Chapter 12 Keris #2
Aren heard her, and the glare he cast over his shoulder was murderous. Bronwyn lifted her hand and flipped him her middle finger, and Keris gave her an elbow to the ribs. “Enough. Sarhina won’t be best pleased if you cause trouble, and I know you won’t cross her.”
“Don’t be so sure. There’s not much I won’t do to free Taryn.”
The vehemence in her voice filled Keris with unease.
“Ithicana and Harendell sit at the brink of war. If you go in blades-flashing and steal away a prisoner, you might push them over the edge. Especially if you kill anyone. I think the only thing holding William back is that they have doubts that Aren is complicit. If you liberate his cousin, those doubts are unlikely to hold. The stakes are high, so every decision needs to be thought through.”
“The stakes were pretty goddamned high when you sailed to Devil’s Island to rescue Zarrah, but I recall thinking that you’d let the whole world burn to free her.
Lara wasn’t much better when Aren was imprisoned.
So you’ll have to excuse me, but I find advice from both of you to be the purest form of hypocrisy. ”
It was a fair point.
Bronwyn caught hold of Keris’s arm, dragging him to a stop while Lara and Aren pressed onward.
“Aren refuses to believe that Ahnna did this,” she said quietly.
“If she makes it back to Ithicana, he won’t give her up.
It will cease to matter if Aren was involved with Edward’s murder, because he’ll be guilty of harboring the woman who killed the king of Harendell.
How long until Taryn’s head is sent to Northwatch in retaliation? ”
A vision of William’s face filled Keris’s mind—the portrait of a man desperate to lash out. If he didn’t get what he wanted, it was fair to say that Taryn’s life would be forfeit.
“I know we aren’t close, Keris. Not in the way you are with Lara, but I need you to be on my side in this.” Bronwyn’s blue eyes were liquid bright. “I know you understand how I feel better than anyone.”
Keris did understand, but he also felt pulled in multiple directions by those who had his love and loyalty. “I don’t have the full picture yet, Bronwyn. But I promise, I won’t stand by and allow Taryn’s life to be thrown away.”
His half sister wanted more from him, that was obvious, but Bronwyn only gave a tight nod and led him onward.
They reached a modest-sized structure made of stone covered with moss, the roof so overgrown with plant life that one could be excused for walking past the building without noticing its presence.
He entered through the open door, and though it had been cool beneath the canopy of trees, it was almost cold inside the building.
Dark, too, the only light coming from a lamp that sat on a rough wood table in the center of the main room.
The back wall was lined with doors, one of which was open to reveal a narrow cot.
Barracks.
Keris’s focus moved to Lara, who was taking a bundled infant from Aren’s grandmother.
Amelie was much changed from when he’d last seen her, skin ashen and shoulders stooped, and though her eyes flickered with recognition when she saw him, Amelie said nothing.
Jor took her elbow and led her to the corner, and Amelie’s face crumpled at whatever he told her.
It was as though the spirit had been drained from everyone in the room, making the cold and dim space all the more oppressive.
“This is the most secure location in the north that we can be sure the Harendellians don’t know about,” Lara said. “Not luxurious, but safe.”
“Safety is a luxury.” He went closer to take a look at his niece, who was fussing the way babies did when they were hungry. Delia was a sweet little thing with a full head of dark hair, but it was the hazel eyes looking back at him that held Keris’s attention. “She escaped the curse.”
Lara’s mouth crooked up in a half smile, understanding his meaning. A certain stigma came with having eyes of Veliant blue, and Keris didn’t wish that legacy down upon his niece.
Delia chose that moment to let out a hungry howl, and Keris moved to join Aren at the table.
“Drink?” Aren asked him.
“Water, if you have it. I’d be less thirsty after a week in the Red Desert.”
Aren picked up the pitcher and filled a chipped cup with water, handing it over before he sat on one of the chairs. He rested his elbows on the table, staring blankly at the scarred surface.
Keris sat across from him. “You’ve not heard anything from Ahnna? You have no idea where she might be?”
Aren gave a slow shake of his head. “I don’t even know if she’s alive.”
“Tell me what you do know.”
Keris listened in silence as his family filled him in on everything that had happened since Ahnna had left for Harendell, as well as the details that had been gleaned about Edward’s murder.
