The Poisoned Quarrel: The Arbalester Trilogy 3 (Complete Edition)

by Duncan Lay

  “A moon or more,” the sergeant said.

  “Have we got anything useful out of them?’

  “Nothing,” he admitted.

  Bridgit looked at the lines of men. They all looked wet, cold, hungry and frightened. None of them stood out as being in the pay of Swane but then any agent of the deposed Prince would seek to hide their true nature. The ones in the cells looked much the same, except a bit drier and much dirtier.

  “It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack,” she said aloud.

  “Almost, my lady. At least there you know there is a needle somewhere. With these men, there’s every chance they’re all hay and not sharp enough to be a needle.”

  Bridgit nodded. “Send another runner to find Fallon and tell him we can’t take any more until we let some go.”

  Jason nodded and grabbed one of the harassed-looking guards and shouted orders into his ear.

  “But which ones shall we let go?” he asked.

  “The ones in the cells. If we haven’t been able to get them to talk by now, we aren’t going to.”

  “Unless we persuade them,” Jason said.

  Bridgit shook her head vehemently. “Then they will say whatever we want them to. Get them out of here.”

  “Fallon will not be happy,” Jason said.

  “Let me worry about that. We are half of the Ruling Council and we order you to set these men free,” Bridgit said firmly.

  The atmosphere in the dungeon changed as each cell was emptied. At first the others were alarmed, then relieved, then demanded to join them. The new captives, however, still slumped on the floor. There were enough of them to easily fill the cells.

  “Any word from Fallon?” Bridgit asked Jason, only to receive a shake of the head in reply. She pointed to one of the ragged men sitting on the cold stone floor. “Let me talk to one of them.”

  The man was hauled across, protesting, until Jason gave him a jab in the ribs. “Talk to the lady and you might get out of here in one piece,” the sergeant growled.

  Bridgit smiled reassuringly. “What is your name?” she asked.

  “Sean,” the man replied nervously.

  Instantly Bridgit was catapulted back to Kotterman and the brothers Sean and Seamus and what she had done to them to save the others.

  “Who paid you to shout that Prince Swane can save Berry and that we are stealing food from you?” she demanded.

  Sean shrugged nervously. “I never got no money. The word on the streets is you just have to shout that out and you get a bed in the castle, and food, so your family can share out your rations and the kids don’t starve.”

  “You know you could die in here,” she warned.

  His expression did not change. “Better than listening to the children crying because they’re hungry. I used to work down on the docks but there’s no money there now. This is all I can do to help my family.”

  “You could have volunteered to fight. If you are in the army, you get more food,” she said coldly.

  Sean sniffed. “I did volunteer. But I got kicked out because I told some of the others what I had seen during the battle here.”

  Bridgit nodded to Jason and he hustled the man away. She cursed silently. Munro had outsmarted them. He did not need to give orders, he did not even need to be in the city. They were doing his work for him. Desperate men would do anything for their families and Munro was using these men to defeat the Ruling Council. All the spare food had gone to the eastern counties. Feeding so many extra men would leave the rest of the city short, which would cause even more problems. Fallon thought he was getting a problem off the streets but he was only making it worse, she realized. Each man arrested and being kept fed in the castle was inspiring two more to do the same. She turned to her friends.

  “Arresting these men not only does nothing to find Swane’s men but helps their cause by costing us time, effort and food. We have to let them go.”

  “What is Fallon going to say?” Riona muttered.

  “You need to show that you are in charge,” Nola said meaningfully. “This is the time to show your power.”

  “No, it’s just the time to do what needs to be done,” Bridgit disagreed.

  She stared at the lines of men. They all had the same despairing look on their faces, as if punishment and torture in these cells was not the worst thing that could happen to them. She turned to Jason.

  “Let them out. This is ridiculous,” she said. “We’d get more useful information out of a wooden door than these men.”

  “My lady, Fallon has just arrested them,” Jason said, a hint of reproof in his voice.

