Treason Keep

“Probably, but it’s preferable to the alternative. Did you pack any of my clothes from home?”

“I packed every stitch you own,” she grumbled unhappily.

“Good. Find us something to wear that would pass as a court’esa’s costume. The more bare flesh the better. Once we reach the border, we’ll need to look the part if we are stopped by the Hythrun.”

“And if the Defenders stop us?”

“Then we shall distract them with our feminine wiles,” she said impatiently. “Men are men, Tam. Oh! Make sure you pack my jewellery, too. I’m not leaving it so Cretin can sell it to finance his damned war.”

“How do you intend to get out of here?”

“I’ll wear your clothes and leave the tent on an urgent errand for the princess before the guard changes,” she said. “Once the new guards are on duty, you do the same, making sure they have instructions not to disturb me. We’ll meet Filip and Mikel on the edge of the camp.”

“Do we have to take the boy?”

“I need him to get a message to Filip and he’s been in the Defenders’ camp. We can leave him once we find a boat on the Glass River.”

Tam still looked miserable, but Adrina thought her grief was still too raw for her to object much. She wanted out of here as much as Adrina did.

“We’ll never pass as court’esa, your Highness. Even if you could act humble enough to convince anybody you weren’t a princess born and bred. We have no collars. The Defenders might accept the ruse, but no Hythrun would.”

“We have collars,” she said. “Fetch my jewellery box.”

Tam did as she asked and watched curiously as Adrina unlocked the small, beautifully carved chest. She lifted out the top tray, ignoring the wealth that lay scattered on its velvet surface and reached into the bottom. She lifted out two exquisitely worked necklets, one silver, the other gold. Both were in the shape of snarling wolves, with emerald-set eyes and a fiery line of rubies tracing their twisted spines.

“Where did you get these?” Tam breathed in astonishment.

“In Hythria. You remember when I visited Greenharbour? High Prince Lernen attended a slave auction while we were there and invited me along for the sport. It was an awful day. He spent the whole time complaining about the poor quality of Hythrun slaves these days, not even bidding on them, when two of the most beautiful young men I have ever seen were brought to the block. They were identical twins, not more than fifteen, I suppose. Lernen took one look at them and just had to own them. He paid a fortune for them – said he wanted to make a gift of them to someone, probably his nephew.

“But I knew he planned to taste the fruit before he shared it around. Gods, but the Wolfblades are a degenerate lot.

“Anyway, Lernen insisted they ride back to the palace with us in his carriage. He couldn’t take his eyes off them. As we were climbing out of the carriage back at the palace, one of the boys grabbed my sleeve and begged me for help. They looked innocent enough, but they knew what was in store for them.” Adrina hesitated for a moment, not at all certain she wanted to relate the rest of the tale.

“What did you do?” Tam asked.

“I gave him my knife.”

“Gods! Did Lernen find out?”

Adrina shook her head. “I saw them later that night at dinner, all powdered and primped and ripe for the plucking. They were wearing these collars – and not much else – and Lernen was crowing over them like a child with a couple of new dolls to play with. The next morning they found the boys dead in Lernen’s bed. They slit their wrists and bled to death beside him while he slept.”

“That’s dreadful! Adrina, why didn’t you tell me about this before? If the Hythrun realised it was your knife the boys took to Lernen’s bed, you could have been hanged.”

“I thought of that. I claimed I lost it before dinner.”

“But how did you get the collars?”

“Lernen gave them to me. Once he’d stopped screaming and they’d cleaned the blood off him, he sent for me. I found him sitting in his private courtyard just staring at the collars. They were laying there on the edge of the fountain, still stained with the blood of the boys. Lernen asked me to get rid of them. Told me he never wanted to see them again. I’m not sure why I’ve kept them. Maybe to remind me why I agree with father when he says Hythria should be invaded and the Wolfblade line destroyed.”

“What about his nephew? What was his reaction?”

“I’ve no idea,” she shrugged, fingering the gold collar idly. “I never met him. He probably wasn’t sober enough in the entire month I was there to present himself to me. I was never so glad to leave a place as I was when I left Greenharbour. Until now. Leaving here is going to feel even better.”

Tam picked up the open silver collar and studied it thoughtfully. “Where are the keys?”

“I don’t have them. Once we put them on they’ll have to stay there until we get home and can have them cut off. If I can put up with it, so can you, Tam. I’d happily cross Medalon in chains if it means I never have to lay eyes on Cretin again.”

As if to prove her point she slipped the collar around her neck and heard it faintly snick closed, as the wolf swallowed its tail. The gold was cold against her skin, the sensation odd. She had never wondered if court’esa objected to being collared. They were always such beautiful works of art. The more elaborate and expensive the collar, the more the court’esa was worth. Tam had been born and bred a slave and her reluctance seemed a little strange. Perhaps being nominally free since arriving in Karien had sparked a little rebellion in her. “Put it on, Tam. We’re running out of time.”

By the time Mikel returned, Adrina had written a short note to Filip and packed everything she planned to take with her. Considering the style to which she was accustomed to travelling, it was a pitiful bundle, but it contained her riding habit, her jewels and the small, sharp Bride’s Blade. She sent the boy on his way with the note and changed into the costume Tam had selected. It had a thin silver bodice and a split emerald green skirt. It left her midriff bare and pimpled with gooseflesh in the chilly air. Over that she pulled on Tamylan’s high-necked grey woollen tunic, and then Tam’s serviceable woollen cloak. The rest of her belongings she wrapped in the linen bag Tam used to take her laundry to the camp washerwomen. Tam was still dressing when she left the tent with the hood of her cloak pulled up to shadow her face. She hurried past the guards, who barely glanced at her. They had orders to stop the Princess Adrina leaving. Nobody had mentioned a servant hurrying off with her mistress’ laundry.

It was dark by the time she worked her way through the camp to rendezvous with Filip. It had been the most nerve-racking hour of her life as she stumbled over the uneven ground, around groups of soldiers, too bloodied and exhausted to challenge her right to be there. By the time she slipped away from the edge of the camp into the small copse of trees where Filip should be waiting, she was afraid she was going to be sick. Fear was not an emotion Adrina had much experience with, and she prayed fervently to whatever god might be listening that she would not experience it again for a long, long time.

“Your Highness?” Filip’s voice was a questioning whisper. She followed the sound and was relived to find Mikel waiting with the young Lanceman, his eyes burning with the excitement of his adventure.

“You’ve done well, Lanceman,” she said as she made out the three dark shadows picking at the sparse dry grass between the trees. “Mikel, go and keep an eye out for Tam.” The boy dutifully scurried off and left her alone with Filip.

“You are leaving, your Highness?” Filip asked as he led the horses forward. It was hard to tell from his tone whether he approved of the idea or not.

“I’ll not be a party to this monstrous slaughter any longer,” she told him. “Fardohnya has shed enough blood to satisfy the Kariens.”

“And what of the Guard, your Highness? When the Kariens discover you are missing...” He did not need to finish the sentence. She knew their fate as well as he did.

“I want you to cross the border tonight. Take every Fardohnyan in the camp with you who is still breathing. If they can’t ride, tie them to their saddles. When you reach Medalon, surrender to the Defenders.”

“Surrender?” Filip sounded horrified, but it was hard to make out his expression in the darkness.