by Sharon Green
“Seea did all that?” Derand asked, but the shock in his voice wasn’t for the accomplishment. Instead it was for the fact that she’d done it for him, making his rescue possible after what he’d done to her. It made him feel very small and worthless, but it also brought him new determination. She’d now earned the right to have her life go in whatever direction she wanted it to, and he’d see that her wishes were followed. But he’d also do his damnedest to make sure that that direction led straight to a life with him.
“Prince Gardal should be here any minute,” Listan added as he looked around. “I left some of the men with him until the city was ours, and a little while ago I sent for him. The city’s guard force is either dead or taken prisoner, with only a few holdouts left here in the palace. The rest of the populace has no idea they’ve been taken, as there weren’t many people out on the streets once night had fallen. Not many honest people, that is.”
“And the other kind usually stay in the shadows and out of harm’s way,” Derand said in agreement, also looking around as best he could. “What the - !”
Derand had finally seen what looked like Waysten, strapped to something on the other side of the room. He was an odd sight with his trousers down around his knees, and he also seemed to be crying.
“That was the queen’s doing as well,” Listan explained when he realized what Derand was staring at.
“She had the surviving torturer use a heavy switch on him, and I’ve seen no reason to have him released. That decision would be hers or yours, and you know I don’t believe in taking liberties.”
“Stop sounding so virtuous,” Derand told him with a laugh that didn’t hurt as much as it would have earlier. The doctor had almost finished with his ministrations, and now seemed ready to bandage him. A length of cloth had also been thrown over his lap to cover his privates, a courtesy Waysten would probably have appreciated.
“My guess is you’re enjoying Waysten’s humiliation too much to want to see it end,” Derand continued to Listan. “I can understand how you feel, as I have no sympathy for the poor fool whatsoever. When it comes time to execute him, he’ll most likely be relieved.”
“He couldn’t possibly hope not to be executed,” Listan said with a headshake. “When you kidnap a prince and then take a king and torture him in an effort to get that prince back, you have to know you’re betting everything that you’ll win. If you happen to lose instead, even your life is forfeit.”
“Don’t forget to find out what he’s done with his father,” Derand reminded Listan, no longer interested in looking at Waysten. “If the old man is being held prisoner we’ll see about restoring him to the throne, but if he just sat back and let his son do the dirty work It might not be wise to give him the throne back in any event. A king is supposed to protect his people from all threats, and that should include his own offspring. If he isn’t strong enough to do that, he has no business sitting on a throne.”
“Ah, here’s Prince Gardal now,” Listan said as he looked toward the door. “I offered him an escort home for the time after the city was ours, but he refused it. He insisted on staying to find out how you were.”
“That’s what friends are for,” Gardal said as he came up, obviously having heard the last of Listan’s words. “Derand, man, that looks terrible! Why aren’t you in bed?”
“And miss out on all the fun?” Derand countered, wincing only on the inside when the doctor began to bandage him. “When have you ever known me to do that? And while we’re on the subject, how are you? I came by your temporary residence to say hello, but you were out.”
“Thanks to my sister,” Gardal said with a grin. “I had no idea you were also in the city until your man there showed up at the inn. And I appreciate the intention to rescue me even if Elissia did beat you to it. Where is she, by the way?”
“She was right here on guard until the first of our men showed up,” Listan said, glancing around. “After that her bow wasn’t needed any longer, so she must have gotten out of the way. It’s odd that she didn’t take her friend with her to wherever she went to sit down Mistress Renni, a moment of your time, please?”
Derand saw a small, pretty woman walk over to join them, a woman who didn’t seem as happy as everyone else in the room.
“Renni, where did Elissia go?” Gardal asked, obviously knowing the woman. “She must have found someone able to get her a cup of tea, but where is she drinking it?”
“I have no idea,” the woman answered with a weary sigh. “I was tending the High King until his men showed up, and when I looked around she was gone.”
The woman seemed to be holding something back, but Derand felt too disturbed to wonder what.
“Listan, send some men to find her,” he ordered at once. “Tear this place apart if you have to, but I want to know where she is.”
“Immediately, Your Majesty,” Listan answered, now looking almost as worried as Derand felt. “I’m sure she just went to find someplace quiet to sit down, but – We’ll find her.”
Listan strode away to a group of his men, but Derand still wasn’t satisfied. He needed to do something himself to find Seea, but he suddenly remembered that he also needed some clothes. He was about to call after Listan and tell him so, but Gardal stepped close to block his line of sight.
“Derand, I need to talk to you about my sister,” Gardal said in a soft voice, keeping the discussion private between them. “She said certain things that disturbed me, and I’d like to hear what you have to say about them. She said you hurt her. She also said you talked about having the marriage annulled, then changed your mind a few times. You didn’t do any of that – did you?”
