Chapter 30
‘I’m waiting,’ Marsh said in a low voice.
‘He isn’t here,’ Katarin bit out. ‘Ordes isn’t here.’
Marsh sighed. ‘Search the ship,’ he commanded his men. ‘Bring anyone you find above deck.’ He turned back to Katarin. ‘And now we wait and see if you lie.’
She could do nothing except give Marsh the foulest glare she could muster while hoping those below didn’t fight.
The last of the crew were dragged above deck and forced to their knees by Marsh’s men.
Kat’s stomach twisted as Ulrian Tregarthen was hauled onto the deck.
He was blubbering and stuttering, clutching a book between his hands, eyes wide and rolling wildly as he was dragged towards the others.
Arthur managed to scramble to Ulrian’s side, earning a whack on the back of the head for his troubles.
‘What’s wrong with him?’ Marsh demanded, waving his dagger in Ulrian’s direction.
‘He’s not right,’ Katarin explained as Arthur did his best to shield his father. Ulrian was still shouting, a garbled mix of the Word and ‘don’t make me’ over and over. Katarin grit her teeth as Arthur was shoved out of the way and the blade of a dagger pressed against Ulrian’s throat.
He fell silent.
‘Better,’ Marsh said, striding over and planting himself in front of Ulrian. ‘Who are you anyway?’
‘Just someone we found,’ Arthur said. ‘Please, leave him alone.’
‘You’re Arthur?’ Marsh guessed. When Arthur nodded, the pirate threw back his head and laughed. ‘Gods, you’re not much more than a boy, still wet behind the ears.’ He turned to Katarin. ‘I didn’t take you for an idiot, Le Fey, but now… well, I don’t know what to think.’
‘Fuck off,’ Kat growled. Someone smacked her across the back of the head, forcing her to tumble face first onto the deck.
She heard her crew’s objections as she was grabbed by the back of her shirt and hauled upright again.
Marsh crouched in front of her, dagger between his hands.
She kept her gaze locked with his, her chin lifted.
‘How the tables have turned,’ Marsh murmured. He ran the tip of the dagger down Katarin’s cheek. ‘He said I wasn’t to touch the boy-king, but he didn’t say anything about you.’
‘You like your little toy there, don’t you, Marsh?
Compensating for something maybe? Men who play with toys always are,’ she whispered.
His eyes flashed with hatred before he resumed his smug expression and smiled, revealing perfect teeth.
The sight of them shocked Katarin. She’d never paid attention to Marsh’s teeth before.
The gleaming white in his otherwise nasty face was so odd she almost laughed.
The tip of Marsh’s dagger continued its journey over her chin, along her throat. She tipped her head back involuntarily, refusing to break eye contact with the pirate even as red-robed Witchfinders appeared behind him.
‘I see you’ve made some new friends,’ she said.
Marsh’s smile grew. ‘Come now, Le Fey. You don’t think I’d stoop that low, do you?’
One of Marsh’s men carried over a sword. Her eyes widened – the Sword of the White Dragon. The look Arthur was giving Marsh made her blood run cold. She had never seen Arthur that way – so furious, so… bereft. As Marsh’s man held out the sword for him, she understood.
The moment the captain touched the Treasure, Katarin could feel the magic of the sword respond to him. Arthur’s face had transformed into a thunderstorm of loathing.
‘Marsh,’ she said loudly. ‘You shouldn’t touch that.’
He ignored her, eyes gleaming as he closed his fingers around the hilt.
‘Marsh, don’t,’ Kat insisted. ‘It isn’t made for men.’
‘Yet your boy-king had it on him,’ Marsh commented.
Kat shook her head. ‘You don’t understand what—’
‘I think that’s enough words from you, Le Fey,’ Marsh said. His eyes remained on the sword. ‘Unless you care to open that poisonous mouth of yours and tell me where I can find who I came for.’
Kat shook her head.
‘Your cousin is most interested in him,’ Marsh said. ‘Mordred offered me a lot of coin to bring Tymis’ brat back to him.’
Katarin’s heart was racing. ‘Mordred sent you?’ She could do nothing but watch helplessly as Marsh buckled the Sword of the White Dragon to his hip.
