A Court of Lies

by Kate Avery Ellison

  Greff’s crestfallen expression lifted slightly. “You are not unhappy with my results?”

  “I am not unhappy,” she assured him. “Quite the opposite. Is that… roasted pheasant?”

  Greff shook his head. “Er, I think it’s peacock. One of the lads brought it to me already plucked. I didn’t ask how he acquired it—should I have asked?”

  “Probably not,” Briand said. “At least, I don’t think you would have liked the answer.”

  Greff sighed. “And don’t ask me what’s in the meat pies. They’re better if you don’t know. But they’ll be savory, I can tell you that much.”

  “Before this, we were eating twenty different varieties of gruel,” Briand replied.

  The thieves fell upon the food as if they were starving men set free after weeks of staring at a banquet they couldn’t touch. Briand watched them stuff their faces, laughing and gasping in turn at the culinary delights Greff had produced. The meat pies, she noticed, were especially a hit. By the end of the meal, two of the thieves had hoisted Greff upon their shoulders and carrying him around the hall like a king.

  Maera was already practicing her impersonation of Briand by sitting, eating, and gesturing the same time as Briand in everything. If Briand picked up her fork, Maera did the same, except with the grace of a lumberjack. If Briand sighed a little with appreciation at the flaky crust of one of the meat pies, Maera made an exaggerated heave of breath. It was maddening. Briand snapped at her three times to stop, which only earned her an imitation of her temper from the spy.

  “You’re curling your lip too high when you snarl,” Kael said to Maera. “Make it subtler. Just a twitch of the mouth, really.”

  “Oh, that’s going to be hidden by the bandages,” Maera said. “It’s more about the voice and the body language, I think.”

  “Bandages?” Briand repeated.

  “Yes, remember? You’re going to have an unfortunate accident in the kitchen—some nasty mishap with hot grease, I think—that will require your face to be covered up in white cloth and a healing salve for several weeks. Greff and I have already spoken about it.” Maera took a bite of her meat pie and groaned loudly in appreciation.

  “I don’t sound like that,” Briand protested.

  Nath and Tibus both tipped their heads to the side and made faces to indicate that perhaps she did sound like that, just a little.

  Briand sighed. When Maera copied it, and then pulled out a knife to fiddle with it at the same moment Briand did, the dragonsayer shoved back her chair and stood.

  “I’m going to go check on our prisoner while I still have a shred of dignity left,” she said. Under the table, she stepped on Kael’s toe. His dark gaze captured hers, and one corner of his mouth lifted.

  As she left, Maera was practicing knife flips.

  Briand didn’t wait long in the supply closet before she heard the soft pad of feet and felt Kael’s warm, solid presence. He wrapped her in his arms.

  She sighed.

  “Are you worried about Cait and Bran?” he asked, his mouth against her hair.

  “A little. But I know they are both strong,” she said.

  He smelled like leather and sawdust. She teased a button on his shirt, and his hand caught hers.

  “Briand,” he said quietly.

  “Hmm?” She kissed the place under his earlobe.

  “Sometimes I worry,” Kael said. She felt his jaw tighten as he spoke the words.

  “About what?” she asked.

  “That I am selfish to want to be with you. That it isn’t fair to ask you to wait for stolen visits and secret trysts with the captain of the true prince’s guard. Not when you could have a thief-king.”

  “Trysts?” she said with interest. “Tell me more about these trysts you had in mind.”

  “Briand,” he said, “I am being serious.”

  “So am I,” she replied. “I have no interest in a thief-king.”

  “Our relationship is going to have to be secret. The true prince’s captain of the guard, and a thief-queen? People might try to come after you to get to me. People will talk at court. If it became a threat—”

  He turned his head, his eyes dark and smoldering in the faint light coming from the crack in the door, and she caught his face with one hand and kissed him. He kissed her back, and she could feel the longing and the hesitation.

  “I’m a guttersnipe, an orphan, and a secret weapon,” she said. “My whole life has been stolen and secret. This is no different. And truthfully, it’s already better than I ever dreamed.”

  “It won’t always be easy,” he said, his lips a fraction from hers. “I daresay it rarely will be.”

