by Dawn Cook
“How?” Contessa asked, and I could hear the pain in her voice for her understanding of what I was telling her to do.
I glanced up, then back down to the rope. I was almost through it.
“When she left, Mother’s wounded pride healed. Their love deepened, and their trust in each other grew absolute. There was no way for a manipulative, power-hungry lord to drive a wedge between them, splitting the throne and making political upheaval possible.”
“Oh,” she whispered, reaching up to touch her lips. “I never realized.”
Satisfied, I nodded. “The palace was sound, and the populace felt secure. Happy people don’t listen to dissidents intent on revolt.”
“I can’t ask Thadd to leave,” she blurted.
“And I can’t tell you what to do,” I replied. “No one expects you to like all the choices you make.”
“But you were the crown princess, once,” she said. “Didn’t you ever find the needs of the kingdom crosswind to your desires? What did you do? How did you decide?”
I sighed, taking a moment to shake my left hand out before continuing to work on the rope. “I didn’t allow myself to have desires,” I whispered, thinking that admitting that aloud was probably the lowest point of my existence.
Her chin dropped, and she sniffed once. “You can’t say that. I saw you kiss Duncan,” she said, and my face warmed.
The rope snapped under my efforts, and I jerked forward, my knuckles hitting the sand. Contessa moved her tiny feet so I could reach her tether. Somewhere between reaching the island and now, they had taken her boots. Silently, and without comment, I started working on her bindings, being very careful not to hit her pale skin. If we could get Alex free, we might sneak out and find a place to hide. What I’d do then, I’d worry about later.
Contessa pulled her blanket tighter about her shoulders. “Please don’t be angry with me. But, Tess, I don’t trust Duncan.”
My fingers were cramping, and I stopped, looking up to see her miserable for her admission. “You don’t trust him?” I said, my back starting to hurt high up my shoulder. “After all he did for us? Is doing right now? I’m alive because of him.” And Jeck, but no need to bring that up.
She curled her lips in on themselves, her eyes on the moon. “I know you like him, and I think he likes you, too, but . . .”
With a huff, I returned to her rope, watching the strands start to part. “But what? Is it his thief mark?” I asked. “I told you he got it by mistake. A so-called friend tricked him into taking the blame for his thievery. The man was a god to him, and he felt he owed him his life. Duncan is a good man under the street dust.”
Her tether parted, and I heaved a sigh of relief. Her hand went down to rub her ankle. “You’re right,” she said. “Never mind.”
I sat on the sand, my pulse fast from just that little exertion. She had said never mind, but that’s not what she wanted to say, and I didn’t need magic to see it. “Is it because he lived on the streets?” I asked belligerently. “Because that’s where I would be if it wasn’t for Kavenlow.”
Contessa’s face pinched in the moonlight, and she hunched into herself. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up. I’ve been watching him, and yes, he cares for you. He almost spends as much money on you as he does himself, which is saying a lot for him. It is obvious that he thinks highly of you and doesn’t want anything to hurt you. It’s just . . .”
I rubbed my ankles, glad to be free. I wanted to leave, but I had to catch my breath first. Silently I waited.
Her held breath slipped from her. “When you were bitten,” she said reluctantly, “he was the first one into the pit. He saved your life, but Tess, it was almost as if you were a thing to him. Something that he wanted to put on his shelf that would ensure his future. He fought hard to keep the crew from leaving you down there and filling up the hole, but it was greed in his voice, not love.”
I watched her worried, pained eyes—and listened, weighing her hard-to-spot but substantial savvy with people against the touch of his fingers on me and the shared pain in his voice when he caused me pain to save my life. “He’s been hungry most of his life,” I said hesitantly. “Maybe that’s the only way he can convey his need for someone,” I said, and she dropped her eyes, adjusting her dress about her bent knees.
“We should get Alex free and find somewhere to hide until the palace finds us,” I said, awkwardly getting to my feet. I dropped the ends of her rope in the sand beside her, then reached down with my good left hand and pulled her up. The food I had eaten today gave me a new strength, and the freedom beckoning beyond the dark vegetation was better than any tonic.
