Sanctuary - Lynn Abbey [186]
“Did you get a message from me? I went to see that laundress at the Inn of Six Ravens …”
“I can see that,” Soldt agreed, and added, without directly answering Cauvin’s question, “It’s no secret that he and Lord Torchholder walk in different circles, but I’ll take a look at who Lord Mioklas has been talking to lately. I’m not known through the palace, lad. The good there is, no one recognizes me; the bad is that I’ve got few connections there other than Lord Torchholder. None at all near Naimun, and that—I’ll wager—is where I’d need to look.”
With his conscience acting up, Cauvin felt obligated to add, “The Hand killed Mioklas’s father—peeled him right here, in front of his own home.”
“Meaning, he wouldn’t knowingly plot Lord Torchholder’s murder with the Hand?”
“Something like that. If he knew—If the right person proved it to him, he’d be the first looking for revenge.”
“Nothing better than a rich man’s vengeance!” Soldt laughed. “The poor man knows the gods of fortune aren’t smiling on him, but a rich man takes it personally.”
Rich men took sea gales personally, too, sending their servants out to check for damage. At Mioklas’s mansion, the keeper barked the orders while his master made a noble silhouette in front of the high door.
“Time to move on,” Soldt suggested.
Cauvin agreed. The men walked together toward the palace, which was out of the way for a man returning to the Inn of Six Ravens. Cauvin braced himself for questions and when they hadn’t been asked by the time they turned eastward on Governor’s Walk, he asked them himself.
“Don’t you want to know what happened when I went to visit Elemi? She knew my name, but she wasn’t glad to see me or the Torch’s froggin’ box. It was full of cards, S’danzo cards.”
“Women,” Soldt muttered. “I’d be more interested in knowing why you suddenly felt the need to visit Lord Mioklas on the Processional to collect the stoneyard’s debts.”
“That’s what I do. I smash stone, I build walls, and I make sure we get paid for the work we do. Last spring, Mioklas had us—me—build a wall in his perfume garden. About time he paid for it.”
“With everything else that’s happening, I wouldn’t think you’d be worrying about walls or gardens or unpaid debts. Unless you needed money. Let’s see—new cloak, new shirt—new to you anyway. Got your hair cut—”
“I’m leaving Sanctuary!” Cauvin waited for Soldt’s reaction, which was, predictably, silence. “Frog all,” he exploded. “I’m going to buy ship passage for Leorin and me. I’ve been thinking about it almost since I found the Torch, but I made up my mind today. That S’danzo, she said I was the only light in Leorin’s darkness. If I can get us away from Sanctuary, we’ll be free. Maybe Ranke, maybe the kingdom. We’ll ride that froggin’ galley out to Inception, then buy onto any ship that promises to take us far, far from the Hand.”
“You’re Lord Torchholder’s heir, Cauvin. You can’t leave Sanctuary.”
“froggin’ watch me. I don’t care how much gold and silver he’s got hidden away. I can’t be bought, Soldt. I’m not his froggin’ heir.”
“You won’t get away, lad.”
“What, are you going to stop me?” Cauvin reached inside the cloak and withdrew the Ilbarsi knife.
“Put that away. I’m trying to help you.”
“Froggin’ hells of Hecath you are. You’re his man—”
“Put it away, Cauvin. You’ve been chosen.”
“froggin’ forget ’chosen.’ The old pud can choose any sheep-shite fool he wants but, shite for sure, I’m not choosing back.”
“Lord Torchholder didn’t choose you! He wouldn’t wish his curse on his worst enemy—not that he hasn’t considered it.”
“Curse? Damn him to Hecath’s coldest hell—What curse?” Frog all, a curse could explain everything: the dreams, the veil of sparks in the old Unicorn’s basement, even the sudden ability to read languages he couldn’t speak. “I should’ve left him there. I should’ve let that froggin’ damn Hiller kick his froggin’ brains out his froggin’