The Decoy Princess (46 page)

“Now, Contessa,” Thadd said as the knob rattled. “If not for you, then your kingdom.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. The princess’s protest shifted to fear when the rattle turned into a pounding. Her leg went over the sill and she looked toward the dark ground. She gave me a last look, then bowed her head and started down.

“I’m not coming. Make sure she takes this,” I said as I pressed my knife into his hands.

“Thank you,” Thadd said. Then he was gone.

I anxiously watched them descend, going jittery when I thought I saw Jeck running from the bonfire.

He must have finally heard the guards at the nursery window.

The conversation in the hall continued with terse answers to Garrett’s barked questions. The pale face of the princess was a spot of white as she looked up. Thadd reached the ground and took her arm and ran her away. I silently pulled the knot free from the sitting couch, and the rope slid from the room. I wasn’t going anywhere.

Thirty-four

The sound of my lock turning pulled my head up. Garrett had the key? I wasn’t ready yet! For an instant I thought to jump out the window but knew I would nearly kill myself. I had lost my chance, and I panicked as the door opened to show a slice of lamp-lit hall and Garrett’s shoulder.

“I tell you what to do, not that damned-fool captain,” he said caustically. He was framed by the open doorway, his back to me. “One of you in here with me is enough. Stay out.”

He turned. Our eyes met. Surprise froze his fair features, then a slow, wicked smile curved over him.

Chu pits
, I thought, but Garrett said nothing to the unseen guards as he crossed the threshold and confidently pushed the door shut with a single hand. The latch clicked shut. He reached behind him and locked the door, slipping the thick key into his pocket.

My fingers twitched to reach for my missing dart pipe. I didn’t dare even shift my eyes to look for it.

My heart raced. This was not what I had planned.

“Oh, this is nice,” he said, his eyes going to the guard upon my rug. “Is he dead?”

“No.” I backed up a step. Where the devil was my pipe?

“The princess?” he questioned, moving forward to keep the same distance between us.

“Gone.”

He nodded as if the news was neither unexpected nor bothering. “I like the red hair. And trousers?”

He leered as if I was naked, and I felt as if I was. “I think I will dress you in them all the time. Such fun we will have, my play-pretty.”

“You’ve lost, Garrett,” I said with a false boldness. “The princess is gone. You can’t marry me. The city knows the truth. Or at least part of it.”

He shook his head, his dominating smile never faltering. “Why would I marry a whore’s get when I have a beautiful woman of royal blood? She won’t get far.”

My legs turned to wet rags. Where was my pipe? I only had the one dart, but it was a metal one, carrying twice the venom; it would be enough for Garrett. I shifted backward to put more space between us as I fumbled at the knot holding my whip to me.

“What to do? What to do?” Garrett said in a singsong voice, stepping forward until his toes nudged the fallen guard. “Call for help, or kill you myself?” His jaw clenched and he reached for his sword hilt.

“Oh, I do believe I’ll kill you myself.”

I thought of my taunts about his low worth, wishing I could take them all back. The sound of the metal sliding against the sheath paralyzed me. I froze where I stood. He had killed my parents. He could kill me just as easily. Where was my pipe?

Garrett took a sideways step, making a show of placing his foot. The sound of splintering wood cut through me like a pain. My pipe. “Oh,” he said as he ground his heel. “Sorry. That was yours, wasn’t it.”

He unexpectedly took a deep breath and raised his sword high over his head, bringing it down like a pike into the helpless guard.

“No!” I shrieked, reaching out. Though unconscious, the man groaned as his belly was punctured. His eyes riveted to mine, Garrett twisted and pulled his sword free. I covered my mouth in horror as the guard’s life spilled onto my rug. The stink of bile rose strong, choking me.

“Prince Garrett?” came a muffled inquiry from the hall.

“Stay out!” Garrett shouted at the locked door. His eyes were wild, the blue of them vivid against his yellow hair. “I’ll kill the man who tries to get through that door!” He listened for a heartbeat, then flipped his hair back with a toss of his head. From the hall came a hushed argument. “Witnesses never remember things properly,” he said calmly.

“No one deserves to die like that,” I said, my voice quavering.

“I wouldn’t expect a
commoner
to understand.”

His barbs at my low birth meant nothing. If he had hoped to anger me, it wasn’t working.

