The Frostwoven Crown (Book 4) (46 page)

Garrett stared at her without speaking.

"She will be punished, of course," Shelbie sighed, "stripped of her status as a Matron and scourged clean of her iniquities, but she may yet be redeemed... if we can avoid the public spectacle of your execution and the inevitable cries for further retribution from the angry mob..."

Garrett's eyes fell on the small green bottle in the Matron's hands as she lifted it before her.

"On the other hand," Shelbie sighed, "You could do this one last service to her... and yourself. One drink from this bottle, and you will fall into an eternal sleep... a quick and painless end which will not only spare Serepheni the public shame of your discovered treason, but will spare you as well... from an agonizing and lingering death."

"You want me to kill myself?" Garrett asked in disbelief.

"You are fortunate indeed that we would offer you this final chance at solace!" she said, "I caution you not to turn down this last gift of leniency! Spurn it, and your final moments will be ones of unbearable pain and humiliation. You will die slowly, screaming for the very mercy that you rejected before... screaming in vain."

"You sick monster..." Garrett said.

"Drink it or you will live long enough to wish that you had!" Shelbie screamed, "It matters not to me! I assure you that I would very greatly enjoy watching you flayed... and seeing Serepheni publicly disgraced for her stupidity in trusting you!"

Garrett stared at her, trying to understand what could drive a person to such depths of cruelty. He shook his head slowly. "No," he said, "I want to talk to Serepheni... I want to talk to the High Priestess."

Several of the Templars shared worried glances, and Matron Shelbie's lips began to tremble with rage.

"No, that's it, isn't it?" Garrett said, a slow smile spreading across his face, "You won't let me talk to the High Priestess, because you know she'll see the truth... You may have beaten that poor guy from Shadetree until he was ready to swear to anything you wanted him to say, but you know
she
would know it was a lie... Your whole case against me only works if I really am a spy, and you just figured out that I'm not who you're looking for after all."

It was Shelbie's turn to stare back at him in cold silence.

"I might get in trouble for what I did," Garrett laughed, "Serepheni might even be embarrassed by it, but that's not enough for you is it? It has to be treason, because you told everybody it
was
treason... If it turns out you were wrong, then
you
look like an idiot, and, if the High Priestess ever talks to me, she'll find out that I'm just a stupid necromancer who screwed up and went somewhere I wasn't supposed to. Maybe I'm a rotten Templar too, but that's not treason, and you know it."

Shelbie glanced at her Templars as if to reassure herself of their presence.

"The only way to make it work for you," Garrett said, "is if I'm dead, and it looks like I killed myself outta guilt or something... Then you can say whatever you want about me, and no one will ever find out the truth."

He grinned at Shelbie and shook his head. "No, I don't think I'm thirsty after all," he chuckled.

"Hold him," Matron Shelbie commanded.

Garrett leapt back as four of the Templars moved forward, reaching for him. Two of the men hung back, sharing a worried glance with one another.

"You know," Garrett sighed, "After yesterday, I didn't want to hurt anyone ever again... I'm not so sure about that now."

One of the Templars lunged for him, grabbing at Garrett's arm, but he spun and drove an elbow into the man's temple. The impact of bone against the man's helmet sent a shockwave of pain through Garrett's arm, but the man staggered backward, dazed by the blow.

The other three men charged, grappling with Garrett as he struggled to escape. Cold rage surged through his veins, and his roar of defiance escaped as an icy mist from his lips.

"Demon!" Matron Shelbie cried, pointing at Garrett with horror, "Seize him!"

The two Templars who had hung back nodded at one another and then sprang forward, one man hefting his copper-headed cudgel, the other drawing a slim dagger from his belt.

The man holding Garrett's left arm suddenly released his hold. He cried out, clutching at his head where the cudgel-wielding Templar had just whacked him from behind. The man holding Garrett's right arm screamed a second later as the other Templar slipped the point of the slender dagger through the armhole of the man's cuirass, and pushed the blade into his chest.

The man holding Garrett from behind cried out in horror then as the dagger-wielding Templar's face melted away to reveal the grinning fangs of a wild-eyed fox woman.

The cudgel-wielding Templar hammered another two-handed blow down upon the crown of the stunned Templar's helmet, driving the helm down over the man's eyes as he cursed and fought to recover from the surprise attack.

Garrett spun around, trying to shake free of the man choking him from behind, but he couldn't break loose.

The man that Garrett had elbowed now joined battle with Lady Ymowyn. The fox woman dodged lithely clear of his swinging mace as her illusionary armor flickered and faded to reveal that she wore the stained and threadbare work clothes that Warren had given her beneath the illusion. The bloody knife in her hand was no illusion however, and she scored a nasty cut across the man's cheek as he overextended himself in the strike.

Garrett caught a glimpse of the look of utter confusion on Matron Shelbie's face just before she turned to flee from the room. She paused at the threshold and hurled the bottle of poison at Garrett's head. It shattered wetly against the Templar's back as Garrett spun again, still trying to throw the man before he could cut off Garrett's air supply.

The Templar on Garrett's left tore the helmet from his bruised head and cast it aside with a seething curse. The cudgel-wielding Templar who had hit him from behind paled visibly and fell back, holding the weapon defensively before him with a look of fear in his eyes.

Lady Ymowyn cried out as her opponent landed a solid hit on her left shoulder, staggering her. She brought her knife up as she pirouetted clear of a killing blow aimed at her head.

Garrett hissed with rage as the big man on his back managed to close his elbow lock around Garrett's throat. The man squeezed hard, and it felt as if Garrett's head were going to burst from the inside as his vision swam with stars. The man screamed directly in Garrett's ear, a wordless howl of bestial rage that drowned out every other sound. Garrett could not hear the noise of shattering stone as the floor in the corner of the cell ruptured upward and a pack of slavering ghouls poured up from the earth below.

