CHAPTER 31 #3
“Take the first five bodies and Velpor’s corpse to the edge of Hreban’s territory and re-create the scene of their death.
Place Velpor’s body in the spot I told you to mark.
Have someone of the same height drop the sword next to his body.
Make sure that the five bodies are deposited first, then Velpor.
Arrange the bodies exactly as they fell, complete with blood and their weapons.
Wynand Bors isn’t wise but he’s skilled and his mind is sharp.
Do not make a careless mistake like placing a weapon too far out of reach. ”
She nodded. “Yes, my lord.”
This explained so much. In the morning, the Conquerors would find Velpor with five corpses. They would conclude that he was jumped and murdered.
The Order of Conquerors ran on loyalty. When one of their own was injured, they pursued the offender to the end, and they were relentless. Instead of turning the city upside down looking for the Sleepless Duke, they would turn the city upside down trying to shake out the owner of the hit squad.
Everard had thought of all of that before he ever walked out of the house. He fought those five intruders with Velpor’s sword in Velpor’s two-handed style. In a single move, he had shifted the Conquerors’ focus off himself and onto Hreban.
To plan all that in a split second while the house was being invaded and then to execute it flawlessly. He had stopped with five, likely because Velpor could’ve taken out that many but no more.
The man was frightening.
“Avaria,” I said.
She startled. “Yes, my lady?”
“When you searched the warehouse, did you find any papers? Any contracts, anything with the Butcher’s name on it?”
“No, my lady.”
“What about the people in the courtyard?”
“No papers,” Avaria confirmed. “However, we found this by the front door.”
She offered us an envelope. Everard opened it, pulled out the paper within, read it, and held it out to me.
H will strike after midnight.
“Another warning,” I murmured.
“Too late this time.” Everard looked at Avaria. “Who left the letter?”
“We do not know, my lord.”
He gave a small sigh. Avaria took a tiny step back.
“You let Maggie be taken,” Everard said, “you missed the watcher that followed us from the Butcher’s warehouse, and now you failed to note the messenger even though your people were watching the house.”
Avaria held perfectly still.
“Get the bodies right,” he told her.
“Yes, my lord.”
Everard nodded and she took off. I headed for the stairs, and he walked with me. The steps would be a challenge, but there was no way around it.
I was so damn tired. Getting through that conversation in the basement had sapped whatever resources the few hours of sleep had restored. The floor was beginning to look appealing. If I didn’t go up these stairs right now, I would curl up against the nearest wall and pass out.
I started climbing.
“That was a stroke of genius with the Redeemers,” Everard said.
“Thank you.”
If all went well, we would plant a spy in the Tower. We would need one because I’d killed the Butcher. While Hreban had compensated by bringing in a new assassin, the future was irrevocably changed, and having eyes and ears in Silveren’s domain would be vital.
“He is tailor-made for them: a verifiable sin to redeem, at the end of his rope, and skilled enough to be an asset,” Everard said. “More, he fits the part.”
“Yes. He’s bitter and jaded, and he looks like he expects life to kick him at any moment.”
We reached the landing. I took a little breather and headed for the second flight of stairs. “Do you think Tillmar will stay loyal?”
“Yes. That man is desperate.”
Weren’t we all.
“The Redeemers can offer him nothing, while I can give him everything,” Everard said. “He won’t break his oath.”
That right there was why I had to keep things in perspective.
I conquered the last step. Yes. Success. Clover had lit a lantern by my door and the hallway was bathed in comfortable light. Just a few more feet and I could fall into my bed face-first and let the world fade away.
“Why did you ask Avaria about contracts?”
I held Tillmar’s contract out to him. “There is something wrong with it.”
“There is everything wrong with it. The whole thing is an abomination.”
“Yes, that, too, but that’s not what I mean. Feel it.”
Everard ran his hand over the paper and stopped above the signature line. He frowned and raised the contract up, so the light of the lantern shone through it. A complex design curved and wound within the paper, wrapping around the signature spot.
“What is that?”
“I don’t know.” He held his hand over it. “I can break it, but it would destroy the paper. We need a mage.”
