Her eyes became vulnerable and tears slid down her cheeks. “James, you can’t do this.”
“I can. Please, trust me. Most of this crowd will dissipate the moment you and Eden step off this stage.”
She looked away and the tears came faster.
“Hey, Dee, I can do this.” He made her look at him and after a moment she gave a reluctant nod.
“Fine. But promise you’ll come back to me.”
James kissed her cheek and stood. “Milord.”
Eden approached.
“She’s agreed.”
Eden seemed surprised that she would and looked to his sister, who gave him a reluctant nod. Turning his attention on James again he said, “Twenty lashes of the whip, James? Are you sure? I can bear it in your stead.”
“If we want to avoid a riot, then, yes, I’m sure.”
Eden saw his point, even if he didn’t like it. “Cut her down, and get those chains and irons off her. “And tie this man to the pole in her stead.”
James fixed the prince with a sardonic grin. Do me a favour. Get your sister away from here. She doesn’t need to see this.”
***
Danielle kept glancing out across the garden towards the palace carriageway as she paced back and forth along her balcony. Up until a few minutes ago, she’d been with her maids frantically preparing the bed for James’ arrival and organising the palace physicians who were not already in attendance in the square. Then Faith and Michael had arrived from the General Council chambers and ordered her outside with a glass of wine. Michael had accompanied her to the balcony while Faith saw to the preparations inside. Her younger brother had spent the last few minutes telling her what their father had decided to do with the new information they’d received from the Lady Winters. A message was already on its way to the Arkaelyon fleet, which was back at anchor at Frankton town. Captain Wilkinson and Captain Vasytor would have Swordfish and Storm with a company of soldiers slip out of port under the cover of darkness tonight and sail down the Renwick coast to investigate the claim. The news relieved her some. It also helped to know Father had decided to bolster the palace guard with five hundred knights and solders of the Lord Commander’s men stationed at the city barracks. Just a precaution until the Archbishop could be arrested on slavery charges.
“So what do you think?” Michael asked, frowning at her as she paced past him for the umpteenth time.
“Good. I’m pleased.” She glanced out across the garden again, wondering where James was and why the whipping was taking so long. In his weakened condition he’d likely blacked out, and they’d had to rouse him with a bucket of water, it was the only reason it would take so long. Or the only reason she dared contemplate.
“I thought you’d be a little more relieved than this,” Michael said. “We’re talking about reversing your permanent expulsion from the General and High Council and stopping whatever it is the Archbishop and his cronies are up to.”
“I know. I’m sorry … I’m just distracted.”
The door opened and Faith emerged from the bedchamber. She’d already changed into her travelling garb for the afternoon ride to Lowburn Town. They’d have to leave Illandia within the hour if their delegations were to make the farming town south of Summerset before nightfall. Danielle knew she had a great deal to do before then.
“Perhaps you should stay behind? Bastion and I can handle the Vafusolum proposal,” Michael suggested.
“Thank you for the offer, but I need to be there. I know the details, and have a great deal more sway with the assembly—”
“Dee …”
“Michael, leave her be. She’s coming. Now go and get ready.”
His brow furrowed heavily. “Aren’t I sufficiently capable of negotiating …
“Not on something as important as this,” Faith said.
He shook his head and went inside.
Danielle had noticed the tension between her brother and best friend since Faith’s arrival from Corenbald three days ago.
“Everything all right?” Danielle asked as Faith stepped up beside her. With James and everything else that was going on, she had not had a chance to ask.
“He wants me to surrender my title as Corenbald’s First Sword when we are married.”
“That again. I guess he knows how Kimberley feels every time Eden dons his armour in Arkaelyon’s service.”
“James likely feels the same way about you,” Faith added, pointedly. “Except you neglect to don armour. Oh, and have a tendency to keep secrets despite promising otherwise.”
Danielle rolled her eyes. “Please don’t start this again.”
