Heiress of Lies (2 page)

     Angeline slid down from her horse and handed the mare to a teenage boy that she remembered often teasing in her daily adventures when she had still resided at the palace. In fact, as she looked at the faces around her, she realized that many of the young men she had either rode in the horse enclosure with, trained in sword fighting with, or even before that been her hide-and-seek playmates. The palace staff and their children had always been easier to be around; none of them had the same ulterior motives of the nobles. These were the people that she had known well not all that long ago, at least, until she turned seventeen and her father sent her off to the nuns.

     Now they looked at her like they’d look at a stranger. Her father had sent an escort of twenty men to bring her home. The convent was high in the mountains, a full three days’ ride from Brebackerin, where Angeline had spent the majority of her childhood. It had taken the convoy far too long to descend the mountain, and now that they had reached the plain, it was too late to continue on. Angeline walked to the edge of the camp and stared up at the mountains towering over them. It seemed like mere moments later the sun’s rays disappeared behind the snowcapped peaks.

     She had done a good job so far not showing Rhone how worried she was, but a knot had been growing in the pit of her stomach ever since he showed up on the convent’s doorstep five days ago. She felt the weight of the men’s disapproval weighing on her. In a very short time, their lives and livelihoods would be in her hands. She knew they were afraid she would let them fall. She was afraid of that too, but a Robart never showed weakness in front of their subjects.

     The men were starting to light torches around the camp’s perimeter and she knew she couldn’t put off the inevitable any longer. Angeline had no trouble finding her tent. It was the only one in camp. The men guarding her slept on the hard earth under the stars. Rhone waited for her outside the flap as she approached.

     “No creature comforts. Just a little privacy from the men. I’d appreciate it if you’d stay inside for the night, Princess. Someone will bring you your dinner, and we’ll be gone at first light.” It was the same speech Rhone had made for the last four nights. Angeline was well aware of the real reason for his thinly veiled suggestion and she was tired of being treated like a dunce.

     “You mean that you don’t want me to see your men overindulging in their drink and making fools of themselves,” Angeline said with her chin jutted out. There was a glint in Rhone’s eye, and she could see that he was trying to decide if he would offer a rebuttal or not. She didn’t give him the chance. “Thank you to you and the men for your service today. I’m feeling quite tired and I wish to be rested when I see my father tomorrow. I have much to prepare for and not much time. Given the circumstances, I’m sure you understand that I’m not feeling very hungry. I’m going to take my leave now and I will see you in the morning.”

     Keeping her head held high, Angeline swept into the tent and closed the flap behind her. Inside, she seethed. She needed to make it very clear to Rhone that he couldn’t order her around as if she was one of his men! Her father had coached her how to deal with men like Rhone, but she wished she had more time to practice with him by her side.

     Angeline looked around the tent. One of her clothing trunks was in the corner. There was a small lamp hanging from the middle of the tent poles in the center of the ceiling. A few bearskins were scattered on the ground.

     “Truly a room befitting your future queen,” Angeline said under her breath. She pulled her cloak closer around her. It was going to be a long night.

     Angeline awoke to hear the horses screaming. She yanked the long dagger out from underneath her pillow and shot to her feet. If there was one thing her father had insisted on, it was that Angeline knew how to defend herself. It had been years since she had trained with the dagger, but it was small and light and good for a fight in close quarters.

     She heard the men yelling outside trying to coordinate. Then Rhone’s rough voice broke through the melee. “Protect the princess! Guard the perimeter! Don’t let any of the bastards break through!”

     Angeline wanted to know what was happening. Her heart felt like it was going to beat right through her chest. The noise outside was deafening, but she didn’t dare step foot outside the tent for fear of getting in her own men’s way. She looked down and realized she had fallen asleep without changing. The lantern above her head was giving out only a weak light, so she knew it was late. She had just enough time to pull her cloak around her shoulders when Rhone burst in through the flap. She saw only the inky blackness of night behind him before the flap fell closed. The perimeter torches were no longer lit.

     The grizzled old soldier had blood running down the side of face and he looked like he had seen a ghost. “Princess, we must get you to safety,” he said, breathing heavily.

     “Rhone, what’s happening?” Angeline asked, trying to keep her voice under control. She had never seen Rhone look afraid. She had thought the man was incapable of fear.

     “We’re being attacked, Princess. I think the men can hold them off so that we can make our escape.”

     “What do you need me to do?” Angeline’s father had also taught her in times of crisis, action was better than standing around asking questions. At the moment a million of them were swarming through her mind, but there was no mistaking the urgency in Rhone’s eyes. She nodded instead.

     “You know how to use that, Your Majesty?” Rhone gestured toward the dagger in her hand.

     “You taught me yourself, Rhone. You should know,” Angeline retorted.

     “It’ll be a lot different than sinking it to the hilt in a hay bale,” Rhone said.

     “I am going to be queen someday, soon Rhone. I wouldn’t dare disgrace the Robart name by going down without a fight.” It hurt to think that someday was going to be much sooner than either she or her father had anticipated.

     Rhone nodded. “Good. I need to go see if any of the horses are still alive. Stay here until I get back. And if anyone but me comes through that opening, you use that and don’t think twice about it.” Rhone swung around and was back through the flap seconds later, leaving Angeline alone again.

