The reins moved ever so slightly, with practiced precision, guiding the horses around the bend. “I don’t know if I’d call him a friend. I’ve dealt with him a time or two.”
“Wine?”
Tom smiled. “No. Other things.”
He apparently didn’t intend to say what other things. Jennsen watched the sweep of the Azrith Plains and distant mountains as they rode up the side of the plateau. Somewhere beyond those plains, those mountains, lay freedom.
At the top, the road leveled out before a great gate through the massive outer wall of the palace. The guards stationed before the gate there waved them through, then blew whistles in a short series of notes to others, unseen, beyond the walls. Jennsen realized that they had not arrived unannounced.
She nearly gasped as they cleared the short tunnel through the massive outer wall. Inside, expansive grounds spread out before them. Lawns and hedges bordered the road that curved toward a hill of steps well over a half mile away. The grounds inside the walls were teeming with soldiers in smart uniforms of leather and chain mail covered with wool tunics. Many, with pikes held upright at precisely the same angle, lined the route. These men were not loafing about. They weren’t the kind to be surprised by what came up the road.
Tom took it all in casually. Jennsen tried to keep her eyes pointed ahead. She tried to look indifferent amid such splendor.
Before the hill of steps awaited a reception party of guards over a hundred strong. Tom pulled the wagon into the pocket they’d formed blocking the road. Jennsen saw, standing on the steps overlooking the soldiers, three men in robes. Two wore silver-colored robes. Between them, one step higher, stood an older man wearing white, both hands held in the opposite sleeves trimmed in golden-colored braiding that shimmered in the sunlight.
Tom set the brake on the wagon as a soldier took control of the horses to keep them from moving. Before Tom could begin climbing down, Jennsen put a hand on his arm to stop him.
“This is as far as you go.”
“But you—”
“You’ve done enough. You helped with the part I needed. I can handle it from here on out on my own.”
His measured, blue-eyed gaze swept over the guards standing around the wagon. He seemed reluctant to accede. “I don’t think it could hurt if I went along.”
“I’d rather you go back to your brothers.”
He glanced to her hand on his arm before looking up into her eyes. “If that’s your wish.” His voice lowered to little more than a whisper. “Will I see you again?”
It sounded more like a request than a question. Jennsen could not bring herself to deny such a simple thing, not after all he had done for her.
“We’ll need to go down to the market to buy some horses. I’ll stop by your place, first, right after I’m done inside with getting my friend released.”
“Promise?”
Under her breath, she said, “I have to pay you for your services—remember?”
His lopsided grin reappeared. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Jennsen. I . . .” He noticed the soldiers, remembering then where he was, and cleared his throat. “I’m thankful you let me do my small part, ma’am. I will hold you to your word on the rest of it.”
He had risked enough by bringing her this far—a risk he hadn’t known he was taking, Jennsen fervently hoped that in her brief smile he would see how genuinely grateful she was for his help, since she didn’t think she could afford to keep her promise to see him before they left.
With his powerful hand gripping her arm to halt her for a final word, he spoke in a low but solemn voice. “Steel against steel, that he may be the magic against magic.”
Jennsen had absolutely no idea what he meant. Staring into his intense gaze, she answered with a single, firm nod.
Not wanting to let the soldiers suspect that she might really be mildmannered, Jennsen turned away and climbed down from the wagon to stand before the man who looked to be in charge. She allowed him only a perfunctory look at the knife before replacing it in the sheath at her belt.
“I need to see the man in charge of any prisoners you’re holding. Captain Lerner, if memory serves me.”
His brow drew together. “You want to see the captain of the prison guards?”
Jennsen didn’t know his rank. She didn’t know much of anything about military matters, except that for most of her life soldiers like these had been trying to kill her. He could be a general, or, for all she knew, a corporal. As she considered the man, his dress, his age, his bearing, she reasoned that he definitely looked more than a corporal. She feared to make a mistake with his rank, though, and decided it would be healthier to ignore it.
Jennsen dismissed his question with a curt flick of her hand. “I haven’t got all day. I’ll need an escort, of course. You and some of your men will do, I suppose.”
As she started up the steps, she glanced over her shoulder and saw Tom wink at her. It lifted her heart. The soldiers had parted to let his wagon leave, so he flicked the reins and urged his big horses away. Jennsen hated to see his comforting presence go. She turned her mind from her fears.
“You,” she said, gesturing to the man in the white robes, “take me to where you hold prisoners.”
The man, the top of his head showing through his thinning gray hair, lifted a finger, sending most of the milling guards back to their posts. The officer of mysterious rank and a dozen of his soldiers remained behind her.
“May I see the knife?” the man in the white robes asked in a gentle voice.
Jennsen suspected that this man, able to dismiss guards of rank, must be someone important. Important people in Lord Rahl’s palace might have the gift. It occurred to her that if he did have the gift, he would see her as a hole in the world. It also occurred to her that this was a very poor time to blurt out a confession, and an even worse time to try to bolt for the gate. She had to hope that he was a palace official and that he wasn’t gifted.
