Seeing is Believing (10 page)

There were also two small tents set up, and no sign of the mage. Probably inside one of the tents, Ty decided, the less ragged looking one. Perhaps she'd worn herself out finding them, or doing a teleport like Reid had done—that would explain how they'd gotten so close without Reid panicking.

Not that Ty thought Reid would panic over much. The bastard was still smart mouthed and cheerful even with his lip bleeding and his cheek bruised.

Kinsly shoved him across the clearing, pushing him towards the streambed. At the treeline, a pair of shackles lay at the end of a long chain that was wrapped around a thick tree twice. Ty didn't bother to fight, just let Kinsly secure the manacles around his wrists. He untied Ty's hands after, kicking the knotted rope out of reach and forcing Ty to sit down with a well-placed shove.

Reid was shackled next to him, and Ty wondered how they'd gotten so close and had time to make such extensive preparations without Reid noticing that they
were
that close.

Except Reid was just as tired as Ty, so perhaps he'd missed something. Or he hadn't wanted to waste using his magic on finding out where the King's Mage and her entourage were when he could be using it to mask them.

"I hate the taste of suppressant," Reid said after a moment, smiling cheerfully at Jensen, who was standing watch a few feet away. "It leaves such a bitter aftertaste. You definitely won't want to kiss me now."

It took a moment for Reid's words to actually sink in—Ty had been watching the lead guardsman duck into one of the tents and had only been paying cursory attention to Reid. Ty turned, a sharp retort on his lips, but the look on Reid's face made the words die before they were given voice.

"Unless of course, they dosed you too. Then you'll taste just as bad," Reid said thoughtfully, his eyes never leaving Ty's.

"They didn't," Ty said, rolling his eyes. "Not that I'd kiss you anyway."

"You hurt my feelings." Reid smirked, but his expression was a little lighter, which hopefully meant he
did
have a plan and Ty not being dosed with suppressant factored in somehow.

Not that Ty had any idea how that helped—he was still under suppressant from the twice-a-day dosing they fed him at prison.

"Try not to get too angry at whatever she says to you," Reid spoke up again after a moment. "You don't strike me as the type to get angry if they start beating you, at least."

"What?" Ty asked, frowning because that didn't make sense. Why would the King's Mage want to make him angry?

"If they haven't dosed you when you're this close to having the drug wear off, she wants your energy," Reid disclosed in a low voice, a smile still on his face as Jensen stared at him suspiciously. The guard didn't move though, and Ty tried to make sense of what Reid was telling him. "Anger wears through the suppressant faster."

Ty cursed under his breath, jerking his gaze away—if anger wore off the suppressant faster… and Reid had been going out of his way to antagonize him since they'd popped out of Ty's cell and into the woods—he'd been doing it on purpose.

"Oh, that's calm," Reid drawled, and Ty turned to glare at him, unimpressed.

"You're an ass," Ty snapped, twisting in his chains to try to maneuver his arms into a position that wasn't twisting them so awkwardly behind his back.

"You're not the first to say so," Reid replied cheerfully. "Hopefully won't be the last."

"What did you mean, she'll want my energy?" Ty asked, changing the subject. Jensen was looking even crankier as they continued to talk, and Ty hoped he just stayed cranky and didn't move Reid across the camp—Ty wanted better answers.

Reid abruptly sobered, glancing across the camp to where the tents were set up. "They weren't this close last night. She must have expended a lot of energy to catch up, and since I'm depleted, you're the best source."

"Oh," Ty muttered. "She can't get it while I'm suppressed?"

"No, so she'll try to make you angry," Reid explained, smirking at him briefly. "Which is really easy to do."

"Do you think, if I asked nicely, our guard would smack you again?" Ty asked as sweetly as he could. Reid just snickered, and Ty was distracted as the head guardsman reemerged from the tent he'd entered.

"You don't want her to take your energy. It's painful," Reid cautioned as the King's Mage made her appearance. Ty glanced worriedly at Reid, but Reid was watching the mage grimly. Ty hoped that Reid was fiercely angry on the inside and hiding it well.

