by Jane Glatt
Exhausted, he saw her, still struggling, being carried away by a thick knot of guards. They rounded the corner of the wall and reinforcements emerged from the gate and lined up between him and Brenna. Finally, the guards fell back inside and the gate closed and he was left, panting and alone on the road in front. Archers appeared along the wall and he felt arms pull at him and drag him back. An arrow whistled by as he was dragged away, his boots tripping on the bodies of those he’d cut down to try to get to her.
They put her in the same cell Avery had been in, the same one where she’d spent a few hours when she’d been caught in Thorold’s estate last year. They snapped the iron cuff on her leg and pushed her into the stale straw. They hadn’t found her pack - she’d had just enough magic left to keep it invisible – and the weight of it on her back was comforting. Even so, she gently shrugged out of it, trying not to raise the guard’s suspicions, and tucked it into the corner. Using the last of her strength she said the spell over it once again. Then she closed her eyes and looked for Kane.
He was outside - alive, thank the gods. She’d seen him as she was dragged away and his ferocity had frightened her. She’d been terrified that he would get himself killed while trying to get to her. Right now, just knowing that he was alive, was relief enough.
Exhausted, Brenna lay down. She closed her eyes and tried to rest but she kept seeing images of men being killed. Every time an old steel weapon had cut into an enemy, she’d felt it. The swords and knives had gloried in delivering death - each cut into flesh satisfying a thirst for destruction. Brenna shivered. The worst was when a Brother was hurt. Then the weapons had seethed. At least two Brothers had lost their lives. She’d known the minute they died - she’d felt their weapons howl and rage. She could almost still hear them. Finally, her exhaustion won out and she fell into a fitful sleep.
“This be the one Duke Thorold wants most, I’ll bet a month’s wages on that,” a voice said. “You mark it. Once he learns we have the witch he’ll forget we lost over thirty men tonight.”
“Most to that One-God cursed berseker.”
Brenna was awake but she kept her eyes shut tight as the second man spoke. “He must be responsible for half the losses.”
“Were that former Kingsguard captain, that’s what I think,” the first voice said. “If we coulda got him too the duke’d likely give us all extra crowns this month. I hear it wouldn’t matter to Duke Thorold if he was dead.”
“Not much chance of takin’ a berserker alive anway.”
“When’s the duke due back? D’ye know?”
“No. Some trouble with the king, as I heard it. Both Duke Thorold and the High Bishop were called to the castle. Even the message the duchess escaped didn’t bring him back. Not much other than the king dying would keep him from makin’ someone pay for that.”
The two men walked away, discussing the changes that would happen when Duke Thorold’s son was king. Brenna sat up, dusted off her clothes and reached for her pack. She might have time to get out before Thorold returned to his house. She prayed to the old gods that the king would live one more day.
Kane stared back at the gate long after the archers had disappeared. He shrugged Dasid’s hands off him and stared at his bloody sword. He tried to reach Brenna through old steel but she didn’t answer. It didn’t mean she was dead, he thought. He’d know if she was dead. He turned back to Dasid.
“How many brothers are dead?” he asked.
“Two and five others wounded. We need to get them out of Kingsreach.”
Kane nodded. They could go with Avery and Neal. More wounded for Madelay to look after but it would be best to get them away as soon as they could. Before he brought every, single, able-bodied Brother in Kingsreach back here to get Brenna.
“Back to the Dog.” Kane found a cloth to wipe his sword and knife on. He’d need to spend some time on his weapons later, cleaning the carnage from the grips and scabbards. For now he simply wiped them down and sheathed them. They’d be out again soon enough.
“How many Brothers do we have in town, trained or partly trained?” Kane turned to Dasid as they strode towards Thieves Quarter. “Every man, woman and youth.”
“Besides the thirty we had here tonight we’ve another forty - some trained but not yet blooded.”
“You have two hours to get them in place,” he said. “We’re going after her and we need to do it now, tonight, before they have time to get reinforcements.”
