Eventide (Meratis Trilogy Book 2)

by Krista Walsh

  “Do you think she could be one of the conspirators Harold was talking about?” Cassie asked.

  “Want me to wake her up? Find out?”

  Jeff stared down at her, the desire to know the truth offset by his overwhelming desire to get warm and go to sleep. Curiosity won, figuring he would be too wired to sleep anyway, and he nodded.

  “All righty. I’ll get some rope.” Michael disappeared from the doorway.

  “It’s all right, Jeff, we got here in time. God, you’re shaking.” Cassie wrapped her arm around his shoulder and rubbed his arms to warm him up. “How did she end up unconscious?”

  “Harold,” he croaked, his mouth dry enough that his tongue didn’t feel like moving.

  She met his eye to check if he was serious and then, shaking her head in wonder, reached for the pitcher of water on his bedside table and poured him a glass. “Not entirely useless, then.”

  “Just because I don’t flaunt my skills, I hardly think ‘useless’ is a polite term,” Harold said, coming back into the room with his pack slung over his shoulder. In the candlelight he looked almost skeletal, the dark circles under his eyes darker, and the dips in his cheeks deeper. “I may spend most of my time at a desk, but that isn’t the extent of my abilities.”

  The man pulled out a bottle of whiskey and, before Jeff could get his hopes up, blotted it on a clean cloth.

  “Lean back,” he ordered. Jeff did as he was told, Cassie’s hand on the back on his head to keep him still. “Take away the cloth please, miss.”

  She gasped at the mess she saw underneath. Jeff was glad there was no mirror in the room to tempt him to look.

  The sting of alcohol would have had him cursing to the heavens if he’d been able to talk. He felt sweat trickle down his face, and his knuckles ached with his effort to push his fingers through the wood of the armrests. Cassie’s fingers stroked his forehead, giving him something to focus on.

  Finally the pain subsided and Jeff opened his eyes, just in time to see Harold about to repeat the process with the cut on his cheek. The second cut made him cry out, every nerve ending on fire.

  “I don’t think it needs to be sewn up,” he said. “They’re ugly, but not too deep. You were lucky.”

  “Lucky I’m still drunk,” said Jeff. “I wouldn’t be nearly so calm right now if I wasn’t.”

  The door flew open, cracking against the wall. Cassie grabbed Jeff’s hand as they both jumped, startled.

  “Michael just told us what happened,” Jayden said, storming towards the bed. “Someone tried to kill you?”

  “How is he?” Brady asked Cassie.

  Cassie gave Jeff’s hand a squeeze and stood up. “He’ll be all right. She did a good job trying to cut him apart, but lucky Harold caught her in time.”

  The expressions on both men’s faces nearly made Jeff laugh, all surprise and wonder. Even without words, Harold must have sensed their incredulity because he pressed his lips together and focused more determinedly on his pack as he put his supplies away.

  “Who is she?” Jayden asked, jerking his head towards the unconscious miss.

  “No idea,” said Jeff. “And I don’t really know if I care so much about the ‘who’. Not like I’m about to invite her to tea.”

  Michael came back in the room with a length of rope wound over his shoulder. “Darcy’s going to stay outside in the hall, make sure there aren’t any other late night visitors. I see the whole gang is up now. Maybe you lads can give me a hand.”

  Brady moved to help Michael tie the woman’s hands behind her back, while the others stayed out of their way. Jayden looked on with a frustrated frown, and Jeff guessed how useless he felt.

  “What’d you use to hit her?” Michael asked, his face red from the effort of shifting her. “She’s still out cold.”

  “Something I grabbed from the stable,” Harold said, looking around for where he had dropped it. He rose to his feet to search under the bed, then came up with a horseshoe. All of them let out a groan. It was only chance the woman wasn’t dead.

  “Where should we put her?” Michael asked.

  Harold looked to Jeff. “You all right to stand?”

  Jeff considered. He found his legs and pushed himself up, teetering as the muscles in his calves trembled. Cassie moved to his side and guided him out of the way and back towards the bed. The movement made his head swim, but once it passed, some of the fogginess went with it.