  “When has anything been easy?” she murmured.

  “This,” he said with another sigh. “This is easy.”

  And he kissed her again.

  ~

  When night had fallen, the company assembled once more in the thief-queen’s chambers—Briand, Kael, Nath, Crispin, Tibus, Maera, and Auberon. The dracules darted from person to person, sniffing their fingers in hopes of a treat. Briand pretended not to notice when Tibus slipped them two meat pies he’d hidden in his pocket. Vox gulped his down immediately, his tail thumping with pleasure, and Sieya seized hers and retreated beneath the bed to eat it. Vox darted over to her, hoping to steal a bite, and she hissed at him. He streamed to the other side of the room and began grooming his scales indignantly with his sharp teeth.

  She and Kael had spent much of the day in tense conversation with Auberon, and the plan had been made. Now, they would present it to the others.

  “Here is the plan,” Kael said. He spread a map of Austrisia on the bed and placed beside it the map of Ikarad that Briand had drawn, and they all leaned over the mattress to see.

  Briand looked at Kael instead. Lantern light washed his face in tones of gold, throwing his eyes and mouth into shadow and making him look fearsome and grim.

  “Those departing on the mission will leave at dawn,” Kael said, “while most of the thieves and the city of Gillspin sleeps. We’ll take horses north, past the mountain barrier and into the Wild Lands proper. We’ll cross the mountains and ride until we reach the Sea of Ice. Here, beneath the ice, sleep the dragons. Briand will call one, and then we will cross the ice to Ikarad.”

  He looked at Auberon, who was standing slightly outside their circle, glowering at them all. This was the Seeker’s cue.

  “Ikarad lies between two islands in the middle of the Sea of Ice,” Auberon said, taking a step forward to join the circle. Nath and Crispin shifted over a step, their expression tight at having a Seeker share their planning. Auberon ignored them. His attention was on the map. He planted one leather-encased finger on the place where Ikarad was located. His chains jingled as he moved. “The location is secret, and so remote as to make it nearly impenetrable. Forged a millennium ago by curses and ancient, twisted magic, it was hewn from the ice by a mad mage from an order called the Valkar. The lowest layers are carved from stone and guarded by spells and curses, and the ice structure is formed on top of them. Enchanted ice. Stronger than stone. The only thing I know of that will melt it is dragon’s fire.”

  He paused, studying their expressions. “My sister should be on one of the lower levels, where they keep the general prisoners.” He tapped a portion of the Ikarad map to indicate the location he meant. “We’ll enter the prison is disguise as Seekers escorting a prisoner. Once inside, I will read the mind of one of the guards to find where my sister is imprisoned, and then we will rescue her and make our way to the corner of the prison where the wall nearly touches the ice. There is a cave there. The dragonsayer will use a dragon from the water beneath the ice to make a hole in the wall so we can escape. It should be quick and simple.”

  “Why not leave the same way we came?” Tibus asked, folding his arms.

  Auberon made a sound of annoyance, as if the question were stupid. “Ikarad is hard to enter, but it is almost impossible to leave. All who exit Ikarad have their mind
s read, for the prisoners there are desperate and resourceful, and once, a prisoner was able to use mind-control hypnosis on an interrogating Seeker and impressed upon him a message to pass along to a waiting party in Tasglorn. Mind readings are considered great violations, and so they are not done upon entering, because only high-ranking Seekers and interrogators come to the prison and they are deemed trustworth, but all who leave must submit to them in case a clever prisoner has managed to manipulate a visitor again. It is a strictly enforced rule. We’d never be able to escape detection if we tried to leave the way we entered.”

  He stabbed a glare at all of them, daring them to interrupt again. Nobody did.

  “Wouldn’t it be safer to enter the prison through the hole we make with dragon fire?” Briand asked. “Less possibility of discovery?”

  Auberon shook his head. “I thought of that, naturally, but we’ll need to gain access to the guards in order to find Jade… and then, there is the matter of the rypters. They roam the prison, and if they sense our minds as we sneak instead, they’ll alert the warden. I believe my way is safer.”

