To Darkness Fled (43 page)

Achan rubbed his prickly chin and pulled away a sticky crumb of honey bread. "Thank you."

"Your Highness, I am grieved our last words were unpleasant. I wanted to encourage you. I see a day none too far in the future that finds you happily married. I trust Arman will give you a dear friend for a wife."

Achan stared at his plate, stiff with discomfort. What compelled her to discuss this further? "I've no female friends, save you and Gren who--" He stopped himself from whining like a child. If he didn't speak, perhaps she would leave.

Lady Tara smiled, as if she knew a secret he did not. "You only have to open your eyes to see she is with you always."

Achan huffed a laugh. Was Lady Tara poking fun at him or being philosophical? "I've never been good with poetry, my lady, but I thank you for your kind words."

She curtsied. "Good day, Your Majesty."

Achan fell back to the bench and stared at his cold food. He hadn't been hungry anyway. Inko stumbled to the table and sat on his other side, looking as if he hadn't slept a wink either.

"Are you awake, Inko?"

"Been sleeping too long, I guess. Sir Caleb is saying we're leaving today. I am wishing we could be staying longer. I am not looking forward to more cold."

After a lifetime in Barth, where the air made one sweat, Achan could imagine the cold would be an unwelcome change. "How long did you live in Barth?"

"My village was being pillaged when I was being five years aged. Since all my family was being killed, I was being taken to Meneton and sold as a slave. It is being warm there as well."

Achan blinked, suddenly filled with compassion for this cranky, paranoid old knight. He wanted to know more, but Inko shoveled food into his mouth as if he were starved, so Achan settled on polite conversation.

"At least you got to sleep in. You must be refreshed."

Inko snorted. "You would be thinking so, Your Highness, but you were not having to share a bed with young Vrell."

"What's the problem?"

"Always that boy is talking in his sleep, calling out to his mother, making his nightmares mine."

Achan frowned, but Inko wasn't finished venting his frustrations.

"The first night we were staying in Berland, he was falling out of bed. I was jumping up to see if he was being ill or drunk, then Sir Gavin was making me leave. I am still not understanding this. I was having to stand out in the cold air until Sir Gavin was allowing me to be coming back inside."

Achan made no sense of this. "Inko, should you witness other strange behavior regarding Sparrow, would you tell me?"

Inko smiled. "You are thinking he is being a traitor? I am not trusting his eyes, Your Highness. Green is being the color of jealousy. Not being a good trait for a servant to the king."

Achan only wanted to discover what Sir Gavin and Sparrow were hiding, not hang the boy for his green eyes. "I only wish to know anything odd."

"I will be shadowing the boy for you, Your Highness. Do not be worrying."

Achan wasn't worried and felt a little sore for
sicking
Inko on Sparrow. But he didn't doubt Inko could be a fox when he set his mind to it. Perhaps it would take a bigger fox to catch a smaller one. "Thanks, Inko."

* * *

For three days they rode through frigid Darkness. Achan no longer cared what happened next. His goal had always been to see Lady Tara. Now that he'd lost that objective, there was nothing to do but let the knights dictate his life. Still, he couldn't bring himself to accept his birthright. What was the point if he acted like a puppet? They may as well have Esek.

But if you want the girl, you should have her. You are king, not these knights. I would always let you have your way.

Achan tensed at the serpentine voice. Hadad? He fortified his mind, uncertain whether he had really let down his guard or if Darkness was taunting him.

Lights winked into view. A squat city glimmered to the right. To the left, torches illuminated another stronghold, some burning far above the others. Could that be a tower?

"We're on the Benjen cliffs." Sir Gavin's voice came from ahead. "Yonder lies Tsaftown."

Achan peered into the darkness, the icy air pricking his eyes. "Is that the stronghold to the left?"

"
That
is
Ice
Island
. See the torches in the sky? They top the Pillar. 'Tis what we must penetrate to rescue our men."

Fabulous. This town, this mission...it no longer had any pull without the hope of Lady Tara. The doom of his station hung heavy on his shoulders. "How will we get there?"

"Sled dogs," Sir Gavin said.

"Sled
wolves
, is more like it," Sir Caleb said.

Apprehension gripped Achan. Soon he'd have to make a choice. He would
not
be a puppet. They'd come all this way to free his army. Fine. Achan would do his part, then he'd have to decide to take charge or refuse the call to be king.

26

Sir Gavin led them through the city gate without incident. Their horses carried them down roads slick with ice, around log cottages blanketed in snow. Torchlight shone through cracks on shuttered windows. Families were home and warm.

"It must be night," Sparrow said.

Frost glistened in Sir Gavin's beard. "Seems to be."

Sir Gavin stopped at an inn. The wide building stood three levels high. Two steps up from the street, a long, narrow porch stretched across the face of the building, its sloping shed roof covered in snow. Lanterns and icicles hung from the eaves. A wide oak door divided the porch with two long, frost-covered windows on either side. Music and voices spilled out from the building, but Achan could only see shapes of people through the frosty glass. Dozens of chimneys stuck out from the roof, pouring silver smoke into the black sky.

