Warlord's Wager

by Gwynn White

  What would he think when he returned and found her gone?

  I gave up Axel when I agreed to marry Lukan, she told herself sternly. Her throat locked as tears threatened to spill. Just like she gave up Heron.

  She refused to second-guess her decisions. Instead, she turned the lamp down low, both to conserve fuel and to protect herself from the cameras, and walked into the darkness at the wall with the door. She was about to run her hands along the joints between the stones when the lock clicked.

  The door flew open, and a brilliant light blinded her.

  Boots shuffled in, the wearers struggling under a load.

  “Put him there.” Morass’s voice. He shined his light at the low cot Lynx had woken up on.

  Despite herself, Lynx followed the beam to the bed. She was vaguely aware of the scrape of boxes being dragged across the floor. Two men lumbered across the room and heaved a body down onto the cot.

  “Tao!” Lynx pushed past the soldiers and fell at Tao’s side.

  His head, face, and hands were sticky with blood and his breathing ragged. Lynx reached for his wounds when the door slammed shut. The draft gutted the tiny flame in her lamp. Blackness settled like an obsidian cape.

  Familiar claustrophobia kicked up like a cornered ostrich.

  This time Lynx fought it by taking deep, steady breaths. Tao needed her, and a panic attack wasn’t going to help him.

  Neither was being in the dark.

  Lynx stared down at where she knew Tao lay. Then she rifled through his pockets. In his trousers, she found a leather hood, probably from his falcon, and a small knife. She kept the knife and shoved the hood back into his pocket.

  It surprised her that Morass hadn’t searched Tao to remove all weapons before inexplicably bringing him to her cell. For a guardsman, the man was certainly careless. She wondered if Lukan knew what an idiot his henchman was.

  What does it matter if Lukan employs fools, as long as it helps us escape?

  Face puckered against the blood soaked into Tao’s waistcoat, she dug into his inside pocket. Her fingers alighted on a small tin box. She pulled it out and, fearing she’d lose the contents in the dark, scrambled over to the table. She bumped into something hard that hadn’t been in the room before.

  The boxes she’d heard the guardsmen dragging in. She couldn’t imagine what they were for, but there would be time to check them later. First she had to get out of the mind-numbing dark.

  She maneuvered around and pulled herself up at the table. Carefully, she prized open the lid of Tao’s little tin and fingered the contents—a flint stone and a crumpled ball of tinder. A whoop of delight tore from her chest, and she fumbled for the lamp and his little knife. Her hands were shaking so much that it took a few strikes before the tinder ignited. She lit the lamp wick.

  Blessed light drove out much of her despair—until she saw how badly beaten up Tao was. A mass of bloody flesh hid his handsome face, and his blond hair was stained red. A nasty gash, still oozing blood on the side of his head, worried her the most. It would need stitches, not something she could offer him in this prison cell.

  A prick of pride for him pierced her. It seemed Tao had proved true to his Norin heritage by fighting against his captors.

  But why did he have to? And what had happened with Kestrel? These were questions Lynx would ponder while she cleaned him up.

  He stirred, groaning softly.

  Lynx grabbed the water jug and was about to tear off a strip of her skirt to use as swabs when she spotted the boxes. Two were hers, taken from her dressing room in the palace.

  She stared at them doubtfully, unable to grasp why Morass had brought them here.

  Then she remembered what one of them contained. She scrabbled around her neck for the key, hung from a chain hidden under her clothes. The chain broke and the key dropped, but she snatched it up before it could hit the ground. She drove the key into the keyhole of the closest trunk.

  It was already unlocked. She was so sure she had locked it after last opening it.

  Perhaps that idiot Morass had searched it. A flurry of panic hit, and she sent a prayer to the Winds that he would have missed her precious gift from Axel, lying at the bottom, wrapped in Tao’s surcoat.

  She flung open the lid. Digging deep, she tossed aside clothes until her hands struck something cold, hard, and metallic.

  Axel’s axe, the one he had proposed to her over, was there, just as she had left it.

  Despite the answering of her prayer, doubt flooded her.

