EPIC: Fourteen Books of Fantasy (155 page)

“Yes.” Whether I actually felt ready was a different question. I’d come this far. I had to follow through. Before ringing the bell at the front gate, Mark roughly grabbed my bound wrists. I felt him gently hold my fingers, his thumb rubbing mine before he pushed me in front of him. There was one good thing about my nervousness, anyone who saw me wouldn’t think my fear was an act.

“Announce your arrival,” he yelled, thrusting me into the thick rope attached to a huge bell. My face scraped against its rough strands and burned my cheek.

Reaching up with my bound hands, I grabbed the rope. With great effort I pulled down. The bell loosed a deep, thundering tone, one I was very familiar with. My ears rang with the sonorous clanging. I’d never had any idea it was so loud having only heard its muffled echoes within the castle walls.

A barred window in the huge doorway slid open to reveal an armed guard’s gnarly face, partially hidden by a helmet.

“It better be important. The king’s wedding is today and no one is supposed to be allowed in yet.”

His eyes left Mark’s face and glared at me. Taking me in, from head to toe I saw his eyes widen as he nodded his head.
 

“You,” he snarled in the back of his throat. “You filthy, stinking escaped slave. You remember me?”

I squinted at him through the bright unfiltered sunlight. Behind his helmet I could make out a tightly slitted pair of dark eyes. The same eyes that had glared at me through my cell bars the day of my branding. Tod.

“Come back for the wedding today?” he mocked.

“I’ve brought her back as our master bade me. Using our last prisoner as leverage,” Mark said, jerking me to the side out of the guard’s line of sight. “His family thinks that by turning her in, he’ll be released.”

“You actually going to ask him to release that man?”

“Might,” Mark smiled. “Depends on the master’s mood.”

I was surprised at how easily he could talk with this man about Roc, as if he cared nothing for our friend. Mark had spent one year training with the military, living and working with men just like this. It was a side of him I’d never seen.

The guard chuckled. “Smart man.”

He disappeared from the window. I looked at Mark but his eyes gave nothing away. There wasn’t a hint of the man I knew hiding in there. My hands begin to shake. I knew I shouldn’t be afraid of Mark, that all of this was just an act, but one I thought he was a little too good at.

A door to the side slid open and the guard motioned us in. Mark pushed me through the open doorway, but I didn’t know it was coming. I tripped over my feet and I fell to the ground landing hard on my elbow, unable to catch myself with my bound hands. Tears sprung to my eyes and burned my cheeks. I rubbed them away with the back of my hands, determined not to let either of them see me cry.

I lay on the ground, hands bound and unable to get up gracefully. I wasn’t sure what to do. I looked to Mark, but he only turned away with disgust.

“Get up, you stupid slave,” the guard yelled, kicking me with his foot.

I used my hands to push myself to my knees, even though I had considerable pain in my elbow, and I managed to get back up on my own. I hid my face from the men as another tear fell down my cheek. I didn’t want either of them to see any weakness.

“I’ll send word ahead of you.” He gestured to a young slave sitting on a stool in the corner. “Run now. Let them know the master’s missing slave has returned.”

The bald little boy looked up at me, his eyes wide. I didn’t recognize him and I wondered if he was new. “Is she the one?” he asked.

Before he could finish the guard smacked the boy across the mouth. His hand flew to this mouth, just catching the blood from his newly split lip.

“Did I give you permission to talk?” Tod growled.

The little boy shook his head.

“Go!” the guard yelled. He turned back to Mark with a smile on his face. “Slaves. Got to teach ‘em to listen early. You remember which way to go?”

“I do,” Mark answered, clapping the guard on the shoulder. “Thank you for your help.”

“Anytime. Maybe the master will be happier now that he has this slave back. He’s been a real tyrant since she escaped.”

“Yet he managed to fall in love?” Mark asked.

The guard laughed, his belly shaking under his light mail armor.

“If that’s what you want to call it,” he said. “His bride’s gorgeous, but they never seem to get along. He ignores her and she yells at him. No one knows where she came from or why he’s even taking her on. Must have been some sort of arrangement with another overlord.”