  Michael hauled the woman over his shoulder so her arms fell up towards her head. With a grunt he dropped her into the chair. Taking the glass of water Cassie had poured, he threw it in her face, and she woke with a gasp, sputtering to get rid of the water. Her head sank down as she groaned.

  Jayden took a knee and bent forward to catch her eye.

  “What’s your name?” he asked.

  She spat at him.

  Slowly, he wiped his face and sat back on his heels, his face devoid of reaction. Then he repeated, “Your name.”

  She raised her head and focused her stare first on him and then on Jeff. The firelight caught the lightness of her eyes, the darkness of her hair. Jeff felt caught by those eyes.

  “Why?” he asked. The others probably had other far more important questions to ask her, but for him, that was all that mattered. Cassie’s hand tightened around his arm, the moral support just as appreciated as the physical.

  The woman’s only response was a smile, one that would have looked sweet if her hair wasn’t matted with blood, her hands covered in it.

  Jayden snapped his fingers in her face to bring her attention back to him. “Who sent you? Was it Raul?”

  She still didn’t answer, but Jeff noticed her reaction to the name. A flicker of recognition in those pale eyes, a flash of emotion. It didn’t sound like they’d get all their answers tonight, but at least they found the most important one.

  Jeff’s leading question now became why was Raul sending assassins?

  Michael chuckled. “Looks like we got ourselves a talker. I’ve had my fair share of practice. Want me to take over?”

  “I can’t say I like your suggestion,” Cassie spoke up, voicing the same thought Jeff had. Sure the woman had just tried to kill him, but the idea of torturing her twisted his conscience.

  “Hard times, hard measures, miss,” said Michael. “It’s not my favourite task, but I perform my duty when it’s called for.”

  Jayden rose to his feet. “I won’t have it be said that Feldallian law is unjust. For now, she can’t try again, and that will have to be enough. We’ll keep a watch on the corridor, make sure she doesn’t have any associates.”

  “And tomorrow?” Michael asked.

  “We’ll dump her with the Glenbury folk,” Jayden replied

  Jeff shook his head. “We have to bring her with us.”

  “What, cart her all the way back to the Keep? Are you insane? Never mind the extra supplies she’d use up, but think about the security risks. Piss breaks, meal times. It’s not practical.”

  “Lad has a point,” said Michael. “We don’t have time for more delays.”

  “We’ll bring her with us,” said Brady, ignoring Jayden’s rant and Michael’s argument.

  Jayden’s eyebrow rose. “Excuse me?”

  “This woman just tried to kill Jeff. You’re not curious about why?”

  “Lots of people want to kill Jeff. I’m sure you’ve had your moments.”

  Jeff narrowed his eyes to glare at Jayden, and Brady hid a smile behind a cough.

  Michael didn’t bother to hide his grin. “I guess you have some items to discuss. Let me know what you decide in the morning. You going to sleep in here, lad?”

  Jeff glanced at the blood-spattered sheets and shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.”

  Michael started to strip off the sheets. “Then I’ll camp out here for the night. Darcy and I’ll take turns staying awake with the girl. We’ll leave the door open so we can see the hallway as well. Sound good?”

  Jayden nodde
d. “Come and wake me if you need a reprieve. There aren’t many hours until sunrise and we could all use some rest.”

  Harold, who Jeff had almost forgotten was still in the room, approached him again and said, “Get some sleep and don’t poke at the cuts. We’ll take a look at it tomorrow morning.”

  Jeff extended his hand for the man to shake, but Harold left the room without acknowledging him, reverting back from efficient physician to first counsellor’s man.

  “Strange man,” said Cassie. She hooked her arm through Jeff’s. “Come on, you can use my room. Not likely I’m going to get much sleep tonight either.”

  They wished Michael and Darcy a good night, and Jeff cast a last look over his shoulder at their prisoner. Her eyes remained fixed on him, like she was trying to see through him. The sweet smile remained on her lips and Jeff shuddered, thinking how closely that sweetness had come to killing him.

  Jayden and Brady followed them into Cassie’s room, and they shut the door.

  “You noticed it, too?” Brady asked Jeff. “Her reaction to Raul’s name?”

