Chapter 15
THE CONCLAVE
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE took the wrong woman?”
“Kal? Kal.”
“Santhe, I asked you a question. What do you mean he took the wrong fucking woman?”
Santhe’s eyes flashed. “Mind your tongue, Rask Harless. I’m not one of those hens you can command with a foul mouth.”
Rask’s attention shifted back to Kal. “Kal. What is she talking about? Where’s my sister?”
“Gods above, Rask, let him think for two minutes,” Santhe retorted.
Rask wheeled back to her, finger pointed in warning. “You just told him the woman he brought into Meress is an imposter. What the fuck is there to think about?”
The commotion inside Palaver’s was drawing notice. A man about Kal’s height with sandy hair and downturned eyes pushed up from his seat and approached. “Kaine. Harless. Miss,” he greeted, voice polite but firm. “Perhaps this conversation should be had somewhere more private?”
“Kal, are you even listening?” Rask demanded.
The newcomer reached out and placed a tentative hand on Kal’s shoulder. “Kal, what’s this about an imposter? The Conclave will need to be informed.”
Blood pounded through Kal’s head, drowning the distant voices, burying them beneath the relentless surge.
Thank you. For everything.
“Kalevar!” Rask fisted the neckline of Kal’s shirt. “We need to find this lying bitch and—”
Something in Kal snapped. His hand shot out on instinct and closed around the smaller male’s throat. Rask’s eyes flew wide, but he didn’t release his grip.
“What the fuck, Kal?”
Kal’s lip curled into a snarl. He felt his pupils dilate. Red passed across his visual field. His fingers squeezed, and Rask’s nails dug into the edge of his palm.
Santhe rushed forward but didn’t touch him. “Kal,” she pleaded. “Kalevar, stop.”
His fingers flexed again, and Rask wheezed. Panic crept into his friend’s fair features. Rask’s face was going red. Red like the blood roaring in Kal’s skull.
“Kalevar Kaine. Look at me.”
Kal’s eyes flicked down and met the worried brown gaze of the woman next to him.
“Kal,” Santhe urged, voice soft. “Please. He can’t breathe. Let him go.”
Beneath his grip, Rask flailed, pulling at the hand cutting off his oxygen supply.
A rush of air swept into Kal’s lungs on a sudden inhale, and he felt his pupils constrict in focus. His hand spasmed open and released Rask’s throat. Rask bent forward, hacking.
“The fu—ck,” he coughed.
Kal stepped back and fisted his hand to stop the tremor that rattled his digits. Santhe watched him closely.
You took the wrong woman.
Railah.
Kitty.
The wrong woman.
Kal spun on his heel and marched to the exit. The air in the tavern was thick with accusation, question, and concern, but the opinions were not what spurred his movement. He threw the front door open and stepped into the crisp morning, lungs hungry for a cleansing breath.
You took the wrong woman.
Kal reached for the reins of his gray mount, and the gelding’s eyes rolled, whites showing in alarm. A voice called from behind.
“Kal, wait.”
Kal wrestled with the unexpected rush of emotion roiling under his skin. Anger. Confusion. Disbelief. He needed to get home. He needed to see her. Speak with her. Santhe was wrong; she had to be.
The man from inside stepped to Kal’s side. Concern, the kind that encompassed an entire settlement of traitors to the Asterosian crown, rested in the man’s chestnut eyes.
“I know what you’re thinking, Saul,” Kal said.
“Then you know we need to address the rest of the Conclave. The others must be alerted to a threat.”
Kal pinned Meress’s halcyon leader with a hard stare. “There is no threat.”
A dark blond brow lifted. “Your friend back there just made a rather public announcement about you unknowingly escorting an imposter from Asteros into Meress.”
Kal swallowed his growl and took a deep breath. “It’s a misunderstanding, Saul. There’s no threat to the city.”
Behind Saul, the door to Palaver’s burst open. Rask marched for them, face still a mottled shade of red, Santhe on his heels.
“I’m going home,” Kal said. “I need to speak with her.”
