“Why should you? I've been a Defender for as long as you've known me.”
“Then you've known all along who I really was?”
He shook his head. “You were born long after I left Haven. But I knew your mother, J'nel. And B'thrim, her sister.”
“What were they like?”
He smiled, partly in remembrance, and partly because of the expression on R'shiel's face. For all her deeds, for all her awesome power, there was still a part of the child she had been lurking deep inside her, desperate for reassurance.
“B'thrim I remember as being a rather large, over-protective woman who would chase us with a skinning knife if ever she caught us robbing her traps in the woods. J'nel was the complete opposite. She was small and fragile and wild. We used to call her the Snow Child. She was never happier than when she was lost in the woods. As a boy, I was part of more than one search party sent to find her. She was the sort of person who could coax wild rabbits to sit on her lap. I never knew anyone like her. It doesn't surprise me in the least that she caught the eye of a Harshini King.”
R'shiel closed her eyes for a moment and he exchanged a look with Brak.
“When did you leave Haven?” Brak asked.
“I was fourteen. The life of a woodcutter didn't particularly appeal to me so I ran away to Testra. That's when I discovered that knowing how to live off the land in no way prepared one for living in a city. I was caught stealing food by a Defender lieutenant. He gave me the choice to join up or be sent to the Grimfield. So I joined the Defenders. The lieutenant put in a good word for me and I was accepted into the Cadets. I've not been back to Haven since.”
“You were lucky to meet someone so generous,” Brak remarked.
Garet nodded. “I was. And I still owe him. His name was Palin Jenga.”
R'shiel's eyes opened wide. “Then you have a debt to pay, as well as vengeance to seek.”
He nodded. “Which is why I insist on both my demands being met. I don't intend to let your hidden agenda ruin mine. I will never have another chance at this. Do we have a deal?”
R'shiel glanced up at Brak who was standing behind her. The Harshini nodded slightly and she turned back to him.
“Yes, Garet. We have a deal.”
CHAPTER 37
Garet Warner arranged a meeting with those officers who were with him in his desire to overthrow both the Kariens and the Sisters of the Blade. R'shiel was surprised when she saw them. There were quite a few familiar faces - classmates of Tarja's and other senior officers who she would never have expected to harbour such treasonous ambitions. She was certain every Defender in the Citadel wanted to be free of Karien occupation, but it was a little disturbing to learn how many of these men were willing to destroy the Sisterhood.
They met in a room at the back of the Grey Widow Inn in Tavern Street, slipping in one at a time to avoid raising the suspicions of the Karien soldiers who now frequented the place. The windows were covered against the night with shabby woven curtains and the lanterns that flickered in their yellow glass flutes gave the room an air of conspiracy. When they were finally assembled, Garet locked the door and turned to face them. There were fifteen Defenders present, every one of them an officer and not one ranked below captain. Brak and R'shiel were the only civilians.
“I'm not going to bother with introductions,” he began. “If you don't know each other's names, then it's probably better that it stays that way. The only people who need introduction are these two. Most of you know R'shiel. Her friend is called Brak.”
“Can we trust them?” an officer asked, one R'shiel did not know.
“They wouldn't be here otherwise.”
The Defender nodded and made no further comment.
“I take it this meeting means that we've decided to make our move,” another man remarked.
Garet nodded. “We begin at dawn on Restday.”
“That doesn't give us much time,” someone else pointed out. R'shiel knew the voice, but could not put a face to it.
“That's the whole point,” Garet replied. “Once we leave this room tonight, we will have to take others into our confidence. Every additional person who learns of this plot increases our chances of discovery. The less time between now and when we strike the better.”
“I know we've discussed this before,” a young man near the back of the room commented, “but even if we can take the Citadel, that still leaves the Karien army camped outside our gates.”
“And there's the priests to contend with, too,” his companion added with concern. “I don't believe in their tales of magic, but I was on the northern border when their army attacked. I know what I saw there.”
“Take them hostage,” R'shiel suggested.
They all looked at her in surprise, including Brak.
“If you plan it right,” she continued, “once you take the Citadel you'll have every duke in Karien as a hostage and their priests with them. If you can't negotiate a settlement with Jasnoff, using his entire Council of Dukes as your bargaining chip, you're not going to do it with anything else. It's quite simple, really. You kill them one at a time until he gives in. Start with the priests and work your way up. You shouldn't have to dispose of too many before King Jasnoff gets the message.”
Brak grabbed her by the arm and pulled her close so only she could hear him. “What in the gods' name are you up to now?” he hissed in her ear.
“Trust me, Brak.” She pulled free of his grasp and rubbed her arm.
“Not this time, R'shiel. I won't stand by while you slaughter innocent men just so you can get even with your mother.”
She let out an impatient, exasperated sigh. Why did he always assume the worst about her? “I'd hardly call the Karien dukes and their priests innocent. Besides, we're not really going to destroy anyone, Brak; we're just going to threaten it. We're just giving them a reason to go home.”
Brak's faded eyes were burning with suspicion, but he had no chance to question her further.
“You don't seriously expect us to kill hostages in cold blood?” The man who spoke was Rylan, the Citadel's Master of Horse. R'shiel had known him since she was a small child. “That's not the way we do things in the Defenders.”
“You coped well enough murdering your own people during the Purge, Commandant,” she replied. “I should think a few enemy heads posted over the main gate would make a nice change.”
The room exploded in a rush of objection. Garet glared at her angrily. “You're treading on very thin ice, R'shiel.”
“I'm merely stating facts, Garet. The Defenders have much to atone for.”
“The biggest mistake we made was not ensuring we had completely eradicated the Harshini,” someone called out pointedly.
R'shiel turned on the officer who had spoken. “You'll make an even bigger mistake if you think you can do this and remain on your high moral ground. Look at you! Hiding in the back room of a tavern, plotting the overthrow of your government while you profess to abhor unnecessary bloodshed. Your precious Defender's honour didn't stop Mahina being killed. It hasn't stopped the Kariens taking control of Medalon and it won't help you get it back. You're fighting fanatics, Captain, not men who think like you do. If you expect to win, you have to play by their rules, not hope they'll play by yours.”
Garet glanced at Brak warningly. “Shut her up, or leave.”
Brak stepped up behind R'shiel and placed a strong, restraining hand on her shoulder. “You aren't helping, R'shiel.”