  Jeff nodded. “He’s more than a passing rumour to her.”

  “Did she say anything when she…?” Brady asked.

  “Not a word. Just went straight for the cutting.” Jeff grimaced and the cut across his cheek pulled. The excitement wearing off, the pain started to kick in.

  Brady rested a hand on his shoulder. “We can talk tomorrow morning. Try again to question the girl. Get some rest. Did you want someone to stay in here with you?”

  Yes, Jeff wanted to say, but what right did he have to ask her? So he said, “No,” and could hardly keep the smile off his face when Cassie rolled her eyes.

  “You can’t be alone after what happened. I’ll stay with you. You two get some sleep.”

  Jayden frowned. “I doubt I can. I may try and have another word with our mystery woman. See if I can get more out of her while Jeff’s not there.”

  Brady and Jayden closed the door behind them, and Jeff and Cassie remained standing in the middle of the room, their closeness awkward now that the urgency was gone.

  After a moment, Cassie said, “They’re right, you know. We should try to sleep.”

  She climbed on the bed and squished herself against the wall to leave more room for Jeff. He hesitated a moment before settling himself on the other end, offering her the space. He thought how nice it would be to have the warmth of her body against him, instead of trying to keep her distance, but for tonight was satisfied with sharing a bed with her. He’d dreamed of this moment for two years, and now it was only happening because someone tried to kill him.

  Cassie rolled onto her side and propped herself up on her elbow.

  “How are you feeling?”

  Before he could say “Fine,” she added a firm, “Honestly.”

  Jeff paused to consider his real answer. “Better now.”

  He stared up at her furrowed brow and warm eyes, her lips so close to his. He reached up and swept the hair from her face, brushing his knuckles against her cheek. She tilted her head into his hand, and Jeff’s heart, already knocked about from the events of the evening, once more picked up its heavy percussion.

  Her breath grew shallow and his sped to match hers. His mind blank, he could do nothing but smell the memory of her brown sugar lotion and feel her warm breath on his face. Jeff licked his lips, anticipating the feel of hers, and he knew this time he wouldn’t let her go. This time would be forever.

  Then she blinked and turned her head to stare off across the room, lost in thought.

  “Hey, where’d you go?” he asked.

  Cassie refocused on him, and as she tilted her head, her hair fell over her shoulder and caressed his face. “I can’t, Jeff. One panicked night isn’t enough to make everything okay.” She pressed a kiss onto his forehead. “Get some sleep.”

  Her words cut deeper than the assassin’s blade.

  She turned to face the wall and, although they still shared a bed, Jeff felt alone.

  Chapter Eleven

  In what felt like no time at all, the sun shone through the open curtains directly into Jeff’s face. He raised his arm to block it out. When his hand went numb, he rolled over onto his side to pull the comforter over his head. Then let out a sharp cry and returned to his back, holding his breath until the pain in his cheek eased.

  As the memory of last night came back to him, he reached up to run his fingers along the cut on his throat. Someone had tried to kill him.

  It was hard not to feel special about something like that, but it was the sort of special that made Jeff want to crawl under the bed and stay there.

  But more had happened last night than the attack. He ran his hazy thoughts through what had happened afterwards and remembered. Cassie. Her side of the bed was empty, but the smell of her remained, clouding his head as much as the alcohol had the night before.

  Now fully awake, he swung his feet to the floor and stood up, stretched his arms up until his shoulders popped. With hesitant steps he made it to the door, proud not to have fallen on his face.

  The corridor was empty, but he heard familiar voices raised in conversation downstairs in the common room. The conversation stopped on his arrival, and his face grew hot with self-consciousness.

  He raised a hand in greeting and took a seat next to Brady on the bench. Darcy, Jayden, and Cassie sat on the other side, Michael presumably still upstairs with the stranger.

  “How’s the survivor this morning?” Darcy asked.

  Jeff noticed with chagrin that the soldier had changed from his family tunic with the grizzly bear to a red tunic with gold embroidery at the sleeves. No doubt to look even more dashing.

  “Surviving,” he replied. “The cuts only hurt when I move.”