“Danielle, this dream is clearly affecting you. You need to talk to your father.”
“I will.”
“When?”
“When I figure out how to tell him his daughter is likely a monster. Or more of a monster than they already think I am.”
Faith softened at hearing this. “Was it that bad?”
“I’ve had two dreams not one, and yes, they were that bad. Gods, six months of this, and who knows what happens after that.”
“All the more reason why you need to share this with us. We can’t help you if you won’t talk to us. Promise me you’ll talk to Joseph before we go.”
“I was intending to. Though time is of the essence now.”
Faith pulled back her hair and tied it up. Danielle was staring out at the garden, debating with herself whether or not to take a walk down to the palace gates or send a messenger to the council chambers, requesting Joseph attend her at his earliest possible convenience. Both chores she dreaded.
Faith laid a hand on her shoulder. “Dee, James is going to be fine.”
Danielle wasn’t so sure. “You saw how weak and ill he looked. And twenty lashes! Why didn’t Eden say anything to me then and there?”
“You know why.”
Danielle sighed and sat down on the stairs and dropped her head into her hands. With everything else going on she needed this like a broken sword in a melee. “I hate seeing him this way.” A week wondering if she was going to be a widow even before she married had almost killed her. She wasn’t sure she’d survive another week wondering and more so since she’d be two hundred miles away in Amthenium.
Faith settled down beside her. “He’s one person you don’t need to worry about. By the time you get back from Amthenium, he’ll be up and about. Your Lord Commander will have Kane under lock and key, and Lord Helidon and the Archbishop in chains with him. The slaves will have been found and you’ll have your membership back on the councils. Mark my words.”
“I hope so.” Truth be told, she didn’t think it would be that easy. It seldom was.
“Then you just have this business with Cargius to conclude,” Faith said, after a short pause and with not quite as much assurance.
Danielle sniggered at that. After the events inside the tower prison it was clear to anyone with eyes that Cargius shouldn’t be trusted more than was necessary. That said, after her last two dreams she suspected she knew why Cargius was the way he was. It wasn’t a knowledge she relished.
“Sorry,” Faith said. “The man angers me.” She blew out a weary breath and said, “Your father tells me the vote on the Vafusolum proposal fell as we hoped. That at least is cause for celebration.”
Despite everything, Danielle laughed. She couldn’t help herself. The expression on the Archbishop’s face as she had suggested shipping surplus grain from Arkaelyon’s royal supplies to alleviate the famine in the Vafusolum Empire, and encouraging the nobles to do the same, had been enormously gratifying. “A moment of sunlight in an otherwise difficult day. Though I expect the Archbishop …”
Danielle stopped. A cart was coming up the carriageway to the front of the palace, or at least she could hear hooves and iron-rimmed wheels crunching through the white stone gravel at a half canter. She leapt up and began down the steps to the lawn. The oak trees in the garden blocked her view, but it had to be James for it was th
e first vehicle she’d heard since the exodus to the square sometime ago.
Faith caught her up halfway across the lawn. “It’ll look worse than it is.”
Danielle’s heart was fluttering. She knew what a whipping could do to a person’s back. She’d seen enough of them administered in the city square and the palace stabling yard across the years.
The cart came into view, flitting past the trees as it made its way towards the stone archway that gave entrance to the palace stabling yards at the far side of the Southern garden.
Danielle hoisted up the hem of her gown and ran to intercept it. “Here! We’re over here.” She leapt over a flowerbed and charged through a stand of leafy oak trees.
The guardsman at the reins of the cart looked up at the shouting and on seeing who was hailing him, immediately slowed and brought the cart around. Bastion, Eden, Kimberly and the two palace physicians—Mr Florantus and Master Slimcar, who’d gone to the square to administer aid to what should have been her back, were in the back of the cart as it bumped across the garden towards her.
“How is he?” Danielle yelled out.