Contessa brushed the sand from herself and glanced at the distant coals of the community fire. A shuffling in the brush beside us brought a small gasp from her. Pulse hammering, I spun, my hand going over her mouth.
“Or,” came Jeck’s voice out of the black, “you could row out to the Sandpiper and be gone entirely.”
Twelve
“Jeck!” I exclaimed in a muffled oath, wondering how long he had been listening. “How did you find us?” I stammered before remembering I had slipped into his mind during my overdose of venom and pointed the way.
My left hand dropped from Contessa’s mouth. An uncomfortable flash of emotions ran through me at the sight of his tall shadow lurking at the edges of the underbrush: embarrassment for my sorry state and that I needed rescuing, fear that I looked weak and that Jeck would take advantage of it, and worry that he was a better player than I and that I would ruin my master’s game beyond repair. And over it all was the knowledge that he had saved my life.
I didn’t like any of the things I was feeling, but I was glad to see him nonetheless. The Sandpiper was nearby. Freedom.
He made the smallest of motions with his head. “This way. And keep it quiet. You make more noise than three children with candy.”
Contessa stiffened. “Captain, you forget your place. Don’t talk to my sister like that.”
Jeck made a little start. I could see it as the moonlight glinted on the brim of his hat. “My apologies to Your Majesty and her lady,” he amended, so sincere that I almost missed the faint sarcasm he hid in his slight bow. “If you would please come with me with all due haste and stealth into the shadows so I may cut your tethers?”
Contessa made a short harrumph as she gathered her filthy skirts and headed after him, awkward because of the sand. “Tess already cut our bonds, Captain. We’re not so helpless.”
“Contessa?” I whispered, lurching to follow her. “It’s generally customary that the rescued not harass the rescuer but swallows any insults in the spirit of the moment.”
Her narrow face went worried in the moonlight. “Oh . . .”
The soft glint of steel showed as Jeck put his knife away. “You’re free? Why the devil are you still sitting here?”
“Alex,” Contessa breathed, her head turning to their shelter. “We need to cut Alex free.”
A bump leaning against a tree moved. “Here, Contessa,” Alex said out of the dark, and Contessa hiked her skirts up and pushed past Jeck. The relief in her was obvious when she stopped before him, the white of her dress tumbling as she ran her hands over him to make sure his exertions hadn’t pulled any mending tears.
Following, I tripped on a root and staggered. I reached for a tree, skinning my palm. Pain raced down my right leg, reverberating back up to my shoulder. I panted through the hurt and said nothing. Jeck paused and looked back. “I’m fine,” I said. “Do you have Duncan?”
“Your thief? No. He’s one of them.”
Contessa turned, the white shadow of her dress giving away her position. “He’s only pretending so he would be in a better position to get us free.”
My lips parted. She had just told me she didn’t trust him. Her eyes in the moonlight flicked to mine, and she shrugged. As I held a tree for balance and waited for the pain to lessen, Jeck pressed into motion. “What about Duncan?” I said, my voice
bordering on the unsafe.
The captain of the Misdev guards came to a respectful halt before Alex, and the prince took Contessa’s arm. “If you would, sir, please assist Queen Contessa to that tree? I’ll be with you directly and show you the way to the boat.”
Alex nodded. “This way, Contessa,” he murmured. “Watch the roots. Here, let me help you with your dress; you’ve snagged it.”
She glanced back at me once for reassurance, then went with Alex, her mouth shut and her arm supporting him rather than the other way around.
Jeck waited until I hobbled the few steps between us. “You softened her to him?” he said, his low voice almost unheard. “I’m doubly impressed.”
For a moment, I could do nothing but stare, my mouth hanging open. A second compliment? Then I shook myself. “Duncan is coming with us.”
The shadow of his head shifted back and forth. “No. I’m here for them only.”
I looked past him to the white shimmer of Contessa, the only giveaway that they were nearby. “We aren’t leaving him behind.”
