The Traitor Queen (10 page)

A slave this beautiful would never be given purely menial tasks.

He felt sick. He could not help thinking of Tyvara again, and what she must have been forced to do as part of her spying.
She, too, was too beautiful not to have attracted that kind of attention from her masters.

After all, the first time she met me she expected me to take her to bed
.

The interrogator stood up. He took hold of the woman’s
arm and pulled her closer to him. One of his hands went to the jewelled sheath that all Ashaki wore at their hip and he slowly
drew his knife. Lorkin held his breath as the knife rose toward the slave’s throat. The woman shut her eyes tightly, but did
not struggle.

Words flooded into Lorkin’s throat, but stuck there. He knew exactly what the interrogator intended to do, and why.
If I speak to save her, many, many more will die. If she is a Traitor, she won’t want me to betray her people
. He swallowed hard.

The knife did not slice across her throat. Instead the interrogator slid it under one shoulder of her shift and cut through
the cloth. He took hold of the other shoulder and pulled, and the slave garment slid away, leaving her naked but for a loin
cloth. Her expression didn’t change.

The Ashaki sheathed his knife, looked over her shoulder at Lorkin, and smiled.

“Any time you want to talk, go right ahead,” he said, flexing his fingers and curling them into a fist. The assistant chuckled.

And then the Ashaki set to work.

P
utting down the book she had been failing to concentrate on, Lilia looked around Sonea’s guest room and sighed. Though Sonea
had been absent or asleep most of the time, her rooms felt strangely empty now that she had left for Sachaka. Lilia was suddenly
more conscious of being alone, and that nobody – no magician, at least – was likely to visit.

Well, none except Kallen if I don’t turn up to classes on time, but it’s not like he makes social visits
.

Anyi might still slip in at night via the secret opening in the room’s wall panelling but now that she, Cery and Gol were
living under the Guild it was safer for Lilia to visit them. There had always been a risk that someone would discover Anyi
in Sonea’s rooms and realise they hadn’t seen her enter or leave by the door.

The only other person who visited Lilia on a regular basis was Jonna, Sonea’s servant and aunt. Jonna visited twice a day
to deliver meals.
But she must also come here after I’ve left for classes to clean, too
, Lilia thought, remembering how she usually returned to find everything tidy. While Jonna usually slipped into Sonea’s bedroom
after the evening meal to change the bed
linen and gather robes to wash, that was only because Sonea had worked night shift at the hospices.

Looking over at the open door of her room, Lilia regarded the bag she used to carry textbooks and notes around. It held the
food she’d taken from the Foodhall that day, some soap, and clean wash cloths from the Baths, ready to take to her friends.
She also had news from Kallen to deliver, but until Jonna arrived with the evening meal, Lilia wouldn’t be able to slip away.

In the meantime she tried to study. She looked down at the book in her hands. She’d never really caught up with the lessons
she’d missed while a prisoner in the Lookout. Teachers would notice if she slipped even further behind.

Once Cery, Anyi and Gol have settled in, I’ll be able to get back to my studies
, she told herself.
Maybe I’ll study all next Freeday. If my plan works tonight at least there’ll be one less thing to worry about
.

Her thought was interrupted by a knock at the door. She stood up in case it was a magician, and opened the door with magic.
To her relief, Jonna bustled in. Though burdened with a lacquered box and a large jug, the woman managed to bow before placing
it on the table.

“Good evening, Lady Lilia.”

“Good … evening.” Lilia hesitated as she opened the box and saw, to her disappointment, that it held one bowl of a thick soup
and a single bread roll, as well as a creamy dessert.
Of course. She won’t be bringing more than one person can eat now
. Which made it even more important that Lilia’s plan worked.

“What’s wrong?” Jonna asked.

“I … I was hoping Anyi would visit tonight.”

Lilia had been surprised to discover Jonna already knew
Anyi was Cery’s daughter, and of the secret entrance to Sonea’s rooms, until she learned that Jonna was Sonea’s aunt. It certainly
explained the way Jonna bossed Sonea around in private, with no fear and little regard for status.

Jonna smiled as she moved the food from the tray to the table. “She drops by a lot these days.”

Lilia nodded. “At least she’s safe when she’s here.”

“And she can get a decent meal,” Jonna added. She straightened. “I’ll go find something for her. Something that will still
be nice even if it has gone cold, so she can take it away with her if she has already eaten.”

