Sea of Sighs (Empath Book 2) (9 page)

“By the spirits, how the hell did you
convince the king to make you his chamberlain?”

“
I
didn’t. You see
my lord
, if you spent your time, like me,
getting to know the people in court and making allies, rather than
chasing around skirts and drinking like father, you’d have some
allies as well. As it stands, you have none, and I’m left defending
Sevenspells in its time of need.”

Rowan was still too shocked to respond to
Eden’s outburst. He carried on coughing and staring at his brother,
jaw slack and eyes wide in surprise. Eden continued, “I didn’t have
to ask to be the chamberlain, because Ross himself asked me to
replace him.”

“Ross is gone?”

“Ross has gone to guide Quinn and
Maertn.”

Rowan shook his head, trying to clear make
sense of the situation. “So, the king, after an attempt on his
throne by the Sha’sekian emissary, has allowed the only man in his
court with the knowledge of Sha’sek to leave and keep an exile
alive? And then he’s appointed you, the son of a noble accused of
rebelling against him, to take his chamberlain’
s
place?
”

It did sound absurd when repeated back like
that, and Eden knew it had been an audacious idea. What no one had
any idea of, was that both Ross and Eden were fundamentally loyal
to the king, and had no intentions of letting anyone else usurp the
throne.

Eden had no idea anymore where his father’s
loyalties lay, and he knew that Rowan would blindly follow his
father unto death. He was going to have to closely judge each
conversation he had and the company he kept, and keep his wits
about him at all times. He was already exhausted. Now, having to
pander to the rebellious side of his brother, alongside his duties
to the king, was going to drain him completely. It left him no room
to think of Quinn; for that, at least, he was grateful.

“I think it’s important, what you’re doing
for us, Eden. I’m impressed you’ve been resourceful, and I know
father will be proud. I think you should take the time to see him.
You will come down with me the next time I pay him a visit.”

Eden could see between those lines, and he
knew his brother was instructing him, not giving him a polite
invitation. Eden nodded, smiling, and trying to show that would be
a wonderful idea. “I feel terrible that I haven’t been to see him
yet so far, but I’m sure once he finds out what I’ve been doing for
Sevenspells cause, he’
ll understand.
”

The two brothers clasped hands, the matter
dealt with and the situation agreed. Eden didn’t exhale with
relief, but River did. Clearly, the middle brother had expected
them to come to blows, and Eden wondered what words had passed
between them before he came to the quarters. “So what we do
now?”

“That’s easy. Depending on what your role as
chamberlain entails, you don’t have to do anything until it’s
announced formally. Therefore,
we
’ve got
a day or so to discuss the situation, discuss exactly what our
father has done, and what we need to say in the meeting to make
sure that Sevenspells isn’t put in a corner.

“I’
ll admit
, I
hadn’t considered the treachery on part of the king until you
pointed out just what he was doing. I know father had no respect
for Vance’s reign before, and it’s perhaps not surprising that
there’s been a challenge to his rule. If anything, I’m surprised it
didn’t come earlier. You’d think Vance would be surrounding himself
with his strongest people, not sending them away. That being said,
we need to consolidate our position, so we’re not going anywhere
until we all know where we stand. Agreed?”

Again, Eden knew this wasn’t a request, and
he searched out the nearest seat. “We’d better send someone down to
the kitchens to get some food.
I don
’t
think we’ll be leaving your chambers tonight, do you?”

River looked from one man to the other, not
sure where to put himself. He was clearly beyond useful in all of
this, and resigned himself to the role of drudgery.

“I’ll go and speak to Renner,” he said with
a sigh. The pale-haired, lanky lad left the room without another
word. Rowan looked after him for a second before turning to Eden.
“How do you think he is going to cope with all of this?”

“What do you mean?”

“
Well, it
’s clear
that you know something is coming. Don’t pretend to be stupid now,
Eden; you believe that war is coming to the kingdom. I
don’
t want war
—father doesn’t want it
either, believe it or not—but it will come. It will be Sammah’s
fault, like you said, and you’ve already started fighting back. I’m
a first son of Shiver of Sevenspells, and I will fight for him
until my last breath leaves me. But I’m not sure at all that River
has it in him to be one of us.”

