Treachery of Kings (29 page)

“Knaves and Staves, I've been so relieved to find you I haven't asked. Where's Julia, did she escape, did she get away?”

Letitia sighed. “They took her, dear. It breaks my heart to tell you, but she's gone.”

“Gone? And where, do you know? Have they harmed her, could you tell?”

“They took her, that's all. She maimed two or three, but they overwhelmed her at last. I imagine the very worst, for they'd never seen the like of her before. I think the Badgie folk have a great fear of any mechanical device. At least, I've always understood this to be so.”

Finn took a deep breath and fought to still his heart. Learning of Julia's loss, he had tightened the noose around his neck without thinking and nearly throttled himself.

“I don't know Maddigern's intentions,” he said, “but you're quite correct in thinking he wishes us ill. I have learned there's a great deal amiss in this place, intrigue and deceit, dark manipulation of a kind I've yet to understand.

“Though you and I have no part in this, it appears we have landed in the midst of a very sticky mess. There is great danger here, Letitia, I'm certain of that.”

“I don't guess you have to tell me, Finn. I'm not feebleminded, you know.”

“Of course not. I didn't mean that, I only meant to say… “

The words seemed to stick in his throat. He didn't know where to begin, didn't know what use it would be to waste words at a time like this when there might be little time left at all.

Maddigern wouldn't simply leave them here, he would see the business out. By now the Badgie would have discovered
the spot where he'd broken through from the tunnels into the palace hall. And, if he guessed, if he imagined what he, Finn, had seen down there, if what Finn guessed about the Badgie was true…

He pushed the thought aside. That wouldn't happen, that couldn't be. The horrors a creature as cruel and demented as Maddigern might conjure in his head would make the simple act of dying seem a welcome reprieve.

“I don't know exactly what to say to you, Finn,” Letitia said, suddenly breaking into his thoughts. “I was quite angry—more than that, I suppose—when I left you there with the King and that—I saw how she looked at you, a look of such raw, unfettered lust, yet a look of cunning, cold and uncaring contempt for every male who ever gazed at her with helpless desire.

“She quickly let me know you had met her before, and that pained me most of all, Finn, for you hadn't shared that with me.

“That's when I turned and left you there, for I was so hurt, so angry, to think I had been betrayed… “

“I have
not
betrayed you, Letitia,” Finn said, cursing the deadly stricture of his bonds that kept him from going to her.

“I have wronged you, but only in a very slight manner. A passing weakness, a frailty of the moment, but never a betrayal of the heart. Never, certainly, a physical thing, an action beyond restraint—”

“Please, Finn, you'd best stop there and let it be, for you tend, in every matter, to go a mile farther than you need.”

Her smile, then, reaching him even through the weight of her weariness and fear, brought him such relief his eyes stung with tears. And, when he blinked them away, he saw that she was crying, too.

“I was not thinking clearly at the time,” she told him, “or I would have known you had truly done me no wrong.

Or surely not a
great
wrong, for such an exotic creature would turn any man's head. Even one as stalwart and strong as you, my dear.” “Yes, uh, well… “

Letitia's smile faded. “When Maddigern came, he told me that you had run, that you had left me here on my own.”

“You did not believe that.”

“No, not for a moment. It is what he told me next that all but shattered any hope for us all. He said you would be taken. That you would be brought here and—and that we would both pay the price for your acts against the King.”

“That is not what happened at all, of course. There are no
acts
against the King. Pots and Pans, there is so much I have to tell you, and I don't know where to begin… “

“Then don't, all right?” She closed her eyes, as if she dared not look at him again. “I don't think we have time to waste on your ventures, or any matter that may have passed before. I think that all we have is now.”

“It's not over, Letitia.” He strained against his bonds again. “I promise you, though things really do look chancy now, that we will overcome this, that no harm will come to you again. This I vow, with all my will, my love!”

And, it was at that instant, that moment, that the door burst open with such power, such might, that it slammed against the wall and sent a rain of dust to the ground.

“Well, then,” Maddigern said, his bristled face a pitiless mask, his eyes as hard as stone, “we are all here together, at last. Now we can begin… “

Y
OU GAVE US A CHASE, MASTER FINN. THAT
was not a wise thing to do. Maybe you have no laws in that foul land of yours, but you cannot flout the King's justice here.”

“And what law did I flout?” Finn asked. “I'm afraid I don't remember any crimes at all.”

Maddigern studied him a long moment, as if he were giving the question deep and serious thought. Then, he bent down until his dark face was close to Finn's, so close that Finn flinched at the fellow's odorous breath.

“It is not going to be this way, human,” the Badgie said, his voice a near-gentle reproval, as if Finn were a rebellious pupil who had broken the rules.

“There are things I need to know. You will tell me these things, and you will not waste my time with foolish jests.”

The Badgie straightened, glanced at Letitia, then back to Finn.

“If I like your answers, things will go easier in the end. For the Mycer, I mean. There is nothing you can say that will be of help to you.”

Letitia gasped. The Badgie had meant for her to hear his words, and Letitia reacted as he was certain that she would.

