The Born Queen - J. Gregory Keyes [135]
She paused and settled her shoulders. “The third isn’t important right now.”
“I’m glad you don’t believe I’m an assassin,” he said.
She nodded and placed her hands on her knees. “I want you to help me escape again.”
“What?”
“Anne has destroyed a third of our army,” she said.
“This is war,” he said gently.
“You needn’t condescend to me, sir,” she said. “I know what war is.”
“Sorry.”
“Understand, it was not the army of Crotheny that killed our men. It was Anne herself.”
“Oh,” he said, frowning, trying to understand. He’d been with Anne a few times when she had used her gifts. But even on the march to Eslen, she had never been able to affect more than a dozen or so people and never actually had killed more than one or two. Even so, it had made him a little sick.
“How many?” he asked.
“Forty-eight thousand.”
“Forty…” It didn’t make any sense.
“It has begun, Sir Neil. She is coming into her strength. My father will keep sending his men against her, and they will continue to die.”
“What do you intend to do?” he asked.
“Anne is beyond me. There is nothing I can do directly. But I think I might undo the damage I myself did. I might help mend the law of death, and if that is done, everything changes. All visions of the future, all prophecy becomes moot. On that, if nothing else, I ask you to trust me.”
“But why must I help you escape?”
“I have to reach Newland,” she said. “That’s where I must be, and in a short time.”
“It’s impossible for me to promise that,” Neil said.
“I realize that,” she replied. “I just wanted you to know what I’m about. I need to talk to Queen Muriele, clearly. Only she can make the decision to take me to Newland. I just want your permission first, since she is in your charge.”
“That means having her brought up here?”
“If I could do that, I would have already done so,” she replied.
“What do you mean?”
“She went hunting with Berimund, yes?”
“Yes, the day after we arrived. Just before I was seized.”
“My father isn’t a stable man. He condemned your lady to death and ordered my brother to carry out that charge.”
Neil stood so violently that the chair went clattering to the floor. “You saw this?”
She sucked in a breath and flinched back.
“Did you?” he asked more softly.
“No. I have spies, as well. But I have seen where my brother took her.”
“To murder her, you mean?”
Her eyes focused outward and seemed to glaze. “Berimund won’t do that,” she said, her voice a bit singsong. “He’s taken her someplace to hide. He doesn’t know he’s been followed.”
“Followed? By your father?”
She shook her head. “No. Robert Dare.”
Without thinking, Neil put his hand up to his head, where the usurper had struck him with a bottle.
“I have to get to her,” he said. “Can you help me do that?”
“I need her, too, and I need her alive,” Brinna said. “Alis has agreed to aid me, but I need you, too.”
He took a deep breath. “I’ll help you escape,” he said. “But after we find the queen, I must obey her orders.”
“Even if they are to slay me?”
“Any order but that,” he said.
Something bright flitted behind her face but quickly vanished.
“Well,” Brinna said. “Are we agreed?”
“Yes.”
“That’s good,” she said. “Because we’ve already begun, I’m afraid. The interrogator insisted on being with me in this interview, and she got my father to put it in writing that she would be.”
“Where is she, then?”
“In the next room, dead. I poisoned her. The men who brought you have also been dealt with. Or at least I hope so.”
“They’ve been dealt with,” a quiet voice said.
Neil started and found Alis standing behind him, clad in a dark blue gown. She held something bundled in a cloak.
“I think this hauberk will fit you, Sir Neil,” she said. “And you’ve your pick of these swords.”
“I’m sure you would prefer your own,” Brinna said. “But those are beyond my reach. I hope one of these is suitable. You’re going to need it very soon.”
CHAPTER TEN
AN OLD FRIEND
ASPAR HAD begun to draw the knife before he realized