Tyrant's Blood (22 page)

Stracker nodded and mercifully left.

Loethar sent a runner for his mother to be brought to the palace chapel.

Faris stared at his man. They were high in the forest again and meant to be feeling safe but Faris felt a knot of fresh anxiety forming. ‘Say that again,’ he demanded.

Coder obliged. ‘Lily and the man called Felt were taken by soldiers.’

‘To where?’

‘I’m not sure, Kilt. We pretended to be brother and sister as we’d planned but Felt suspected we were lying, I’m sure of it. Not that it mattered. He only had eyes for Lily.’

Faris bristled. Jewd caught his gaze and raised his eyebrows, silently warning him to calm down. Leo walked into the camp and placed his saddle over the railings built for the purpose. ‘What’s going on?’ he asked.

Jewd whispered, filling him in as Faris ignored the interruption. ‘What happened?’ he asked Coder.

‘We were travelling with the merchants. It was a perfect cover and Lily and Felt had just fallen into conversation when we were interrupted by a party of imperial soldiers. Amongst them was a Wikken.’

‘You’re sure? He wore purple and was scarred?’

Coder nodded. ‘I’m sure, Kilt. In fact, he was the one who kept whispering to the guard. I’m certain that he urged that Felt be taken.’

Faris frowned. ‘What has Lily got to do with this? Why was she taken as well?’

‘They pulled them away from the main party and I wasn’t privy to what was discussed but I could tell the soldiers insisted Felt accompany them,’ Coder said, visibly embarrassed, his eyes darting from Jewd, to Leo and back to Jewd, avoiding Faris.

‘Why Lily as well?’

He shrugged. ‘I can’t tell you; she didn’t consult me. Be assured,
Kilt, I would never have let her go. She was talking to Felt when the soldiers arrived and for some reason when they singled him out, she moved her horse with his.’ He looked anguished at the unspoken accusation in Faris’s face. ‘I think she felt obliged to stay with Felt because of your instructions to stay close. I know he looked surprised when she began talking but unfortunately I couldn’t hear what was exchanged. It happened in the space of such a short time, and I thought it made more sense not to follow but to get back here quickly and raise the alarm.’

‘But why would they let her accompany him?’

‘I’m sorry, Kilt. I really don’t know how she managed to persuade them to take her with them.’

Faris spun away, fury mingling with his exasperation. ‘Is she mad? Where have they gone?’

Coder seemed to take a breath. He glanced around at the others, especially Jewd, who took the hint and nodded. ‘I found out a bit more later from one of the merchants. There’s a man called Vulpan, he—’

‘Yes, we know all about Vulpan,’ Faris said, waving a hand irritably. ‘He’s all I’m hearing about it seems.’ At Coder’s anxious hesitation, he snapped, ‘What about him, anyway?’

‘That’s where they’re headed, apparently. They’ve taken Lily and Felt to where Vulpan’s based at the moment—a town called Woodingdene.’

‘Where the mint is?’

Coder nodded. ‘They have no reason to hurt Lily. And the merchant believes they’re taking Felt to be listed.’

‘They were murdering people for less just a few anni ago and she’s put herself right into the mouth of the dragon!’

‘Steady, Kilt,’ Jewd said. ‘We’ll get her back.’

Faris turned to stare at his friend, feeling suddenly lost. He was not used to this. He lived by his wits and was always so careful, so controlled, that no barbarian had ever even got close to him or his men. Even before the barbarian invasion he had prided himself on
dodging the king’s men. And now Lily was in enemy hands. He reminded himself why he and Jewd had often talked about enjoying women without falling in love with them.

As usual, Jewd sensed his mood. ‘We suggested Lily tail this fellow. We should be praising her commitment, not wondering at her mental state. No more recriminations. Let’s plan our strategy to get her back.’

‘Before it’s too late, you mean,’ Faris said, uncharitably. He sighed. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘I know,’ his friend replied. ‘Seems like both you and Lily say the first thing that comes into your heads. Lo knows what she’s told them but she was obviously convincing.’

The men listening smiled uneasily.

