A Dark Champion (17 page)

R
owena was grateful for Stryder’s support. Without it, she was most certain she would have crumpled as a wave of grief so profound hit her straight in her heart. It was the most crippling pain she had ever known.

Tears stung her eyes and fell completely unchecked down her face. “What do you mean Elizabeth is dead?”

Joanne wiped at her own eyes. “One of the king’s guards fished her body from the lake. They think she must have slipped and fallen into the stream, and her skirts were too heavy for her to swim.”

“Nay,” Rowena breathed through her tears. “’Tis not possible. Why would she be at the lake alone?”

“You know how she was,” Joanne said. “She told
me this morning that she was going to meet someone there.”

Joanne took her into her arms and they held on to each other as they sobbed from the loss of their beloved friend.

How could Elizabeth be gone from them? Since the day Elizabeth had joined their household, she had been a necessary part of their lives.

Rowena felt Stryder’s strong hand on her back, rubbing her gently. She turned away from Joanne and pulled him close, needing to feel his strength. His comfort.

“I’m so sorry, Rowena,” he whispered against her hair as he cradled her to his chest.

“She can’t be dead,” Rowena wailed. “She can’t.”

While she cried, she could hear a commotion from below. Voices echoing through the hallway as nobles were told of Elizabeth’s fate.

“I wish we had never come to this tournament,” Joanne spat. “’Tis been evil from the onset. And now this…”

“Sh,” Rowena said, taking her friend’s hand. “’Twas an accident, a stupid one. But an accident nonetheless.”

And there were preparations that needed to be done. Someone would have to see to Elizabeth’s body.

With a strength of will Rowena had never known she possessed, she pulled herself together. “Someone will have to notify Elizabeth’s family,” she said quietly.

“I can send one of my men,” Stryder offered.

She gave him a tremulous smile. “I think it best that your men stay here to defend you if needs be. My un
cle has men he can send. But I appreciate the thought.”

Stryder inclined his head to her.

“Rowena?”

She looked past Stryder to see her uncle coming toward them from the stairs. His face was saddened and pinched.

“You’ve been told?” he asked gently.

She nodded and fought against another wave of tears.

“Is there anything I can do?” Stryder asked.

“Don’t leave me alone,” Rowena whispered. “I don’t think I can cope with all this by myself.”

Joanne let out a baleful wail as her legs buckled. Stryder barely caught her before she hit the floor.

Rowena’s stomach tightened even more as she remembered Elizabeth telling her the tale of how Stryder had carried Joanne when they had first arrived. Her friend’s face had been all awash with light happiness as she asked Rowena if Stryder would make her Queen of All Hearts.

“Oh, Elizabeth,” she breathed, her heart breaking from the loss. All the dreams that Elizabeth had held for her future…

All their hopes…

But she couldn’t think of it right now. If she did, she would join Joanne and no one needed the additional burden. There was too much to do.

“Take her to her chambers,” she said, leading the way for Stryder. Her uncle followed a step behind them.

“I have already dispatched someone for Cornwall,”
her uncle said quietly. “Though to be honest, I doubt if her family will respond.”

Rowena sighed at that as she held open the door for Stryder to carry Joanne into the room at the end of the hall. She rushed around him to turn down Joanne’s fur-covered bed, and stepped back for Stryder to place her upon it.

“Why won’t her family respond?” Stryder asked as he stepped away from the bed.

“We know not,” Rowena said. “Elizabeth was a distant cousin who was sent to live with us a few years back. She had spent almost five years with me when we were girls, and then her father summoned her home at ten-and-six to wed.”

“Elizabeth was married?” Stryder asked as he watched Rowena cover Joanne up.

“Nay,” her uncle answered. “Her betrothed eloped with another and she didn’t return to us for several years.”

“She was so sad in the beginning,” Rowena said. “She would sit for hours, staring out the window, saying nothing to anyone. It was as if her spirit had been broken. Then one day, she decided to rejoin this world.”

Stryder stared at her with a fierce scowl. “Any idea what happened?”

“Nay, she would never speak of it. Nor of her family. It was as if she had no past at all.”

“Like my brother…”

“Kit?” Rowena asked.