Derand closed his eyes for a moment, glad the doctor had finished up with his bandaging and was no longer nearby. What Derand was about to say would do his reputation as a fair man no good whatsoever.
“Your sister spoke the complete truth,” Derand admitted, now looking directly at Gardal again. “I was a damned fool and I did hurt her, and I also gave her the impression that I would let the marriage be annulled, and then changed my mind. I shouldn’t have done what I did to her and I’ll be the first one to admit that, but I’m only a man, not a god. The way she treated me drove me so crazy that I didn’t know what I was doing. From the very first, she even refused to admit that we were married.”
“She’s always hated the idea of marriage, and only now do I have some idea of why,” Gardal said with a sigh. “She told me that marriage was like being put in the sort of box those people had me in, but no one would be allowed to come by and help her escape. I told her that you would never do that to her, but now ”
“Of course I would never do that to her,” Derand protested. “Even if I believed in doing that to any woman, I certainly wouldn’t do it to her. She’s too talented, too all-around capable not to mention the fact that I’m also in love with her.”
“But that isn’t true,” another voice blurted, a female voice. The woman Renni hadn’t been as far away as Derand had thought, and now she stepped even closer to join the discussion. “I didn’t know it was you she was talking about, but - Elissia told me herself that she knew you cared nothing about her. She said you don’t want the marriage any more than she does, but you’re reluctant to hurt her father. She also said she’d rather be beaten than stay with a man who cares nothing about her.”
“So that’s why she acted like that toward me,” Derand said in a dead voice, closing his eyes again.
“She thought I didn’t care about her, and then I even proved the point. She despises me and wants nothing to do with me, and how can I blame her?”
“Something just occurred to me,” the woman Renni said slowly. “When she talked about not being cared about, she sounded more forlorn than angry and that isn’t anything like the Elissia I used to know. If she despised someone, she announced the fact loud and clear to the world. This time, though It was almost as though she were disappointed and hurt.”
“And you don’t feel disappo
inted and hurt if someone you don’t care about doesn’t care about you in turn,” Gardal pointed out rather briskly. “When I spoke to her she seemed to feel betrayed, I suppose you might say. But when your man Listan came by to tell us you’d been taken, she brushed aside the admittedly bad plan I came up with and immediately set her own plan in motion. She didn’t have to be talked into it, and she wasn’t reluctant.”
“She certainly wasn’t reluctant when we first got here,” Renni put in when Derand opened his eyes to stare at Gardal. “She took the bow from me and strung it so fast it took my breath away, and then she put an arrow into that horrible man who told Prince Waysten it was time to start cutting pieces off you. Her face was terrible when she did it, and I don’t blame Prince Waysten for thinking she really would put the next arrow into him. If that man Listan hadn’t asked her not to, I think she would have killed the prince without blinking an eye.”
“That doesn’t sound to me like the actions of a woman who hates a man,” Gardal said, again drawing Derand’s attention. “It sounds more like a woman taking revenge on the people who hurt the man – her man.”
“But I still don’t understand the last thing she said,” Renni added, making Derand dizzy when he immediately turned back to her. “She said you wouldn’t have been hurt as badly if you’d told the prince that she was the one who had freed her brother, but you’d obviously refused to betray her. You couldn’t have known anything about her plan, but you still refused to betray her even after she turned her back on you. That was the way she put it, and she sounded as if what had been done to you was all her fault.”
“Her fault?” Derand echoed in outrage, starting to get up from the chair. “I drive her away, and it’s her fault? That girl needs a good talking-to, and maybe something else as well. Since there’s no time like the present – ”
“Derand, calm down,” Gardal said hastily, pushing him back into the chair. “You almost lost your lap robe, and on top of that you’re in no condition to go running off in all directions. As soon as your men find Elissia, you’ll be able to talk to her all you please.”
“And don’t think I won’t,” Derand muttered as he rearranged the cover over his privates. “In the meanwhile I’d appreciate it if you got one of my men to find something more than this for me to wear. I have to be fully dressed when I talk to that woman, otherwise I won’t stand a chance against her. But at least there’s one good thing about this mess: she couldn’t have gotten out of the palace. My men will find her, and then she and I can have our talk.”
Gardal clapped him gently on the shoulder to agree, and then he went off to tell someone about the clothes Derand wanted. Derand watched him go, but the satisfaction he’d felt only a moment earlier was suddenly beginning to thin. It was foolish to feel a cold premonition, not when Seea really couldn’t have gotten out of the palace. When a city and palace are taken, people aren’t allowed to walk in and out as they please. She couldn’t have gotten out, she simply couldn’t have
When Elissia stepped out into the hall, one of the men who had just walked into the room turned around to look at her. His doing that made him the one she would have to use, so she gestured him over to her.
“Here, take my bow,” she told him briskly, handing the weapon over into his startled grasp. “There’s something else of major importance that needs to be done before this city can be considered completely ours, and I’ll need your assistance for a short while. Come with me, please.”