  Briand nodded. She glanced at Crispin, who was silent. He didn’t seem to want to volunteer the fact that he knew how to circumvent the minds of the rypters. Kael and the others didn’t say anything either.

  No reason to share that information with the Seeker if they didn’t have to. They’d do things his way.

  Auberon said, “I’ll need gray cloaks for all of us to serve as our disguises. Bandages and salves for my sister too, since we will not know her condition until we see her.”

  “Can’t she heal herself?” Briand asked. “She’s a Healer.”

  “Her power will be blocked with a collar or some other device to keep her hobbled,” Auberon said. “If I can remove it, she should be able to do a little, but she will be weak. Using too much magic at a time like that could kill her.”

  Kael took charge again. “We’ll leave the horses at the edge since we won’t be able to ride across the ice, and when we return—”

  “But you can,” Crispin interjected. “The snow builds up in places and makes it possible to ride. The last time, we rode right across without stopping…” He trailed off.

  Everyone stared at him. Kael’s expression was like jagged glass. Nath was scowling. Even Auberon appeared surprised.

  “You have been to Ikarad?” Kael said, his tone low and stern.

  “I—er—once,” Crispin stammered. “But only the one time! With my father. He went to train some of the rypter pups there. It was a long time ago.”

  “When were you planning on sharing this information?” Nath demanded. “Seeing how utterly pertinent it is?”

  Crispin looked from face to face. “Well,” he said. “I didn’t think it would matter— I mean, you will have the Seeker—”

  “Who is a sworn enemy!” Nath exploded. “Did it not ever enter into your thick head that it would be vital for us to have someone we trust who knows the terrain on our mission into a secret enemy stronghold?”

  The tips of Crispin’s ears turned pink. “You trust me?”

  Nath snorted in anger, his nostrils flaring. “Lords, lad. Just when I begin to think you’re clever—”

  “I don’t want to go back,” Crispin said, and lowered his head. “That’s why. That’s the reason. I was afraid. I knew it would be good for the mission, but I thought I could pretend ignorance and not have to return to that awful place. I’m sorry, Kael,” he mumbled. “Nath. All of you. I’m sorry.”

  “We need you to come with us,” Kael said firmly. “I’m sorry.”

  “Yes,” Crispin said miserably. “I know.”

  “How long ago did you go, lad?” Tibus asked in a reassuring but gruff tone.

  Crispin rubbed the back of his neck. “I was nine years old.” He hesitated. “I had nightmares afterward for years.”

  Maera put a comforting hand on Crispin’s shoulder. He blinked at her, surprised.

  “What can you tell us about the place now?” Kael asked. “What do you remember?”

  “Well,” Crispin said. “It is ice, as the Seeker said. The rypters are not normal rypters. They are massive, giant ones, bred for the prison.”

  “Wonderful,” Nath muttered. “We’re all going to die. All of us. Dead.”

  “They’re highly trained,” Crispin continued.

  “Extremely dead,” Nath said under his breath.

  Crispin sighed. “And they patrol the halls looking for any escapees.”

  “Dead,” Nath said again.

  Kael looked at Auberon. His eyes glittered. “What say you, Seeker?”

  The Seeker sighed. He rattled his chains as he attempted to cross his arms. “The boy is right. The rypters are bred especially for Ikarad. They are giants compared to the kind in my kennel.”

  Nath muttered something unintelligible, but it sounded like “my nightmare” to Briand.

  She reached out and gripped his wrist. He gave her a startled grimace of a smile, but he appeared to calm a little.

  “We’ll have Vox and Sieya,” she said.

  The dracules, hearing themselves mentioned, pricked up their ears where they were lying in the corner after having given up on being fed any more treats.

  “Tell us, Seeker,” Tibus said. “Are you trying to lead us into a trap? Do you have designs to get us all killed?”

  “I am not leading you into a trap,” Auberon replied with withering scorn. “My only ambition is to free my sister. If I wanted your miserable selves dead, I would choose a less elaborate method to do so. I am very lazy, and I have better things to do with my time than leading Monarchists all over the Wild Lands for nefarious and underhanded purposes.”

