Страница 43 из 105
Within minutes, three other servants and a Guardsman arrived. Regis set up the outer sitting room, easily accessible from the hallway, as a base of operations. He issued a stream of orders, to seal off the Hastur section and gather everyone within, to send word to Gabriel as Commander of the Guards and also to Java
“Find him!” Regis snapped.
Before he could say anything more, young Ke
“Lord Hastur, we found this one coming up the back staircase,” said one of the Guardsmen.
“I’ll have you know I am—” and here, Ke
“That’s all right, I’ll handle it,” Regis said. At his nod, the Guardsmen retreated. “You and Mikhail had agreed to meet? Here, at this hour?”
The youth flushed slightly. “We were to go . . . um . . . hawking.”
“Hawking? At night? Is that what they’re calling it now?” Could it be a coincidence that the Ardais youth had come looking for Mikhail at this hour? Regis eyed Ke
Wetting his lips, Ke
Regis hesitated, for a moment tempted to enlist Ke
Regis laid one hand on Ke
Ke
Regis bade the youth return to his own apartments, then turned to Gabriel. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but it’s probably true. Mikhail’s been kidnapped, by whom or for what purpose, I have no idea. I heard a scream—the servant girl had been knocked unconscious by the time I got here. I picked up the laranresidue of the assault.”
He did not add that his mind was already open, sensitized by Danilo’s anguished mental cry.
“You’re sure no one has entered or left?” Gabriel’s voice was rough with barely masked emotion. “Good.”
“There’s more.” Regis found his legs suddenly unsteady. He lowered himself to the nearest chair. “Danilo has been taken as well . . . and maybe Rinaldo, I’m not sure. There’s no trace of him, but he’s only been gone a few hours. Danilo went in search of him. To a tavern on Music Street—The Starry Plough.”
“I’ll dispatch my best men there at once.”
Saying the words aloud, hearing them in his own voice, gave them a terrible reality. Dimly, Regis realized he needed to eat, that use of laranexhausted physical as well as mental energies. Cold shivered through his gut. He swayed in his chair.
Gabriel bent to steady him. “You’ve had a shock. Let me get you some wine.”
Regis shook his head, trying to remember what was needed. What had Li
Regis slumped forward, head in his hands. What a weakling he was and what a fool! Silently he cursed his traitor body for collapsing just when the people he loved most needed him.
He heard voices, people moving through the room, the door opening and closing. Someone shoved a plate into his hands. It smelled of honeyed pastry. With shaking fingers, he broke off a morsel and chewed it. The sweetness melted over his tongue. Moments later, the trembling eased. He was able to sit up, to focus.
“. . . to see Lord Hastur . . . should we . . .” One of the Guardsmen who had captured Ke
“Yes,” Gabriel said. “Send her in at once.”
Regis got to his feet. “Send who in?”
A clatter of feet at the top of the stairway drew his attention. The next moment, Li
Regis!Her mind touched his, that light, supple contact he remembered so well.
Li
Incredulity melted into relief. Disregarding all propriety, forgetting the audience of Guardsmen and servants, Regis caught her in his arms and buried his face in the auburn tangle of her hair.
16
“How could you come so quickly?” Regis murmured. “How did you know?”
They were sitting together in his private parlor, their chairs drawn up so that her slim fingers could easily rest in his. Within moments of Li
She knows more than she reveals,Regis thought with a pang. He too had been forced to set aside his childhood far too early.
Li
Did she mean a world in which children—and Mikhail was barely more than a boy, although adult in Comyn eyes—were abducted from their own homes? A world in which others could be set aside, consigned without their consent to lives of privation and servitude? A world in which a boy like Felix Lawton, immensely Gifted, could be brought near death by the superstition of a parent?
“I did not know,” Li
“Then you know what happened?”
“I know that your mind was linked to Danilo’s when he was assaulted. I did not know about Mikhail until I reached the Castle.” She stroked his wrist with a featherlight touch, a Keeper’s touch. “I am so sorry about Danilo. This must be dreadful for you. I will help in any way I can. And with Mikhail’s disappearance as well.”
As she spoke, she lowered her laranshields, opening her mind, inviting his presence. The simplicity and trust of the gesture was more than Regis could bear. The contact of skin on skin intensified his feelings. He pulled his hand away, but gently, so as not to affront her.
“What is to be done?” he asked, heaving himself to his feet. “They have taken everyone in Thendara dear to me. If you had been here—”
“Could I have prevented it?” she said. “Sensed it coming, used my Keeper’s sensitivity to give warning?”