Many of the soldiers were still watching. Jennsen casually pulled her knife from the sheath at her belt. Without a word, but showing a face that clearly said she was running out of patience, she held the knife up before the man’s eyes so he could see the ornate “R” on the handle.
He looked down his nose at the weapon before returning his attention to her. “And this is real?”
“No,” Jennsen snapped, “I smelted it while sitting around the campfire last night. Are you going to take me to where you hold prisoners, or not?”
Showing no reaction, the man graciously held out a hand. “If you would follow me this way, madam.”
Chapter 26
The palace official’s white robes flowed out behind him as he ascended the hill of steps, flanked by the two men in silver robes. Jennsen remained what she judged to be an imperious distance behind the men. When the man in white noticed how she had lagged behind, he slowed to allow her to catch up. She slowed her pace accordingly, maintaining the distance. He nervously checked behind, then slowed more. She slowed yet more, until the three robed men, Jennsen, and the soldiers behind her were all pausing ponderously on each step.
When they reached the next landing on the broad, sunlit marble steps, the man glanced over his shoulder again. Jennsen gestured impatiently. He finally understood that she had no intention of walking with him, but expected him to lead the procession. The man acceded, quickening his steps, allowing her to have the distance she demanded, resigned to being what amounted to her lowly crier.
The officer of unknown rank and his dozen soldiers climbed the stairs with mincing steps, trying to duplicate the distance she maintained in front of her. It was unanticipated and awkward for her escorts. She wanted it to be; like her red hair, the distraction gave them something to think about, something to worry about.
At intervals, the smooth ascent of marble stairs was broken by broad landings that gave the legs a rest before continuing up. At the top of the stairs, tall embossed brass doors were set back beyond colossal columns. The enti
re front of the palace looming over them was one of the grandest sights Jennsen had ever seen, but her mind was not on the intricate architecture of the entrance. She was thinking about what lay inside.
They passed the shadows of the towering columns and swept on through the doorway; the dozen soldiers still trailed in her wake, their weapons, belts, and mail jangling. The sound of their boots on the polished marble floor echoed off the walls of a grand entry lined with fluted pillars.
Deeper into the palace, people going about their business, or standing in twos and threes talking, or strolling the balconies, paused to watch the unusual procession, paused to see the officials in their white and silver robes and a dozen guards at a respectful distance escorting a woman with red hair. By her outfit, especially in comparison to the neat clean dress of the others, it was obvious that she had just traveled in. Rather than being embarrassed by her clothes, Jennsen was pleased that they added to the sense of urgent mystery. The reaction of the people, too, was bound to infect her escort.
After the man in white whispered to the two in silver robes, they nodded and ran on ahead, vanishing around a corner. The guards followed at her measured distance.
The procession wound through a maze of small passageways and funneled down narrow service stairs. Jennsen and her escorts made a number of turns through intersecting halls, along dim corridors to doors opening onto wide halls, and intermittently descended a variety of stairs, until she could no longer keep track of their route. By the dusty condition of some of the dingy stairs and musty-smelling, apparently little-used halls, she realized that the man in white robes was taking her on a shortcut through the palace in order to get her to where she wanted to go as swiftly as possible.
This, too, was reassuring, because it meant they took her seriously. That helped her confidence in playing the part. She told herself that she was important, she was a personal representative of Lord Rahl himself, and she was not going to be deterred by anyone. They were here for no other purpose but to assist her. It was their job. Their duty.
Since it was hopeless trying to keep track of all the turns and twists they took, she put her mind instead to the matter at hand, to what she would do and say, going over it all in her head.
Jennsen reminded herself that no matter what condition Sebastian was in, she had to keep to her plan. Acting surprised, bursting into tears, falling on him, wailing, would do neither of them any good. She hoped that when she saw him she could remember all that.
The man in white checked his charge before turning down a stone stairwell. Dull red rust showed through chipped paint on the iron railing. The uncomfortably steep flight of stairs twisted downward, finally ending in a lower passageway lit by the eerie wavering light from torches in short floor stands, rather than by lamps and reflectors that were used to light the way above.
The two men in silver robes who had gone on ahead were waiting for them at the bottom. Hazy smoke hung near the low beams of the ceiling, leaving the place reeking of burning pitch. She could see her breath in the cold air. Jennsen felt, viscerally, how deep they were in the People’s Palace. She had a brief, unpleasant memory of what it felt like sinking down beneath the dark, bottomless water of the swamp. She felt a similar pressure on her chest in the depths of the palace as she imagined the inconceivable weight overhead.
Down the murky stone corridor to the right she thought she could see evenly spaced doors. In some of the doors, it looked like there might be fingers gripping the edge of small openings. From down that hall, in the darkness, came a dry, echoing cough. As she looked off toward the unseen source of the sound, she had the feeling that this was a place where men were sent not for punishment, but to die.
Before an ironbound door sealing off the corridor to the left stood a powerfully built man, feet spread, hands clasped behind his back, chin held high. His bearing, his size, the way his cut-stone gaze locked on her, made Jennsen’s breath falter.
She wanted to run. Why did she think she could do this? After all, who was she? Just a nobody.