The wrong woman.
Saul eyed Rask and Santhe before swinging his gaze back to Kal. “We will accompany you.”
It wasn’t spoken as a request.
Kal stood on his porch, leaning against the rail, disbelief stealing into his bones like a malignancy. He stared out at the serenity of Stillwater Wood, so at odds with the chaos raging inside him.
She was gone. The cabin behind him stood empty. And yet, she was everywhere. Kitty’s scent permeated his kitchen, living room, and bedroom. The lingering aroma of delicate jasmine, garden herbs, and fresh citrus invaded his senses, calling to him like a temptress.
He tightened his grip on the rail. The tremor in his hand returned, incited by his stagnancy. His body craved movement. He should be hunting the forest for her. Scouring the wood. Not standing here, waiting for everyone around him to piece shit together.
Rask had been sent back into the city to retrieve Penn. The boy had possibly been the last person to see Kitty before she disappeared. Saul had given Santhe directions to call the four other members of the Conclave, the governing body of Meress, not trusting Kal to stay put without supervision.
“They should be back soon,” Saul said, approaching with quiet steps.
Kal spared him a glance. “I’m not a fucking wild horse, Saul. I’m not going to spook.”
Saul settled at the rail next to him. “Well,” he mused, “I’ve never watched a horse seize its friend by the throat. Mind clueing me in on what happened back there?”
Kal blew out a breath. He did mind. Mainly because if he analyzed his reaction too closely, he’d be forced to acknowledge a weakness he hadn’t planned on developing.
Saul was a good man—a fair and temperate member of the Conclave.
But until Kal found Kitty and could speak to her himself, he didn’t want anyone involved in the subject of his inner turmoil.
All the evidence pointed to her leaving of her own volition.
There was no sign of a struggle. Clothes were missing, as well as a pack and a waterskin.
Where she’d gone, and why, only left him with an unending stream of questions.
Kal knew Kitty wanted to go back to Asteros.
To turn herself in, she’d said. To prevent any others from entering harm’s way if more hunters came after her.
But that only made sense if she was who she said she was. A Fate. Rask’s sister.
When Kal didn’t answer, Saul hummed and followed his gaze out into the stillness of the wood. “Tell me about your meeting with Trade Master Grisham, then. Can the Cozened expect his aid when the time comes?”
Kal nodded and relayed events from the past several days to Saul.
Kal wasn’t a member of Meress’s Conclave, but they relied heavily upon his help, his ability to network, and his willingness to provide resources necessary for their resistance.
Half the fighters they now possessed had been trained by Kal’s own hand and were outfitted with his weaponry and armor.
By the time he was finished filling in Saul, there was movement from the tree line. Penn emerged from the hedge, followed closely by a disgruntled-looking Rask.
“Kal,” Penn called, voice miserable. “I swear I didn’t know she was a traitor.”
Rask shoved the boy forward at the same time Kal descended the porch steps.
“Calm your shit, Rask,” Kal barked.
“You’re one to fucking talk,” Rask snapped, baring his throat. “The kid saw her. Practically painted her a fucking escape route.”
Penn turned imploring eyes to Kal. “She asked me questions, Kal. About growing up in Meress. I didn’t know she meant to leave. I swear.”
Kal placed a hand on Penn’s narrow shoulder. “Tell me everything.”
Penn did. He relayed every detail, growing more and more miserable with the telling. Kal only grew more resigned.
“You see,” Rask seethed, pacing nearby. “We need to find her before she finds her way out of the forest. If she reaches a border town and secures passage, it’ll be too late.”
With that, Kal couldn’t argue. The longer they delayed, the higher the chances of Kitty slipping from his grasp and into someone else’s.
“We need to notify the Conclave,” Saul repeated. “They should be here any minute. Then we can deploy a hunting party.”
Kal clenched his jaw at Saul’s final words. He made it sound like they planned to track and kill her.
Rask nodded, a determined set to his fair features.
Not ten minutes later, Santhe pushed through the wall of greenery on the periphery of the property. Three other men and one woman came through after. The Conclave had arrived.