  Why would Morass bring the axe? Was the man so incompetent that he didn’t check anything? That seemed unbelievable, even to someone like her, grasping for any straw she could find. But how could she ignore such a prize when it offered a possible escape?

  She bit her lip, considering, then panic ran like wildfire through her, and she tossed everything from the trunk onto the floor, searching for another treasure.

  When she had won her egg, Heron had surprised her by giving her two simple silver bracelets. That had been the start of their friendship. After Mother Saskia had destroyed the watch he’d given her, she had hidden the bracelets in her trunk.

  Her heart plummeted.

  They were gone. Her last link with Heron stolen, probably by that by that dolt Morass, who had left the axe because it was of no value to him.

  Bastard!

  Despite the theft and the anomaly of the axe, the fact that some of their personal possessions had been delivered confirmed her suspicions about Lukan’s plans for her. Clearly, he didn’t intend to let her back into the palace anytime soon.

  Escape was non-negotiable.

  Tao moaned.

  She yanked out one of the cotton dresses stored in the crate, remembered her sewing kit, also conveniently left in the trunk, and grabbed that, too. She carried everything to Tao. The jug she placed on the floor and the needle and thread on his chest. Then she leaned down and whispered to him in Norin, “Tao, we have an axe.”

  Tao flexed his hand, gripping the laces on her corset. Through bloody lips, he mumbled back, “Cian. Not home.”

  Not home? Were they imprisoned somewhere in the capital? She shook her head again in confusion. Why?

  She sighed, then said to Tao, “I’m no healer, so this is going to hurt like hell.”

  He patted her, and then his hand dropped to his side.

  Lynx pulled out the knife and cut away his bloody waistcoat and shirt. She nodded in satisfaction; apart from purple bruising, probably from kicks, his muscular chest and flat stomach were unharmed. The blood had obviously come from his hands, face, and head wound.

  She picked up the needle and held it in the lamp flame. Her fingers burned as it turned red. When she could stand the heat no longer, she dropped it on a piece of her clean cotton dress. By the time she’d finished washing his wounds, it had cooled. Not that they had much hope of keeping infection at bay in this filthy place.

  Twine lined up to the eye, she threaded the needle. She had been stitched enough times to know how this all worked. That didn’t mean she liked it. Gingerly, she brushed his blood-soaked hair out of the wound.

  Tao hissed at her touch, squinting against the pain.

  Lynx resisted the urge to hold her breath. Pinching the wound together, she placed the needle against his scalp. It took a few tries before she was able to stab the needle through his skin.

  Tao arched his back, fists clenching Lynx’s skirt as he moaned.

  “You have to stay still!” Lynx commanded, her voice harsher than intended. “I’m really sorry, Tao, but you can’t move.” Her heart ached as his breath hiccupped.

  “Okay,” she mumbled to herself as she pulled the remaining thread through his scalp.

  New blood dribbled onto her skirt.

  Tao moaned but lay still while she drew the thread through again and again. Finally, she’d closed the wound and tied it off, cutting the remaining thread with Tao’s knife. She splashed a little of the water over the stitching to wash away t
he blood and then poured some over her own bloody hands. Finally, she tied a strip of cloth around the cut on his hand. It had stopped bleeding and didn’t need stitches.

  “Rest now,” she said to him as she gathered up her soiled clothes.

  Lynx opened their three trunks while Tao slept. Five minutes later, she tossed down one of Tao’s bejeweled waistcoats and sighed with frustration. Apart from the axe, there were only sorry finds to help with an escape attempt—her knee-high cotton dresses and Tao’s luxurious clothes. The low-born on the streets of Cian did not go around dressed like princes and princesses. And then there would be her and Tao’s fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes in the sea of bronze-skinned, dark-haired Chenayans. Not to mention the diamond next to Tao’s eye—a dead giveaway to who he was.

  We’ll stand out like ostriches wearing pink pantaloons.

  The pathetic haul was comforting in one respect. The axe had to have been an oversight because no one would expect them to escape dressed in knee-high dresses and bejeweled waistcoats.