  “And I am setting them free! Do it. Now!”

  *

  Fallon stayed behind in the stables to make sure the men were brushing and feeding the horses. The beasts looked exhausted and he suspected Brendan was right, they would start to lose them if they kept using them through this bitter weather. He would have to only use the fittest for a while, although the little fodder they had left was not going to restore their condition. Still, maybe they had finally snatched up one of Munro’s men. Aroaril knew they had dragged enough away. There had been nothing that looked like Munro’s base, just a lot of hungry people sheltering in empty houses, but you never knew.

  He stretched his aching back. He would have liked to go and rest but the Ruling Council was supposed to meet this evening. Or what was left of it.

  As he suspected, Gallagher had not bothered to join them. At least the room was warm, a raging fire going and thick curtains over the windows to shut out wind, which always found some gap in those horn panels to whistle in.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Devlin said. “The Council got twice as smart when he left.”

  Riona giggled at that and Fallon turned to them irritably. “I don’t find anything funny in the way one of my friends is destroying himself.”

  “When things are darkest, you need to laugh, for it’s the only way to lift the spirits,” Devlin countered loftily.

  “Right,” Fallon threw his cloak over a chair and joined the others, trying to ignore that Brendan was sitting at the opposite end of the table from Nola.

  “How goes the hunt for Munro?” Bridgit asked.

  “We need more men,” Brendan said flatly. “Every man and his dog has apparently seen Munro and wants the reward for him. According to this list from the morning, Munro is in a score of places across the city, including working in the kitchens here.”

  “Really?” Fallon asked sharply.

  “Given it’s only women from Baltimore working there, I don’t think even he would be able to disguise himself for long in there,” Brendan said. “But we don’t have enough men to look in all these places. And the one we miss could be the one where he’s really hiding.”

  “Then get more men from Casey. Nothing is more important than getting Munro,” Fallon said flatly.

  “But that will slow down the training. The new men are not like the first batch you trained. They need a trainer each if they are to make any progress,” Brendan objected.

  “Doesn’t matter. I want teams out there hunting for Munro. That is our top priority. Then we can worry about training.”

  “What do we do with the ones we catch, how do we get them to talk?” Devlin asked.

  “We need to ask harder questions,” Fallon said.

  Bridgit shook her head. ‘What you mean is you want to hurt people while you ask those questions.”

  “We need answers,” Fallon argued. “We keep missing Munro but we know he’s out there. We need to loosen a few tongues. If we can get them to talk faster then we can get this bastard.”

  “And by loosen tongues, you mean break fingers and toes. And I suppose you will get Brendan to do your dirty work for you,” Nola said stiffly.

  Fallon rolled his eyes. “Do I have to remind you that Munro was right inside this castle and got close to all of us? And then he sent Dina’s traitorous lover to kill us in the night. He will not rest until we are dead and his ma
ster Swane is back on the throne. Do we want that to happen?”

  “That is a stupid question,” Bridgit said. “The real question is, are we prepared to hurt innocent people to maybe find one man with real knowledge of Munro. If there is one. Anyone foolish enough to be grabbed by our men is hardly likely to be smart enough to be trusted with Munro’s hideout.”

  Fallon rubbed his ears, wondering if he was really hearing correctly. How could they not see things clearly as he did? “Bridge, this bastard tried to kill us. You know how close he came to succeeding, too. Kerrin was inches away from death at his hands!”

  “But how does hurting ordinary people change that?” she replied instantly. “Remember, we are supposed to be better than Swane. We have to act like it.”

  “We are better than Swane! But stopping him will take more than rude words! He’s still on the loose somewhere, remember? Finding Munro will blind him and lead us right to him. This will end his threat once and for all. And I am happy to do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

  He leaned back in his chair, sure they would all agree with him now. How could they not?

  “And you would sacrifice Brendan along the way as well? You will destroy him, as well as dozens of families,” Nola accused.