Jeck scoffed deep in his throat. “I’m not going to tiptoe through an enemy camp to find a thief.”
“You chull!” I exclaimed softly, my cheeks warming. “He isn’t a thief. He’s a cheat, and he helped keep us alive by pretending to join them. I’d be dead if it weren’t for him.”
“I’d be willing to wager it was his idea to put you with that punta.”
His voice had a hint of challenge, and my breath caught as I fumbled for words, finally saying, “He didn’t know what it was. And he kept them from burying me alive after it bit me.”
Jeck’s lips pressed together as if I had confirmed something he already knew, making me even more angry. “I’m not going back for him,” he said.
“You and your damned game,” I whispered, heart pounding and very aware of the royals just out of earshot. “Don’t you think of anything or anyone else? Ever? Is that all you live for?” My knees shook from my weakened state, but I wouldn’t back down.
“The game is why I’m still alive—apprentice. And you have no right to talk. Do you think I don’t know you’re going to lie to your master about the extent of your damage so you can stay in the game, risking your life to continue it?”
My heart pounded that he could see through me so easily. He didn’t move, but somehow he changed, becoming threatening as his bangs shifted about his eyes. He wasn’t much older than me, but he was nearly twice my weight and held twice the wisdom of venom that I had.
Tucking my hair behind my ear, I took a step back, frightened. “Give me your knife,” I demanded. “I’ll get him if you think rescuing him is beyond you.”
It wasn’t an insult, but it was close. “No.”
“You can’t tell me what I can and can’t do, Captain,” I said, frustration mixing with my worry for Duncan. What would they do to him if they found us gone?
“I don’t care what you do,” Jeck said. “But I’m not giving you a knife. If they catch you with it, they’ll know someone else is on the island and come looking that much sooner.”
“Don’t send me in there unprotected!” I said harshly.
Jeck glanced over his shoulder to the white shadow of Contessa’s dress. “I’m not sending you anywhere. You want your cheat? Go. I’m not your master to tell you you’re being a stupid woman, thinking with your heart instead of your head. I saved your life once because it would have been a foolish waste and it didn’t cost me anything. But this?” His dark eyes narrowed, barely visible in the moonlight. “I’m not helping you in this. Our games mesh. They’re not the same.”
“Common decency,” I insisted, embarrassed to be arguing with him after the reminder that he saved my life, “not foolishness. And I’m not asking for your help. I’ll get him by myself and catch up with you. Where’s the dinghy?”
Jeck paused in thought. Slowly he rocked back. “I won’t wait. If you’re dead set on this, go to the west side of the island. The Sandpiper will be off the beach in about ten minutes.”
“Fine.” My breath was fast and shallow. I had told him I didn’t need his help, and here I was, unable to stand up without pain. “Could you at least give me a dart? They already found them on me so they won’t think anything of it.”
He shook his head. “You aren’t my apprentice, and you shouldn’t even ask me for it. And if you were my apprentice, I wouldn’t. You should be dead from the toxin as you stand there. One more might tip you over the edge.”
He turned to leave, and I reached out, grasping his uniform’s coat sleeve and stopping him dead in his tracks. Jeck turned. He looked at my hand on his arm, and I pulled it away, wanting to hide it and feeling as if I’d made a mistake. “Jeck,” I pleaded, thinking of Duncan, “you can’t just leave him here. They’ll kill him when they find us gone.”
“You want him? You get him,” was all he said, then pushed himself into motion. His steps were soundless, and he vanished so quickly into the dark vegetation that I wondered if he was using his magic to stay unseen. There was a glimmer of gold on his coat sleeve when he pointed the way to Alex, and the swirl of white as Contessa turned.
“Tess?” she called softly, worry heavy in her voice, and I waved at her.
“Go with Captain Jeck,” I whispered. “I’m getting Duncan.”
“But you’re not well,” she protested. “Captain Jeck? You get him. Tess can escort us to the boat.”