“I’ll start sending runners now.” Dasid dropped back and Kane strode through the dark night, his boots clacking on the cobbled streets. The fine houses gave way to modest businesses and then, finally, the rough dwellings of Thieves Quarter. He entered the Crooked Dog and found Eryl asleep in the small room that had become their headquarters. Eryl, looked up at him bleary-eyed when he turned up the wick on the lamp.
“Get everyone up,” Kane said. “Those that need to leave with Madelay have one hour to get on the road.”
Eryl’s eyes widened but he nodded and shoved his feet into his boots. He left the room to rouse everyone in the inn. Kane sat heavily in a chair and ran his hands through his hair. With a sigh he searched the room for the item he was looking for.
“What’s happened?” Madelay stood in the doorway, a shawl wrapped around her. Kane marked the page he’d been studying as she entered the room and sat across from him.
“Brenna’s been taken.” His voice hurt when he said it. “We’re getting her back - by force - tonight.” He saw the look of concern on her face. “It will no longer be safe for any Brothers to be in Kingsreach. Everyone needs to be on the road tonight.” Madelay nodded and stood up. “There are five more injured who will travel with you. Please see if you can find an extra wagon.” He didn’t wait for Madelay to reply - he simply went back to the page he was studying. So he almost lost his control when she gently placed a hand on his shoulder.
“I’ll make you some tea,” she said quietly. “It will help restore your strength.”
Kane nodded, grateful that she hadn’t asked any questions. But then she didn’t need to, she knew the pain he was in - she’d lived with it for forty years. He prayed to the gods he would never have to forge on as Madelay and Yowan had, knowing that the love of his life was lost to him forever. He would get Brenna out, he would, there was no other option.
Duke Thorold leaned back in the chair and fingered the fine brandy. It was a deep amber, made with the best peaches Aruntun had to offer. He took a sip and enjoyed the way the liquid burned his tongue before he swallowed. He put the glass back on the table. He would enjoy the fine goods from Aruntun while he could but he would not regret it too much when they were no longer available. If he had his way it would be many, many years before peaches from Aruntun found their way to the rest of Soule.
“You have no idea how the prisoner was rescued?” Thorold asked the High Bishop.
Valden sat and stared into the fire that crackled in the hearth of the king’s private sitting room. The only other occupant of the room was Beldyn, who sat in a chair near the door, scowling.
“No, I do not. I was performing a service in the church at the time and I saw nothing.”
Thorold could almost see the High Bishop’s anger rolling off him. He had no doubt that there were some broken bodies scattered around the church that were not the result of Neal Ravershaw’s escape. Not that he cared what the High Bishop did to his own people.
“He had help,” Thorold had some idea who had helped him escape, of course. It smelled of witchery. Especially since Duchess Avery had escaped from his own estate. He hadn’t felt it necessary to advise the High Bishop of that, though. His plan was far too close to fruition for him to be distracted.
Separated by just one door, the king lay dying. He was being attended by Cuthbert, his healer and a few servants. It was a matter of hours, days at the most, before the High Bishop was asked to perform final rites. Then Beldyn would be proclaimed king.
“The man must have been possesse
d by demons,” the High Bishop said. “I tell you, no one entered and no one exited.”
“No, Ravershaw was in no shape to walk out of there on his own,” Thorold said. “He had help.” He looked up as the door opened and Captain Barton entered. The captain walked over to him and whispered in his ear and Thorold smiled widely.
“I want every Kingsguard available at my estate immediately, Captain.” He smiled again as Barton nodded and with a bow, turned and left. “Well, High Bishop, my men seem to have caught this demon of yours.” He leaned back and chuckled. “She was caught helping Duchess Avery escape. Brenna Trewen will share her mother’s fate after all.” Thorold settled back into his chair, deeply satisfied.