‘I’ll go, Kilt,’ Leo spoke up. ‘It’s too dangerous for you but—’

Faris laughed ruefully, cutting him off and backing away.

Leo looked hurt. ‘No, listen to me. As far as anyone else is concerned I’m a nobody. I’m young; I can act dumb. I can—’

‘No, your majesty. With every due respect, no!’ Faris growled. ‘You forget he has tasted your blood.’

‘But he doesn’t know what that means, or who I am,’ Leo protested.

‘Loethar suspects it’s one of us. That’s all that matters. And he will pursue you until he has your body strung up from a tree or much worse. He thinks he’s onto me, but doesn’t know you’re even alive. I intend to keep it that way. You will stay away from this man…this Vested creature. Jewd, you’ve been seen by the soldiers; we can’t risk you, either. I’m leaving you in charge.’

Now Jewd looked cranky. ‘I’d prefer to come along.’

‘Too risky,’ Faris snapped. ‘Clear up here, everyone, we’re moving back to the camp.’

His men drifted away, although Leo looked as though he wanted to have a fresh debate over his suitability to rescue Lily. But it was Jewd who grabbed his friend’s arm and swung Faris around.

‘Face me and tell me why, Kilt,’ he said. ‘We don’t split up, you
and I, not on something like this. And don’t give me the caution about the soldiers from the inn. The chances of them being at Woodingdene is slim and the chances of those same soldiers not only being at Woodingdene but precisely where we might be is virtually nil.’

‘It’s a risk all the same, Jewd,’ Faris persisted.

‘One I’ll take if it helps to keep you safe.’

‘No.’

Jewd’s gaze darkened and his brow creased in a mixture of irritation and confusion.

‘Just leave it,’ Faris urged and walked away. He had to prepare for his departure.

‘What’s going on, Kilt? What’s this about?’ Jewd called after the outlaw but won no answer.

‘It’s about fear, I think,’ Leo said quietly.

Jewd looked around, surprised. ‘What do you mean?’

Leo shrugged. ‘He loves Lily. Has Kilt ever loved anyone before?’

Jewd paused, thinking. ‘Not a woman.’

‘Well, you said it. I reckon if he was prepared to confess, he’d own up to loving Lily, and he loves you. His two favourite people in the world are suddenly at risk. Perhaps for the first time in his life something worth losing is being genuinely threatened.’ Leo swung his hand around in an arc. ‘Look at the way he lives. His home is the forest, his closest friends are outlaws. He owns nothing. What money he needs he steals.’ Leo gave a sad laugh. ‘He doesn’t even keep it. When my father used to talk about the highwaymen of the north, I imagined you were all rich and debauched.’ Jewd gave a rueful smile. ‘Now I learn their leader gives most away.’

‘Aye, his favourite recipient is the convent in the mountains. Plenty goes to the Academy at Cremond, of course.’

‘Did my father know this?’

Jewd nodded. ‘He would have had his suspicions, I think, and I imagine that’s another reason he came looking for Kilt in the first place. He probably reasoned that no one who gives so much away could be all bad. And he found that to be true, because he gave him his most precious possession of all.’

‘His heir,’ Leo said, a maudlin tone creeping into his voice.

‘Are the relations any easier between you two?’

Leo shrugged. ‘Not really. He’s very angry. And he’s hardly ever been affectionate towards me so I can’t tell. I’m just Leo, the irritating burden. Lo knows why he protects me.’

‘Loyalty to Valisar. I know he has a strange way of showing it but he’s a king’s man.’

‘Not this king’s,’ Leo admitted.

‘He has every right to be angry.’

‘He does. It was stupid and impetuous. I know that now.’ Leo shook his head. ‘Kilt is right. My actions were the revenge of a child, not the disciplined action of a king.’

‘All true. Did it satisfy you?’

‘Pardon?’

‘Do you feel relieved? Set free by Freath’s death?’

‘I feel hollow. Freath’s death did nothing but answer a sort of primeval rage. Seeing him again made me think of those terrible few days in the ingress, but more than anything it made me realise how angry I feel at not knowing where Gav is—or even whether he’s alive or dead. Seeing Freath has re-opened a lot of wounds. I wanted to make him pay for all that pain he caused me.’