A furry, brindle-colored paw casually broke the fingers of the man holding Garrett's throat, and air surged back into Garrett's lungs as he turned to see the Templar bounce off the ceiling as Scupp tossed him like an unwanted toy.

Warren ripped the mace from the hand of the man attacking Ymowyn and proceeded to pound the Templar into the floor with it, raining blow after blow down onto the man, crumpling his polished armor like a battered old pie tin.

Diggs and another ghoul grabbed the bareheaded Templar by the arms and used him like a battering ram against the far wall. Garrett felt a strange twinge of disappointment as he watched the carving of the devouring Worm Mother crack and crumble as they drove the man’s head into it. Garrett had gotten rather attached to the grim piece of art during his brief stay in the dungeon.

The last Templar, the man holding the cudgel backed away from two leering ghouls as they advanced on him. He dropped his weapon and raised his hands.

"I'm on your side!" he meeped.

"He's with me!" Ymowyn cried, "Don't hurt him!"

Garrett watched in fascination as the strange man lifted his hands to his face and scrubbed at his skin with his fingers. The man's cropped brown hair shimmered into curly golden locks as he shook the illusion away to reveal a familiar face.

"Mister Marsten?" Garrett laughed.

"Good Afternoon, Master Garrett," Marsten said with a nervous laugh, his eyes going back to the ghouls, "I thought you could use a bit of help."

"I found him trying to get in to see Serepheni," Ymowyn said, massaging her injured shoulder as Warren wrapped his shaggy arms protectively around her.

"Where is she?" Garrett asked.

"Confined to quarters, until this unpleasantness is sorted out," Marsten said.

"We have to help her!" Garrett said.

"We hafta get ye clear o' this devil's den," Shortgrass said as he flew up from the hole in the floor.

Garrett started to protest, but Marsten interrupted.

"We can do both," Marsten said, "if you'll hear me out."

Garrett looked at him curiously.

"Chat all ye want, once we've put this place to our backsides," Shortgrass said, "Let's go!"

"He's right, Gar,' Warren said, "We gotta get outta here."

"All right," Garrett said, "Let's go." He took a step toward the jagged-edged hole in the floor from which the ghouls had emerged then froze.

"Wait!" He said.

"What is it now?" Shortgrass groaned.

"They brought another prisoner here," Garrett cried, "The Neshite guy that Shelbie was talking about. He might be here in the dungeon too! We gotta help him."

The others shared worried glances.

"No time fer playin' tha hero, boy," Shortgrass said, "Those beggars'll be back any minute to ruin our day!"

"I just need a minute to look for him," Garrett said.

"There's no time!" the fairy cried.

"I'll go look for him, Gar," Diggs said.

"Me too," Scupp said, "You go on ahead, and we'll catch up."

Garrett started to argue, but the looks on everyone's faces convinced him of the futility. He nodded and then lowered himself down into the hole.

"Be quick about it," Warren said.

"Fast as fancy," Diggs laughed.

"We'll be quick," Scupp assured him.

Garrett helped Mister Marsten climb down to the floor of the freshly burrowed tunnel beneath the dungeon cell. Marsten thanked him as he stepped clear of the descending ghouls and brushed the dust from his stolen Templar armor.

"What did you mean about helping Serepheni?" Garrett asked him.

"I mean that we can clear her name, and yours, by exposing the real traitor," Marsten whispered.

"Who is it?" Garrett gasped.

"Matron Shelbie herself," the blonde necromancer answered with a grim smile.

"After what you told me about the spy in the temple," Marsten said, "I took it upon myself to do a bit of investigation." He ducked his head, passing through a broken section of wall, as the group retraced the path of destruction left by the ghouls as they tunneled up beneath Garrett's prison cell.

"I was fortunate enough to discover the secret entrance used by the creature to enter the temple itself," Marsten continued, "and I watched carefully until it returned."

"What was it doing there?" Garrett asked.

"Meeting with someone on the inside," Marsten said.

"Shelbie," Garrett sighed.

"Exactly," Marsten said.

"Why would she sell out her own people?" Warren asked as he lifted a heavy section of pipe that had fallen across the path, "I don't think the Chadiri are gonna let her join the club after the war is over. They don't really seem like the forgiving type."

Passing beneath the pipe with a grateful nod, Marsten answered, "A reasonable conclusion, my friend, and if she had taken the time to think it through before betraying us, she might have arrived at it herself. If you wave enough gold in front of someone, however, I've found that they can be convinced of almost anything."

"She did it for money?" Garrett asked, "She always seemed like she was really fanatical about Mauravant."

Marsten shrugged. "An act perhaps?" he mused, "It would be the perfect cover for someone who
was
planning on betraying her people."

"I guess," Garrett admitted, "Are you sure it's her?"

"I saw her meet with the creature, Garrett," Marsten said, "She passed it a number of documents, and it gave her a rather heavy coin purse in payment."

"And you're gonna tell the High Priestess what you saw?" Garrett asked.

Marsten gave him a wan smile. "It would be my word against Shelbie's in that case," he said.

"Yeah, but the High Priestess has a way of knowing if you're telling the truth," Garrett said.

"And I would have just admitted to breaking into the temple after hours myself," Marsten laughed, "Garrett, I like it here. I'd rather not have to leave the city so soon after my arrival."

"What are we supposed to do then?" Garrett asked.

"We have to find a way to get the priestesses to search Shelbie's quarters," Marsten said, "I'm certain they will find some evidence of her betrayal hidden there. Living on the temple grounds, she couldn't have spent the gold without drawing attention to herself. She must be hiding it to take it with her when she makes her escape."