Both the High Bishop and Beldyn turned their gazes on him. Let Avery escape, let Ravershaw escape, let Aruntun close itself off from him - he had the witch who was trying to spoil his plans and soon he would have the crown of Soule at his command. He smiled at Beldyn who scowled and turned away. Frown all you want my boy, he thought, you know what will happen to you if you disobey. He’d killed one king slowly - he could do much the same to another.
Dasid leaned over the page and nodded when Kane’s finger pointed out a mark.
“That’s the symbol she used for a specific type mechanism,” Dasid said. “I know how to work those.”
“And what about these?” Kane pointed to another two marks on the page.
“That means she suspects a passageway but hasn’t yet found it.”
They were hunched over the original plans of Duke Thorold’s estate. According to the notations Brenna had made on this particular page Dasid had identified three working entrances - the one Kane and Brenna had used earlier, another one that Brenna had used when she’d retrieved her mother’s knife and a third as yet untried entrance.
Kane stood up and stretched. “That will have to be enough,” he said. “We leave in ten minutes.” He left Dasid bent over the book and headed out to the main room of the inn.
There were forty Brothers gathered and another twenty were keeping watch on Duke Thorold’s estate in case Brenna was moved. Sixty men should be enough to get Brenna back as long as they didn’t have to contend with the whole Kingsguard.
There were over four hundred Kingsguard in Soule and Kane estimated that half of them could be immediately moved to Thorold’s estate. And he knew exactly how quickly that many men could be mobilized - they had perhaps an hour before Kingsguardsmen started arriving at Duke Thorold’s estate to reinforce his personal guard. Within two hours all two hundred Guardsmen would be in place. They had to be out of Kingsreach, with Brenna, long before then.
“We’re off, then.” Yowan came up and clasped his arm. He was taking all of the wounded Brothers along with Madelay, Neal and Avery to Aruntun. This was their original plan so wagons were ready and papers signed assuring that all taxes and duties had been paid. “You’ll get her,” Yowan said. “She’s a tough one, she’ll be fine.”
Kane nodded. Brenna had to be fine. He’d tried and tried to reach her through old steel but he hadn’t heard from her since she’d been caught. He told himself it was only because she was asleep, or maybe drugged, or too exhausted, or she’d lost her knife, but he couldn’t discount the possibility that she was injured. He rolled his shoulders to loosen them up. He refused to believe she was dead - he’d know, he was sure of it. And if she was alive Duke Thorold would want to see her himself, if only to watch her die.
The small stable yard behind the Dog was jammed with Brothers.
“All right men,” Kane said. “I need three smaller groups who aren’t squeamish about the dark or fighting in tight places. The rest will be on the grounds. We’re expecting Kingsguard so be prepared to fight men you’ve bunked with.” He would lead the group through the tunnel into the basement and Dasid, wielding a borrowed sword, would take the unknown entrance. From his work on the secrets of the Rowse house he had the best chance of triggering the mechanism that opened the door. Gaskain would use the entrance by the river, the one that led to the servant’s hall.
All the Brothers but Kane’s group melted out into the city. Kane went in search of Eryl. The thief was clearing out the rooms that had been occupied by Madelay and her patients, quickly stuffing soiled linens into a bag.
“I’ll be taking these to the river and dumping them as soon as I can.” Eryl tied the bag and slung it over his shoulder. “It’s a shame to waste good linen but if I gave it away, there would be questions.” Kane nodded. He’d trust Eryl to do what was best to keep himself alive.
“Here,” he handed a heavy purse to him. “Give whatever you feel is fair to the innkeep. I fear we may have marked him and he may need to leave Kingsreach.”
“I’ll talk to him,” Eryl said. “But like as not he’ll stay. He’ll get a lot of respect for being the headquarters for this rebellion. Thieves Quarter will look after its own.”
“You know best.” Kane smiled and clasped Eryl’s’ arm. “May the gods watch your back, Eryl.”
“And yours.” Eryl looked at him seriously. “And get our girl. It’d be a shame to lose the best thief the Quarter’s seen in a generation.”