There it was again: one of us. Rowan was
desperate to compartmentalise into little sections, keeping
Sevenspells away from the rest of Everfell as its own entity.

Eden suspected that Rowan knew perfectly
well his father intended to take the throne, and was not as naïve
to the situation as he would have people believe. If that were the
case, it could have easily been Rowan, and not Alec of Broadwater,
who Sammah had killed that night to push home his point. No wonder
Shiver was recoiling at their alliance. Luckily, Shiver hadn’t been
near his deathbed. Sammah had picked Alec as the current Lord of
Broadwater, Broc, was an old man, unsuited to rule. Alec had been
too ambitious for Sammah’s liking, and had been eliminated. Now,
his elderly father was struggling to get Alec’s younger brother,
Brice, ready to rule.

Broadwater would no longer be a thorn in
Sammah’s side. Eden wondered coldly what would happen next, to the
lord or land that stood in the baron’s way. Sevenspells, it seemed,
would be the ones to find out.

Quinn screamed, her
shrill shriek piercing the night air.

The sudden noise did not deter her attacker,
and the sword continued in its deadly arc towards Quinn’s prone
body. At the last second, she rolled out of the way, hearing a
whistle as the blade whistled past. The blade made a dull thud as
it impacted with the ground by her ear. Trying to roll farther
away, Quinn became tangled in her bedroll. Her arms thrashed as she
struggled to free herself before another attack came. Her voice had
woken Ross, however, and the giant chamberlain was already
scrambling to his knees, sword in hand and eyes darting around to
find their foes.

Maertn was awake as well, but his eyes were
full of shock, and it was clear he didn’t know what to do next.
Kicking down on her bedding, Quinn finally freed herself. She
scrambled away on her hands and knees before the next blow could
come. She twisted to her feet, and saw with horror that they were
being faced down by three of Baron Sammah’s silent mercenaries. No
wonder they hadn’t heard them coming. Luckily, Ross was no court
pushover, and as a veteran of the wars, was a force to be reckoned
with. He barrelled into the attacker who’d gone for Quinn first,
tackling him to the ground and beating at the man’s face with the
hilt of his sword.

The mercenary crumpled at the blow, though
the other two ran in quickly to take his place. Evidently, they had
hoped to murder them in their sleep. If this was the case, why just
Quinn? Why not all three of them, at once? Three mercenaries for
three victims?

Whilst Quinn was relieved they’d made such a
basic mistake, she could tell something didn’t ring true. Sammah
did not make errors in judgement, and his instructions were never
so lax. The two remaining men charged straight for Ross,
recognising immediately that he was the only thing that stood
between them and their prey. Quinn gulped as she saw Ross grab the
fallen mercenary’s own sword, holding one weapon in each hand, he
twisted them both expertly. She’d never seen an ambidextrous
fighter before. Ross was making it look like child’s play. With
only a brief hesitation, the two mercenaries darted at the
chamberlain. Ross met them with a cackling laugh that sent shivers
down Quinn’s spine. That noise would have been enough to petrify
anybody on the battlefield, but it didn’t deter the men; trained
since childhood to bear arms and follow the bidding of their sworn
master.

Their own silent onslaught would have given
most men pause, but set against the berserk laughter of Ross, it
made an odd scene. He parried their thrusts with ease, though Quinn
could see that he was being driven back, not able to fight forward
on two fronts. They
had
to do something to help. She shouted
to Maertn, looking across to see him still wide-eyed and
open-mouthed. Quinn squealed in frustration. She looked around
their destroyed camp, desperate to find anything she could use to
help Ross before he was brought down. Finally, her eyes settled on
the dying embers of their campfire. One long branch still stuck out
the end of the fire, and Quinn remembered that Ross had been using
it to stir the last of the flames. The end of it was starting to go
grey and white with ash, but there was still enough heat for it to
be a threat as well as a distraction.

Quinn grabbed the cool end of the branch,
darting around their camp to try and flank one of the men. They
were so focused on Ross that they didn’t notice her move, and
didn’t hear her coming. Not really knowing what she was doing,
Quinn ran at them with a yell, raising the branch high, and swing
it around in an arc at one of the
mercenar
ies’ heads. Not tall enough for a powerful
swing that high, Quinn missed, but she did drop the branch as it
impacted against the mercenary’s shoulder. Shocked and surprised,
the man dropped his sword. This was all the edge Ross needed, and
with a triumphant yell, he thrust his sword up into the man’s
neck.

