The woman’s face darkened. “I’ll deal with her later, but for now her desire to prove she and Lord Laurents are unharmed keeps the observant elder Veed out of my hair. In fact, most everyone of your tight-knit group of protectors is busy.” She shifted her attention. “Save one, but he’s not really your protector. Drew, I’d like the king’s ring now. Get it for me.”
Chapter Fourteen
Kambry reached for the knife at her waist, but Drew pivoted his hip onto the table and had her wrist in his grip before she had fully unsheathed it. Maps fluttered, some drifting onto the floor as he scooted the rest of the way to her side and dropped to his feet.
Maizalyn snorted. “Convenient. Use her knife to pin her hand to the table.”
Before Kambry could do more than yanked against his grip, he had disarmed her, flattened her left hand to the table and spiked it with the knife. The pain shocked her, and Kambry stared at her impaled hand, pinned to the table. Blood seeped over and under, spreading in a small pool. She dared not jerk it free. Kambry gazed out at them, her astonishment attuning her to every word and action.
Drew had her free wrist in his grip and looked to Maizalyn.
Sarena’s eyes narrowed.
Kambry wondered if the two women were as aligned in their plans as Maizalyn assumed. And which of these women was Drew loyal to? His grip on her wrist tightened.
Fear rose in Kambry’s chest. She had set herself up alone, without protection. She should have gone to Russal and returned to the map room with him and a contingent of guards. The queen’s blade remained hidden in its scabbard, but she hadn’t a free hand to access it. And what would she do once she had it?
“Mother,” said the man at Maizalyn’s side.
“You’ve done enough, Arnel. Stay silent.”
Kambry stared at the young man beside Maizalyn. Auburn hair gleamed under his hood. That was Lenar, Sybil’s ward and assistant, the one who received impressions about Russal and her. Were they real impressions or just distractions fed by Maizalyn? Felip was telling the truth when he said he had a brother. Arnel, Lenar, A, R, N, E, L. The same letters in Lenar’s name. But he witnessed the death of Queen Mya and was devastated by it.
“You see the depth of my control of this kingdom,” Maizalyn said. “Who better to keep the sybil directed in less revealing perceptions than a trusted assistant and foster son?” She touched Lenar’s cheek. He pulled away, and she patted his face roughly.
Kambry watched. Lenar might have conflicting loyalties. Which mother had his heart? He gazed with wide eyes at the knife holding her hand to the table.
“The ring, Drew,” Maizalyn growled.
Drew raised Kambry’s hand to her face. “Take it off, scribe.”
Kambry looked at her aching hand then at Drew. How could she take the ring off? Even if she knew how, she needed both hands to do it.
She looked to the ring. It was blazing purple, but that didn’t hold her attention. He held the back of her hand turned toward her. The embossed tree and proilis flower in the leather glowed as well. Kavin magic was at play. But who was behind it, her fear or Maizalyn’s desire?
He gripped the ring between his thumb and forefinger. “Let it go, and I won’t have to cut it off.”
“Oh, the both of you,” Sarena said. “Just set her hand flat on the table, and I’ll cut the thumb off.”
Kambry jerked back at the viciousness of her words. Her pinned hand screamed with pain, and she panted, steeling herself to remain still. The puddle of blood pulsed with her racing heart.
Maizalyn strolled along the table opposite Kambry. “Little queen, let him take it and keep your thumb. I don’t have a use for the bit of flesh.”
Drew repeated, “Let it go.”
Kambry swallowed. Felip had said she could remove the ring if she wanted to. But she didn’t want them to have it. Maizalyn already had the queen’s ring. It sat on the hand that gripped Sarena’s shoulder. No sign of magic ebbed from it as if it slumbered.
As Maizalyn walked, Lenar followed at her side. Warring emotions fought across his features. He shared none of Felip’s looks. His brown eyes matched Maizalyn’s, but little else made one think of her. Her hair was a vibrant red, his a deep auburn. Of medium height and build, he lacked Felip’s tall slender frame or his mother’s stature. He must have had a different father than Felip. Or was he adopted by her?