‘He’s an interesting man, your cousin,’ Marsh mused. ‘I don’t care what his game is, or why he even wants Ordes. As long as he gives me what he promised me, he can do what he likes up there in those ruins of a castle.’
‘Marsh, listen to me—’
He struck her. Katarin’s head snapped around, the sound of the blow echoing across the deck. She met her brother’s horrified eyes before she spat a mouthful of blood at Marsh’s feet. ‘Ordes isn’t here. I told you that already.’
‘Where is he?’
‘I don’t know,’ Kat bit out.
Marsh sighed. ‘Pity,’ he said, his voice low, then, louder, ‘Put them in the hold. No food or water. We’ll see how long it takes for someone to tell me what I need to know.’
They were shoved below deck and locked in the hold, their hands bound in their laps. Arthur was with his father, who was ranting to himself, his voice getting louder and louder with each word.
‘She who speaks with a serpent’s tongue,’ Ulrian mumbled. ‘She made me kneel, she made me kneel, she made me… don’t take me to her, don’t take me to her, don’t…’ He repeated the words, getting louder and shriller each time.
‘Father,’ he murmured. ‘It’s going to be alright.’
Ulrian didn’t acknowledge Arthur had spoken, continuing to repeat those words. Katarin picked her way to her brother’s side.
‘Did he know?’ she demanded.
Arthur glanced up at her. ‘Who?’
‘Ordes. Did he know this was going to happen?’
‘He would have warned us, Kat,’ Arthur mumbled. ‘He’d never have gone if he knew this would happen, not even to—’ He broke off. Then, quiet, ‘He didn’t know.’
Katarin nodded, ashamed she had even asked, but Marsh and his men… this whole situation terrified her. Marsh had always been a brute, but now there was something in the man’s eyes that made Katarin’s blood run cold. And he’d taken Arthur’s sword.
Ulrian was still muttering under his breath. ‘She made me kneel, she made me kneel…’
Kat frowned. Those words… were familiar.
She had heard them before, but never from a man’s mouth.
Slowly, she dropped to her knees beside her brother, staring into Ulrian’s ruined face.
Before she lost her nerve, Katarin awkwardly yanked his trouser leg up over his knee, first one, then the other. Ulrian made no move to stop her.
Her stomach turned over at the sight of Ulrian’s horribly scarred knees, that nasty criss-crossing of puckered flesh.
The wounds had not been bathed or treated.
‘Common punishment, and not a punishment for those who disobeyed your father’s god.
Many of the women I rescued bore scars such as these.
They’d been made to kneel in broken glass by husbands and fathers and brothers too stupid to understand that all they were doing was cultivating a rage so deep nothing they ever did would extinguish it. ’
‘Lamorna…’ Arthur began.
‘Have you seen her knees, Arthur?’ Katarin asked sharply.
‘I might not like the little brat, but I know a woman who has suffered at the hands of men when I see one, and I saw it in her face in Cruithea. If she did do this, if she was the one who made him kneel, then Jenyfer’s little sister has more fire in her than I expected. ’
‘Maybe it was Mordred?’ Arthur asked, awkwardly fixing his father’s clothes.
‘This is a woman’s punishment, so this is a woman’s revenge,’ Katarin said. ‘Lamorna did this, I am sure of it, and before you say anything, I don’t blame her for it.’
‘Neither do I,’ Arthur said. ‘I’m not under any delusions about what my father is, or was, Kat. I know what he’s done.’
Ulrian leant forward, as if trying to get a closer look at Katarin, and the madness fled his face for a moment. Kat lifted her chin and did not move away from him, even as every muscle in her body screamed in protest.
‘Morgaine?’ Ulrian’s voice was a cracked whisper.
Katarin forgot how to breathe. ‘You remember, do you?’
To her utter astonishment, Ulrian’s eyes flooded with tears. ‘I wanted to save her.’ He reached for her. Kat started violently and scrambled to her feet. Ulrian’s face filled with wonder and regret. She stormed away to plonk herself down next to Kayrus, never taking her eyes off Ulrian.
He sat back again and closed his eyes. ‘I wanted to save her,’ he repeated, and didn’t say another word.