Since the girl may not come anywhere near the warehouse, we can’t afford to do anything that might increase the risk to Gardal. We’ll just have to let the outside men know, and hope that that’s enough.”
“Along with a quick but systematic search of the city, it just might be,” Listan said, obviously trying to cheer Derand up. “And I think the lady’s resourceful enough to keep herself safe, so she ought to be all right. You’ll stay and eat with us, of course, and later you can decide whether or not to go back to your own house. There’s plenty of room if you do decide to stay.”
“I meant to ask you about that,” Derand said, also trying to distract himself from bottomless worry.
“Why is it that the house the men bought for me is small and badly kept up, while the rest of you are in what looks to be a mansion? I’d be interested to hear the logic behind the arrangement -–if there is any.”
“Of course there’s logic behind it,” Listan replied with a wounded look that Derand doubted was sincere. “It goes this way: If Prince Waysten found out you were in the city and sent men to search for you, the last place they would look is in a poor neighborhood. That makes a poor neighborhood the safest place for you. We, on the other hand, are just ordinary men. If a search took place for us, the last place they would look is in a wealthy neighborhood. We’re each protected by being in a place we don’t normally belong.”
“There’s only one thing wrong with that line of thought,” Derand pointed out as he studied his friend’s hidden amusement. “If the city is searched for me and my men, being in the wrong place won’t help either of us. They’ll search every neighborhood, and find us that way. That point escaped you?”
“Why, so it did,” Listen said with surprise that was just as unreal as his former wounded expression.
“Now, see, that’s why you’re High King and I’m just one of the men. It’s obviously a good thing Prince Waysten isn’t searching the city for us with definite knowledge that we’re here.”
“How can you be so sure about that?” Derand put next, a serious question in the midst of nonsense.
“Waysten certainly expects me to come into the city, so how do you know that say, a false alarm hasn’t been raised? The man thinking he saw me would be mistaken, but the alarm would still be raised.”
“If it is, I’ll know about it rather quickly,” Listan assured him, also no longer joking. “I have someone watching the guard barracks, and if an alarm is raised I’ll know about it almost as soon as the guardsmen themselves. It’s her you’re worried about, isn’t it, not yourself?”
With the answer to that question so obvious, Derand didn’t bother to reply. He just bent his head and rubbed his eyes with one hand, praying to all the gods there were that the woman who would never be his Seea would still live to be someone’s.
A light tapping at Elissia’s door woke her from the doze she’d fallen into. She rubbed her eyes before going to see who it was, and opening the door showed her a smiling Renni.
“Wyole’s here,” Renni said at once in a soft voice when she saw Elissia. “He agreed to help you, so he’s waiting just outside the kitchen door. Do you want me to ask him to come back later?”
“No, no, now is fine,” Elissia assured her, knowing that her friend had noticed the signs of sleep. “I was just resting until he got here. Give me a moment.”
She left the door open while she went to replace her cap and get the room key, then she locked the door before following Renni downstairs. If anyone decided to enter the room before she got back, there was no sense in making it easy for them.
Renni led the way through the kitchen and outside, where a large bear of a man waited. He had dirty blond hair and blue eyes, and when he saw Elissia he raised his brows.
“This is the boy you told me about?” he asked Renni, speaking in a very soft voice when compared to his size. “I think I’ll ask what’s going on before I get any more deeply involved.”
“Why did you stress the word ‘boy’ like that?” Elissia asked before Renni could say anything, making sure to use the proper voice. “Are you trying to start a fight?”
“I’m trying to say that I have kids of my own,” the big man replied with amusement. “Two of them are boy and girl twins, and sometimes my daughter tries to pretend to be her brother when she wants to do something she isn’t allowed to do. You’re older than she is, but that’s just about the only difference.”
Elissia exchanged a quick glance with Renni, trying to decide whether or not to tell Wyole the truth. It would have been nice if she’d had a choice, but it looked like she didn’t.
“All right, so I’m not a boy,” she admitted after the very brief hesitation, hoping she was doing the right thing. “It was decided that a girl pretending to be a boy would have a better chance to look around the city to find out what really happened to Prince Gardal. A boy is usually overlooked and ignored, while a troop of big manly men isn’t.”
“That’s true enough, but I don’t understand what you’re saying,” Wyole returned with a frown.
“Everyone knows that the High King of Arvin is responsible for Prince Gardal’s kidnapping, so what do you mean by ‘what really happened to him.’”
“It’s Prince Waysten who’s responsible for the kidnapping, not the High King of Arvin,” Elissia stated, watching the man closely. It was clear that Renni had only told him that someone wanted his help, and had left the details to be filled in by her. “Prince Waysten has set a trap for the High King using Prince Gardal, probably because he knows that they’re friends. Waysten wants to be High King himself, but not just of Arvin. We think he has his eye on becoming High King of everywhere, and we’ve decided not to let that happen.”
“You keep saying ‘we,’” the big man remarked, studying her carefully. “Tell me who that includes.”
“That includes people from Sollera, which is Prince Gardal’s kingdom, and people from the Federated Kingdoms of Arvin,” Elissia supplied, stretching the truth only a little. “Is that enough of a ‘we’ for you?”
“I’m tempted to believe that this is a trick to get me to commit against Prince Waysten,” Wyole muttered, rubbing his face with one hand. “The only problem is that I’m not important enough for something like that, I’m already committed to being against Prince Waysten, and you’re not just any ‘boy.’ Your bearing tells me you’re not a commoner, and I think this is probably my only chance to get my life and family back. With that in mind, what do we do first?”
“Why don’t you two sit down in the garden and talk about it?” Renni suggested when Elissia hesitated.
“If you like, I’ll even bring you something to drink.”
“I’d appreciate a cup of tea,” Elissia said at once, giving her friend a warm smile. “And we will be in the garden, but not where we can be easily seen.”
Wyole followed Elissia to the small but pretty garden to one side of the inn while Renni went back inside. The big man was looking puzzled, but there was no need for
Elissia to tell him that she wasn’t ready to sit on a stone bench just yet. She had the excuse of wanting to keep out of sight, so she meant to use it. A thick privacy hedge surrounded the garden on two sides to protect those in it from the stares of passersby, and Elissia lowered herself to her side in the grass not far from it.
“This way we’ll seem to be lounging instead of talking,” Elissia told Wyole when he folded into a sitting position not far from her. Then she explained the conclusions she and the savage had come to about where Gardal was being held, making no mention about who had done the theorizing. When she’d finished, she looked up at her companion.
“So what I need most is to find out where Prince Gardal is being held,” she concluded. “Do you have any idea where that might be?”
“As a matter of fact, I think I do,” Wyole replied, rubbing his face again. “I don’t go out of the city to chop the wood I sell, not when I’d be arrested if I tried to leave or come back in. My partner does the chopping and I do the selling, and we keep our supply in the corner of a warehouse a friend lets us use. I think Prince Gardal is being kept in a warehouse across the street from there.”
“Why?” Elissia asked, accepting the cup of tea Renni brought, along with a flagon of ale for Wyole. Renni then left again hurriedly, probably because she was needed. “Why do you think Prince Gardal is being held in a warehouse?”
“The warehouse is a gathering place for many of the city’s thieves,” Wyole replied after taking a swallow of ale. “They show up after dark, once all the workers have gone home for the day, and they hold meetings as if they were members of a guild. They made a practice of never showing up until dark, but lately there have been at least one or two of them around all the time. The one or two don’t actually do anything beyond standing around, but the fact that they’re there during the day now has to mean something.”