She turned then and marched off toward the stairs leading downward, and the poor fighter hesitated only an instant before hurrying to catch up with her.
“Excuse me, my lady, but are you sure you’re supposed to be walking around here?” the fighter asked once he’d reached her. “The palace isn’t totally taken yet, and you could end up walking into a fight.”
“That’s why you’re here,” Elissia pointed out without slowing, then she relented enough to smile. “But fighting is more in your province than in mine. If you think we need to add to our numbers, by all means choose the men and tell them to come along with us.”
“That might be the best idea,” the fighter agreed. He was a young man, but not so young that he still had something to prove. “I’ll pick three or four others, and that should be enough to keep you safe. Ah – do you mind my asking by whose authority we’re doing this?”
“Not at all,” Elissia said with another smile. “Listan told me that now that the High King is safe, it’s time to take care of this last matter. I’d suggest that you speak to him to ease your mind, but I really don’t have the time to go back.”
“That’s all right, my lady,” the fighter said with a smile of his own. “I saw Lord Listan there in the room where you were, taking care of the High King. Since you were right there with him, it must be all right.”
Elissia just nodded and continued to the staircase, relief lightening her step. If the man had insisted on turning back she would have gone on without him, but that would have made things a good deal more difficult. She would have gotten out of the palace one way or another, but doing it with an official escort was the easiest.
By the time they reached the front entrance, she had an escort of five. The man she’d chosen first also seemed to have some rank, as he’d had no trouble getting the other fighters to come along. The men on guard at the front entrance tried to stop them, but her own fighter stepped forward and spoke softly to their leader, and then they were being waved through the line.
When they were three streets away from the palace, Elissia thanked the men and told them to go back to their previously assigned duties. Her fighter of rank didn’t care for the idea of leaving her alone on a dark street in the middle of the night, so she asked the man to wait a moment. She’d called a halt near a public convenience, which she then entered quickly to look around. She’d never used one of those herself, of course, but she remembered a report she’d read about the best way to arrange them. If the builders of Ramsond had only read the same report
Elissia breathed a sigh of relief when it became obvious that if they hadn’t read the report, they might even have been responsible for writing it. The convenience had two entrances, the second on the next street over, which gave access to the facilities to the people of two streets at once. It was what she’d been hoping for, so she didn’t waste a minute. Her boy’s clothing was hidden under the slightly large gown Listan had found for her, and it didn’t take long to pull the gown off. She’d even gotten away with wearing her boots under the longish gown, only needing to be careful to keep Waysten from noticing.
As soon as she had her cloak back on, she left the facility by its second entrance. The street was dark and quiet as she hurried away, and as she’d already replaced her cap - which she’d carried in a pocket of the cloak – she didn’t expect to be bothered. She now had to find the place Wyole had agreed to meet her, something she’d been able to arrange only just before leaving for the palace. If the man hadn’t come by at the right time she would have ended up wandering the city all night, with no place at all to go. She certainly couldn’t go back to the inn
Elissia only lost her way in the dark once, due entirely to needing to avoid a patrolling group of the savage’s fighters. They were harder to see than Waysten’s guardsmen had been, so she’d been forced to duck into an alleyway to keep from being seen herself. The alleyway had led to a street she didn’t know at all, and she’d had to go back to the original street she’d been on in order to continue according to the directions she’d been given.
When she finally reached the tavern she’d been told to look for, it was closed and dark the way it was supposed to be. After making certain there was no one around to see her do it, she knocked three times on the heavy wooden door. It took a long, agonizing moment, but then the door was opened and Wyole stood in dim lamplight.
“Come inside quick,” Wyole said, stepping aside to let her do it. “Those patrols are coming around more often than the prince’s ever did,
and they’re not just going through the motions. If you hadn’t warned us to stay off the streets, we might have been picked up – or killed – the way a lot of the thieves and criminals are. Those men don’t joke around. If you refuse to be detained until you can explain what you’re doing wandering the streets and you try to resist being detained, you don’t live long enough to know how foolish you’re being.”
“They’re not stupid enough to leave potential enemies behind their backs,” Elissia agreed as she looked around. She recognized many of the faces from the rescue of her brother, all of the men sitting at various tables with drinks in front of them. They were also now getting back to low but animated discussions, probably wondering how the new events would affect them.
“Ah, our distinguished visitor has arrived,” another voice said. Elissia looked up to see Torban coming through a doorway to the right of the tavern’s counter, and he carried a cup of something. “Since I thought our visitor might be in need of some refreshment, I’m now pleased to supply it.”
He came over to the table Wyole had gone to after closing the door, and when Elissia joined them she discovered that the cup contained tea.
“Thank you, Torban, this is just what I needed,” she said with the best smile she could manage as she joined the two men in sitting down. “It’s been a rather hectic night.”