Halfway through the story, he took the now-fed Delia from Lara and circled the room with his sleeping niece, pausing from time to time to read the spy reports Lara fished from her stack, the full scope of the situation forming in his mind.
It was damning.
Ahnna had a motive. There were witnesses, not the least being James Ashford. But perhaps the most damning of all were Alexandra’s injuries, which Keris had seen with his own eyes.
Passing the sleeping baby to Amelie, Keris rested his hands on the table.
“The only person who knows what really happened is Ahnna, but I think it fair to say the truth does not matter. Harendell believes she is guilty, and I don’t think there is a way to prove otherwise given that her word means nothing to them.
My question is whether what Ahnna has to say matters to you? ”
Silence filled the room, and Keris felt a sudden urge to drag everyone outside into the jungle. To find sunlight and open air, because the shadows felt as though they might consume everyone.
“Of course it matters,” Aren finally answered. “I’m not allowing my sister to be executed for something she didn’t do.”
“What if she’s guilty?” Keris didn’t enjoy pressing this issue, but someone had to. “Will Ithicana go to war to protect Ahnna if you know for certain she murdered Edward and then attacked Alexandra?”
Aren blanched, his skin turning ashen in the dim light. “I…” He looked away. “I need to hear Ahnna’s explanation. I need to hear her voice. I can’t make a decision without seeing her.”
“Except you don’t have that option.” Keris buried his guilt at pushing his friend in his time of grief.
“No one knows where she is, and Harendellian patience is wearing thin. If you don’t at least denounce her, they will assume that you are complicit.
You must decide your course with the information you have. ”
“She could already be dead.” It was the first time Bronwyn had spoken, and she stepped away from the wall she’d been leaning against. “Which means you’re risking Taryn’s life, your wife’s life, your daughter’s life—the lives of everyone in Ithicana—for a corpse.
I looked James in the eye when he delivered his message: He’s not going to stop his hunt, and if he finds her, Ahnna won’t make it to execution.
That kind of anger is only sated by blood. ”
Keris remembered a report he’d read from one of Valcotta’s spies in Harendell.
Much of it had detailed the commotion that Lestara had been causing in Edward’s court, but tacked on to the end was an account of an incident in Sableton the night Ahnna had arrived in Harendell.
James had been involved in a brawl in the tenderloin district after patrons of an alehouse had laid hands on Ahnna.
The two had subsequently quarreled, and then, in full view of everyone on the street, James had slung Ahnna over one shoulder and carried her away in a manner that the spy had interpreted as decidedly familiar, especially for a Harendellian.
Before Keris had left for Ithicana, more reports had arrived full of rumors and speculation that Ithicana’s princess had seduced Harendell’s most eligible bastard.
If that was true, then Keris was inclined to agree with Bronwyn that James was out for blood.
For there was no more intense hatred than one born out of love gone sour.
A sharp knock sounded on the closed door of the barracks, echoing against the stone walls. At Aren’s nod, Jor opened it and a sodden Ithicanian stepped inside, along with a gust of wind carrying heavy rain. “Word from Northwatch via the Amaridians.”
Aren stood so abruptly that he jostled the table, toppling two cups of water. “Ahnna?”
“Yes, Your Grace.” The man wiped his face, a puddle forming around his boots.
“The Amaridians say that she was spotted in Sableton but evaded capture. Every ship is being searched by soldiers and bloodhounds before departure, but the gossip in the city is that she subsequently ran afoul of civilian militia in the foothills. Prince James apparently left Sableton at a gallop and hasn’t been seen since. ”
“Anything else?” Aren demanded, but the man only shook his head.
“Ahnna’s aiming to cross the Blackreach Peaks,” Keris murmured once the man had departed, drawing a map of the continent in front of him. “She’s trying to get to Amarid.”
“That’s a dangerous trek.” Jor joined them at the table, his weathered face grim. “The mountains are tall, and at this time of year, the snow will be thick and prone to avalanches. Ahnna is tough and knows how to live off the land, but this is new ground for her.”
“But if she can get across the border, it’s the one place James won’t follow,” Keris countered.
“Angry isn’t the same as stupid—he won’t go into the Beast’s territory.
Those two have been at odds in the Lowlands for over a decade, and they hate each other.