  “Nola is right. We cannot agree to this,” Bridgit nodded.

  Fallon turned to Devlin, to appeal to him, but the farmer averted his eyes. Fallon swore at himself. If only he had laughed at the man’s jokes! Then he swore at Devlin more.

  “Right,” he said aloud. “We shall do what we can. But you need to think again.”

  “We’ll let you know when we have,” Nola said primly.

  “So, what news from around the country?” he said, holding his temper in check.

  “Food is getting low everywhere. I think we need to cut the rations to the army,” Bridgit said.

  “Not going to happen. Those men need that extra food,” Fallon said instantly.

  “But you said they aren’t training properly anyway—”

  “The rations stay the same. We can cut it back elsewhere. End of discussion.”

  “Maybe you’re suffering from baby brain, Bridgit,” Devlin added with a wink.

  “What?” Bridgit gasped.

  Devlin smiled. “You know. When women are pregnant they start to lose their mind. It always happens.”

  “Oh, and what’s your excuse then?” Bridgit asked sharply.

  “Anyway, what’s happening in the rest of the country? Are they also complaining?” Fallon said loudly.

  Bridgit sighed. “Much the same as here. We have all towns under our control though. It is only talk. We just have to ignore it. Treat it as a joke.”

  “Finally!” Devlin said. “Somebody says something sensible in here!”

  Fallon ignored him completely. “We have to stop these rumors. We must stamp down on everyone spreading them.”

  “We might as well try to stop the winter rain,” Bridgit said tiredly. “That approach is doing us more harm than good. Fallon, we need to speak about—”

  “Maybe we should fight back with some rumors of our own,” Devlin interrupted.

  Fallon turned to his friend eagerly. “That sounds like an idea. What did you have in mind?”

  “How about that Swane is coming back, ready to burn babies to Zorva. That will get people ready to help stop him.”

  “It could also cause a panic on the streets. What if people head off into the countryside to try and escape? We could see hundreds starving, or freezing, or arriving in towns already stretched to the limit,” Bridgit warned.

  “You never take my ideas seriously,” Devlin said accusingly.

  “Because throwing ideas out into the air is not being serious. We have to think about our every action and only act when we have considered everything,” she said heatedly. “Or we shall be no better than Aidan and his nobles.”

  “Are you comparing Dev to one of the nobles?” Riona snapped.

  “Enough!” Fallon roared. He was heartily sick of all of this. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. For the hundredth time, he wondered what might have happened if Prince Cavan was alive. “This is not helping. Dev, go away and think of some rumors we can spread about Swane without causing a panic, and then we’ll look at how we win back the streets. Now, how is the food situation in Berry?”

  “It could be better. The stocks are going down faster than we expected, in part because there are too many prisoners in the castle, all demanding to be fed.”

  “How is that eating up the food? They would be getting it anyway,” Fallon pointed out.

  “But we don’t know who their families are. They are still turning up at the warehouses, to get a full family ration, which they share out or sell, while we feed the father twice a day.”

  Fallon swore. “Right. What can we do to stop this?” he said.

  “I have fixed the problem,” Bridgit said.

  “Excellent! How?”

  “I have let all the prisoners go.”

  “What? Are you mad?” he thundered. “Was Devlin right and you have baby brain?”

  “No! And I would thank you to keep a civil tongue in your head! I had to do it, because the cells were full and then you brought even more back, overcrowding us to the point that something had to give. I would have spoken to you but you were nowhere to be found and, besides, you wouldn’t have agreed anyway.”

  “Then you can go and round up some guards and get them back again,” he roared.

  “Impossible. And it is a waste of time, money and effort. Some will have run, some gone into hiding and if there was any traitor in their ranks, they hid themselves well. Face it, I had to do it, because you would not.”