“Interesting,” Mark said. Their conversation shook me out of my self-pity and forced me to focus. I might be able to use any information I could glean when negotiating with Kandek for release of the prisoners. Maybe an appeal to his new bride? If she was unhappy maybe a generous gesture on his part would make her happier, causing the level of tension in the castle to fall.

“I guess. Don’t really care for any of the drama. We’re all just hoping things calm down once they’re married.”

“Jitters?” Mark asked. I pretended to nurse my injured elbow as they continued their conversation.

“Hopefully,” he said. “Now get on with you. They’ll be wondering what’s taking so long.”

Mark pushed me, a little more gently this time, toward a door that led into the castle. He opened it and allowed me to walk through on my own. Once I stepped in, I recognized the hallway well enough. My home, the one place I never wanted to return to.

“We’re heading to the room where Kandek takes his smaller audiences,” Mark said. “You know where to go, I assume?”

His tone was still gruff but I knew we could be overhead at any moment. Slaves learned to become invisible to guests, but their ears were always open. Ivy and I would joke about the ridiculous things said in front of us, as if we were statues and couldn’t hear what was being said. Mark was obviously aware of that too as he kept up his role, a role he was much too good at playing.

“Reychel!” a woman yelled from the direction of the kitchen.

I turned to the right and Luci was standing with her apron tied around her waist, just like always. I looked at her, tears forming in my eyes again. I wished there was a way to stop them before they started.

“It’s me,” I said, holding up my bound wrists.

“I never thought I’d see you again and here you are. Come on the master’s wedding day just like he ordered.”

“She’s not here to socialize,” Mark said, pushing my hands down. “She’s a prisoner, my prisoner, until I decide whether or not to turn her over to Kandek.”

“Well, aren’t you cheeky for such a young soldier?” Luci asked, a grimace on her face. “Did your mother teach you anything about being a gentleman? Obviously not if you’d take a poor girl into custody like this. Brute!”

Poor girl? When I lived here, Luci lived to torture me. At least it seemed that way. So much I had believed had been wrong. Could I have been wrong about Luci too?

I bit my lip to keep from laughing. While I knew Mark probably felt the same about his actions, I couldn’t laugh and force his hand. He’d either have to punish me or laugh with me and neither was a great solution.

“Slaves,” he muttered under his breath. “On with you.”

I walked once again toward my master’s quarters. Even though I’d been gone for a couple months, I felt as though I’d never left. The same tapestries hung in the right places. A scene depicting the great mountains to the south of our island, a mysterious land few had ever visited hung to my right. On the left was a portrait of Kandek his fiery hair dominating his features. Nothing seemed to have changed here, but I knew I had changed. I just hoped I’d changed enough.

As we entered Kandek’s quarters, I was stunned to see Roc sitting in a chair, slumped over. His face was bruised and his lip swollen. I gasped, running over to him. Mark stood by the door, acting as if he wasn’t interested. I knew it must be killing him to stand by and do nothing.

I grabbed one of Roc’s large hands with my small, bound ones.

“Roc, are you okay?” I whispered, tilting his chin up to look at me. I knelt down when I realized he couldn’t look up at me.
 

“Reychel, my girl,” he said. “They know. Somehow they know. Get out, protect yourself.”

I glanced over my shoulder at Mark, his face still made out of stone. He glared at the interior doorway behind me. I turned, my eyes following his to the entrance that led to Kandek’s private quarters. Kandek stood in the doorway, a smile on his face.

“Reychel,” he said, his arms open. “Come to me. I’ve missed you.”

I stayed by Roc’s side, unsure what to do. Mark gave no indication, though I saw his eyes narrow. I looked to Kandek, looking so like his sigil, the fox. I remembered how he’d never harmed me until the morning of my birthday, but I also reminded myself he’d been using my gift and keeping me prisoner my whole life.

“No.” I held tight to Roc’s hand.

“And you,” Kandek said his eyes burning with a spark of anger as he turned to Mark. “So young, so foolish. You really thought you could deceive me?”

“I don’t know what you mean, my lord. I brought you the slave you asked me to find,” Mark said. He bowed deeply, sweeping his arm out at me. Even as he righted himself, his gaze never left Kandek.

“And it was that simple? I told you to find her after my best soldiers have spent the last couple of months searching. It only took you, a soldier fresh off his training, two days? Seems unlikely, doesn’t it?”

