The Born Queen

The girl stuck her head in a bit later, and a few moments after that Bri

Her expression didn't tell him much, and for a little while that was all he got. Then she walked over and took her place in her armchair.

"Please sit," she said.

He complied.

"Things are complicated," she said. "I wouldn't have had you stay in that place if they weren't."

"I appreciate the sentiment," he muttered.

"I doubt that, but that's not this discussion."

She looked down and cleared her throat softly.

"There are three reasons you're here and not dead or still imprisoned," she said. "The first is that I believe you are not an assassin. The second is that I think we can help each other without you breaching your real duty."

She paused and settled her shoulders. "The third isn't important right now."

"I'm glad you don't believe I'm an assassin," he said.

She nodded and placed her hands on her knees. "I want you to help me escape again."

"What?"

"A

"This is war," he said gently.

"You needn't condescend to me, sir," she said. "I know what war is."

"Sorry."

"Understand, it was not the army of Crotheny that killed our men. It was A

"Oh," he said, frowning, trying to understand. He'd been with A

"How many?" he asked.

"Forty-eight thousand."

"Forty…" It didn't make any sense.

"It has begun, Sir Neil. She is coming into her strength. My father will keep sending his men against her, and they will continue to die."

"What do you intend to do?" he asked.

"A

"But why must I help you escape?"

"I have to reach Newland," she said. "That's where I must be, and in a short time."

"It's impossible for me to promise that," Neil said.

"I realize that," she replied. "I just wanted you to know what I'm about. I need to talk to Queen Muriele, clearly. Only she can make the decision to take me to Newland. I just want your permission first, since she is in your charge."

"That means having her brought up here?"

"If I could do that, I would have already done so," she replied.

"What do you mean?"

"She went hunting with Berimund, yes?"

"Yes, the day after we arrived. Just before I was seized."

"My father isn't a stable man. He condemned your lady to death and ordered my brother to carry out that charge."

Neil stood so violently that the chair went clattering to the floor. "You saw this?"

She sucked in a breath and flinched back.

"Did you?" he asked more softly.

"No. I have spies, as well. But I have seen where my brother took her."

"To murder her, you mean?"

Her eyes focused outward and seemed to glaze. "Berimund won't do that," she said, her voice a bit singsong. "He's taken her someplace to hide. He doesn't know he's been followed."

"Followed? By your father?"

She shook her head. "No. Robert Dare."

Without thinking, Neil put his hand up to his head, where the usurper had struck him with a bottle.

"I have to get to her," he said. "Can you help me do that?"

"I need her, too, and I need her alive," Bri

He took a deep breath. "I'll help you escape," he said. "But after we find the queen, I must obey her orders."

"Even if they are to slay me?"

"Any order but that," he said.

Something bright flitted behind her face but quickly vanished.

"Well," Bri

"Yes."

"That's good," she said. "Because we've already begun, I'm afraid. The interrogator insisted on being with me in this interview, and she got my father to put it in writing that she would be."

"Where is she, then?"

"In the next room, dead. I poisoned her. The men who brought you have also been dealt with. Or at least I hope so."

"They've been dealt with," a quiet voice said.

Neil started and found Alis standing behind him, clad in a dark blue gown. She held something bundled in a cloak.

"I think this hauberk will fit you, Sir Neil," she said. "And you've your pick of these swords."

"I'm sure you would prefer your own," Bri

CHAPTER TEN

ASPAR HAD begun to draw the knife before he realized he was losing his mind, that the geos had taken his sense without him even knowing it.

Leshya saw his expression and raised her eyebrows.

Fighting down the paranoia, Aspar pushed the eldritch blade back in, unhooked the scabbard, and held it out toward her.

"This is yours," he said. "I should have given it back to you days ago."

"You make better use of it than I would," she said.

"I don't like it," he said.

"Neither do I," the Sefry replied. "It's a sedos thing."

Aspar proffered it for another few breaths, but she didn't reach for it, so he hooked the sheath back on his belt.

"Let's keep Fend's offer to help us quiet for now," Aspar said. "Until we ca

"It could confuse things more than they already are," she said.

He couldn't tell if it was a question. "Yah."

They found Emfrith's bunch setting up camp in a field not too far from the road. Wi

"He found us," she said. That sounded happy.

"Stephen?"

Her expression fell, and then she shook her head.

"Ehawk."

Aspar felt a slight lift of his shoulders. "Really? Where is he?"

"Sleeping. He was nearly falling out of his saddle. I don't think he's rested in days."

"Well, I reckon I'll talk to him later, then."

"That's all you have to say?"

"I'm glad the lad's alive," he said. "But I reckoned wherever he was, he was all right. Ehawk can take care of himself. Not like-" He stopped.

"Not like Stephen," she said softly.

"Stephen's fine, too," he said gruffly. "Probably holed up in a scriftorium someplace."

"Right," Wi

Early the next morning, Aspar found Ehawk crouched around the coals of the fire. The young Watau gri

"You were hard to find," he said. "Like tracking a ghost. Lost you before the cold river up there."

"The Welph."

"I don't like those trees. It's like always being at the snow line in the mountains."

"Yah," Aspar said. "Different. Anyway, you should have just waited like Wi

"I couldn't do that," the Watau boy replied. "Wi

"Yah, I conth that," he said.

Ehawk nodded and pushed back his pitch-dark hair. His face looked leaner, older. His body was catching up with the man inside.

"So where are we going?" he asked.

"Mountains of the Hare. The western ranges, near Sa Ceth ag Sa'Nem."