Where could we get a mage without attracting attention . . . The Mage Tower was chock-full of them, but I needed a mage that wouldn’t report to Archmage Damaes. We had no idea what this contract did. We needed someone with some autonomy.
“Maybe I will make a trip to the Garden,” I murmured.
“Not without me, you won’t.”
“You cannot leave the house.”
“You cannot go without protection.”
“I have a perfectly good cousin. He can take me.”
“I will take you.”
“You are a wanted man. Solentine is more than capable of protecting me.”
“Maggie, you try my patience.”
And here he was, the Sleepless Duke coming out.
He fixed me with his stare. “After everything we have been through, why do you trust Solentine over me?”
“Because he didn’t lie to me.”
“I didn’t lie to you in all things,” he said. “When I promised you I would protect you, I meant it. When I told you I could give you everything Solentine offered and more, I meant that, too.”
The light of the lantern softened his face.
He looked so handsome right now. Strong, trustworthy.
Hot. Almost irresistible. I could just wrap my arms around him.
He would kiss me and carry me to my bed.
It would be scorching hot and dirty, a night I would never forget, and then I could fall asleep wrapped in those strong arms. I didn’t even know what I craved more right now, sex, intimacy, or comfort. I wanted all of it.
“This is how Omelyana drowned, isn’t it?”
“Drowned?”
“In my future. She looked into your eyes, heard your voice, so sure and sincere, and decided to live just for you. I’m no Omelyana. I have other things to do.”
He pondered me. “I’ve met Omelyana. She is an accomplished woman. In your future, I married her because Selva needed her. By your own account, I worked hard to keep her satisfied.”
“Yes, you did.”
“If I worked that hard for the sake of someone my domain needed, I wonder how far I would go for the sake of someone I truly want?”
So smooth. His eyes were full of the fire that every woman who had ever wanted a man hoped to see.
It was that heady mix of want, need, admiration, and just a hint of a possessive challenge.
He didn’t make it blatant or obvious. He made no demands.
It was just there, and it was intoxicating enough to make you lose all grip on reality.
“You can turn that off now,” I told him.
“Turn what off?”
“You said Tillmar was desperate. So am I. I want to save Kair Toren, and you are using that as a lever. But you are down in the desperate ditch with us, Your Grace. No matter what you do or say, you are the Lord of Selva, and you’ll go to extreme lengths for the sake of your domain.
You need the knowledge locked away in my head, and you know force won’t work.
Death isn’t scary to me, and pain doesn’t frighten me either.
Not anymore. No matter what the Butcher did to me, I told him nothing. He was cursing when I died.”
That wasn’t strictly true. I was terrified of pain, but Everard didn’t know that.
“You need my secrets, and you will offer whatever I want to get them. Wealth, status, your body. It would be so much more convenient if I was besotted with you. You would use me until I broke, and you wouldn’t feel much guilt about it.”
The Sleepless Duke studied me. “We’re finally putting all of our cards on the table, then?”
Not all of them. I was still keeping back who I was and where I came from, but I no longer felt bad about it. Why should I? He had lied about where he came from and who he was.
“Why not? Let’s get it out in the open. You told Solentine that I was yours. I am not. I will never be yours.”
He laughed.
Oh you bastard.
“How does that work in your head, exactly?” I asked.
“Are you sitting on your throne in Wilkair, while I’m standing demurely to the side, gazing at you in adoration with all my Kair Toren plans forgotten?
What a wonderful future that would be, me helping you as you plot alliances and find the most advantageous wedding partner, all the while reassuring me that I’m the one you truly want.
Will I be standing just like that for years, until my knowledge is finally exhausted, and you discard me? ”
“If you are ever standing by my side, it will be because that’s where you are supposed to be. It is where you belong, Maggie. You just don’t know it yet.”
Argh. “I’m going to the Garden with Solentine tomorrow.”
“Sleep well, my lady.”
Fuck off.
I shut the door in his face, locked it, and heard him chuckling on the other side.
I pulled my dress strings apart, dropped the gown on the floor, and collapsed into my bed. Sushi immediately curled up by my feet.
“If he comes into the room, bite him,” I told her. “I’m counting on you.”
I closed my eyes and passed out.