“I don't expect any decent behavior. Nothing would
surprise me, Maddigern. But you'll have to help me recall my misdeeds, or we'll be all day at this.”

Only the Badgie's eyes betrayed his fury. “Do you think I won't do things to her? Here, in front of your eyes?”

“Of course I think you will. And when you do, I'll admit to anything you ask. I'll tell you whatever you wish to hear. You've done this before, you know that's so. And when you're done, you'll wonder if anything I've babbled is true.

“Now. Why don't you simply get to it? I know I have nothing to win for myself, but I'll do what I can to save her.”

Though nothing I say will make the slightest difference in what you do, we both know this is true

“We understand each other, then. What would you like to know?”

The Badgie scratched his bristly chin. In the cell's faint light, the white thatch that streaked his dark hair gave him a fierce demeanor that matched his chill, uncaring eyes. Finn thought of Koodigern, who had given him a dagger to protect himself, then gone to his death unarmed. How such a fellow could be a brother to this wretched creature was something he would never understand.

“I know the features of the human face,” Maddigern said. “Do not look at me in such a manner again. Now, you will tell me how you got back in the palace. Who told you there were passages beneath the grounds?”

“No one told me. I found the entry myself.”

“That is not so.”

“I said I would not play games with you. I won't risk her life to beat you.”

“You did not find this entry yourself. Those tunnels have been abandoned for a hundred years.”

“I said I found the way myself, and that is true. I must also tell you I gave a great many silver coins to a slightly drunken servant. Don't concern yourself, he was human,
not a Badgie at all. Certainly not a courageous member of the King's Third Sentient Guards.”

For a moment, he thought he had gone too far. He had to hide his anger from this creature, who had filled Letitia with dread, driven her to the edge with his dire promises, and threats of greater pain and humiliation to come.

Now, he sought to break Finn himself, make him lose his self-control in front of Letitia Louise. Finn knew his strengths, and his weaknesses as well. If he didn't stand up for himself, the Badgie would bring him down. And, though he knew there was little chance the brute would spare Letitia any pain, he had to walk the thin line and play the fellow's game

If Maddigern had learned to read a human's features, Finn was becoming adept at piercing the near-inscrutable Badgie's expressions as well. Finn was sure, now, it was Maddigern he had seen in the chamber below with DeFloraine-Marie. Maddigern knew he'd been in the tunnels, but he couldn't know for certain Finn had seen the lair of the Deeply Entombed.

This, then, was his quandary, for the knowledge of that place was a secret so deeply ingrained in all who were privy to it, that Finn was near certain the Badgie could scarcely bring himself to speak of it aloud, even if his prisoner was never meant to leave this cell alive.

“Let me begin at the beginning, Master Finn. Perhaps that will help bring your answers to mind.”

The Badgie peered thoughtfully at the ceiling, at the hard stone floor, as if the thing he truly sought lay hidden there.

“You left the palace with our esteemed seer… “

“With his blessing, as it were. As a free citizen of Heldessia. You can find no fault in that.”

“… and then you escaped, through a mass of irate farmers at the inn.”

“How could I escape? Escape from what? I hold one of the
highest honors in the land. Higher than a Captain/Major, though that is a worthy rank in itself.”

Maddigern bent quickly to Finn's face. “If I kick that stool away from her, she'll strangle. Right here, right before your eyes.”

“And I will answer your questions better then?”

Maddigern backed away, as if Finn hadn't spoken at all.

“You left with Obern Oberbyght. Some hours later you discovered a way back into the palace. I think you know the question I'm asking now, human? How did you get back into the palace the
first
time? After you left the seer, and before you came back through the corridors underground?”

Finn stared. “What first time? What on earth are you talking about? I left once, I came back once. You're already aware of that—”

Maddigern didn't answer. He turned so swiftly his long green cloak billowed in his path. He stalked out the open door, stopped, shouted orders to a pair of the King's Guards who stood rigid in the hall. The two turned and disappeared.

Moments later, the Badgies were back again. Between them they dragged a heavy bundle, wrapped in a dirt-stained cloth. With a nod from their leader, they tilted the burden and spilled its contents roughly to the floor.

Letitia cried out, a low moan of despair. Finn felt the bile rise up in his throat and prayed his stomach would behave, and not choke him to death.

Dostagio had been savagely cut across the throat, his head nearly severed from his body. In death, his face showed more emotion than Finn had ever seen him betray in life.

“This is the question you will answer,” Maddigern said, his own features nearly reflecting his true feelings now.

“Why did you do this thing, Master Finn? By damn, you'll tell me why you murdered a loyal servant of the King or I'll skin that Mycer of yours alive!”

D
AMN ME, THIS ISN'T WHAT IT SEEMS TO BE
, it's some dark scheme, some deadly pursuit. And only Maddigern knows its name!

Finn felt strangely calm, somehow detached, as if he played no part in this at all. He didn't look at Letitia, for she would understand what had happened here as well.

“There's no point in telling you I had nothing to do with this,” he told the Badgie. “Whatever nasty business you're about, it has nothing to do with me. You're well aware of that.”

“Don't talk to me of nasty business, Finn. There's little worse than murder most foul.”