The blade bit deep, and the man’s eyes went
wide as he fell back clawing at his throat. Blood gushing through
his fingers and down his arms. Undeterred, their final attacker
went for a killing thrust into Ross's side as he was distracted.
This didn’t work, and Ross brought down his borrowed blade to parry
easily. Bringing around his now bloodied sword in an upward swing,
he slashed across the man’s exposed throat. Quinn, distracted by
her help with the attack, let her guard down. The pain of the men
slammed into her, and she collapsed to the floor clawing at her own
neck. Her vision swam, and she didn’t see the two men thrashing
around in death, nor did she see Ross finish them off with a humane
kill. All Quinn cared about was the pain.

Maertn dashed to Quinn’s
side, and she felt the pain subside as his panicked but soothing
voice washed over her. Ross loomed nearby, and she opened herself
up to both of them, letting their concern for her lift and wash
away the pain she had felt.

“Quinn, you are alright? Did they get you?
Maertn, is she hurt?”

“No. This isn’t from the swords, it’s in her
head.”

“You mean she’s imagining it?”

“
No, we
’ve seen it
before. This has happened a few times, when the emotions overwhelm
her. A couple of times it’s brought her near to death. She’s awake,
so I think she’ll be fine.”

“How do you know she was near death
before?”

Maertn gulped, not wanting to meet Ross’s
gaze, but forcing himself to anyway. “Because I went and got her
back from the Beach of Bones.”

Ross stilled, contemplating those words.

“Quinn, can you talk to us?” Ross tried to
keep his voice calm and low.

Quinn opened her mouth to respond, and a
pained croak was all that came out.

“Here, here, keep still. I’ll get you some
water.” Maertn squeezed Quinn’s shoulder gently before shuffling
off to stoke the fire and set up pot of water to boil. He had only
brought a basic set of herbs along, but he had more than enough to
settle Quinn back down.

* * *

“Hey, Quinn?” Ross waited until her eyes
swung to him, before he went on, “I’m going to lift you and take
you to the fire. Is that okay? Does anywhere hurt?”

Quinn shook her head, and Ross could see the
tears forming in her eyes. The girl was ashamed, though she needn’t
be. Her first scream had saved all their lives. That payback had
been enough to negate anything that was happening now. Ross knew
that no matter how good he was with a sword, he would never be able
to cope with the demons that rampaged inside of Quinn’s head.

As gently as he could, Ross put one arm
underneath Quinn’s shoulders, and the other underneath her knees.
He picked her up like she was nothing. The girl was too thin, and
her body too fragile. Sammah had neglected these children, and Ross
knew that life in Sha’sek would either be the breaking or the
making of them both.

Ross wanted to protect them, and that’s the
only reason he’d let Eden convince him to come here. Ross was glad
to see that Maertn had resurrected the fire with ease. The flames
were still low as he fed small kindling sticks into the soft, red
coals. As Maertn coaxed the flames higher, Ross gathered together
all the bedrolls and made sure Quinn was fully swathed. Only when
Ross was sure that Quinn was safe, and Maertn had the healing in
hand, did he go and survey the dead.

He looked over the bodies of the two fallen
mercenaries with disdain, and did not relish the idea of having to
dispose of their bodies. He was tempted to leave them out on the
plains as carrion, but that wouldn’t be fair to other peaceful
travellers. He would bury the men when he knew Maertn and Quinn
were asleep.

Their other problem was the final mercenary.
Ross had only knocked the man unconscious, so they might get more
information. In the heat of battle, he had not considered the fact
that it was one of Sammah’s mercenaries, and unable to speak. If
they were unable to get any information from the man, then Ross
would have to kill him. It would be much easier to do than in cold
blood and judgement after the heat of battle. Ross would consider
it an execution, not an act of murder. Priorities were priorities
though, so Ross went to his saddlebags, wrapping a sturdy length of
rope and winding the mercenary’s hands and feet before knotting
them together behind his back.