Funny, what odd thoughts paced through her mind! Was this the conflict Sybil had sensed in Lenar? He was Maizalyn’s son, planted to redirect her interpretations? Had it been Lenar who said the hidden corridors were safe for Kambry the day she had run into Felip and the man with him?
Drew snapped his fingers in front of her face. “Kambry!” he barked. “Release the ring or I will cut off your thumb.”
The glow of purple brightened, as did the scabbard’s design. What was it trying to tell her? If she had the power to remove it, didn’t she also have the power to use it? The ceiling was open in the inner map room. The stone that separated the two rooms could carry the magic, couldn’t it? Maybe it entered from beneath the wall where it met the floor.
Kambry concentrated, closing her eyes and pulling at Kavin. She begged for it to rise in her. If it came to her, what would she do with it?
The table was made of wood, the knife of metal, and both were natural elements. She sent the first trickle of Kavin magic she felt tingle over her skin down through her arm and imagined the table pulling away from the knifepoint. She focused on the metal thinning and pulling up through her hand. The pain eased to a dull throb.
“Hurry!” Maizalyn screamed.
Kambry flinched, but the magic kept flowing. What would she do when her hand was free? Drew still gripped her wrist. She grabbed at the magic and struck at Drew, sending him flying over the table. The knife toppled over, but before she could grab the handle with her bloody hand, Sarena had it.
Kambry backed up and lay her punctured hand over the queen’s scabbard. She delayed activating the blade’s release mechanism, remembering Gordy said she should keep it as a holdout for as long as she could. No one was close enough yet for the thin blade, but Kavin's magic continued to caress her skin. What more could she do?
Blood flowed down Kambry’s injured hand, along her forearm, and dripped on the stone floor.
Lenar stepped behind his mother, and for a moment, was out of sight. Kambry watched for him to come back into view. When he did, his hand wielded a knife, but she was the only one facing him. He stared at his mother. For guidance, or did he have his other intentions?
Sarena crouched, her weight shifting forward.
Drew rose from the floor, a hand gripping his shoulder and his arm hanging oddly straight down.
Had he dislocated it in his flight over the table? Kambry hoped so. One less for her to worry about. She shoved the table sideways toward the map wall, blocking Sarena’s way around it. The woman snarled.
Maizalyn screamed, “I don’t care how it’s done. Just get that ring from her.” She turned to Lenar, who kept his side facing her, and her voice softened. “Arnel, my darling. Get the ring for me. You needn’t use a knife. I know how you hate them. Rip it from her hand!”
“It’s not possible,” he said, his voice quiet, his gaze now pointedly away from his mother. “She has control of the magic. We need to leave.”
Sarena threw her knife, and Kambry dodged, shoving the heavy table toward Sarena with a surge of Kavin magic. The blade clattered and skittered away.
Drew rammed his shoulder into the wall, yelling like a stuck boar, before toppling the table out of his way.
Kambry hesitated, watching him charge toward her. Galvanized into running, she headed for the open doorway. If she could just get out of the room.
A hand gripped her bodice and yanked her back just as she was about to cross the threshold. Drew shook her, and she curled around her hands, drawing them close to her chest and grasping the queen’s scabbard above the slit in the leather.
The blade sli
d out and, though her left hand pained her as if it were tearing from within, she grabbed the hilt, turned it so the blade pointed down toward her wrist, and she stabbed out behind her.
It landed in flesh, and she ripped it upward, eliciting a high-pitched cry from Drew. He flung her forward, and she stumbled into the wall, cracking her knees on the stone as she dropped to the floor. Her knuckles rapped the hard surface, but she kept her grip on the hilt.
A scuffle behind rose as she turned about on her knees.
Sarena fought with Lenar. She bit, scratched and punched. “Give me the knife, you worthless coward!”
Lenar did nothing to avoid her barrage of punches, but he kept the knife from her.
Drew lay gasping on the floor, his hand holding his stomach.
Kambry grimaced and felt bile burn her throat. His intestines bulged between his fingers. She couldn’t turn away from the sight. Her own hand gripped the hilt of the slender blade so tight, her fingers were white against the blood. Was all of it hers?
