Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
ISOLDE
“When unexpectedly coming across someone you know, it is permissible to apologize for your lack of preparation, but ensure your chagrin does not override your joy to greet them. Make it clear you are always happy to see your acquaintances.”
~ Etiquette in Arcanloc
I ’d known I should’ve pushed Ettie to leave before the tourney. Now the city was flooded, and sneaking her out would take more bribes. Worse, with the whisper of war and the failed assassination attempts, everyone was walking on eggshells. Ettie’s hands hadn’t stopped shaking, and the bruises around her throat might need a little more coin to help people forget. I’d need to pay for her to travel as a guest, at least for a while, to give her time to recover. I’d budgeted on her working as she traveled.
But the worst was that she still wasn’t ready to leave.
Balancing the tray of apple turnovers and breakfast foods that had been my excuse to visit Ettie in the kitchens away from her husband and children, I moved quickly along cold hallways. Behind me, I could hear the servants stirring, going around to light the braziers in preparation for the well-to-do who wouldn’t be eating for hours. Out the window, the mist hid most of the city, and I could almost imagine I was back in my forest, the stone wall to one side of the mountain, the pillars and hip-height safety railing, the trees and brush.
If I could get Ettie to the safety of those woods, so much the better. And if she needed to take her children with her, they’d be more than welcome there, too. I could deal with the added cost and inconvenience. And with the failed assassination attempts—and the one success—they’d be looking for Southerners. Not short, flour-dusted women with an infant on the hip and another on the breast.
The trick was making her realize it wasn’t actually her fault that she was married to a fair-weather fiend.
I didn’t hesitate when I saw Wade at the post before Audrey’s door, with a member of the guard on the other side. But unease twisted in my gut.
They didn’t usually change shifts this time of day. It was possible Rulff had been pulled away on another matter, but after the upheaval of the last few days, I felt my focus narrow and my blood quicken in my veins.
There was nothing unusual about Wade’s appearance, except for his timing. The guardsman’s presence wasn’t unusual either, except that he’d also switched, and that I didn’t recognize him, which meant he wasn’t a regular within the keep. My options stretched out before me, and I quickly discarded most. They stood between Audrey and I. And she would open the door, if they knocked.
I was, undoubtably, overly cautious. But that’s why I was alive.
I approached the archway leading to her room without altering my pace. As usual, I flicked Wade a glance that made my disgust for him crystal clear, cutting from his clean-shaven face to his pristine boots, the hallmarks of La’Angi brutes. Behind his boots I noticed a bottle with the unmistakable stamp of magework on the broken deep green sealing wax.
Battle energy flooded my body, and I dropped my weight, whirling the tray at the guard I didn’t know. He went down in a tumble of pastry, porridge, and pottery. I went to grab for his spear but was brought up short, an arm under my breasts and a hand slapping a cloth painfully across my mouth.
I tasted blood and felt my ribs groan under the force of his hold. The smell of metal, oil, and herbs hit my nose and made my head swim. I held my breath and went to drive my head back into Wade, but he avoided the strike and grabbed my right hand, pinning it against my side. His breath was hot. I flexed, making myself as big as I could, and felt the laughter he expelled across my cheek like a toxic cloud.
Then I relaxed.
Slipping out of his hold, the world spun drunkenly around me. Free, I grabbed for the spear from the fallen guard, but it wasn’t where it should’ve been. My fingertips jammed into the wood, jarring my joints. Poison? The bottle. Wade scrabbled for me, and I drove my fist into the side of his knee. I didn’t have the leverage to break it, but he collapsed like a play fort made by children regardless. I was already to the other side of the archway, kicking over the bottle and hearing the glass smash. Not on my watch.
There was something deeply satisfying about hearing things break.
My hand tightened on the door to Audrey’s room, my hand ready to turn the knob, when I heard boots on stone. “Finally,” I heard Wade say.
I ducked my head, but he grabbed my other arm and drove me into the door, twisting my arm up hard behind my back.
He shoved the cloth toward my face, but I turned and sank my teeth into his hand. My lips were still open as he covered my nose this time. The grain of the wood bit into the side of my face, and the world spun, black and pulsing, around me. I struggled, not caring about the pain in my arm. I’d had it dislocated before. There were worse things.
I’d had them before, too. All the worse things. And as I stomped on his booted feet with all the strength I had left and clawed for his eyes, I was falling into darkness. In my chest, my heart beat too fast, terrified.
“There, now,” he murmured in my ear. “There you are.” My skin nearly crawled from my flesh. If I vomited, I’d choke on it. I knew I would. But still, my stomach roiled.
Voices, behind us. The rise and fall of conversation. The booted feet weren’t coming to protect us. I’d never expected them to, but there was no bitter tonic like being right. My arm was released. It flopped uselessly by my side. I was dragged deeper into the darkness but fought to hold on to the sensation in my limbs. The pain, the burning in my chest, the bite of the roughly woven cloth against my mouth, the pinch of nausea. The sensation of his hand moving across my belt and dipping into the pouch at my waist.
The key to Audrey’s room.
Please, have heard. I felt him withdraw it, lifting it to the door I could no longer see with my eyes but could picture in my head. I heard the tiny sounds of metal bumping against metal, loud in my mind.
And, with the last of my strength, I drove my body forward, jarring his hand, bending that key, and, hopefully, making enough noise to wake my charge.