The Blood Knight - J. Gregory Keyes [227]
“Very good,” Robert murmured, “All quite dead. Very good.” He strode over to the hammarharp, took the score, and began rolling it up.
“This was just what I wanted,” he said. “I commend you on a job well done.”
“You knew?”
“I thought that old book might be useful,” Robert confided with an awful false joviality. “Not to me, but I had it in mind that you might be able to unravel its secrets, if properly motivated.”
“You’re horrible,” Areana managed to croak.
“Horrible?” Robert sniffed. “Is that the best you can do?”
He slipped the manuscrift into an oiled leather scroll case.
Leoff thought he heard a faint commotion coming from the door. Groaning, he forced himself to his feet and scooped up Mery.
“Run,” he wheezed.
“Oh, come now,” Robert began, but Leoff was concentrating on fighting the vertigo, on staying balanced on his legs. Areana was right behind him.
They broke out into the hall and stumbled toward the stairs.
“This is really annoying,” Robert called from behind.
Leoff tripped on the stair, but Areana caught him. His lungs hurt, he needed to stop, but he couldn’t, wouldn’t…
Why hadn’t Robert died? Had he plugged his ears? Leoff hadn’t noticed anything.
He watched his feet as if they weren’t part of him because they didn’t feel like they were. He knew they were moving too slowly, as in a Black Mary. He remembered Robert’s dagger, wet with blood, couldn’t look back for fear of seeing it cut Areana’s beautiful, soft throat…
Then suddenly they were face to face with men in armor.
“No!” Areana cried, and lurched forward, but the men caught her—and then Leoff and Mery—in strong arms.
It was then that Leoff noticed the woman who was with them, the same woman who had come to free him from his cell.
“You are safe,” she said. “Robert is still up there?”
“Yes,” he gasped.
“With how many men?”
“It’s just him.”
She nodded, then spoke to one of the soldiers.
“Take them back to Eslen. Make them comfortable and see that a leic tends them immediately. Her Majesty will want the best for them.”
In a daze, no longer able to resist even if he wanted to, Leoff allowed himself to be carried outside to where many more men and several wains waited.
On the wagon, he let his muscles unfurl and lay back in the warm sun. Mery had begun to cry, which he hoped was a good sign.
“I never gave up hope,” Areana told him. “I remembered what you said.”
“You saved us,” Leoff replied. “You saved me.”
They rested against each other, with Mery between them. The sun on Leoff’s skin felt clean and real, a thing apart from horror.
Except…
“I’ve given Robert something terrible,” he murmured. “An awful weapon.”
“You’ll fix it,” Mery whispered, sounding tired but firm.
“Mery? Are you all right?”
“You’ll fix it,” she repeated. Then she fell asleep.
It was silly, the faith of a six-year-old, but it made Leoff feel better. And long before they reached Eslen, he’d joined Mery in slumber.
NEIL AWOKE to clatter and fuss. He was in an airy chamber, lying on good linen, and he felt terrible.
A glance around showed him that he was surrounded by the wounded. He tried to sit up and then thought better of it. Instead he lay there, trying to piece together his memories.
The battle for the waerd; he remembered that pretty well, but everything after was spotty. He thought he’d been on a boat at one point and had heard a familiar voice. Then he remembered leafless trees covered in black ravens, but that might have been a dream.
And then—certainly this was a dream—a very long run down a dark tunnel, crowded with people; some he knew, some he didn’t. Of those he knew, some were dead, some still living.
He found he’d closed his eyes again and opened them to see a young lady in a wimple offering him water. He took