Once Upon a Castle - Jill Gregory [133]
Tressalara went for her dagger but was hampered by the flowing sleeves of her tunic. She had completely forgotten how much they restricted her freedom of movement. Before she could extricate the weapon, one of the guards pounced. As he pinned her arms, one of his comrades relieved her of the dagger.
Lector held out his hand for it. “A pretty toy. Suitable for a pretty woman.” He came forward, smiling at her consternation. Lifting her dagger, he pressed its tip lightly against her cheek. “Perhaps not so pretty when I have finished.”
Tressalara tried not to flinch when the point stung her skin. Lector laughed. “You have always been proud, Tressalara. Too much so for your own good. Did you think you were the only one to know of mad King Gilmere’s secrets? Foolish girl!”
He stepped back and moved to the aperture above the hearth. “The only one I didn’t know was where the Andun Crystal was kept. And now, fair Tressalara, you have led me straight to it!”
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Lector thrust his hand into the dark opening. His look of triumph changed to puzzlement. He leaned further in, up to his elbow, and felt around hurriedly.
“Empty!” he roared. For his troubles he had nothing but a scraped and bloody knuckle. He started toward Tressalara with murder in his face, but Rill intervened.
“My lord, your disappointment clouds your judgment! You will need the girl a while longer. Then you may do with her as you please.”
The fire went out of Lector’s eyes. “You are right. But what could Varro have done with it? Damn his soul to hell!”
His curse angered Tressalara more than his threat. Fear for Cador and his men gave her sudden strength. She struggled against her captors and almost broke free.
Lector grabbed her arms bruisingly. She expected to be shaken or thrown to the floor. Instead, he pressed a moist kiss upon her unwilling mouth. Although she tried, she could not twist her head to avoid it. When Lector had proved his point, he laughed, his humor restored. There was something about subjugating an unwilling woman that made the prize all the sweeter.
He released her. “Use your wiles on the wench, Rill. She was in her father’s confidence. There must be other secret panels we have not yet discovered.”
Rill stepped forward, holding his shard of the Andun aloft. Tressalara recognized it at once. “So that is how you murdered my father and overthrew the guards! Black magic.” A small, cold smile curved her lips. “A warning, my lords: It is said that those who use the Andun Stone for ill will suffer tenfold for their disrespect.”
“It is you who will suffer, and those foolish rebels skulking through the Mystic Forest, with an outlawed Kildoran at their head. When I find them I will crush them beneath my heel. Cador’s head shall sit on a pike over the castle gates.”
Hope flooded Tressalara’s chest. They had been expecting only her, not Cador and his troops. They must have set a guard only on the last half of the tunnel, rather than at its beginning. Perhaps they hadn’t even found the particular entrance she had taken. If she used her wits, they might still come out of this alive.
The magician wove a pattern in the air with the shard. A buzzing filled Tressalara’s head. Her limbs became heavier than stone. Sound retreated, and time slowed. She felt herself shrinking to a drop of ice far in the back of her brain.
One voice seemed to fill the universe: “Hear me, Tressalara, and obey. Do you know of another place where your father might have hidden the mighty Andun Stone?”
Against her will, she found her mouth opening to speak. It was impossible to resist. “Yes…”
Rill sent Lector a glance. “You see, even the princess must respond to the power in this small shard, although it works only at close quarters. Imagine what I…what you will be able to do with both my shard and the Andun Stone in your control!”
Lector was filled with admiration. Perhaps he would not dispose of Tressalara, but keep her on as his queen: subdued to a sweet, kittenlike helplessness by day, released