“Well enough, Dee,” Bastion had poked his head up from whatever he was doing. His grim look contradicted his words, and the moment the cart reached her she climbed up. “James?”
“I’m fine.” His voice was stiff with pain, and though he was conscious, his torso was bandaged and he was lying flat on his stomach.
“Is that true?” She looked up at Mr Florantus and did not like what she saw in the man’s face.
“If we can keep the fever off him I’m sure there will be nothing to worry about. Though we should not dally, your highness. He has several lacerations that will require stitching.”
Which meant fever was almost inevitable.
“Take us to my chambers,” Danielle said.
“We were taking him to the palace surgery, Milady.”
“My chambers will serve just as well,” Danielle insisted.
Faith had jumped up onto the front bench of the cart and taken the reins. Now she put the whip to the horses’ flanks, and the cart bolted forward through the garden. Holding on with one hand and refusing to give in to the dread that was threatening to consume her, Danielle bent and kissed James’ cheek. She knew what needed to be done, however apprehensive she was. Her dream had showed her what her blood was capable of in situations like this, but to dream about healing a wound was quite different from the actual doing.
They were passing the small stand of oak trees when Danielle sensed a cold presence sweep over them. She instantly looked up at the trees, dappled sunlight flickered through the leafy branches but there was nothing else to see. Not that she was about to deny what she had felt. Her hand instinctively touched the amber and emerald amulets that hung around her neck. Cargius had said that the former would protect her from the sight, and the latter from a great deal more, but Kane was here nonetheless. Or at least his presence was here.
“You all right,” Eden asked.
“Stop. Stop the cart!”
“What’s wrong?” Eden asked.
Danielle ignored him. It was hardly wise to speak freely in front of the physicians even though they were loyal to her father. “Mr Florantus, Master Slimcar, if you’d step down, please. You too, Mr Gater”
Unlike the guard who complied without question, Mr Florantus stared at her, bewildered. “Milady?”
“Please, sirs, do as I say.”
She knew they didn’t have much time.
Forantus looked to Eden, “Milord?”
“Do as she says.”
As soon as the three men had stepped down, Danielle said, “Take us to the outside entrance to the palace cathedral, and quickly. We need to get on to consecrated ground.”
Faith put the whip to the horse’s flank and brought them about before heading back down towards the carriageway.
“What in Vellum’s name is going on?” Eden demanded.
Danielle was watching the trees again, her heart hammering against her ribs. She couldn’t see anything, but she knew the presence was following them. She could feel it in her blood just as she had dreamed. “It’s Kane. He’s here. He is furious. He wants to hurt me.”
“Where is he?” Eden was looking out at the garden, his hand going to his sword.
“It’s not like that. He’s not visible or material.”
She felt everyone look at her and fear ballooned in the cart around her. Worse, she felt Kane feeding on it, drawing strength from it.
“Has he been anointed?” Eden asked.
“No. There’s nothing to fear in that regard. He wants me. But he’s like a novice with his first training sword, clumsy and weak and not sure of himself.”
“You sure the Cathedral will be safe?” Bastion asked.
“It was in my last dream. We should be safe on consecrated ground.”
Danielle had closed her eyes and was concentrating her thoughts. Kane’s presence had faded but he was still here somewhere. Part of him fears me, she realised as she sort him out. It was more a feeling than anything else.
“Is anyone else with him?”
“No. He’s alone.”
Suddenly she got a flash of a pretty young Surlemian woman and Kane together in a hovel. There were dogs barking. General Hendrix was shouting orders somewhere nearby. She heard soldiers. Then she saw a small village up in the Eastern Mountains. A place she recognised. Taramine. One of Lord Cameron’s Mining villages.
“I know where he is! Hendrix is just about right on top of him!”
Before she could say more a pitiful scream came from the deck of the cart. Kane’s presence had leaped out of the shadows of a nearby wall and was now feeding on James back.