Kal was unaccustomed to welcoming so many visitors, but they filed into his cabin, ignorant of their host’s reservations. Some settled at the dining table or counter, others stood in the kitchen.
“What kind of mess have you gotten yourself into now, son?” Beulah, the lone female member of Meress’s Conclave, spoke in hushed tones to Penn.
Kal didn’t blame the boy. The crushing weight of Kitty’s potential deception rested solely with him.
Kal leaned against a support beam, arms folded across his chest, and surveyed the group. The Conclave had a process for everything. It was pointless to rush them.
“Can we get on with it?” Rask pressed, disinclined to bridle his impatience. “The traitor is probably halfway to Berdeen by now. We should already be hunting.”
Vorak, a tall, spindly man with deepset green eyes and a narrow beard, swiveled his gaze to Rask before addressing the group. “One of the Watch guards, detained a woman on the fringe of the forest a few hours ago. She is young, traveled alone, and was unable to provide a code.”
Kal leaned forward, gaze narrowing on Vorak.
Stillwater Watch was the armed faction that operated under the Conclave’s jurisdiction to patrol within the boundaries of Stillwater Wood.
One of Kal’s first contributions to Meress had been to help train, outfit, and organize the Watch, taking them from a disjointed group of angry rebels to one capable of real defense and strategic preparedness.
Beulah angled her considerable frame, partially blocking the man from Kal’s view.
Penn’s mother was wide in the way her children were tall.
Her cheeks were rosy, a flowered bonnet contained her mass of white-blond hair, and flour from her bakery still dusted her apron.
“She was incapable of providing the code? Or she didn’t have one? ”
Vorak sucked his teeth. “She told the guard, Stonehaugh, she was seeking family in Fahren’s Pass. The missive said she claimed to have not been given a code. She denies traitorous activity.”
“Traitorous to whom? Us? Or Asteros?” Rask demanded.
Kal pushed off from the beam. Why the fuck hadn’t the missive provided a name? “Where is she?”
Vorak swiveled to him. “She is being held in a cell at the Watch’s southern depot.” Green eyes flicked to Saul as he paused. “They’ve requested that the Conclave perform an inquiry.”
Multiple glances were shared among those gathered.
Kal was already turning for the door.
“Kalevar,” Saul called after him. “This woman is in custody of the Stillwater Watch.”
“I heard what he said,” Kal called over his shoulder.
Saul followed him, undeterred. “Then you know full well what this means. You cannot interfere with an inquiry.”
“I know Meress’s laws, Saul. I helped you write them.”
“Then where the hell are you going?”
Kal braced his hand on the gray’s saddle. The poor beast was being put through its paces today. “To the Watch’s southern depot. Where else?”
An uncustomary scowl distorted Saul’s normally placid features. “You said you wouldn’t interfere.”
Kal looked at the man over his shoulder. Gods, he was fucking tired. “I said I knew the laws. Not that I’d abide them.”
Saul dragged a hand down his face. “Damnit, Kal. Don’t make us arrest you. Please.”
Kal swung into the saddle. “I need to see her, Saul. We don’t even know if the woman they’ve got is my—” Kitty. The wrong woman. “—if it’s her.”
Saul sighed. “Then we’ll go and see her.
Rask, too. If it is the woman you escorted, he’ll be able to verify whether or not this Kitty is who she claimed to be.
” Saul turned, reaching for his own mount, then paused, downturned eyes serious.
“Even if she is who she said, the Conclave will perform an inquiry. You will allow it, Kal, and all it entails.”
Kal’s nostrils flared, and his gaze locked with Saul’s, but movement to the right snared his attention before he could snap in reply.
A familiar black wolf padded forward into the clearing, panting heavily.
Yellow eyes found Kal, and the creature yipped before turning and darting off in the direction from which he’d come.
South.
Kal didn’t answer Saul as he swung the gray, didn’t wait as he rode off into the forest, following the trail toward the Watch’s southern post.