Althea said that wasn’t true unless she made it so herself. Jennsen wished she had as much faith in her own abilities as Althea seemed to have in her.
Looking Jennsen in the eye, the man in white robes held a hand out in introduction. “Captain Lerner. As you requested.” He turned to the captain and held his other hand out toward Jennsen. “A personal envoy of Lord Rahl. So she says.”
The captain gave the man in white a grim smile.
“Thank you,” she said to the men who had escorted her. “That will be all.”
The man in white opened his mouth to speak, then, as he met the look in her eyes, thought better of it and bowed. With his arms held out like a hen herding chicks, he ushered the other two in silver and then the soldiers away with him.
“I’m looking for a man I heard was taken prisoner,” she told the big man standing before the door.
“For what reason?”
“Someone messed up. He was taken prisoner by mistake.”
“Who says it was a mistake?”
Jennsen lifted the knife from its sheath at her belt and held it by the blade, nonchalantly showing the man the handle. “I do.”
His iron eyes briefly took in the design on the handle. Still, he stood in the same relaxed stance, barring the iron door to the passageway beyond. Jennsen twirled the knife through her fingers, caught it by the handle, and returned it smoothly to its sheath at her belt.
“I used to carry one, too,” he said with a nod toward the knife she had returned to its sheath. “Few years back.”
“But not any longer?” She applied gentle pressure to the crossguard until she felt the knife click home. The soft sound echoed back from the darkness behind her.
He shrugged. “It gets wearing, having your life at risk for Lord Rahl all the time.”
Jennsen feared he might ask her something about the Lord Rahl, something she couldn’t answer, but should be able to. She sought to block that possibility.
“You served under Darken Rahl, then. That was before my time. It must have been a great honor to have known him.”
“Obviously, you didn’t know the man.”
She feared she had just failed her first test. She had thought that everyone who served would be a loyal follower. She thought it would be safe to go with that assumption. It wasn’t.
Captain Lerner turned his head and spat. He looked back at her with challenge. “Darken Rahl was a twisted bastard. I’d have liked to put his knife between his ribs and twisted it good.”
Despite her anxiety, she showed him no more than a cool expression. “Then why didn’t you?”
“When the whole world is crazy, it doesn’t pay to be sane. I finally told them I was getting too old and took a job down here. Someone far better than I ever was finally sent Darken Rahl to the Keeper.”
Jennsen was thrown off by such an unexpected sentiment. She didn’t know if the man had really hated Darken Rahl, or if he was only saying he did in front of her so as to show loyalty to the new Lord Rahl, Richard, who had killed his father and assumed power. She tried to gather her wits without being obvious.
“Well, Tom said you weren’t stupid. I guess he knew what he was talking about.”
The captain laughed, a spontaneous, deep, rolling sound that unexpectedly made Jennsen smile at the incongruity of it coming from a man who otherwise looked like death’s darling.
“Tom would know.” He clapped a fist to his heart in salute. His face softened to an easy smile. Tom had helped her again.
Jennsen clapped a fist to her heart, returning the salute. It seemed the right thing to do. “I’m Jennsen.”
“Pleased, Jennsen.” He let out a sigh. “Maybe if I’d have known the new Lord Rahl, like you do, I might still be serving with you. But I’d already given it up by then and come down here. The new Lord Rahl has changed everything, all the rules—he’s turned the whole world upside down, I guess.”
Jennsen feared she was treading on
dangerous ground. She didn’t know what the man meant and feared to say anything in response. She simply nodded and forged ahead with her reason for being there.
“I can see why Tom said that you’d be the one to see.”
“What’s this about, Jennsen?”
She took a deep, casual breath, preparing herself. She had thought it out a hundred different ways, forward and backward. She was ready to come at it from any angle.
“You know that those of us who serve Lord Rahl in this capacity can’t always allow everyone to know what we’re doing, or who we are.”
Captain Lerner was nodding. “Of course.”
Jennsen folded her arms, trying to look relaxed, despite how her heart pounded. She had made it past the riskiest assumption; she had guessed correctly.
“Well, I had a man working with me,” Jennsen went on. “I heard he was taken prisoner. It wouldn’t surprise me. The fellow sticks out in a crowd—but for what we were doing, that was what we needed. Unfortunately, the guards must have noticed him, too. Because of the mission and the people we were dealing with, he was well armed, so that would have put the men who stopped him on edge.
“He hasn’t been here before, so he wouldn’t know who to trust, and besides, it’s traitors we’re hunting.”
The captain was frowning in thought as he rubbed his jaw. “Traitors? In the palace?”
“We don’t know for certain. We suspect infiltrators are about—that’s who we’re hunting—so he wouldn’t dare to trust anyone here. If the wrong ears heard who he really was, it would imperil the rest of us. I doubt he would even give you his real name, though he might have—Sebastian. With the danger we’re in, he would know that the less he says, then the less risk there is to the others on our team.”
He stared off, seeming to be caught up in her story.
“No . . . no prisoner has admitted to that name.” His brow bunched in earnest reflection. “What’s he look like?”
“A few years older than me. Blue eyes. Short white hair.”
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