I glanced at Jeck thinking that she was exactly right, then grabbed my filthy skirts and slogged forward. “You and Alex are more important,” I said as I came even with them, and Jeck’s face went impassive. “He’ll see to your safety.” As long as it fits in with his game, I added bitterly in my thoughts.
“Come on, Contessa,” Alex urged. “Every moment counts.”
Contessa hesitated, her breath held as she balanced. I’d seen that look on her before. It was the same one she wore when Thadd begged her to leave me to face Alex’s brother alone, buying them time to shinny down a rope from my old rooms and escape. She had left that time, but I knew she had never forgiven herself.
“Please, Contessa,” I whispered, and she dropped her head.
“Don’t be long,” she said. Clearly upset, she turned and helped Alex down the narrow path. I watched them, both relieved and afraid. I could do this alone. I didn’t need Jeck’s help.
Jeck’s dark eyes watched me for a long moment. He took a breath as if to say something, then spun to follow Alex and Contessa. The white of her dress blended into the moonlight, then they were gone.
I steadied myself with a slow breath and headed to the camp, finding myself reaching for my nonexistent dart and topknot. My hair, I realized, was all over the place. Contessa had tried to comb through it today, but I had made her stop as every snarl she found sent waves of hurt to my toes. I had to be a sight, stumbling through the brush with my curls about my ears, my dress ripped and torn, and no shoes. I hadn’t seen anything but drinking water for days.
I am concerned about how I look? I thought, as my toes curled into the cold, grass-rimmed expanse of sand at the edge of the clearing. Pulse pounding, I scanned the unmoving bumps. To walk among them searching for Duncan seemed more frightening than being pushed into the pit with the punta. My head turned to where I had last seen Contessa and Alex. Maybe Jeck was right.
Swallowing, I turned to the camp with stinking bodies of men sprawled everywhere. The collective breathing and soft sounds of sleep gave the impression of a living beast. I had walked the halls of the palace unnoticed using my venom-induced skills. I could do the same here.
Closing my eyes, I forced my hand from my shoulder and took three slow breaths. To remain unseen was very different from sensing emotions from animals, and because of how Kavenlow had taught me this skill—disguising it as countless games of hide-and-seek—it was very nebulous and I was never sure it was working when I tried to do it intentionally. But Kavenlow said that was the nature of the magic and to trust in myself.
Settled, I reached my thoughts out to touch my magic.
My breath hissed in. Dizziness came from everywhere and nowhere at all. Gasping, I dropped to my knees. My eyes were wide but unseeing as I fought to keep from passing out. I fell forward, one hand on my shoulder, the other clutching at the cold sand.
“God help me,” I panted. Holding my shoulder, I hunched into a kneeling huddle, the tingles of pain my fingers made pressing into healing flesh breaking through the numbness. Slowly the black rim edging my sight faded to leave me shaken. What, by the Heavens, happened? Trembling, I looked past my hair to the sleeping men. They hadn’t heard me.
It’s the bite, I decided, recognizing the sensations of an overdose of venom. Toxin was spilling into my veins, coming from my healing wound. It coursed through me as if I had been bitten an hour ago, not two days. It wasn’t my residual levels I was drawing on, it was fresh venom.
A wash of anxiety took me as I knelt in the shadows, a worry that had nothing to do with the men surrounding me. Jeck had said he fixed the toxin in my tissues as he healed my wound, preventing an overdose of venom from killing me. Apparently it wasn’t fixed permanently, but subject to being pulled out when I tried to work my magic, sort of like loosening the bandage.
One hand on my shoulder, the other on a tree so I wouldn’t fall over, I waited for my body to absorb the venom. My knees shook, and my fingers tingled. I swallowed, trying to find enough spit. It’s just working its way out, I thought.
Nothing had changed. It might take a little longer to get rid of it, but then everything would be as it was before. Kavenlow would be peeved, but he would wait while the punta venom worked its way out of my tissues. And time would cleanse the excessive residual toxin from me, bringing my levels back to a level where I could safely be a player.
Just a matter of time, I thought, my heart pounding when I pulled myself up from the sand. I could do this without magic.
