SWNOVELS Iceblade: Chapter 17
AFTERNOON IS FADING into evening when I hear a wolf howl. Lupine has found me. I wait apprehensively, fearing that Marin might have become convinced I really am guilty and is coming with an armed patrol to take me back to Blackthorn. Every muscle in my body tenses as I try to make the decision whether to stay, or to run while I still have a chance.
Three riders approach through the trees. Marin is leading Sahan, with Nem and Brac riding behind him. If I don’t trust Marin now, we’ll be set on paths of enmity forever. I drop from the branches in front of him, still wrestling with the voice in my head screaming, run!
Marin reins in and signals the others to halt.
“We rest here tonight. We’re two hours beyond the cordon of searches.”
Brac and Nem take care of the horses and light a fire while Marin sits beside me to pass on news from Blackthorn.
“I questioned the steward you accused, but he swears you wounded him when he tried to stop you killing Sarinder. The guards who arrested you said you were trying to strangle Sarinder while he was on the ground.” Marin’s eyes betray his uncertainty and it hurts more than I expected. I remind myself that I haven’t exactly managed to live up to some of the times he has previously given me his trust.
“Marin. Think about it. If that were true, do you really think any of them would still be alive?”
“Point. At first I wondered how anyone but you could kill two Eldrin bodyguards so easily, but their stab wounds suggest the assassin used concealed blades and the advantage of being a known servant to catch them by surprise.”
“Which applies to me as well.” I add gloomily. It feels like a spider-web whose threads are slowly constricting towards an inevitable conclusion.
“And like you said, with that kind of advantage you could have killed them instantly. I am trying to keep an open mind, Ariel.”
Nem and Brac studiously keep themselves separate from this conversation. They know how difficult Marin finds it to stay objective where I’m concerned. And they know the risk he is taking with his own life it he gets it wrong.
“Marin, do you believe I’m innocent?”
He hesitates. “I have to. If it’s true, I need to push the search for the real plotters. But you should know that Brac was under orders to bring a patrol to the cave if I hadn’t returned in a few minutes.”
I’m closer to disaster than I thought. “Has anything changed since then?”
“Ariel, if you were guilty, I’m sure you would have tried to kill me when we were outside the cave. And you would probably have succeeded and escaped. I hadn’t bargained for the additional power you had taken. But you laid down your weapon and your first thought was the danger to Sarinder from the assassin still at Blackthorn.”
“Did you find out anything more?”
“The two guards you escaped from are recovering. I managed to convince them you used a Sylvani unarmed combat technique that causes temporary paralysis. If they knew what you had really done I think your guilt would have been irredeemably fixed in everyone’s minds.”
It seems ironic after all the warnings about Sylvani complacency.
“So long as no one tells them we’ve grown so peaceful our Elders think we have become soft and vulnerable.”
He almost smiles. “So few outsiders spend time with the Sylvani, they have become enough of a mystery and a legend for all manner of things to be thought possible.”
“Add mystery to Blade adept and that should fix my guilt in everyone’s minds now I’m accused of treason, murder and the Five know what else besides.”
“Attempted murder. Sarinder will almost certainly recover. You probably saved his life.”
I let out a long slow breath of relief although I’m not sure it makes much difference to my situation if everyone still thinks I’m guilty of other crimes.
“Am I still top of the nation’s most wanted?”
He gives me a regretful look. “I’m afraid so. I persuaded Tandarion to keep an open mind until Sarinder regains consciousness, but everyone else in the household has been given the official story, that it’s you. The steward was praised and rewarded for his courage in trying to stop you.”
He notices the look of fury on my face before I can hide it. Life really is unfair sometimes.
“Ariel, before you go off on one of your revenge attacks, let me finish. Six Eldrin spies are watching him day and night, and while he was being ceremoniously rewarded I took the opportunity to search his things.”
At last, a glimmer of hope. “What did you find?”
“Very little, unfortunately. They can’t carry much with them with all this constant moving from one safe house to the next. The only unusual thing was a bottle of herbal medication. I took a sample from it, but our medics didn’t know what it was.” He hands me a small vial. I tip a drop onto my hand and spread it thinly, sniffing and tasting cautiously.
“Not a poison unless it’s something completely foreign I have never seen before. It’s more like…”
And the moment I guess what it is, a whole sea of answers comes flooding in.
“Marin, it’s a similar mix to the pills I gave Alina. Torpid. I don’t think Sarinder was the target to be killed. I think Tandarion was. Later, after Sarinder had been kidnapped. But the traitor underestimated Eldrin bodyguards. I’m guessing something made them suspicious and they tried to stop him going in. And then in a panic, he stabbed Sarinder in self-defense when the boy suddenly attacked him.”