  “Glad to hear it. Better clean up before we go out in public though. People might think you’re the walking dead.”

  Jeff felt the blood rush out of his face and looked over at Jayden to see the same expression. Not a funny joke for them anymore.

  “You’re right,” said Jeff. “I’ll do that. Harold’s supposed to take a look before we head out.”

  “Harold? That lump of clay?” Darcy snorted.

  “He saved Jeff’s life last night,” Cassie cut in. “I’m glad he was here.”

  Darcy flushed, abashed. “You’re right. I apologise for being flippant. I’m glad the woman was stopped in time.”

  “Did she ever say anything?” Jeff asked.

  “Silent as a tree. She did throw up on my boots, though. Harold has quite a strong arm. The goose egg on her head might break records.”

  Jayden’s mouth twisted. “I tried again, as well. Nothing but stares.”

  “I guess we’ll stop by the jail on our way out of town and see about dropping her off?” Darcy asked.

  “She’s coming with us,” Jayden said.

  “Really? But—”

  “It’s not up for discussion. She tried to kill one of our own.”

  Brady smiled, and Jeff felt a warm pride course through him.

  Darcy didn’t argue. He looked unconvinced, but amused, as though preparing for an “I told you so” moment during the remainder of the trip.

  They wrapped up breakfast, and Darcy waved farewell to the innkeep behind the bar.

  “Don’t we need to clear the bill?” asked Cassie.

  “On the house. The joys of working in the queen’s name.” Darcy gave her a wink. Jeff noticed how he rested his hand on her back to guide her outside and suddenly wondered where she’d spent the rest of the night last night.

  In front of the inn, Harold and the stablehands had the horses tacked up and ready to go. The talking skeleton, looking slightly more alive in the morning sunlight, saw Jeff and plodded over to him.

  “Let me see.”

  Jeff tilted his head back and cringed as the advisor’s man leaned in close and poked around the wound, the dried blood cracking under the pressure.

  “Looks all right. Make sure one
of the healers washes it out well tonight and it should heal nicely. Might leave a scar.”

  “Thanks,” said Jeff. “Really. For everything last night. I wouldn’t be standing here if you hadn’t noticed her come in.”

  “Hmph,” the man replied. Behind the noise, Jeff understood the message as, If you’d listen to me in the first place, it wouldn’t have happened at all.

  Jayden and Michael came out of the inn, the strange woman awake and glaring murder between them. Her gaze fell on Jeff, and her scowl morphed into a wide grin, a promise that she hadn’t given up. Jayden gave her arm a jerk, and she snapped at him. She growled deep in her throat, and then laughed when he pushed her ahead.

  Jeff swallowed and took the long way around the yard to Allegria’s side. The prisoner acted more mad than mean. Just his luck that her sights were set on him.

  Michael picked her up, not difficult to do as she was just over half his height—petite if firmly built—and plopped her side-saddle at the front. She flung out one leg to kick up at him, but he stepped out of her reach and wrapped one arm behind her knees to keep her legs together as he and Jayden bound her feet. He mounted up behind her, and she smiled at him, blinking brightly with eyes so blue they matched the cornflower sky. A second later she lunged, teeth aimed for his nose. After that, they gagged her, until all possible weapons had been shut away.

  “Remember that this was your idea,” Jayden pointed out as he walked by Jeff.

  “You’ll thank me later, I’m sure,” Jeff replied to the warrior’s retreating back. A finger rose in answer.

  “Last night I said we’d reach the Keep by this afternoon,” said Michael. He threw a cloak over a plain black tunic to keep off the morning chill. “Let’s prove me wrong and get there earlier, all right? Sooner I get this gal off my horse, the happier I’ll be.”

  A few minutes into their ride, Darcy broke the silence. “By the way, do you guys remember my card game last night? Turns out it wasn’t a waste of my time and twenty flavens.”

  “They knew something about Raul?” asked Cassie.

  Darcy scrunched up his face in apology. “No. But they did tell me we must not be too far off. On the way to the inn yesterday afternoon, they apparently passed a toppled hay cart. Driver and a passenger left for dead next to the road.”