The battle for the knife continued, Maizalyn raging at them both. “Get the ring!”
Kambry backed toward the door. No one was watching her.
There was a scream of fury and then fright. Lenar was scrambling away, his hands bloody, horror on his face.
Maizalyn dropped to her knees, her back to Kambry.
Kambry had to get out of here, but someone stood in the doorway. She gazed in dumb uncertainty, unable to recognize the individual for an instant.
Felip looked at each one, confusion rising on his face. His gaze widened at the sight of Kambry’s bloody hand. His glance at Drew was short. The guard lay, his eyes gazing unseeing at the ceiling.
Kambry watched Felip. Would he be the next to demand she give up the king’s ring?
Felip seemed to steady himself, pulling his shoulders straight. “Mother, what have you done?” he said.
Kambry sidled away from the doorway and Felip and watched the dynamics of the group from a fuzzy sense of peering in at a moment of private disaster.
“You’ll not take it from me!” Sarena screamed and drew the knife from Maizalyn.
Lenar had struck Maizalyn in the chest. The withdrawal sent blood spraying at Sarena. Behind Sarena, Lenar moaned and curled on the floor.
Kambry gulped, the splatter of blood on Sarena’s frenzied features making her want to climb the wall to get away. Her heel kicked the baseboard behind her, her fists pressed into the paneling for stability. It was the only thing that felt solid, though her fingers tingled as if a thin cloud separated her from all that transpired in her view. When she stepped farther from the door, her shoe crushed a map, one of several lying about.
Felip crossed in front of her, almost shielding her from Sarena’s view. Sarena drew her arm back and threw the knife at Felip, striking the wall between them when he ducked.
It thunked by Kambry’s ear and clattered at her feet. She felt surrounded by knifes. Two on the floor by her feet and one in her own hand. She couldn’t make her fingers relax and let the queen’s blade fall.
Before anyone could react, Sarena lunged at Maizalyn, who seemed to remain upright on instinct alone as she slowly crumpled. Their hands twisted together, Sarena crouching as Maizalyn collapsed.
The tink of metal on stone popped in Kambry’s ears, and she watched mesmerized as a ring rolled toward her. Sarena stepped on Maizalyn’s prone body to follow it.
The spinning of the ring on the stone floor thundered in Kambry’s ears.
The swirling breeze that was Kavin magic draped itself along her back and pushed her down to meet the ring. Kambry slid down the wall, and it wasn’t until her knees touch the icy floor that she reached out and the ring rolled up her palm.
She blinked, and when her eyes opened, the silver ring was on her left thumb. The press of Kavin magic doubled its hold on her.
Sarena’s livid face appeared a handbreadth from her own. Kambry’s sense of time and place made it all surreal, and she stared calmly at the twisted grimace on the woman’s face.
Felip grabbed for Sarena just as she grasped the knife by Kambry’s knee, driving it up toward Kambry’s throat.
But it never reached her. She tugged a narrow column of stone from the floor between them, and the blade shrieked against it.
Kambry peered around the thin column blocking her view.
Sarena jerked back, wailing, Lenar’s arms wrapped around her midsection.
Felip fought for the knife in her hand.
Then Russal was there, pulling Kambry toward him and pressing her to the wall behind him. The three struggling figures were only a step away.
The knife drove toward Russal, and Lenar dashed Sarena into the tumbled table, his own arm taking the impact and breaking with an audible snap. Even with his arm broken at his side, Lenar wouldn’t release Sarena while she kicked and spit, still swinging the blade at Russal.
Felip grappled with her and wrested the hilt from Sarena’s grip.
Russal pressed himself tighter against Kambry, raising a sword and blocking her view for an instant. She leaned around him, unwilling to be shielded. Her grip on her knife tightened to the point she was certain her fingers would shatter from the pressure.
“Russal!” Felip yelled, throwing the knife beyond the table out of reach of anybody. “We’ve no further battle between us.” He pinned Sarena’s arms to her sides. “Tend to Kambry. She’s bleeding.”
A strained, quiet voice said, “Felip, she wanted me to kill the queen.”
Sarena bared her teeth and screamed.
