The Gods of Amyrantha (37 page)

'I'm sure you were.'

'I wouldn't risk coming to Cycrane without telling you.'

'Funny, you seem to have forgotten about letting me know you crossed the border. Slipped your mind, did it?' Despite his words, Ricard offered Declan his hand and helped pull the Glaeban to his feet. 'Which also begs the question how you got here. By the look of you, I'd say you did it by tunnelling through the mountains on your belly using nothing but your bare hands.'

Declan glanced down at his filthy clothes with a shrug. 'You'd be surprised how close to the truth that is, Ricard.'

'Well, fascinated as I am by the how, I really am rather more interested in the why, my shady young friend. My people tell me you've been gone from Herino for a month or more, which I find astounding, given what's going on there at the moment. So, if you like the way that pretty head of yours sits on your shoulders, you'd better pray I don't find out you've been here in Caelum all that time.'

Declan feigned wide-eyed surprise. 'You have
spies
in Herino? Who'd have thought?'

'Don't give me any lip, Hawkes. Believe me, I'm not in the mood for it. Your king and queen are dead. You should be in Herino. What are you doing here?'

His head still pounding, Declan glanced around, spying a small barrel near the taller one where the lantern rested. 'Mind if I sit down?'

Ricard didn't reply, but he made no move to prevent Declan from taking a seat.

'Tides,' he groaned, feeling the back of his head gingerly, which came away sticky with blood. 'What did they hit me with?'

Ricard smiled, not in the least apologetic. 'I warned my lads you might take a bit of putting down. You disappointed them, actually. Didn't even put up a fight.'

'That tends to happen,' Declan agreed, 'when someone jumps you from behind and hits you with a
tree
trunk.'

'You'll get over it. A less tolerant sort of fellow might even point out that you wouldn't have been hit at all if you'd stayed on your side of the lake where you belong.' Ricard's smile faded. 'Which brings us back to
why
you're here in Caelum, at a time like this. A question you seem to be avoiding.'

Declan shook his head, regretting the motion the moment he did. 'I came to warn you.'

'You couldn't just send a message?'

Declan shrugged, which was almost as painful as shaking his head. 'I was in the neighbourhood.'

Ricard was not amused. 'And what warning is important enough to bring the King's Spymaster of Glaeba to Caelum to deliver it in person, instead of him staying at home where he's needed in a time of crisis?'

'This is about
your
future king, not mine.'

Ricard didn't visibly react to the news. 'Do tell.'

'The Grand Duchess of Torfail is not who you think she is.'

'And you came
all
this way to tell me? Why, Declan? Because you think we're stupid here in Caelum?'

'Of course not! I just wasn't sure if ...' His voice trailed off and he nodded in understanding, which sent even more shooting pains up his skull. 7 really
need to stop doing that.
'You know about them.'

'You don't think the first thing we did when the Grand Duchess and her son arrived out of nowhere with an offer for our crown princess's hand, was check up on them?' Ricard glared at Declan, obviously insulted. 'Is that how you do things in Glaeba? Tides, no wonder you're sitting here as my prisoner.'

'I'm your
prisoner?'

'Until I decide otherwise.'

'I'm curious, then, Ricard. If you know the Grand Duchess is a fraud, why have you let things go this far? I hear the wedding's scheduled to take place in less than a week.'

Ricard frowned. 'And every recommendation
you
ever made to Enteny was accepted without question, too, I suppose. How did you get into Caelum without coming through one of the ports?'

'I came through the mountains,' Declan replied, honestly enough.
No need to go into details ...

'Can you go back the same way?'

'I wasn't planning to.'

'What if I needed you to?'

Declan's eyes narrowed. 'Ah. I see! Now we're getting to the favour part, aren't we?'

'I have a package,' the Caelishman said, taking a seat on the barrel opposite Declan. 'A very important, extremely valuable package. It needs to be ... hidden for a time. Out of sight.'

'And you want me to hide it for, you?'

'The last place anybody would look for this package is in Glaeba.'

'Then why not take it to Glaeba yourself?'

'My movements tend to be ... noticed. As do those of my men. You're not known here, Hawkes. Tides, nobody even
knows
you're here. You could slip back into Glaeba the way you came in and take our package with you. All you need do after that is keep it safe until I send someone to collect it.'

'Suppose I decide to steal this valuable package of yours for myself?'

Ricard stared at him evenly. 'Then I will devote every breath I take until the day I die to bring about your extermination, Declan Hawkes. You can count on it.'

Declan sighed. It was easier and less painful than shaking his head. 'How big is this package of yours?'

'About yea high,' the Caelishman replied, holding his hand up at shoulder height.

'It's a
person?'
Declan asked, wondering if he should just take the offer of a hanging and be done with it.

'Not just any person.' He glanced over his shoulder, jerking his head at one of the unseen figures lurking in the shadows. A moment later, Declan heard a door opening and closing somewhere off to his left, and then footsteps coming closer.

Shortly after that, one of Ricard Li's henchmen stepped into the light. He was holding the hand of a little girl no more than ten years old. She was dressed in rumpled but expensive pink gown, her dark hair tangled and fallen out of what had obviously once been a very elaborate arrangement. The child's eyes were swollen, her face tear-stained and pale.

'Declan Hawkes, spymaster to the King of Glaeba,' Ricard said, rising to his feet and indicating with his hand that Declan should do the same. 'You have the honour of standing in the presence of her most August Highness, Crown Princess Nyah of the Royal House of Korell.'

Declan was still trying to take that in when Ricard turned to him and added calmly, 'And we need
you
to get her out of Caelum.'

He gazed at the little girl for a moment and then turned to Ricard Li. 'Are you
insane?'