The King's Mage was short and slender, her brown hair highlighted with streaks of blonde. She was dressed neatly in trim riding clothes and looked completely unrumpled as she made her way across the clearing. Her face was would've been pretty except for the dissatisfied slant to her mouth and that her nose was a few sizes too small for her face.

She stopped in front of them, the lead guardsman slightly behind her. Ty met her eyes complacently, focusing on keeping calm and composed. Reid snorted contemptuously beside him, breaking his concentration—and the mage's.

"They sent a little girl?" Reid asked, and the mage's attention shifted.

"Hardly a little girl," she said menacingly. "I remember you, even if you don't remember me. One of Westin's pets that got away. He'll be pleased to see you again."

Ty stared, disconcerted as the color drained from Reid's face.

"He'll be happy to see he left a mark on you too," she said, stepping close and peering at Reid's face curiously. "That must have hurt for ages."

"You'd be Ytha, then," Reid said after a second. "I've seen Isalee and Chale, both of them were far to experienced to let me run around in the woods for days before capturing me."

Ytha laughed, straightening up. "Perhaps I was just playing with you."

"That would be crediting you with far too much intelligence," Reid mused, and a flicker of annoyance crossed the mage's face. Ty didn't move, squirreling away as much as he could to demand answers out of Reid later. "No, you got lucky that Ty isn't easy to crack so I couldn't use him myself."

"Like you would actually take from another mage. The Vasijile don't like that—they'd kick you out," Ytha declared. "But enough of your distractions. Jensen, gag him."

"Yes, ma'am," Jensen acknowledged, pulling a long strip of cloth from one of the pockets on his uniform.

"Good luck," Reid said cheerfully, giving Ty a wink but submitting to Jensen. The guard stuffed a wad of the cloth in Reid's mouth before wrapping the length around his head and tying it tightly.

"Now you, Tyrone Cloud, are
most
interesting," Ytha began, turning away from Reid when she was sure he was securely gagged. Ty nearly flinched—she'd used his stepfather's name, not his.

"Cloud isn't my name," Ty couldn't keep from saying. He would never take that man's name. Ytha laughed, clearly pleased at the reaction. Hopefully Reid didn't know that name either, though Ty didn't think it mattered. If she'd started in with Cloud, there was little doubt she'd air the entire thing. Then Reid could focus on his own escape and leave him here to rot.

"That poor man. He married your mother after that horrible scandal that got your father killed, gave you a fortune and a name worth taking, and what do you do? Not only do you refuse to be known by it, but you kill the man," Ytha said mournfully, shaking her head.

Reid made some sort of noise behind the gag and fell over, his chains rattling. Ty just stared at her, not bothering to say anything—there was nothing to say, even if she didn't have it quite right. But she wasn't looking for anything other than anger out of him, so trying to explain wouldn't do any good.

"I hear you barely waited until your mother was in the ground," Ytha spoke up after a moment, her voice deceptively gentle as she leaned closer. "That she'd barely been buried an hour before you gutted him with the same dagger used in the wedding ceremony."

Ty couldn't help but laugh at that, darkly amused despite the twist in his stomach thinking about it. That was a nice little fantastical touch, even if it had been a kitchen knife and to the neck—nothing so slow as a gut wound, because—and he remembered thinking it clearly at the time—he couldn't risk the bastard surviving.

"I think you've been listening to your maids' gossip too much," Ty said, watching Ytha's face twist in frustration briefly. Reid hadn't straightened up, still slumped over next to Ty, but Ty couldn't bring himself to look. He didn't want to see Reid's expression.

"What would your mother say?" Ytha inquired sweetly, and Ty did flinch at that. Looking away, he stared blankly at the tops of Jensen's scuffed boots.

"My mother is dead, lady," Ty said slowly, his shoulders slumping a little. "She doesn't have anything to say anymore."

"Surely she'd be disappointed, if she'd lived," Ytha continued carelessly, straightening up. "She loved Lord Cloud, after all. She'd probably hate you. Though curious, her death so close to Cloud's—perhaps you had a hand in that, as well?"