Eyes never leaving mine, Garrett crouched to take the dead man’s sword. Flinging it into my bedchamber and out of my reach, he stepped over the guard. My heart pounded and I shook my whip out, the sliding hush as it coiled on the floor chilling me.

He paused in thought. “You don’t know how to use that.”

I licked my lips, trying to find enough spit to swallow. “Of course not.”

His stance went casual, and he laughed. “Stupid woman. You’re already dead. I have everything. The princess is very malleable. I only need to threaten an innocent to get her to do what I want.” He smiled, licking his lips suggestively. “Anything.”

Anger burned through my fear. “You won’t touch her.”

“Oh, I’ll touch her,” he said, eying my trembling hand. “I’ll touch her all I want.”

He lunged for me. Panicking, I flung my whip up and out, practice shifting me into a firmer stance. My muscles moved by rote. The crack shocked through me. I froze as Garrett cried out and lurched backward. He stumbled, never going completely down. Straightening, he touched his jaw, looking at his hand to find blood.

“You little trull!” he cried out, anger turning him pale and ugly. “You hit me!”

“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice high-pitched and frantic. It was the most foolish thing I’d ever said. I’d never struck anyone before. “Stay back! Don’t come any closer.”

“No one hits me!” His hands clenched, and his teeth gritted. Blood dripping from his jawline, he took a step to me. Heart pounding, I extended my free hand, warning him to stop, but it was the rush of boots in the hall that stilled his feet.

“She’s in there!” an approaching guard shouted.

I held my breath to keep from passing out as Garrett looked to the door.

“The false princess,” he cried again. “They roped down from the third floor. She’s in there.”

“But Prince Garrett is in there!” the frightened guard gasped.

Garrett frowned, irritation pulling his brow into furrows. “Stay out!” he shouted, his eyes never moving from mine. “There’s no one in here but me and… my love.”

There was silence, followed by a buzz of intense, muted conversation.

“Captain Jeck,” came a relieved cry from the hall, and Garrett’s beautiful face twisted with a black rage. “Thank the Almighty you’re here.”

I locked gazes with Garrett as the sound of Jeck’s running boots was eclipsed by the captain’s shout,

“Break it down! Now!”

There was a thunderous boom, and the door shivered. The doorframe shifted with a cracking splinter.

Garrett’s expression went furious. “Damn that farmer,” he snarled. Wiping the blood from his jaw, he shouted through the door, “The man who lets Captain Jeck into this room will be quartered. And all of your heads will be on the wall tomorrow. Kill him!”

The hall went deadly silent. I imagined the exchange of nervous glances. It was eight of them by my reckoning to their captain’s one. Even a player couldn’t best eight men with swords. The silence ended with a fury-driven shout and the clang of blades.

Garrett straightened and smiled confidently, the bloodied score mark red against his freckled skin.

“My late captain of the guard was never one to appreciate the precious time spent between a man and a woman,” he mocked, having to raise his voice above the noise of battle in the hall. “He’s always interrupting. Now, where were we? Ah, yes.”

I backpedaled as he took three quick steps across the room. Again I sent my whip out. It scored on his arm, ripping his shirt. Jaw clenched, he swung his sword up into my next strike, and my whip coiled about his wrist.

“That’s the bad thing about whips,” he snarled. “They only work on animals and cowards!” He grabbed my whip and gave a firm yank.

A cry slipped from me. I dropped it lest he pull me into him. Red spots appeared on his cheeks, and he showed his teeth. “Come back here,” he said, throwing it into a corner, and I ran for the shattered ruin of my dart tube. I fell beside the dead guard, grasping for the feel of metal among the slivers. My breath came in what sounded like a sob.

“Stand up so I can kill you properly.” Garrett gripped my shoulder and pulled me up.

I twisted, trying to writhe away from him. Eyes fixed to his bloodied sword, I sent my free arm searching blindly behind me on my dressing table for anything. Bottles clattered and rolled. He drew back his sword arm, his eyes fervent.

“Let go!” I shrieked. My fingers found a perfume bottle. Gripping it, I swung at him. My closed fist hit him in the face. He loosened his hold and backed away. His look shifted to an affronted surprise. I threw the bottle at him. He ducked. It shattered on the floor. The smell of lilac overwhelmed the guard’s blood and bile. Garrett felt his jaw, his expression growing murderous.

“You slattern!” he shouted over the sound of booming at the door.