I feel the frisson in the air as the others gather round anxiously. Marin reaches for Tal’s whistle, glancing at the sky and trying to judge whether there is still enough daylight for the hawk to fly back with a warning.
“Explain quickly. It will be difficult enough making any idea that comes from you sound convincing.”
“I think it must be Farang’s backup plan. I’m sure he already suspects that the Emperor is thinking about getting rid of him. And he knows Tandarion will never trust him again. But if Tandarion is dead, Sarinder becomes king. Old enough to be a figurehead, young enough to be manipulated and used to front a rebellion if Farang becomes desperate. But kidnapping Sarinder from under the noses of dozens of Eldrin bodyguards all over the Manor and its grounds would be no easy task. So rather than knock him on the head and try to carry him out wrapped in a blanket, you spend a day or two drugging him with this stuff, wave a pretty girl in front of him and he’ll help you sneak him out without being seen.”
I can’t believe how dubious Marin and Brac still are.
“Come on you two! You can remember what it’s like to be a fourteen year old boy can’t you? It wasn’t exactly ancient history for either of you.”
“Point.” Marin whistles for Tal again while Brac starts scribbling furiously on one of the tiny slips of paper shaped for the hawk’s leg capsule.
Images are flashing through my mind. A warm pitcher of water and a girl who seemed to have too many errands to run…
“There is at least one very pretty fifteen year old girl in the household. She was in charge of the king’s hand-washing water yesterday. She gave it to me to deliver.” I shrug helplessly at Marin. “You know how well I managed that errand.”
Tal lands on Marin’s arm and waits while he slips the message into the capsule. I watch as she takes off, wondering why I’m now busy worrying about the girl.
“She might not be part of the plot. The kidnapper might have convinced her Sarinder was in love with her or something. Are they going to just drag her off to the dungeon like they did with me and––”
Images of tiny fingers scattered over the damp stone floor are going to keep me awake tonight. Marin’s hand is on my arm.
“Calm down. There will be a lot more watching and spying before anything like that happens. They have to find the rest of the gang and the quickest way to do it is to follow unsuspecting plotters and their messages.”
“It has to be Farang who is behind this. The Emperor wants the whole royal family paraded through the city and publicly executed, not kidnapped or quietly assassinated. Controlling Sarinder has to be the Fang’s backup plan if Purmut decides he has served his purpose. Or if the war doesn’t go well for the Rapathians.”
Brac doesn’t sound optimistic. “He must know of a weakness in this invasion we don’t know about then. It seems almost complete t’ me. We haven’t achieved much beyond damage limitation so far.”
“Nem, what did you learn from Kashia?” I had almost forgotten that side of things.
“Shan’domir decided to take the message to the Khalim personally and he took ship for Annubia yesterday. Too risky staying in Corinium now his identity is compromised. And Tanil is dead.”
“What! After I went to all that trouble not to kill him?”
Nem frowns. “We still haven’t really figured out what it all means. Farang must have decided his injuries limited his effectiveness so he used him to take a message to Purmut asking for more time before handing over the royal family. A messenger bearing unpopular news usually ends up with the Emperor’s dagger in his neck. Tanil was no exception. He managed to get out of the palace before collapsing, Kashia had spies watching him and they brought him in straight away. He was able to tell us a few things before he died.”
“How can you trust anything a traitor says?”
“We can’t. Except that he knew he was dying and had no reason to lie. He begged Kashia to save his family, held hostage by Farang. He was rambling a bit but kept coming back to Farang’s need for backup because he had seen a weakness in the Usurper’s plan. He said if we discover the power behind the Emperor before he gets control of Maratic, the invasion may collapse.”
It sounds like an even bigger riddle than we had before. There may be a grain of hope in there somewhere but we have to find the answer if it is to be any use. The Emperor is no fighter. His power is his ability to persuade and coerce.
The thought that he might discover a way to control Maratic before we discover the source of the deadly grip he already has on our country makes me reach for Marin’s hand once more. I can sense the energy flowing through him.
“It’s steadier. Stronger. Seems like you’re able to handle the extra power I gave you. Has the craving come back?”
He pauses to focus for a few moments, then shakes his head. “Not as much as before. Still waiting to see what happens next.”
We fall silent. The only way to be sure Marin could pass on the same ability to grab power all at once would be for him to use it, and I know he would never gamble with someone’s life like that. At least I know for sure what deadly value I would be if the enemy captured me.
It’s why I keep a good supply of nightbane with me all the time now.