The spymaster shrugged. 'Desperate would describe our situation more accurately, I think. Why else would we involve a Glaeban?'

Declan was staggered. 'But ... Tides ... you've kidnapped your
own
princess?'

'I ran away,' Nyah said, before Ricard could answer. 'Nobody kidnapped me. Master Li is helping me hide, that's all. I didn't know where else to go.'

Declan sank back down on the barrel, torn between what his common sense was telling him to do — which was to get out of this any way he could — and the spectre of this child in the bed of a Tide Lord known as Tryan the Devil. He studied the little princess for a moment and then looked at the spymaster. 'Who else knows you've got her?'

'Only the men in this room. And you.'

'Do you trust them?'

'It's
you
I don't trust, Hawkes.'

He threw his hands up. 'Then why ask
me
to do this? Am I the only man in Caelum who knows the way across the Lower Oran?'

'I trust you have the resources to keep her hidden, but more importantly, I trust your word, Hawkes. You Glaebans are always making such a fuss about your damned honour, I figure it's time I put it to the test.'

Declan couldn't believe what he was hearing. 'So you'll give your crown princess into my care and hope I'll smuggle her out of the country and keep her safe, based on nothing more than my word? Tides, you were right the first time, Ricard. I
do
think you're stupid.'

The spymaster seemed unconcerned. 'Maybe I am. But I'm a pretty good judge of character, Hawkes, and I figure I've got you pegged. Besides, unlike you, I'm not foolish enough to think
you're
stupid. I'm sure you'll very quickly come to realise the political favour your country will gain from helping us is worth far more than the trouble you'll bring down on Glaeba if you refuse.'

Ricard had the right of it. Declan had realised that much, half a heartbeat after Ricard told him what he

wanted. 'Does anybody realise she's missing, or is the story she's ill still holding up?'

'You could speak to me like I'm in the
room,
Master Hawkes,' the little girl said, glaring at him.

Oh, and she's a brat, too,
Declan thought.
This just gets better and better.

'So far, nobody suspects the truth, but I doubt that'll last much longer.'

'Not even Queen Jilna?'

'Queen Jilna is rather too ... taken ... with her guests from Torfail to be thinking clearly. We felt it safer for everybody if she not learn the whereabouts of her daughter.'

'Tides, Ricard, this is treason.'

'Not if we're acting under the orders of Caelum's true heir, who we need to get out of the city tonight, by the way. Over the border by tomorrow night would be even better.'

If he returned to Glaeba through Maralyce's mine, Declan could do what Ricard Li wanted, but travelling through the mine was no easy thing, as his current disreputable state could attest to. He doubted a spoiled child raised in the Caelish palace, whose most common form of exercise consisted of walking up and down an enclosed gallery with the other ladies of the court, would have the stamina or the fortitude to negotiate her way through the darkness of the Maralyce's mine.

'She'll never make it,' Declan said.

'We can stall any pursuit for another day, perhaps ...'

'That's not what I mean. The way I came into Caelum ... it's not for the faint-hearted. I doubt your little princess here would survive the first hour before she's screaming at me to bring her home.'

'I can do whatever I have to, Master Hawkes,' Nyah declared, squaring her shoulders. 'All
you
need do is keep me safe.'

Declan recognised that look. Even if Ricard wasn't standing there threatening him with this absurd plan,

the child was set on it. But as Shalimar was fond of saying,
sometimes the best way to be rid of a stupid idea is to follow it through to its most absurd conclusion.
He turned to Nyah. 'You'd have to agree to follow my instructions, your highness. Without questioning them. Without arguing about them.'

'I can do that,' she said with a nod.

'And you'll have to cut your hair.'

'What?'
both the princess and the spymaster said at the same time.

'The best disguise is to dress you as a boy. Even if I could get you across the border, I'd still need to get you through the city first.' He turned to Ricard. 'Cut her hair, smear a bit of mud on her face and dress her like a boy. We'll be able to walk down the main street in broad daylight and I guarantee, nobody will suspect who she is.'

Ricard thought about that for a moment and then nodded. 'He has the right of it, your highness. Dressed as a boy, you'd be much safer.'

Nyah glared at Declan rebelliously for a moment and then she nodded. 'If I must.'

'I think it's a good idea. You'll find it easier crossing the mountains in trousers, too.'

Well, that plan to deter them from this idiocy worked well, didn't it, Declan?
He sighed.
Tides ... now I'm talking to myself. Maybe that blow on the head did more damage than I thought.

He turned to Ricard, shaking his head, not caring about the pain. 'This will never work. She has no concept of what she's getting into, Ricard.'

'No, but she's pretty clear on what she's running away from,' the spymaster replied. 'So are you, I'm fairly certain. Don't you think it's worth the life of a child to put yourself out a little?'

'My king is dead. I need to get back to Glaeba. By the fastest route possible. What you want will mean adding days, perhaps weeks to the trip. And what, in

the name of the Tide, am I supposed to do with her once I get there, anyway?'

'Keep her safe until we send for her.'

'And when will that be?'

'When we've killed the Grand Duchess of Torfail and her son,' Ricard announced.

Declan stared at him for a moment and then closed his eyes.
Tides ... this is a nightmare ... they have no idea who they're dealing with.

'Well?' Ricard prompted. 'We don't have all night for you to debate this with yourself, you know, Hawkes.'

Opening his eyes, Declan glanced at the child again, with her spoiled pout and her pretty, crumpled dress. But even if she was the most obnoxious brat that ever lived, no child deserved what awaited this girl. Underneath it all, he suspected, she was quietly terrified. And smarter than she looked if she had the sense to run from a Tide Lord.