     Angeline could hear yelling and the clank on clank of metal as the fighting continued outside. It didn’t seem as close to her as it had before, but it was hard to tell. She wished she could go outside and see, but it was still the dead of night and without any light she was as likely to end up on the wrong end of one of her own soldiers’ swords by accident. She had to do what Rhone told her to do and pray that they’d make it out safely. There was nothing to do but wait.

     Long minutes crawled by and Angeline could do nothing but pace the tent. Several times it seemed like the fighting stopped and Angeline’s breath would catch, but then the clanging and yelling would continue. Several times screams were abruptly cut off. She wondered what was taking Rhone so long, and what he saw that scared him so badly. Rhone had been fighting since he was a young boy; Angeline thought for sure he would have seen all there was to see on a battlefield.

     She walked to the tent flap and considered. She could just peek and see if she could see Rhone coming. Then she’d drop it back. He’d never know, and she wasn’t disobeying him if she didn’t actually leave the tent. She was raising her hand to the flap when she heard a scrape on the ground right behind her. Then the lamp was blown out and the room plunged into darkness. Angeline opened her mouth to scream.

     Two hands encircled her, one covering her mouth and the other snaking up and easily sweeping the dagger out of her hands. Suddenly her body was spun around in that tight embrace and she found herself staring into a pair of emerald eyes that burned brightly even in the dark.

     “Is that a polite way to greet one of your loyal subjects?” The voice dripped with sarcasm.

     Her eyes adjusted quickly to the gloom, and she could make out his white face and full red lips. A black curl fell over his eyes. It was like her mind turned to mush and she was mesmerized by how beautiful he was. Then she saw the smudge of red running from the man’s mouth. The dominos in her mind fell over in quick succession: an attack in the middle of the night, the screaming horses, and Rhone’s look of terror. She was a Robart; she knew what that meant. An age-old enemy had reappeared in their midst.

     The man whispered a few words and Angeline went limp as she succumbed to the darkness.

     As Angeline’s consciousness returned, she felt bumps across her upper arms from cool air. The memory of the last few moments in her tent came rushing back, and she sat up quickly, hitting her forehead on a hard surface right above her.

     “Ouff,” escaped her lips before she could stop it. She reached up. A hard, uneven surface was less than a foot above her. Her eyes were open, yet she couldn’t see anything. Before giving way to panic, she reached her arms out to either side. Almost immediately her left hand hit the same kind of surface, but there was nothing obstructing her right hand. She was in some kind of crevice. She started to scoot to her right and winced at the jagged edges that poked into her back, but she didn’t want to hit her head again. After sliding over about a foot, she started to make out a faint glow in the gloom around her. She reached up and this time there was nothing above her.

     She heard a match strike and sat up as the room was lit in a soft glow. Now she could see around her and her rising suspicion was verified. Angeline was in some kind of cave.

     She knew that she wasn’t alone, and she felt the presence close to her before she saw him out of the corner of her eye. Her throat constricted and she felt like she was drowning. Her memory of the man paled in comparison to the figure who sat in front of her with his back against the wall. He was stunning. Black hair curled against his neck to just above his cloak, and Angeline could make out the outline of a powerful chest. He was smiling at her. And then she saw his emerald eyes, and she knew that her mind was trying to play tricks on her. She hadn’t forgotten the blood. She was in great danger.

     The legends said these creatures could take on near human form when they wanted to, and she realized that this disguise would have allowed him to walk right into their camp. Who would suspect that such a lovely visage hid such an ugly predator?

     “Who are you? What do you want with me? Where are my men?” she demanded.
Show no fear
, her father’s voice whispered in her mind.

     The man’s smile got bigger. “I believe you have injured yourself, Princess,” he said, ignoring her questions.

     At that moment Angeline felt a tendril of liquid run down the side of her face. She brushed it away and tried not to think about the fact that it was indeed blood on the back of her hand. She felt her stomach clench.

     “May I be of some assistance?” the man asked. A white handkerchief had appeared in his hand although Angeline hadn’t seen him move.

     “I’m fine,” Angeline snapped. “If you want to be of assistance you can return me to my escort.”

     “I’m afraid I am unable to do that.” The man seemed amused. “But the good news for you is that I am very willingly going to escort you safely to your new destination.”

     “I am going home to Brebackerin,” Angeline said. “I have no other destination.”

     “A slight…detour, if you will, Your Majesty,” the man said. “There is someone who would like to speak to you on this eve of your Ascension. If that meeting goes well, there is no reason to believe that you won’t be returned to Brebackerin in short order.”

     As the man spoke, Angeline surveyed the room. She saw a small tunnel behind him, but that appeared to be the only way out of the room. Without her escort to rely on, she’d have to use her own wits to escape. The first thing she needed to know was if there were more of the creatures outside. She realized the man had stopped talking and the corners of his mouth were twitching as if he was trying not to laugh.

     “For someone who was asking so many questions, you don’t seem to be very interested in listening to the answers. So I will help you out with the one I can see running around in that pretty mind of yours. There is no one else here. Only me. But I wouldn’t put any energy into trying to escape. If you don’t give me any trouble this will make it easier for both of us.”