Treason Keep

glanced at Tamylan who was standing by the other horses. The day’s rest had done her good, but she was still stiff and sore. She held the reins, standing close to the horses for warmth, her whole body listening for danger.

Perhaps I should ask Tam what she thinks?

Adrina knew that if asked for, Tamylan’s opinion would be as honest as it was tactless.

I should do something for her when we get home. Free her, maybe, and gift her with some property. Enough that she need never work again. She really has been a tower of strength through all of this. I wonder what I ever did to deserve such loyalty?

Not much, that Adrina could recall.

How did I ever come to this? she wondered. I am standing here in the dead of the night, freezing to death, a bare fifty paces from a camp full of Defenders, in the middle of nowhere and the only people I can count as my friends are a slave, a man wanted for murder and an enemy warlord.

Which brought her back to wondering about Damin.

She was determined not to believe what Tarja told her, but when they had sneaked away into the darkness Damin had slipped back to kiss her goodbye. It was, short, hard and passionate. Not the kiss of a lover, but the kiss of a daredevil stealing a moment of pleasure in the midst of danger.

He wasn’t in love with anyone but himself.

All thoughts of Damin Wolfblade’s failings were suddenly forgotten as a high-pitched, agonised scream split the night. The horses reared at the sound, almost jerking Adrina’s arm out of its socket. She and Tamylan struggled to keep the beasts under control as all hell broke loose in the Defenders’ camp.

Torches flared brightly as the camp was roused, the sound of shouting, of orders issued then countermanded, overlaid the screams that tore into Adrina’s soul.

The screams were female. Whoever it was, she sounded like she was dying.

“Mount up, Tam!” she whispered urgently. When Damin and the others made it out of the camp, every second would count. The shouting grew closer and the torches were so near that she could see the flames clearly, although the fold of the land still concealed their bearers. Tam scrambled into the saddle of the nearest horse, but dropped the reins of the other two. With a curse, Adrina kicked her mount forward and leaned down to reach for the reins of the nearest beast.

“Go! Get out of here! Now!”

She turned toward the shout and discovered Damin, Almodavar and one of the Raiders barrelling down the small slope behind them. On their heels were so many Defenders she could not begin to count them. She froze for a moment, torn between escape and assuring herself that Damin would win free of his pursuers.

“Run!” Damin screamed, seeing her hesitation.

The slope was swarming with Defenders now. Torches dotted their ranks, lighting their red coats in scattered patches along the ridge like drops of hot blood. Tam gave up trying to catch the other horse and looked to her mistress desperately.

“Adrina! Let’s go!”

She wavered for another instant. Long enough to see first Almodavar and then the Raider, overcome by the Defenders. But Damin still ran free.

Turning her horse savagely, she galloped toward him. Tam’s desperate cry of protest was drowned out by the shouts of the Defenders and the tortured screams that tore relentlessly through the darkness. The gap between them narrowed as the distance between Damin and the Defenders closed even faster.

The arrow, when it hit her in the shoulder, took her completely by surprise. She toppled from the saddle just as Damin reached her and that was only seconds before the Defenders overcame them both.

She had time to notice that the screams had stopped, just before she fainted.

When Adrina came to she was in a tent, which was bare of anything but the centre pole supporting the roof. She realised there was another body that lay groaning softly on the other side of the tent. She rolled over and cried out in pain. Her shoulder ached abominably and her fingers came away sticky with blood when she gently probed the source of her agony.

She tried to recall what had happened, but the details were sketchy. She remembered trying to help Damin. And the screams. Gods, she would never forget the screams. Something had hit her and she had fallen. Had Damin won free? She seemed to recall seeing his face, his eyes full of anger. Why had he been angry? Because she had tried to come to his rescue? Typical.

And what in the name of the gods had happened to Tam? Her last sight of the slave was her desperately calling Adrina back. Had she been captured too? Why wasn’t she here? The fate of a female slave in a Fardohnyan war camp was a foregone conclusion, but the Defenders were better disciplined. The Sisterhood who ruled them would not countenance such behaviour. Tamylan’s absence meant she had escaped – or she was dead. Adrina prayed it was the former. She feared it was the latter.

The body groaned again and Adrina stopped thinking of her own troubles long enough to wonder who it was. She sat up carefully and moved across the small gap separating them on her knees. Her companion was a young woman with short-cropped red hair wearing dark, close-fitting leathers and a silver collar smeared with dried blood.

“R’shiel?”

It couldn’t really be anyone else, but she was hardly what Adrina had envisioned. The girl was younger than she expected, and in her present condition she was far from the matchless beauty Damin had described.

What did one say to the fabled Harshini demon child?

“I’m Adrina,” she said, unable to think of anything else.

R’shiel stared at her uncomprehendingly.

“We have a mutual friend,” she added inanely. “Tarja Tenragan.”

I sound like Lady Chastity.

The demon child blinked at the mention of Tarja’s name, but that was the only reaction Adrina could get from her.

“R’shiel?”

She shook her shoulder, gently at first, and then quite roughly when that had no effect. Although R’shiel’s eyes were open, there was no light of comprehension in them. Adrina shrugged and immediately regretted it. Her shoulder was pounding and there was no point speaking to someone who was so obviously not listening. Brak had said something about that. Something about R’shiel retreating so far into herself that she was almost comatose.

“Well, I hope you don’t stay away for too much longer,” she told R’shiel irritably. “Right now the only thing that’s going to save either of us is a bloody miracle, so if you don’t mind, get over whatever it is that’s upsetting you girl, and come to your senses. There are people here who need you.”

Her reprimand delivered, Adrina sat back on her heels and waited for them to come for her.

Chapter 64

There are people here who need you.

The words filtered down through R’shiel’s pain. She did not know who had voiced them, but they echoed through the emptiness like a reproach.

I warned you, demon child. If you will not come to me through love, you will come to me through fear. The end result is the same.

The memory of the pain was too fresh for R’shiel to deny Xaphista’s claim. But if she could not face him, she could run from him.

There are people here who need you.

R’shiel clung to the thought, clawing her way back to sanity with every scrap of her remaining strength.

She blinked suddenly and looked around. Canvas walls surrounded her and the ground where she lay was