Jewd sighed. ‘It’s a pity Freath had to die to make you realise that nothing will give you back what has been taken from you. Make sure his death counts for something, your majesty. Let it make you a better king, or all the lives he risked and lost were for nought.’

Leo nodded thoughtfully. ‘In the meantime, what are we going to do about Kilt?’

‘You’re going to stay safe. I’m going to follow him.’

‘If you disobey him—’

Jewd snorted with disdain. ‘He’s not my mother! Or my keeper. I go my own way.’

‘All right, then. I’ll tell him of your plan if you don’t let me come too.’

‘No! How many more times do we have to say that?’

‘Plenty, because I’m not hearing it. Lily’s my friend too. I’m the reason she’s even here. And all this dangerous deception ultimately finds its way back to me anyway. Everyone is taking risks for the restoration of the Valisar Crown. I have to stand up and be counted, or what sort of worthy king am I?’

‘Leo, you’re twenty-two anni.’

‘Old enough, for Lo’s sake! I think you mouth twenty-two but you think twelve!’

‘We’re all doing this to protect you, not risk you.’

‘But we have to stop the fear at some point and take action. I’m ready, I’m trained, I’m hardened. Let me come along just as someone who watches your back. I won’t get close enough to give any trouble, I give you my word. I’ll take it all in from a distance and report to you or Kilt.’

Jewd made a growling sound of displeasure.

‘I will be very careful, I promise you,’ Leo pressed.

‘He’ll kill me.’

‘He will anyway if he finds out that you’re going after him. And I will tell him.’

Jewd’s lips twisted in a sneer but it was obvious he felt trapped. ‘Get your weapons! We’ll have to think of some disguises as well.’

Hurtle was a flourishing village, just on the very tip of turning into a town.

‘Lo blind me, what a surprise,’ Kirin said, looking at the busy square filled with people and stalls. ‘I wonder what’s going on?’

Lily’s smile seemed to lift her spirits. ‘I know what this is. It’s the Blossomtide Festival. All the towns and villages will be swamped by it shortly.’

‘Of course,’ Kirin said, wondering at all the colour and frantic preparations. ‘We’ve clearly lost track of time.’

Lily nodded. ‘I know I have, living in the forest all this time. I’ve only enjoyed one festival in the last decade, I think. That was at Francham and because it’s mainly merchants and transients, they don’t make much of it.’

‘Well, they take it very seriously in the city.’

‘The barbarian permits it?’

‘Oh, he’s very much for it, actually. You know, for all his savagery and ruthlessness when he invaded the realms, you’d be surprised if you met him to see how sophisticated he is.’

‘What do you mean?’ Lily said, tearing her gaze away from a queue of little girls waiting to have flowers braided into their hair.

‘Well, he doesn’t sit on a throne, dressed in black and calling for the heads of people so he can drink their blood, if that’s the image in your mind. He’s not at all like that. If he walked into the
main street of Hurtle right now, he’d pass unnoticed. He’s actually a quiet sort of man. And by that I don’t mean he’s silent. He just doesn’t need to hear the sound of his own voice.’

‘So he’s subtle, you mean.’

‘That’s exactly what I mean. He’s also surprisingly retiring, very engaging when he decides he’s interested in something and he has a mind that can soak up information like a sponge. According to Freath it’s the empress who wants all the balls and grand events. Loethar’s happiest on his horse riding around the moors. He even quotes poetry, for Lo’s sake!’

‘And yet we’re all intimidated by him.’

Kirin nodded. ‘As you should be. No one should be fooled by his demeanour. His intelligence is vast and history attests to what he’s capable of. And his nasty half-brother is always waiting in the wings. Now there truly is an evil man. His name is Stracker. Likes to take the title of general.’

‘Half-brother?’

Kirin nodded. ‘Mark my words. He’s shown remarkable patience but I don’t understand what keeps Stracker in that second-in-command position. He could overthrow Loethar in a blink if he wanted to.’