  They all looked at each other in silence.

  “Any other questions?” Kael asked.

  There were none.

  Kael picked up the map and rolled it in his hand. “Make your preparations,” he said to them as he tucked the map away. “We leave at dawn.”

  PART TWO:

  SEEKERS AND MONARCHISTS

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  SUNRISE WAS JUST beginning to stain the rooftops of Gillspin gold when Kael and his company stole through the city on horseback, disguised as trappers in fur cloaks and brown and gray homespun. They led a packhorse that carried extra food and two indignant dracules disguised as large and hideous sheepdogs. Neither the dracules nor the packhorse liked the arrangement.

  Briand had managed to find good horses from a merchant who owed the thief guild money, according to Quill. They were Estrian mares, except for a stallion of white, which had a bit of Tyyrian in him. Briand had chosen the stallion as her mount, and when Auberon saw it, he’d remarked, “Do you think you can handle that horse?”

  Briand had pinned him with her sharpest glare before pulling herself into the saddle and riding forward without a word.

  Nath had snorted. “You’re lucky she didn’t knife you for that,” he said to Auberon.

  As they left, Briand heard a howl of pain through the grates that was Maera pretending to be burned on the face in the kitchens.

  So it began.

  The air was crisp and soft, but the stench of the tanneries marred any beauty that otherwise might have come from the morning breeze. Auberon made a sound of disgust in his throat, and Nath muttered something about “the noses of pompous fops” in response, even though the tutor didn’t like the smell of Gillspin either. Otherwise, the party was silent as they departed from the city and into the countryside.

  The sun rose, and with it, Briand’s spirits. She was on horseback, with Kael beside her and Nath and Tibus ahead of her.

  Danger might lie ahead, but at this moment, she had things to enjoy. She was a thief-queen—she would steal what joy she could from this tumultuous life.

  Once they were sufficiently far from Gillspin, Briand freed the dracules from their precarious and unwilling perches atop the back of the packhorse, who seemed to find the change as welcome as Vox and Sieya. She undid the st
raps of the dracules’ cumbersome costumes, and Vox shook himself all over and then ran a circle around the horses, trilling with excitement to find himself between grass and sky again. Sieya watched the other dracule somberly, and then she twisted to sniff her scales as if checking to be sure the itchy disguise was truly gone. A butterfly fluttered past, snagging her attention, and the dracule quivered, crouched, and then sprang at the insect with a growl and a snort of sparks. The butterfly disappeared down Sieya’s throat with one gulp, and Vox dashed over to nose at her, his thoughts filled with curiosity and interest at what she’d eaten.

  Briand called them to her side in her mind as she mounted her horse again, and the dracules came reluctantly, slinking toward the horses with their tails down and their expressions mournful. They wanted to romp and play. Briand’s thoughts were stern, and they both huffed but did as she told them. She caught Kael’s gaze, and he was smiling in the depths of his eyes even though his expression was as unreadable and reserved as always.

  When had she become so good at reading the subtle language of him? He was a symphony of emotion if she only knew how to look. His fingers, his eyebrows, the twitch of his arms—he spoke volumes with each gesture, but it was as if he spoke only to her. There was something delicious about the fact that he was so inscrutable to most, but not to her.

  She knew him.

  And that knowing—the time it had taken, the vulnerability it had cost her—made her feel oddly and beautifully strong. Not safe, exactly, but something better. Something infused with promise and excitement and rest at the same time. As if she had been clinging to a cliff for far too long, and now, she had discovered a ladder leading upward.

  They rode on. The dracules dashed right and left, luxuriating in the feeling of sunshine and fresh air, their minds buzzing with thoughts of the smell of the grass and the squish of the ground and the startling, joyous appearance of insects that they promptly ate. In the distance lay mountains, their peaks dusted white and their slopes a deep, dark green. Nath lectured everyone on the geography and history of the region, which was mostly ancient wars from the time of dragonsayers, and Crispin corrected him so much that Nath threatened to cut the lad’s ears off, and then, Auberon declared that he was going to cut his own ears off if they didn’t all shut up.