“It’s okay, Arnel,” Felip said, his tone soothing even as he worked to control Sarena. “No more killing.” He gazed a moment at his mother’s crumpled body. His voice devoid of emotion, he said, “She’s gone. She won’t make you kill again.”
Guards swarmed into the room. Just as Russal turned to face Kambry, Dorvea stepped beside Felip and struck Sarena so hard, the sound reverberated through the room. Sarena buckled, her head dropping to her chest.
“Gather the traitors,” Dorvea demanded, and the guards surged forward.
Kambry felt a surge of mirth rise in her throat, and she knew she was on the edge of hysteria. Russal was going to say he told her so. She should have taken a squad of guards with her.
Lenar must have released Sarena, for she slid down the side of the table.
Russal drew Kambry close, pressing her head to his chest.
The feel of his warmth next to her own chill brought back a sense of being present. The buffer of magic dissipated. “I think I may have damaged one of your map books when I threw the table. Maybe some maps, too,” she mumbled into his shirt.
“Shh.” He patted her and paused. “Did you say you threw a table?”
“I might have.”
“I’m sure you had reason.” He kissed her forehead.
“Sarena threw a knife at me.”
“Sounds like a good reason.”
“Lenar is Felip’s brother Arnel.”
“Shh. We’ll get all the details sorted later. Where are you hurt?”
“Drew stabbed my hand.”
Russal raised her left hand. Gazing first at the queen’s blade then at the blood trickling down past her knuckles, he said, “Let me have the knife.”
He had to pry her fingers open. When he took hold of the hilt, his eyes widened at the sight of the puncture in her palm. “Let’s put this away.” After wiping it on his trousers, he carefully slid it back into the scabbard, out of sight of those focused on the tableau behind them. “I’m going to look at your hand.” He drew her toward the sconce by the doorway.
The guards dragged Drew’s body from the room, tugging an arm each, and Kambry looked away from him, focusing her gaze on Russal as he turned her injured hand gently. Tugging a handkerchief from a pocket, he pressed it to her hand and caught Cole’s eye. “Get Surgeon Baraby. Then find the queen’s parents.”
His fingers turned the ring on her thumb, and he looked at her face, his eyebrow
s rising.
“The queen’s ring,” she said. She leaned into him, weakness flooding her legs. Everything seemed distant. Even his arm around her had a layer of fog reducing the sensation to vagueness.
“So I see.”
“Kavin gave it to me,” she said, her voice dropping to a whisper.
“As it should.”
“I don’t think I want two of them.”
Russal wrapped his arm around her, and she sighed into him, allowing the scene around her to fade. He drew a long breath and watched Maizalyn being carried out in Felip’s arms. Two guards followed. Before Felip stepped over the threshold, Russal said, “Felip, don’t go anywhere.”
Felip stopped and slowly turned. “I’ll stay long enough to clear up any confusion. Then Arnel and I will leave Kavin.”
Cole gripped one of his arms. The confidence dropped away from Felip’s stance.
“First you will visit with Marshal Burtram,” Russal said. “We’ll determine later who gets to leave the kingdom.”
Her legs shaking with fatigue, Kambry peered over Russal’s shoulder. How had Sybil come in? She sat by Lenar, rocking him, his arms tight around her waist like a child wakened from a night terror. She crooned and caressed his temple.
A short-lived scuffle between a guard and Sarena made Russal glance behind him, but an order from Dorvea ended it.
“Let’s go,” he said. He tied the handkerchief firmly around her hand and lifted her into his arms.
No longer needing to maintain being upright, she gazed about the room “What about the column?” She stared at the thin column she had raised from its base to where it joined the ceiling.
Russal’s eyebrows rose as if he hadn’t noticed it before. “We’ll take care of that later, too.”
Down the corridor, Felip was passing out of sight around a corner. When it came down to choice, Felip had chosen her, knowing she had chosen Russal. This was when Russal and Felip needed to be in the same place, not that she’d been in any position to keep them apart.
Felip had put Russal and her first. She was right to trust Felip, and doing so did not mean she couldn’t believe in Russal.
Reign Queen Page 20