I can only imagine that the rivalry has grown worse since the castration. ”
Everyone stared at him.
“Don’t you read your spy reports?” Keris demanded.
“Last year, fighting came to a head in the Lowlands, and James and Carlo were in the thick of it. The word is that it turned to fisticuffs in the mud. Before they were separated by their men, James put his boot heel into Carlo’s balls with such force that the physicians had to cut one of them off.
I’ve heard that Carlo’s now obsessed with killing James himself.
Given his proclivities, James would have to be mad to cross that border without an army at his back. ”
“Ahnna needs to get to that border.” Aren was staring down at the table, but then he straightened and cleared his throat. “Katarina has been making overtures of negotiating a new deal. Of making amends.”
“You can’t seriously be thinking of trusting her?” Katarina was sly as a fox and twice as mean.
“I trust that she’s trying to profit off this conflict,” Aren replied. “Northwatch’s piers sit half empty, and she’ll be keen to fill those spots with her merchant ships. If she can secure Ahnna and get her safely back to me, then I’ll deal.”
“And piss the Harendellians off even more?” Keris shook his head. “Are you sure?”
“I’ll warn her to be discreet,” Aren replied. “Katarina will no more want William’s ire than we do, so if she can get what she wants from me with a stealthy rescue, she’ll do it.”
The idea of trusting Katarina to do anything made Keris’s skin crawl, but the rivalry between Amarid and Harendell was as certain as the sun rising in the east. What’s more, once Carlo learned that James was in the Blackreaches, there’d be no stopping him from pursuing his revenge.
Keris had no grievance with James Ashford, but if the Beast killed him, it would redirect some of William’s focus.
“Bronwyn, please sit,” Aren said, gesturing to one of the empty chairs.
Keris watched his half sister consider refusing, then slowly cross the space to flop down on a chair, her jaw tight.
“I know you think I don’t care about what has happened to Taryn, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Aren said after exchanging a weighted glance with Lara.
“We need to start making plans to get her out if this goes sour. Which is why I want you to board one of the Amaridian merchant ships at Northwatch and sail to Riomar. You’re a Maridrinian princess, which will get you an audience.
I want you to convince Katarina to help Ahnna get safely across the border so that we can hear the truth from her lips, but I also want you to convince Katarina to aid in liberating Taryn.
Tell her that if she helps us, I’ll agree to renegotiate our current agreements in her favor. ”
Keris’s half sister flicked her eyes to him, and Keris gave a slight nod to indicate he’d keep her interests at heart while she was absent. “All right,” she said. “But if Katarina won’t deal, I’m going after Taryn myself. Consequences be damned.”
“Fine.”
“There’s something else to consider that I think everyone has missed.
” Lara’s eyes were on the pages of spy reports in a pile before her.
“William and Alexandra knew Ahnna was headed to the Blackreaches when they arrived to meet you, Aren. They know we don’t have Ahnna.
Which means they knew they were asking for something you couldn’t give.
” She looked up. “I wasn’t wrong. It’s not Ahnna they’re after. Or at least not entirely.”
Keris hadn’t missed that pertinent detail, but without more information, what Harendell was after would be pure speculation.
He sat, resting his elbows on the table and his head in his hands.
This was supposed to be a short visit. A week spent in the tropics drinking with Aren, bickering with his sister, and spoiling Delia, after which he’d return to Valcotta.
Return to Zarrah, because he’d regretted leaving the moment Pyrinat had faded on the horizon.
“We need to better understand what is going on in William’s court. ”
“Yes,” Lara replied quietly. “We do. But it’s not the sort of understanding that a spy will gain, and if we send an emissary, they’ll be pushed into a corner to cool their heels.”
Zarrah was going to kill him when she found out about this. “You need someone they can’t afford to ignore.”
“Yes.” His sister’s voice was tight, like she was holding back tears.
“Just what exactly are you suggesting?” Aren demanded.
Keris lifted his head from his hands, wishing that he’d had the chance to hold Zarrah one last time.
To tell her that he loved her more than life, more than breath.
Because there was a fear growing in his chest that he’d never get another opportunity.
“It feels like a lifetime ago I walked down your bridge with the aim of escaping to Harendell.” He exhaled a steadying breath.
“I think it’s time I finished that journey. ”