Kane nodded and turned and left. Only the four members of his team remained outside. They quickly fell in behind him as he strode out into the predawn streets of the Quarter.
twenty-four
Even half asleep Brenna felt Kane coming closer. Now awake but still exhausted, when she looked for old steel she saw all the Brothers. She tucked her hand into her pack and grasped her knife.
“Kane,” she sent, feeling him start when he heard her. “I’m in the same cell as Avery - in the cellar.”
“Are you hurt?” she felt his relief through their connection and his nearness buoyed her spirits.
“Not hurt but I have no strength left for magic.” She sighed and then added. “I’ll struggle just to walk.”
Kane was silent for a few moments. “Can you take some strength from me?” he asked. “Can you follow me through my sword like you did with Uncle Feiren?”
“You need your strength more than me.” Even if she could draw off some of his energy she would not drain him when was walking into battle.
“Try,” Kane insisted. “Either you walk or I have to carry you.”
Reluctantly Brenna tried to follow Kane’s sword to him. “It’s no use anyway,” she said after she failed to find him. Then she felt something new, something pulling her along. She was in Kane’s sword - she could feel his callused grip on her hilt. Slowly, carefully, she reached to where his flesh met the steel and hesitantly drew from him. She felt him gasp and she fled back to her own body. She lifted her head with renewed energy.
“Did I take too much?” Had she hurt him? She would never forgive herself if she’d left him too depleted to go on. “Kane, what happened?”
“I’m fine,” he said. “I stumbled on the stairs. We’re at the storage room.”
“You’re hurt.” Her new awareness of him showed her a small flare of pain.
“It’s small. I cut myself with my sword. You said that’s how you knew Uncle Feiren was being hurt - that his sword cut him. And it worked. We’re in the storage room. Get ready.”
Brenna felt around her pack for her thief’s tools. She had the iron cuff off her ankle in a few moments and then she crawled over to the door and put her ear to it. In the guard room on the other side of the door, men muttered to each other about witches. How many were there? Were there too many for Kane to manage? She was the reason he was risking himself so she would do everything she could to help him.
Using her borrowed strength she spelled herself invisible and then turned to concentrate on the door. Kane would be there in a few minutes. She knew the door was barred from the other side - it started to rattle slightly as she focused on it. She heard the men in the other room talking but no one seemed to notice what was happening to the door. Her face was drenched with sweat by the time she heard the bar drop to the floor.
“Get th
e bar back in place,” she heard a guard say. “Do you want the witch out here with us?”
Someone shuffled to the door and then cursed.
“Can’t put the bar back. The witch done melted the metal brackets.”
Rather than trying to lift the wooden bar, Brenna had warmed the brackets that held the bar in place until they melted. The brackets would need to be replaced before the door could be barred again. She pushed the door open and slipped into the guardroom before they thought to barricade the door another way. She stepped past two guards and unlocked the outer door. When it swung open she hid behind it along the wall.
“Kane, I’m behind the door,” she called to him.
The sounds of steel on steel rang out from close by and one of Thorold’s militia, forced back by Kane, backed into the room.
“Duck under my sword, now,” Kane said quietly.
Brenna edged out from behind the door, dropped low and scuttled along the floor until she was behind him. She reversed the invisibility spell and felt some energy flow back into her. One of the Brothers behind Kane grunted in surprise.
“Tell all Brothers to retreat,” Kane said as he backed out of the doorway.
Brenna clasped a hand to her knife hilt and sent out as strong a message as she could. She then followed the two Brothers to the hallway junction where two more Brothers held back three of Thorold’s guards. Brenna darted past them and into the storage room. The secret entrance was open and she was about to slip though it when one Brother stopped her.
“You stay in the middle. We don’t know what’s happening outside.”
He moved into the dark passage while Kane and the other three Brothers entered the room. They shut the door and the two Brothers started to pile old furniture in front of it. Kane strode over to her and took her hand. He looked her over for a moment and nodded before he turned and entered the passage, tugging her after him.