“Aye, he was much like that when I first took him in.”

Rowena remembered that herself. When she had first met him on the troubadour circuit, Kit had been withdrawn and crestfallen.

“Strange coincidence, isn’t it?”

Stryder didn’t answer. His thoughts were whirling. Indeed, their behavior reminded him of some others he knew. Himself included. “Tell me. Did Elizabeth ever venture to Outremer?”

Rowena and her uncle exchanged a puzzled look.

“Not that I know of,” Rowena said. “Uncle?”

“I know not. Her father never spoke anything of her leaving his home until he sent her to live with us.”

Rowena tilted her head to look up at Stryder, who considered that. “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t know. Foolishness most likely.” Stryder inclined his head toward Joanne. “Will she be all right?”

“Aye, she just needs to rest.” Rowena closed the burgundy curtains around the bed, then led them from the room.

By the time they reached the hallway again, everyone was rushing about, murmuring.

Most of all, they were whispering about where Stryder might have been when Elizabeth fell into the lake.

“After all,” one elder woman said to a friend as they headed toward the stairs, “I heard the girl bragging many a time that she would wed the earl of Blackmoor. Mayhap she annoyed him one time too many.”

“Well, you know his father killed his mother…”

“And curiosity killed the cat,” Rowena said from behind them.

They turned to see her, Stryder, and her uncle, then hastened off in embarrassment.

“I never!” Rowena snapped as the older women vanished.

“Leave them,” Stryder said. “Those rumors have been with me all my life. I no longer even hear them.”

“Aye, but you do.” Rowena touched his arm comfortingly. “You’re just too well armored for your own good.”

Stryder caught her uncle watching their exchange. Clearing his throat, he disengaged himself from Rowena’s grasp.

“Is there something the two of you wish to tell me?” her uncle asked.

“Nay,” they both said in unison.

Lionel looked back and forth between them suspiciously. “Are you certain?”

“Completely,” Rowena said.

They rejoined the thronging crowd of onlookers downstairs who were gathered in the great hall as the door opened.

Stryder grabbed Rowena against him as soon as he saw the blanket-covered body being brought into the room.

“Stryder, what—”

“Sh,” he said quickly, making sure she couldn’t see her friend or the ones who carried her. “There are some memories no one needs to have.”

Her uncle gave him a nod of approval as Stryder guided her toward the rear of the hall and to the exit that led toward the kitchens. Lionel stayed behind to tend the body.

“It was Elizabeth, wasn’t it?” she asked, her voice thick with pain.

“Aye, love.”

She closed her eyes. “Thank you.”

He kissed her hand gently. “Ever at your service.”

Rowena paused to give Stryder a hug for his thoughtfulness and she savored the warmth of his body. The feel of his strength and comfort.

“Is this ever going to end?” she asked. “I’m beginning to share Joanne’s thoughts. I am more than ready to go home and put this tournament behind me. How can we continue to have festivities after so many have died?”

“The same way we managed to laugh while we were in prison. You have to, otherwise you will go mad from the grief. Sometimes it helps to shout. Let the angels hear your rage.”

“Is that what you did?”

He nodded. “Other times I would goad my captors just so that I could get a taste of them before they beat me back.”

“What if I’m not as strong as you are?”

“I would never take you on in battle, Rowena. Methinks you could easily best me in that regard.”

She smiled at that.

“Stryder!”

Neither of them had time to look or respond before someone threw them to ground.

Stryder struggled against the unknown assailant until he heard the whizzing sound of arrows being fired.

“Rowena?”

“I’m here,” she said, her voice quaking from fear.

The weight removed itself to show him Kit, who
then pulled the dagger from Stryder’s waist and took off running.

Stryder rolled over to see a shadow dodging along the wall. It was obvious that was what Kit was after.

“Rowena,” he said, urging her back toward the kitchens, “run inside. Now!”

She didn’t hesitate to obey him.

Stryder ran after his brother. It didn’t take long to catch up to him. Side by side, they chased after the shadow until Kit stopped suddenly and tossed the dagger straight for their target. It hit the shadow and caused him to flip head over heels off the wall.