“His family,” Mark said pointing to Roc, “was hiding her. It was a simple matter of explaining to them the tortures he would suffer if they didn’t turn her in. Within two hours she was in my custody. It’s obvious they know each other.”

I wrenched my eyes from the arguing men as I heard a smattering of applause from behind the door. A slippered foot stepped through the doorway followed by a woman in an elegant dress. I turned away in disgust, assuming she was Kandek’s bride.

A gasp from Mark forced my eyes back to the woman. But it was no woman. It was a young girl my age. Ivy.

“Didn’t I tell you he’d come back with her?” Ivy asked. “They’re such fools, aren’t they?”

Ivy placed her hand on Kandek’s arm and the anger faded out of his eyes. He turned to her with a blank expression on his face, the fire in his eyes extinguished and replaced with blind submission.

“Why don’t you go sit in the other room for a few minutes while I talk to them?” Ivy suggested.

“Of course, my dear,” Kandek said. He turned to me, “I believe you know my bride.”

Chapter XX

“H
OW
DID
YOU
DO
THAT
?” Mark demanded when the door closed behind Kandek. His hands balled up at his sides.

Ivy laughed at him as if he were only a silly child. She flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder, stalked over to me, and rubbed my short hair. I smacked her hand away, hard enough to sting the back of my hand. She jumped back but quickly composed herself.

“Still refusing to wear a wig, I see,” she said.

“What are you doing? Doesn’t everyone here recognize you?” I asked, stunned to see my former friend set higher than any slave could ever hope. In fact, her new status was illegal. Serenians and Malborn commoners were not allowed to marry, and the nobles could only marry other nobles. It was a law punishable by death. Was her gift really so strong she could overcome all of Kandek’s senses?

“No one knows who I am except Kandek and he’s not telling anyone,” she paused. “He can’t. I won’t let him.”

A laugh escaped her throat. The sound was throaty and deep, nothing like the muffled giggles we’d shared as girls. Had anything about Ivy been real all those years? My heart broke into a million pieces. I had to separate my best friend from the woman standing before me. Trying to reconcile them as the same person was tearing me in two.
 

“You’re a soother,” I said. “You make people feel better about themselves. How have you done this?”

“You’d be amazed what else can be done with that gift, my old friend,” Ivy said. She swept the voluminous sides of her skirt up in her hands and sat gracefully in another chair. After draping the fabric over the arms, Ivy crossed her tiny feet on the floor. “Not only can I calm people down, but after enough time I can also reduce their will to disagree with me at all. Kandek proved to be an easier target than I imagined. Within a few days I had him eating out of my hand.”

“But the guard out front said the two of you fight constantly,” Mark countered.

Ivy laughed again, her voice echoing off the stone walls.
 

“Once in a while, I lay off the soothing and he becomes agitated, as I’m sure you can imagine. He kept me prisoner as a slave for all those years. Now he knows how it feels,” she said.

“You’re cruel,” I said. Roc’s hands shook in mine as Ivy laughed again. Had she soothed him beyond all reasoning too? Why had I let him come here? It wasn’t worth the cost.

“Me? Cruel? After spending your life as a slave to this man you call me cruel? Reychel, you never did get it did you? There’s so much you don’t know.”

Ivy stalked across the room to Roc. She put her hand under his chin and lifted his head. She looked into his eyes. “Now you have repaid me.”

Roc turned his head to look at me for the first time, tears welling up in his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Reychel, I’m so sorry,” he said. He shook his head back and forth, grabbing at his hair. With wild eyes he glared at Ivy.

“I don’t understand,” I looked from Roc to Ivy to Mark. Mark’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Roc, his right hand grabbing the hilt of his sword.

“You betrayed us,” he snarled at Roc. I ran to his side and with my bound hands, pushed his hand away from the sword. He was focusing on the wrong enemy.

“I couldn’t help it,” Roc pleaded. He pointed at Ivy. “She came to me in my cell. When she touched my arm, my worries about leaving Bree and the kids dissipated. She talked to me with such kindness and I confided in her.

“She found out I was part of The Sons. I told her you and I had met.” Roc turned away from Mark’s accusing eyes. “She knew you were coming here. I told her our plan.”