  Still, an idea had uncurled itself in Lynx’s mind while she worked. With an axe, fleeing was no longer her only option. She could hide out in the forest near the palace. Lukan would have to leave the safety of its halls sometime, even if it was just to walk in the gardens. Then she would have him.

  The thought of sinking an axe into him filled her with unbridled pleasure. What happened after that, she wasn’t quite sure.

  “Those jewels are worth something.”

  Lynx looked up. Face wan, Tao sat up in the bed, watching her.

  “You know what I’m thinking?” she asked him.

  He nodded, then cringed, clasping the cut on his head.

  Lynx dropped the waistcoat and joined him. “What about Kestrel?”

  Tears filled Tao’s eyes. “She’s the one who turned me in.”

  Bile gagged Lynx’s throat. “What?”

  “Lukan said anyone who failed to swear allegiance would die. He gave me a reprieve to say goodbye to her. Then Lukan and Morass came to our apartment. I was hiding in the bathroom—thought I could escape that way, but it was hopeless.” He paused. “She gave him the key to the door,” he whispered.

  Lynx prayed to the Winds that Tao had it wrong. “But why would Kestrel do that?”

  “Lukan offered her a place in his bed.”

  Lynx leaned over the side of the cot and vomited.

  Tao sat silent, then he shifted over and rubbed her back, gentle circular motions. “I’m sorry. She’s your sister, so it’s harder for you.”

  With nothing left in her stomach, Lynx sat up and wiped her mouth on her sleeve. “No, Tao. I’m sorry. You, of all people, did not deserve that.”

  He shrugged. “I’m more worried about losing Bird.” Sorrow blazed in his eyes. “I hand-reared her.” He looked down at his hands and then at her. Realization lit his face. “I’m still alive. Why didn’t they kill me?”

  “I don’t know. Why didn’t you swear allegiance?”

  “Lukan stood up at the meeting with the Fifteen and told everyone that he intends to inject our people with ice crystal shockers. He was even talking about something that can read people’s thoughts. Lynx, it’s total surveillance. Something I could not have imagined possible. No matter where a person goes or what he does, Lukan will be able to watch him. It’s like he’s gone mad. Totally paranoid someone will try to incite his subjects against him.”

  Lynx’s blood chilled. “He knows. He must know.”

  “Knows what?”

  Not wanting to say the words out loud lest they bring unimagined horrors down upon them, Lynx leaned in close. “I’m pregnant with the Dmitri baby.”

  “You sure?” Tao sounded doubtful.

  “Very. I had a visitor from the realms of the dead who confirmed it for me. Today, or I think it was today. But who knows in the dark? Anyway, before Lukan had me thrown in here.”

  Tao watched her in silence. “You know, if I hadn’t seen you vanish that day in the maze, I would not believe you—” He lumbered to his feet. “Let’s get out of here before he can do anything worse to us.” His voice dropped to a whisper, and Lynx had to lean in to hear him say, “All three of us.”

  Tao offered her his hand, and Lynx let him help her up. Then she said, “Why would they put us together?”

  A blank look from Tao. “I haven’t a clue. Before he had my father shot and tried to kill you, I thought I understood my brother. Now? Well, he’s a total enigma.”

  They studied each other’s faces until Tao shrugged.

  Lynx agreed. There was no second-guessing Lukan. The best they could do was to work their plan. She sat at the table and began prizing the jewels off his waistcoat. Tao rummaged through his clothing, finding his least princely garments. He stepped out of the circle of light to dress.

  When he returned to the table, she whispered, “Where will we go?”

  “The harbor. There are always ships from the Free Nations coming in to trade. The city exports timber cut from the Serreti Forest to the whole world. Hopefully, we will find one we can stow away on.”

  Lynx would never have thought of that. She nodded, hating the gnawing in her stomach that the Free Nations were not Norin. What was freedom if one could not share it with loved ones?

  “Did you find a bag of gold coins amongst my things?” Tao asked, looking around.

  “No.”

  “Oh well. We can’t have everything, I suppose.” Tao fingered the handful of pearls and sapphires rolling about on the table. “These will work, too.” He pocketed the jewels and raised his eyebrows questioningly.