“Get out of the way!” Danielle pushed her brother aside and lay down on James’ back to protect him. Kane’s presence recoiled like a hand from a fire. Danielle felt her brother’s sudden pain as their spirits touched and then he was gone, receding into the ether.
“What in mercy’s fair name are you doing? You’re hurting him,” Eden said. Everyone else in the cart looked just as alarmed.
“It’s Kane! He’s trying to harm James.” James was bucking under her, struggling against the world of pain he was sinking into. Kane had tainted the wound, she could feel its malignant presence growing, ballooning in James’ blood, sapping his strength and dragging him toward unconsciousness.
“Faith, hurry!”
The whip cracked and the cart burst out through the stone archway and into the Eastern garden.
“Is he still here? Kane I mean,” Kimberly’s eyes were wide with fear.
Danielle shook her head and pushed herself up off James’ back and held onto the side of the cart. “No. He’s gone.” The front of her dress was wet with blood. She took James’ hand. “Hold on. You have got to fight it.”
“You said you know where he is?” Eden was clearly eager to know and understandably so. This was an opportunity to catch him. Assuming of course, Hendrix had not already done so.
As the cart bounced over a curbing, almost throwing her, and raced up a flag stone path towards the front steps of the Cathedral wing of the Palace, Danielle quickly told them what she’d seen; the name of the village and that he was in a cottage behind the tavern.
The moment the cart stopped, Eden and Bastion leapt down and quickly slung a barely conscious James between them and began up the stairs. Danielle followed; praying that what she was about to do would work successfully.
Faith ran past them, unbuckling her sword belt. “I’ll organise a bed. What about informing Lord Hendrix about what you saw just in case Kane managed to elude them again?”
“I’ll see to that as soon as we have James inside,” Eden said.
To the startled guards who were coming down the steps to meet them, Faith said, “Open the doors and come with me.”
Faith had vanished inside by the time they stepped across the threshold and into an empty vestibule, but hurried footsteps drew their at
tention to a servant’s hallway across the marble floored entry. A guard appeared, puffing for breath.
“This way, Milords, Miladies.”
Eden and Bastion went first, James slung between them, blood dripping from his bandaged wounds and leaving a trail on the floor, and Dee and Kimberly quickly followed. They passed down a hallway with arched windows along one side and life-size marble statues of the seven reformist priests on the other. At the end of the colonnade, the guard led them across an empty mess hall and up a wide staircase to the living quarters where those that served inside these hallowed walls slept. They entered the first room with a bed to find Faith busily pulling the curtains and ordering a servant to fetch some hot water, bandages, needle and thread and healing balm. Eden and Bastion gently lay James down.
“Now what?” Eden asked. He was obviously eager to go and get a message off to the Lord Commander.
“Give me your dagger and leave. All of you. Kimberly, help the servant fetch the water and bandages, and make sure she is quick about it. Eden, find Kane. I’ll go to Amthenium feeling a great deal easier knowing we have him under lock and key. Bastion have someone go and fetch my father and Joseph and keep everyone else from entering the hallway. The less people who know what I’m about to do the better.”
Eden and Kimberly had run out of the chamber and Bastion was following as a stampede of footfalls brought Michael and all the palace physicians thundering down the hallway. They’d evidently heard her say where they were going and ran across the palace to join them.
“Dee, what’s going on?” Michael said, entering the room.
“There’s no time to explain. Now, please, everyone out. I need to be alone with him.”
Understanding began to bloom in Michael’s face. But not among the physicians, all of who looked dreadfully alarmed at the prospect of their lady handling such injuries as James had sustained.
“Milady, really. I have no idea what is going on here, but your protector needs immediate attention,” Mr Florantus said.
Danielle ignored the physician and looked to her younger brother and undersecretary for help. Michael and Bastion gave her an imperceptible nod, and immediately ushered the elderly gentlemen back up the hall, placating their protests the best they could without telling them anything.
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