“Could you …?” Lilia grimaced. “Could you bring something every night? Even if she doesn’t eat it, there are others she’d
like to help.
I’d
like to help. And … can you bring lamp oil so she doesn’t have to find her way here in the dark?”

Jonna looked sympathetic as she nodded. “Of course.”

“And … I don’t suppose … if it’s not asking too much … What does the Guild do with old bedding and broken furniture?”

The servant’s eyebrows rose. “Most furniture here doesn’t break often. It’s so well made it lasts for hundreds of years. If
anything does break, we fix it, and if it’s no longer good enough for magicians it goes to the servants.” She shrugged. “Same
with old bedding. When it’s too worn for servants it becomes rags.” She looked at Lilia. “But there’s more old bedding about
than furniture. Let me see if I can get my hands on some.”

Lilia nodded. “Thank you. I’d buy some things for her, but I’m not allowed to leave the grounds to go shopping.”

“I could get them for you,” Jonna offered, “if you write down what you want.”

“Do you have time? You must be busy.”

“Not as busy as you’d think, especially now Sonea’s not here. Fetching things for you is part of my job.”

“Well … thank you. I’d appreciate that.”

Jonna gestured at the bowl. “Now, you start on that before it goes cold and I’ll go fetch something for Anyi.”

As the door closed behind the servant, Lilia sighed in relief and triumph. Her plan had worked, though she felt a little guilty
at suggesting that what she had asked for was going to needy people when it was only going to Cery, Gol and Anyi.
But they do need it
.

Looking down at the meal Jonna had brought, she decided to eat it and give the food she’d taken from the Foodhall to Cery
and Gol. Soup was much too hard to transport, and the dessert was as likely to spill. At least if Jonna saw evidence that
Lilia was eating some of the food she’d brought, she wouldn’t worry over Lilia eating enough – or giving it all away.

As she ate, she thought about how such small, everyday things could become so important. Cery and his friend and daughter
were safer in the Guild passages, especially with the passage connecting them to the Thieves’ Road destroyed, yet something
as trivial as getting food to them was a daily difficulty and risk. If Lilia didn’t have to constantly find them something
to eat, it would be much easier to hide their presence from the Guild.

I want to do better than bring them food, too
, she thought.
I want them to be comfortable. I can’t ask Jonna to buy anything luxurious, or she’ll grow suspicious. Unless … I could say
it’s for me
…

Finishing the soup, she got up and gathered paper, pen and ink and began writing a list.

*      *      *

As Sonea blinked awake she marvelled that she had slept at all in the rocking carriage. Looking across at Regin, she saw that
he was conscious and watching her. He smiled faintly and politely looked away.

How long was I asleep?
She pulled aside the screen covering the window over the carriage door. Green hills surrounded them, tainted with the gold
of a late-afternoon sun.
Quite a while. Poor Regin. He’s probably been awake and bored for most of the day
.

For the first few hours of their journey the previous night, their conversation had revolved around the arrangements they’d
made to take care of things in their absence, Lilia’s progress and future, the places they would probably stop along the journey
and some of the information they had been given about Sachakan society. When Regin began yawning she insisted he try to sleep.
He’d eventually done so, a travel pillow braced between his head and the side of the carriage. The roads nearer the city were
smoother than those further into the countryside, so he was not often jostled awake.

She’d spent the night staring out of the window, thinking about the tasks she had been given and worrying about Lorkin. Remembering
the last time she had travelled this road, following Akkarin into exile, she felt echoes of emotions from twenty years before.
Fear, rejection, hope and love, all softened with time. She let them come, held onto them for a little while, and then released
them to fade into the past.

This journey brought some interesting new emotions. Aside from fear and worry over Lorkin, and anxiety at the potential for
everything to go badly for herself and Regin, there was a strange elation. After twenty years of being restricted to the Guild
grounds, she had suddenly been set free.

Well, not exactly free. I can’t just roam about wherever my fancy takes me. I am on a mission
.

“What are you thinking?”

Regin’s question brought her back to her surroundings. She shrugged.

“About being outside the city. I’d assumed I’d never leave it again.”

He made a low noise of disgust. “They should trust you more.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think trust was the problem. They had no choice but to trust me. I think they feared what would
happen if we were invaded again and I wasn’t around. Or if Kallen turned on them.”

“Do you think Kallen will take advantage of your absence?”

Sonea shook her head, then she remembered the one trait she did not like in Kallen and frowned.

“What is it?”