‘Truly?’

Kirin shrugged. ‘Why not? He controls the army. Loethar may be emperor but Stracker is the voice of the warriors.’

‘But they’re not militant, are they?’

Kiring considered this. ‘They haven’t been allowed to be but they train hard. There’s nothing soft about them. Loethar’s just very keen to see them integrating so he agrees instantly to any mixed marriages and children of those marriages are given special considerations: money, schooling. I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t start bribing them with land.’

‘Bribing?’

‘Freath says he calls it
encouragement
. These children grow up with a great understanding of east and west, both languages,
both customs, a good grip on the two cultures, and so on. Loethar’s clever, I’ll give him that. He’s slowly building a population that has known nothing but imperialism and thrives on that.’

‘I see. You sound as though you like Loethar.’

‘I hate him for his conduct of anni gone by. The killing of innocents was deplorable. Today he appears a completely different man.’

‘He’s reinvented himself, you mean?’

‘Not really. I think he’s always been this man. I think he’s also the barbarian warlord. He’s whatever he needs to be at the time.’

‘So right now he’s a loving husband and doting father-to-be.’

Kirin’s mouth twisted. ‘Definitely looking forward to fatherhood, I gather. I’m not so sure about the loving husband. From what Freath has told me, and from what I’ve seen, Loethar merely tolerates his wife. It was a marriage of convenience.’

‘How sad. I know how it feels,’ Lily said, looking away.

Kirin looked at her. ‘How many more ways can I say I’m sorry?’

She shrugged. ‘Forgive me. That was unfair.’

‘This festival can help us actually.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘Well, the Blossomtide celebrations are essentially about love and fertility. They say couples who marry on the day of the festival are blessed. You’ll find loads of lovers will be planning to wed today.’

‘So how does that help us? Surely it only complicates things in terms of the priest being available and—’

Kirin laughed. ‘You really have been in the forest for too long, Lily. They don’t do individual marriage ceremonies at Blossomtide. They marry all the couples at once. I suspect they’ll hold the ceremony on the village green—that would account for all the decorations going up. It means we can be married relatively anonymously. Few questions will be asked and no one will recall the strangers who took vows. Come on, let’s go find a
stable and also a place to stay. The inn is probably crowded to the rafters.’

As it turned out, The Miller and Magpie had a single, tiny loft room left.

‘It’s very small,’ the innkeeper apologised. ‘I feel obliged to tell you that it’s normally reserved for children but there’s a double cot…’

Kirin slapped a joyful hand onto the counter. ‘That’s all we’ll be needing, Master…?’

‘Annis,’ the innkeeper finished, watching Kirin pull Lily close and tickle her. She giggled helpfully before slapping away his groping hands.

‘We’re to be married today,’ she said to Annis, beaming.

‘I’d never have guessed it,’ he replied with a wry smile. ‘Just sign here,’ he said, pointing Kirin to a line on his ledger. ‘Evening meal’s normally at sundown, though on a festival night anything seems to go.’

Kirin grinned. ‘As I said, all we’ll need is the bed,’ he said, winking.

Annis sighed. ‘I guess you’ll be wanting to speak to Pastor Byron then. Better catch him soon and register. He’ll want to see the ring and bless it beforehand. There are too many of you for him to do it later.’

‘The ring,’ Kirin repeated. ‘Yes, of course. I’ll find him right away. Thank you, Master Annis.’

‘Happy nuptials,’ the man said. ‘Two flights up. There’s only one door so you can’t get lost. One of the girls will give you a key when you’re ready. How did you come into town?’

‘By horse,’ Kirin replied.

‘Stabling is just out the back. Hay is included in the room price.’ Kirin nodded. ‘I see you’re travelling light. Do you need help upstairs with anything?’ When both Kirin and Lily shook their heads, he said, ‘Enjoy your stay,’ adding, ‘and congratulations. I hope you’re both very happy.’

