The Born Queen - J. Gregory Keyes [154]
“What now?” Areana said.
He stepped to embrace her, but she flinched back, and he stopped, feeling a lump in his throat. He didn’t feel like much of a man.
“I think we have to leave,” he said. “If more soldiers come, the same thing will happen. If Ilzereik returns, he’ll probably have us burned as shinecrafters.”
“Not if we get rid of the bodies,” Areana said. “Then he’ll reckon they just deserted. There’s no way he’ll imagine we managed to do away with all these.” She prodded one of the corpses with her toe.
“True,” he said. “But as I said, it might not be Ilzereik. It could be a knight more like Haukun, or worse.”
“Where will we go?” she asked. “All of Newland is probably occupied. For all we know, Eslen has already fallen.”
He was trying to think of an answer to that when they heard a whinny in the yard. Leoff charged to the door and saw it was Ilzereik and the rest of his men.
“Well,” he sighed. “It’s moot now.”
“Taste,” the knight said, proffering a bite of barley mush to Mery. She blinked and took a bit.
“I told you we didn’t poison them,” Leoff said.
“I’m starting to believe you,” the knight replied. “I’m starting to think this is an entire nation of witches. I befriended you, composer. I treated you well.”
“Yes, but you left your men to rape my wife while you were gone,” he said. “We were just defending ourselves.”
“Jah, but how—by what means?”
Leoff firmed his jaw and didn’t answer.
The knight sat back.
“You’ll tell,” he said. “I’ve sent for the sacritor of our hansa. He should be here within a bell, and he will know what happened here. He will know what to do.”
“Shall I play you a tune in the meantime?” Mery asked.
“No,” the Hansan said. “There will be no music. If I hear anything that resembles a cantation, I’ll kill whoever starts it. Do you understand?”
“Be still, Mery,” Leoff said.
Ilzereik went back to the bodies. “Haukun was stabbed,” he mused. “The others just fell dead. Whatever you did, Haukun wasn’t affected. A puzzle.”
He went to the music Mery had packed and began pulling it out.
Someone in the yard called the knight’s name.
“Ah,” he said. “That will be the sacritor, won’t it? Are you sure you wouldn’t rather tell me? You’ll still be lustrated, but at least you won’t be questioned.”
“I’ve been ‘questioned’ by the Church before,” Leoff said, holding up his hands.
“I see. There’s a history, then. Well, it’s a shame. I was really enjoying your company. I can’t believe I was so deceived.”
He rose and went to the door. Leoff closed his eyes, trying to think of something, anything, to do.
Nothing came to mind.
CHAPTER TWO
A FINAL MEETING
FRATREX PELL turned quickly when he heard Stephen sigh.
“You!” he gasped. Beneath his graying brows, his eyes glimmered with disbelief.
Stephen wagged a finger at him. “You’ve been a bad little boy,” he said. “You and your Revesturi playmates.”
Pell drew himself taller. “Brother Stephen, there is much you don’t know, but even so you should not presume to talk to me in that fashion.” He cocked his head. “How did you get here? This tower is twenty kingsyards high.”
“I know,” Stephen replied. “It’s wonderful. Like a wizard spire from the phay stories. And so well hidden! You Revesturi are so clever-clever. Really clever. You couldn’t walk last time I saw you, Fratrex Pell.”
“I healed.”
“Oh, you healed. That’s impressive. Not as impressive as surviving the explosion at d’Ef, though. My ears are still ringing from that.”
“We were trying to stop the waurm.”
“You didn’t, though. It chased me right up into the mountains, like it was supposed to. Died like it was supposed to. And I—I found everything I was supposed to find. I came here, I suppose, to tell your superiors about your tragic and heroic end—and see what I discover.”
“I have no superiors,” Pell said. “I am the Fratrex Prismo of the Revesturi.”
Stephen crossed his arms and leaned his shoulder against the wall. “Well, I see that now,” he said. “I can feel your power. Desmond was really lucky