  Fallon slammed his hand on the table. He now expected the others to hinder him, rather than help, but Bridgit? He had always depended on her. “How could you do that?” he snarled. “Those men might have held the key to finding Munro and maybe even Swane and Kemal!”

  “By the time we had sorted through all of them, spring would be here. None of them were talking.”

  “Because you stop us from using the right methods to get them to talk!”

  “So we should torture hundreds of innocent men in the hope of finding maybe one guilty? How does that make us better than Aidan? We need to catch Munro and find Swane and Kemal but not like this.”

  He shoved back his chair and stood. “Right. Well, I had better get back out there and start searching, because if we don’t find Munro, all of this is pointless.”

  “Fallon! Sit down and let us talk about it sensibly—”

  But he was already heading out the door. All this talk was achieving nothing. The Kottermanis were coming and he had no way of stopping them. Not unless he caught Munro. Why couldn’t anyone else see that?

  CHAPTER 52

  For the last quarter moon Feray had watched endless caravans of food, water, weapons and armor as well as lines of soldiers snake down to the docks and disappear into the bowels of the fleet of ships waiting there. It was tempting to wish for them to sail into the storm she had somehow survived and sink—except Kemal was on board one of those ships.

  But she had not been idle. They had torn up sheets and made a long rope, testing it at night to make sure it reached all the way to the ground—and that it could hold their weight. Ely had also made several trips to the market, slipping out when things were at their busiest, and now they had more than enough sleeping powders.

  “The Gaelish acted when it was time for evening prayers, knowing that they had that time before anyone could react,” Ely said.

  At first thought Feray was scandalized at the idea of doing the same but then the idea grew on her. Yes, she needed all the help she could get to make her crazy plan work but praying to Aroaril at certain times of day had not provided them with the God’s power, nor stopped the Gaelish Zorva-worshippers from taking over. Skipping one prayer session, especially in a good cause, was a small price to pay.

  She peered out of the win
dow and saw the last of the ships sailing out of the harbor with the afternoon tide, joining the forest of sails that waited beyond the harbor wall. It was an astonishing achievement to have it all ready so quickly but she was not surprised. When the Emperor ordered something, it happened. Or people died.

  “We shall go tonight,” she said.

  “Is it not better to wait for a few days, so that the guards relax even further, without the presence of the Emperor there? And we don’t want to sail into the rest of the fleet,” Ely suggested nervously.

  “Yes, we do. Who knows when they will execute the Emperor and my Kemal?” Feray said. “Besides, they will keep the area where they sail free of storms with their blood magic. We want to enjoy that as well. We go tonight.”

  Ely smiled, a little. “I never got to escape the last time,” she said softly. “I would like to do so now.”

  “This is only the first step,” Feray said. “In some ways it is the easiest. After this we have to find Gokmen and Gemici, then hope our ship is still there. And then we have to somehow free Kemal from the middle of a huge fleet and turn the tables on the evil Gaelish. Go and give those powders to the guards. I’ll make sure the boys are ready.”

  Feray made sure they were dressed in travelling clothes and fastened a small bag on each of their backs.

  “Ana, what is going on?” Asil asked.

  “We have to go and rescue your baba. Do what I say and say not a word unless I tell you. And you must be prepared to run if I say. Run and don’t look back, hide and survive.”

  “We will never leave you, Ana,” Asil declared.

  She grabbed him by the shoulder. “No. You have to be stronger than that. You mean everything to me and if I have to sacrifice myself to let you live, then so be it. Find shelter wherever you can and always remember who you are.”

  “Ana, you’re scaring me,” Orhan whispered.

  She pasted a smile on her face. She had not wanted them to see this side of life until they were much older. But there was no escaping it now. “Good. Because fear will keep us alive. But terror will kill us. Make a noise at the wrong moment and we could all be lost. But I don’t intend on dying for many years yet, so stay close to me and do what I say and we shall all laugh about this with your baba in a few moons’ time. You are the heirs to the Elephant Throne, so you must live up to that today.”