Stryder watched in stunned appreciation as Kit skillfully scaled the battlement wall, even better than most knights, to reach the place where the man had vanished. It took him a few minutes longer to get to the top where Kit waited. They both looked down to see the body that had fallen over to the other side.

Kit cursed at the broken, unmoving body that lay far below on the jagged rocks that were piled up against the backside of the castle. Rocks that had been chosen for their lethal edges should anyone try to lay siege to the castle. A scaling ladder pushed off the wall would guarantee serious, if not mortal, injuries to any knight who fell from said ladder and struck those rocks.

“He’s dead,” Kit spat. “There’ll be no questioning him now. I knew I should have struck before he made it to the battlements. Damn. He was supposed to fall on this side, not that one. I should have realized he would pitch himself over rather than be caught.”

Stryder gaped at Kit. “You and I need to talk. We
definitely
need to talk.”

Kit met his gaze for only an instant before he looked away. He started off the wall.

“Wait!” Stryder snapped.

Kit stiffened. “I’m not your dog, Stryder, to come and go at your command.”

“Nay,” he said, placing his hand on Kit’s shoulder. “You are my brother. And I want a few answers, starting with how you knew that man was after me.”

Kit raked his hand through his black hair. “I saw him attack Christian and I followed him quietly, trying to take care of him on my own. Unfortunately, he escaped.

“In the last hour, since you left the training list, all of your men have been attacked. So my next guess was that they would be coming for you. As I made my way here to warn you, I saw him again and chased him. You and Rowena just happened to get in our way.”

Stryder didn’t know what part of that shocked him most, his brother giving chase to an assassin or the assassin making so bold a move on all of his men during the light of day. “What do you mean, my men were attacked?”

“They are all fine. I don’t believe the attacks were meant to do anything other than toy with them. They were just caught off guard, and for that I apologize. I didn’t think the assassins would attack in the middle of the day, and I had no idea they would be going after anyone else.” Kit directed his gaze to the wall where he had killed the assassin. “At least there’s one less of them to worry over now.”

Stryder wasn’t amused by Kit’s tone of voice, or the gleam in his brother’s eye. “Has anyone been hurt?”

“Christian’s arm was slashed.” A haunted look descended over Kit’s face.

“What are you not telling me?”

Kit climbed down the wall without answering.

Stryder jumped down after him.

His brother didn’t pause as he headed back the way they had come.

“Kit!” he snapped, rushing to catch up. He grabbed Kit by the arm and pulled him to a stop. “What is going on here? And don’t tell me again that you don’t know. I know you better than that.”

Kit refused to meet his gaze as his face mottled with color. It was obvious whatever it was, it upset Kit greatly.

“You can tell me anything,” Stryder said, gentling his tone. “You know that.”

A tic started in Kit’s jaw. “I don’t want you hurt and I don’t want you dead.” Kit finally met his gaze levelly. Sincerity burned deep in the eyes that were an exact match for Stryder’s. “Whatever else you might think or hear, you must believe those two things about me.”

Agony seized him as Damien’s words returned to goad his anger. “You are Aquarius, aren’t you?”

Tears welled in Kit’s eyes before he looked away and Stryder had his answer. His brother’s entire body shook and he hung his head shamefully.

Stryder couldn’t breathe as he remembered how many times he had spoken to Kit through the walls of their prison. How many times he had promised his brother that he would save him while never knowing that it was Kit he was talking to. Kit whose cries had haunted him all these years.

In the end, he had left him there to be abused.

Stryder wanted to die with the knowledge of what had happened.

He pulled his brother into his arms and held him tight. “Oh God, Kit, I never knew it was you. I swear I didn’t knowingly leave you there. Had I had even an inkling that you were still alive, I would have torn down the walls to get you out.”

He felt Kit’s tears against his neck. “I know that now, Stryder.”

Stryder pulled back and braced one arm against Kit’s thin shoulder. He lowered his head until their gazes were level. “Do you honestly?”

“If I didn’t know it for truth, you’d be dead now.” Kit’s gaze was eerie and haunting. “By my hand.”

Stryder was uncertain of this new side of Kit. He was used to his brother being humble and shy, not rigid and deadly. “How many men have you killed?”