Ty didn't say anything, staying quiet despite the expectant air. He could deny it easily—it had been sickness that had killed her, but Ty's quiet antagonism with Hatcher Cloud had only grown worse the longer she'd stayed bedridden. It hadn't helped, and quite possibly the stress of dealing with the tension between them had hastened her decline.

Reid was shuffling around next to him, probably sitting up, but Ty kept his gaze focused on nothing in particular. He was beginning to regret following Reid out of his prison cell. There at least he didn't have anyone digging at old wounds or trying to steal his magic or antagonizing him every minute of the day.

At least Reid he'd seemed more honest about it, and ruder—Ytha was grasping at straws she didn't fully understand. Her blundering words hurt, but not in any way that would get her anything from him. Ty sighed, tilting his head up to regard Ytha wearily.

"Are you finished yet?" He asked, leaning against the tree he was shackled to. It was decidedly less comfortable than sitting up straight, but Ty didn't really care, almost relishing the discomfort his twisted arms were giving him.

"For now, I suppose," Ytha granted graciously, dusting off the front of her shirt. "We'll have to chat more later, Tyrone."

Ty bit his lip to keep from replying with a disparaging comment. Obviously he'd been spending too much time around Reid—not that he expected that to be a problem now that he'd been outed as a murderous killing machine, responsible for the deaths of both his mother and his stepfather.

Ty watched listlessly as Ytha walked away, speaking in low tones to the lead guardsman, giving them plenty of pointed glances. She'd try again, or just wait him out, but Ty didn't think it would matter. He could easily keep his temper in check if she kept pursuing the same topic.

Shutting his eyes, Ty ducked his head, silently thankful for Reid's gag. At least that meant Reid couldn't begin throwing accusations himself, or worse, stay quiet despite an ability to talk. Ty couldn't figure out which would be worse, or why what Reid thought mattered to him at all.

*~*~*

Ytha hadn't emerged from her tent again since her first attempt to get Ty angry. Ty was keeping an eye on the tent, because it was safer to watch her tent than to look at Reid or to meet the eyes of any of the guardsmen.

There seemed to be a new plan to anger him in action, one that involved the guardsmen "accidentally" tripping over his feet, as though they needed the space to walk in, hovering a few feet away and watching him unblinkingly, and generally making nuisances of themselves.

Ty was ignoring it easily; the guards who'd policed his prison cell had employed the same sort of tactics, though that had been for their own amusement and not for a superior who wanted Ty's energy to feed her magic.

Reid hadn't made much of a fuss, but he'd been left alone and was still gagged so Ty wasn't surprised. He did wonder what Reid's plans were now that he knew Ty wasn't worth the rescue. His plan before had relied on Ty's magic staying suppressed until they could use it, so the least Ty could do was hold onto his temper for a while longer.

Not that it was very hard to do that. Ty was
tired
and it was hard to scrounge together any feeling besides the heavy weight of lethargy. He wanted to be back in his jail cell, left alone and unimportant to everyone, including the guards for his wing of the prison.

Ty's attention was diverted as Jensen and another guard—Thearn, if Ty had heard it properly—approached. Thearn carried two bowls, so they were probably being fed. Ty wouldn't actually be surprised if Thearn 'tripped' and spilled a bowl on him.

Jensen disappeared behind his tree and did something to the chains and shackles that gave Ty enough reach to pull his arms in front of him. He did so wincing, muscles stiff and unyielding as he moved. He accepted the bowl from Thearn with clumsy fingers, promptly setting it down in his lap before he dropped it.

Jensen did the same for Reid. Ty could hear the chains rattle, but he focused his gaze on the bowl of … porridge, perhaps, though Ty wouldn't stake his life on that,, instead of looking at Reid.

"Appetizing," Reid drawled, and Ty almost flinched—he'd forgotten that the gag would be removed for Reid to eat. Jensen didn't say anything, just stepped away. He and Thearn actually left, instead of one of them hovering a few steps away.