A painted sign hung above the door.
The Ivory Spit: Tavern and
Inn
.

"Really, Gavin? This place?" Inko said. "We should be going to Lytton Hall."

"Lytton Hall is being watched. Besides, Old Merrygog McLennan's got the tightest lips in Tsaftown."

Inko lowered his voice. "You are thinking it is being wise to be bringing Kurtz here after years being in the Prodotez?"

"Wise or not, 'tis our only option." Sir Gavin climbed the steps and went inside.

"What's the Prodotez?" Achan asked.

"The king's personal prison in
Ice
Island
," Sir Caleb said. "The Fisherman's Quarter has ears. Hold your questions until we're inside."

Sir Gavin returned and tossed a key to Sparrow. "Third floor. Our rooms have a dagfish and a stag on the door. We'll take the back stairs to avoid the tavern."

They led their horses after Sir Gavin, down the side of the building to a stable where they unlatched their packs. "Inko and Vrell, put up the horses and meet us upstairs."

A rickety staircase zigzagged up the back of the inn. They climbed up two levels and entered a door on the third floor into a narrow hall. Three pairs of snowy boots clumped over the worn plank floor, leaving wet footprints on the wood. They passed doors on both sides, each with an image painted on the door, faded from age. A reekat, a charmouse, a cham...

Sir Gavin's key opened the door with a stag. The room stretched out, long and narrow, with a small fireplace at the end. No windows. Two pallets with straw mattresses and a table with two chairs lined the left wall, leaving only the width of a man to navigate down the right. A single door hung open on the right at the end of the room.

Sir Gavin ducked through the interior door and returned just as quickly. "Leads to our other room. Achan, you're not to leave without one of us knights. Vrell doesn't count."

Why would he even try?

Sir Gavin sniffed long and exhaled a sigh. "We'll wait for Inko, then go over our plan."

* * *

Vrell and Inko found the door with the dagfish empty. Raised voices carried through an open door in the back. Vrell walked past the fireplace, where a stack of kindling and logs sat ready to be used. She entered the other room and found it identical to hers. A crackling fire beside the adjoining door warmed her face. The men sat at two tables wedged together near the fireplace, pouring over a piece of parchment between them. It seemed they had taken the table and chairs from Vrell's room to make a larger one.

"It looks like Meribah Corner," Achan said.

"Aye, both were designed and built by Livnas." Sir Gavin met Vrell's gaze. "Good, you're here. Where is Inko?"

"Unpacking, I believe," she said.

"Well, call him in."

She rolled her eyes and went back to find Inko removing items from his pack. "Inko, Sir Gavin needs you in his room."

Inko heaved a dramatic sigh as if it were bad luck not to unpack his belongings straightaway and Sir Gavin's orders could doom them all.

Vrell ducked back into the room and stood behind Sir Caleb, where she could see the parchment clearly.

It appeared to be a sketch of
Ice
Island
. A painting of the prison hung in Mother's study, which used to be Father's study. Father's brother served as warden of
Ice
Island
. Vrell had always wondered why Mother had kept the horrible painting around. Who wanted to look on a prison all day?

"Inko!" Sir Gavin yelled. "Put some effort into it, will you? We're waiting."

Inko ambled though the doorway and stood beside Sir Gavin. "What are you needing?"

"I need you to stand here and listen. Now, Verdot will meet us at Stormwatch tomorrow with the dogs and sleds."

Vrell's interest piqued. Her uncle was going to help them?

Sir Caleb huffed and leaned back in his chair. Though his hair was blond, his short beard had grown in red. "You always do this, Gavin. You tell no one your scheme until there is no time to change it. When did you plan this?"

"Over the past few weeks. Nitsa helped me arrange it."

"Figures." Sir Caleb slapped his palm on the table and stood. "This is really for her, then? Risking our future king for a childhood romance is--"

"You know full well that's not why we're here." Sir Gavin's bushy eyebrows scrunched together. "If you'd been sent to
Ice
Island
, you'd hope someone would come for you."

Vrell watched the men, mouth gaping. How did this situation involve her mother?

Sir Caleb glared, his eyes so wild Vrell inched back. "None of our men would have gone to
Ice
Island
if Verdot Amal wasn't a coward."

"That was years ago. Nitsa assures me the man is changed. Guilt can change a man."

"That may be, but
I
still do not trust him."

Achan voiced the very question that plagued Vrell. "What are you talking about?"

Sir Caleb shoved his chair. "You tell him, Gavin." He stomped into the other room.

Sir Gavin stroked his beard. "When your father died, I told you Kenton and his men had drugged us...I knew this because I had a witness. He saw Kenton and his men. He tried to rouse me, and managed, with a lot of water, to succeed."