She sighed.
If Regin can read me this easily, how am I going to fare when I meet with King Amakira and the Traitors? I suppose I’m not
fully awake and on my guard yet. Though I wouldn’t forgive myself if I failed to free Lorkin or make an alliance just because
I was sleepy
.

What to say? Regin had clearly picked up that she had concerns about Kallen, and he would imagine all sorts of reasons if
she didn’t give him one. She had to tell him something.

The truth. It isn’t exactly a big secret, anyway
.

“Rot,” she said. “Roet. It is his weakness. If I was going to corrupt Kallen, I’d do it by controlling his access to the drug.”

Regin’s brows knit together. “Do many people know of his weakness?”

“Vinara does. Rothen, too. I suspect many of the Higher
Magicians do, though we’ve not discussed it. Or, at least, they’ve not discussed it while I was present.”

“Whoever sells it to him knows as well,” Regin added.

“Yes.”

“Lilia used roet too, didn’t she?”

“When she was with Naki. Lilia doesn’t appear to have become addicted to it. In fact, she has a distaste for roet and roet
users now. I think she blames it for some of the foolish things she and Naki did.”

Regin looked thoughtful. “So the Guild has one black magician addicted to roet, and one resistant to it.”

“And one who wouldn’t go near the stuff if you paid her to,” Sonea added, shuddering.

He looked at her and smiled. “You’re too smart for that. You don’t let anything back you into a corner.”

Sonea felt her cheeks warm. “Except the Guild.”

“A worthy exception.” He looked away. “I wish I’d had your determination and willingness to defy convention when I was younger.”

She shook her head. “You? Not determined? I always got the impression you were completely sure of yourself and what you wanted
from life.”

“Yes … but I never had to make any hard decisions. I was told everything had to be a certain way because it kept everyone
safe, powerful and wealthy, and I didn’t question that. But as I grew older I did begin to question. I saw that my lack of
resistance came out of a fear of not being accepted by my peers. I saw that the only people we were keeping safe, powerful
and wealthy were my family and House. That the Houses resist change because they fear it will diminish their power and wealth.
And still do.”

“Kyralia has changed a lot in the last twenty years. The Houses haven’t lost power or wealth as a result.”

Regin shook his head. “They will. It may take a long time, but it is going to happen. The warning signs are there, if you
know what to look for. And you know what I’ve discovered?” He looked at her and shrugged. “I don’t care. Let them fall. They’re
built on lies and greed.”

Sonea felt a pang of sympathy. Since his rather public separation from his wife, Regin had been prone to the occasional sullen
and defiant comment about the habits and expectations of the highest class. Part of her approved, another sympathised, yet
she wondered how much of his disenchantment would remain once the personal pain faded.

“I’m sure you wouldn’t think so if you wound up a beggar on the street,” she reminded him gently.

He looked at her and his shoulders sagged a little. “Probably not. But maybe I’d be a better man. Maybe I’d even be a happier
man. By taking in lower-class entrants, the Guild has made it possible for people to cross the barriers between classes. I
see the newcomers boasting about it, and I want to warn them that there is a cost. Then … then I see that the cost doesn’t
apply to them and I feel, well,
jealous
. Somehow they get to have the wealth and power and magic, but they have no obligations to honour ancient agreements or traditions,
or to only associate with the people their House approves of, or marry the woman their family selects.”

“They may have to eventually.”

Regin shook his head. “No. Look at you.” His eyes rose to meet hers. “You were never forced to marry.”

“I’m sure if I’d decided to, plenty would have been said about my choice.”

“Yet nobody would have dared tell you not to.”

“That’s only because I am the first black magician. I’m an exception. You can’t make predictions based on me.”

Regin gave her an odd look, opened his mouth to speak, then frowned and closed it again. His gaze slid away from hers. Sonea
felt curiosity rising.

“What were you going to say?” she asked.

He glanced at her, his expression uncertain.

“I … I was going to ask you why you didn’t marry, but I guess it’s obvious – and rather rude of me to ask.”

She shrugged. “Not rude. Nor is it why you think. It’s true I couldn’t have entertained the idea for a long time after Akkarin
died, but not for
all
of the last twenty years. I might have married Dorrien, if the timing had been better, but he met someone else long before
I was ready.”
And a good thing that is, too
. “I don’t think we would have been well suited. For a start, he loves the countryside and would have had to live in the Guild
grounds to be with me, since I could not leave.”

Regin watched her now with an almost guilty interest.
It’s likely a lot of people have wanted to ask that question
, she thought.