  He was right. There was no time like right now to leave. But first, she had to tell him her plan for Lukan without letting the camera hear what she was saying. She gestured with her finger for him to come closer. He knelt, and she whispered her thoughts about ambushing his brother in his ear.

  Tao rocked back on his heels and glared at her. “Not a chance. Our original other plan is better. It, at least, gives you odds to survive.”

  “Huh!” Lynx scoffed. “You do know that I’m a raider.”

  “Yes,” Tao said with exaggerated patience. “I also know there wouldn’t be a curse in place if you could just march up and chop his head off like he was a chicken in a coop.”

  Lynx puckered her nose, hating that he had a point. She searched for an argument against it but came up short. The truth was she couldn’t even count on the Winds to help her, because destroying Lukan was not the path they had ordained for her life. Keeping the Winds on her side had been how she’d survived years of combat against Chenaya. Now was probably not the best time to offend them by trying to go it alone.

  A sighed oozed from her chest. “You win.” She scooped up the axe. Together they strode to the door.

  Two swipes with the axe, and the lock broke.

  Chapter 14

  Lynx ripped open the cellar door. An impossibly steep flight of stone stairs loomed above her. It was lit with two burning torches, one at the top and one at the bottom. She jumped the first two steps with Tao right on her heels. Conscious of the need to hurry, she slipped and scraped her way across the moldy stone, expecting company at any second.

  No one appeared.

  Another locked door at the top. This lock proved more stubborn, and it was a tense, noisy few minutes while she hacked away at the wood. At last, the door swung open.

  Lynx looked out at a narrow alley between two crumbling wooden buildings, the one they were in and the one opposite them. The air hung heavy with the stench of urine. The planet’s two crescent moons cast the only light, deepening the shadows for guardsmen to hide in. She caught the low thrum of a steam-powered engine some distance away. She prayed the occupants weren’t coming for them.

  Heart pounding like a kettledrum, she whispered to Tao, “Which way to the docks?”

  He shook his head and pushed around her. His other hand indicated that she should stay put as he crept to the end of the alley.

  Lynx
scanned the area. A high wall blocked off the other end of the lane. There was only one way out, and if they were attacked, they’d be trapped. Every sense alert, she waited for Tao’s sign.

  He poked his head out into the street.

  She hoped he knew his way around the less salubrious parts of Cian, but doubted it. Why would he?

  He gestured for her to follow. Whatever he saw must have satisfied him.

  With a sigh, she crept after him. The alley opened onto a rutted road flanked by a railroad track lined with rolling stock. In the dim light cast by a line of gas lamps, she saw flatbed wagons. They were empty, but from the woody smell, sawdust, and scattered branches, she guessed the train had come from logging camps in the Serreti Forest.

  The sound no longer muffled by the alley, the engine she’d heard now panted like a giant dog. A ship transporting the logs? Her heart kicked in her chest. Winds! Was it possible they were so close to the docks?

  Suspicion sent a spurt of adrenaline through her. It all seemed too easy, too slick. She paused as Tao waved her forward. Crouched low, he sprinted to the closest wagon and slid under it, hiding in its shadows. Still, she waited, eyes scanning every corner for trouble.

  “Hurry up,” Tao hissed.

  Shaking her head to shift her raging doubt, she left the cover of the alley and darted over to join him.

  He pointed up the train track and mouthed, “Harbor.”

  Lynx poked her head out from behind a wheel. Water glinted in the moonlight about a hundred yards away. Four steamers, ideal for plying coastal waters, berthed side by side along the quay. Silence hung heavy over their darkened hulls, their Dragon flags limp in the stillness.

  Next to them throbbed a sea-faring freighter, the blue, green, and gold of its Kartanian flag bright in the lights strung above its deck. Swarthy men dressed in the blue and green sarongs and leggings, typical of the people from that Free Nation, scurried around.

  One of them called out, but Lynx didn’t understand a word of the language. His command resulted in a group of men heading to the prow from where a rope arrowed off to shore. Four Chenayan workers waited at the bollard on the dock for one of the Kartanians to turn the winch on the freighter’s deck.