They murmured thanks before Kirin pulled Lily back outside. ‘We need to get you a ring,’ he said urgently. ‘I’m just not sure I have enough money to—’

She bit her lip and frowned before reaching down under her bodice. She pulled out a ribbon from which dangled a pretty silver ring, engraved with leaves. ‘My mother’s wedding ring,’ she explained at his look of query. ‘I, er, I always planned to get married with it.’

‘You don’t have to give up that wish. Save it, I’ll find us something.’

‘No, Kirin. Use this. It’s…well, it’s just silly not to.’

There was pain in her voice and Kirin hesitated, but he didn’t have much money with him. The room at the inn would eat into most of what he had and he still needed to consider food and drink. ‘Thank you. It will be a great help. Shall we go?’ She nodded and he offered an arm. ‘Time to pretend again, Lily. You did well in there. We just have to keep it going a bit longer.’

She pulled his arm around her more tightly and gave him a peck on his cheek, beaming widely. ‘Like that?’ she enquired lightly, the smile not faltering as people walked by them.

‘Perfect,’ he said, a little sadly. Suddenly he realised he had never loved anyone outside his own family. His closest friend had been Freath and his relationships with women were fleeting. As he walked beside Lily now, his arms tightly around her slim body, her warmth passing easily between their clothes, he felt an unfamiliar stirring of emotion.

‘Kilt Faris is a lucky man,’ he murmured.

‘Let’s hope he sees it that way,’ Lily replied, and somehow Kirin was sure she’d missed his point.

Pastor Byron, when they finally had their few moments with him, looked addled and apologised before Kirin even had a chance to explain their presence.

‘Forgive me but today is not my favourite of days. I like what it stands for but it wears me out and sucks at my tolerance like an
insatiable leech. You don’t even have to tell me why you’re here. It’s written plain on your faces; I can see you’re a couple in love and old enough to know it.’

Kirin closed his mouth.

The pastor continued, ‘I’ve tried to turn away so many youngsters today. They think they love one another but I can tell it won’t last. They’re too young, they still have so much to learn about themselves. But you two must both be past your third decade?’ They both nodded dumbly. ‘Neither married now or previously?’ They shook their heads. ‘Excellent! The ring, please?’

Lily untied the ribbon and handed the pastor her mother’s wedding band.

‘Very nice,’ he said. ‘I like older pieces. Your mother’s?’

‘Yes,’ Lily replied. ‘I’m Lily and this is—’

‘No need, my dear. Forgive me if that sounds rude but I have dozens more to see today. I won’t remember your names past the next pair of lovers.’ He began to bless the ring, dipping it into Lo’s Bowl at the front of the chapel. Finally he opened his eyes. ‘There. Now you’ll take your vows publicly with everyone else. Please be on the green at start of fourth tide. Thank you and bless you both.’ Kirin patted Lily’s hand affectionately and they both withdrew. ‘Er, you’re most welcome to leave an offering,’ the pastor mentioned over his shoulder, his back already turned to them. ‘Oh, and don’t forget the veil. That’s one tradition I will insist upon.’

Outside in the sun once again, their eyes adjusting from the chapel’s shadows, Kirin aimed for a lighter mood. ‘Well, that was painless. Let’s go get you a veil, shall we?’

‘Kirin. You go back to the inn. I, er…’ Lily shrugged. ‘Well, I wouldn’t mind a little while on my own and I feel a bit funny about your coming along to help me choose a veil. That’s something that the bride should do with other women. I’d rather do it alone.’

He understood. ‘All right. Where and when shall I see you?’

‘I’ll meet you on the green.’

Kirin nodded. ‘Lily, are you planning to run away? I’m sorry I feel compelled to ask you that.’

She looked at him with shock. ‘It hadn’t crossed my mind.’

‘Forgive me for putting it into your mind, then. I could pry, of course, but I’d prefer not to, given that I’ve already gone blind today on your behalf.’

Now Lily just looked sickened. ‘I’m aware of my precarious situation, Master Felt, and I will go through with this. I just have to come to terms with it.’

He gave a small bow. ‘Then I shall see you shortly.’ Kirin took her hand and kissed it. ‘For the sake of those watching,’ he assured her, and then he turned and left her.