Beyond him on the floor was the sheen of metal among my crushed dart pipe. I dove for it. My fingers fumbled in the splinters. My breath came in a gasp as I found the metal dart whole. Kneeling, I gripped it in my fist.

There was a thunderous boom as the bolt on my door gave way. My head jerked up. The door slammed into the wall. Jeck stood in the doorframe. His face was wrathful, and his jaw was set. Bodies lay beyond him, shifting in pained surges of motion. As I watched, a guard slumped against the wall and slid down to a crumpled heap atop his companions. Jeck had been using them as a battering ram.

Fear gave me strength. I lunged to the window. Jeck couldn’t catch me! I’d risk the fall.

“I told you to stay out!” Garrett snarled.

“No!” Jeck shouted. “Prince Garrett! Get away from her!”

A hand gripped my shoulder and spun me around. Garrett crushed my back to his front, his arm wrapped around my neck. I grasped his wrist, trying to pull it away so I could breathe. He backed to the wall, dragging me. His breath filled my ear in heavy pants. His sword was pressed into my side. I closed my eyes, remembering the sound of the guard’s clothing tearing. The memory of the knife across my mother’s throat pulled tears from my eyes.

“I’m going to kill her, Captain,” Garrett shouted, and my eyes opened. “Get out so I don’t have to kill you as well.”

Jeck stopped in apparent indecision. Beyond him in the hall, the moans became calls for help. My pulse hammered. Panting, I shifted my fingers to show Jeck the dart I had pressed against Prince Garrett’s arm wrapped about my neck. A smile came over me when Jeck saw it and his face went still in understanding.

“Close the door, if you would?” I asked, seeming to be Garrett’s prisoner, but in reality it was the other way around. “Or he dies. Right here.”

Garrett laughed, squeezing my neck until it hurt. I gritted my teeth, and my fingers trembled, threatening to stab him.

“Wait,” Jeck said, putting a hand up. “I have an idea.”

Still not seeing his danger, Garrett snickered. “I don’t pay you to think, Captain,” he said. “She’s worth nothing now but to my pride, and my pride will see her dead.”

“The door?” I asked calmly though I was shaking inside.

Not taking his eyes from mine, Jeck nudged a guard’s foot clear and shut the door.

“Bar it with your sword,” I said, “and move away from it.” And he did.

Garrett’s grip on me faltered. “What the devil are you doing?” he asked Jeck. “Get out! Get out, or I’ll have you strung up for sedition. The princess is on the grounds. Go find her, if you think you can manage it.”

Jeck frowned, sending a leather-gloved hand over his beard. “You’re making it very difficult for me to justify keeping you alive, Prince Garrett.”

“Kill me?” he exclaimed, his breath shifting my hair. “I’m the one with the sword!”

Jeck’s eyes narrowed. “And you’re the one with the poisoned dart to your pulse—fool.”

Garrett’s breath was a quick intake of fear. He tensed to pull away, and I gripped his arm until my knuckles turned white.

“Don’t move,” I whispered, and the smell of his fear rose over the scent of lilac and bile from the dead guard. “Drop your sword.”

“Drop your needle, sea whore,” Garrett said. “Or I’ll run you through right now.”

Jeck shook his head. “That’s my blade, Prince Garrett. It’s a bone crusher. It doesn’t have a fine enough edge to cut without a full swing behind it, and she knows it.”

“Damn you all to hell!” Garrett shouted. “Get her off of me, Captain!”

I pushed my fingernail into him, and his breath quickened in fear. My back, pressed against his front, felt damp from his sweat. If he tried, he might get away, but I didn’t think he would risk it. He’d already tasted the poison once. “Drop it,” I said, and the blade hit the floor with a thunk. I took a shallow breath.

“Let go of my neck.” He did.

Easing myself away from his stink of fear, I shifted until I was behind him and had my dart to his neck.

He held himself stiffly. His blood beat hard and fast. Striking him here would go right to his brain. He would drop in seconds, die almost as quick. “I’m listening, Captain Jeck,” I said. “Though as you said, it’s getting harder to put this off.”

Jeck stood in the center of my sitting room, his toes edging the dead guard. “I’d just as soon see him dead, but there’s no reason to kill him now and several to let him live.”

Garrett took a shuddering breath. “You traitorous dog!” he exclaimed. “I’ll have you before my father, and his wolves will rip your insides out!”