neck. But anger wouldn’t help. She had to calm the dwarf, placate her as much as possible. Somehow, she had to get out of this prison, and an angry Ossa would make that impossible.
“I don’t know,” she said.
“I don’t believe you!” Ossa seized a bar and thrust her face right up to it. “You’ve been with him since Vathirond.”
“We parted company more than two weeks ago. He was captured, and his captors took him away. He could be anywhere.”
“Who captured him? The Thuranni? Everyone else is dead.”
“Everyone else?” There had been another one, a Tharashk bounty hunter with Ossa in Stormhome.
“Does that surprise you? You heard he killed a Sentinel Marshal. And I would have thought you knew he killed Bordan. Bordan was a good man.”
“Bordan? We saw Bordan in Stormhome. Gaven fled, and I got the airship.”
“Bordan outpaced me in following Gaven. I found him dead on the beach, then saw your airship pass overhead, on your way to pick him up.”
Bordan dead on the beach? Why wouldn’t Gaven have told her?
Ossa sneered. “That troubles you? What did you expect, traveling with a fugitive? I told you in Vathirond he was dangerous.”
“You don’t know him.” Rienne thought she did, after all this time. But he hadn’t told her about Bordan.
“Of course,” Ossa continued, “in Vathirond I had no idea how dangerous he was. He was involved with Starcrag Plain, wasn’t he? Shall I add those dead thousands to the list of his crimes?”
“What? No-he prevented the death of thousands more. He closed the chasm where the spawn of Khyber were spilling out. Without him, the monsters would have overwhelmed-”
“He tried to clean up his mistake, then? Closed off the passage he opened?”
“He didn’t open it!”
“What might have been merely a clash of two armies became a bloodbath. And witnesses say the chasm opened about the time a certain airship appeared at the scene.”
“A clash of two armies with dragons on both sides! It was the Prophecy-”
“Don’t insult my intelligence. He’ll answer to that charge as well, when we recapture him. Now where is he? Who captured him, if that part of your story is true?”
This interview was not going the way Rienne had hoped it would. Ossa was no less belligerent-more so, if anything. She had to go back to being helpful. “It wasn’t a Thuranni that captured him. It was a dragon.”
“A dragon.” It was a challenge, not a question.
“In Argonnessen.”
“So that’s where you’ve been hiding all this time.” Ossa clearly didn’t believe a word, and the dwarves standing behind her shared a laugh.
“That’s right. We sailed to Argonnessen then walked into the interior. We found a city there, and that’s where Gaven was captured.”
“So Argonnessen has cities now? My dear Lady Alastra, it seems your lover’s madness has warped your own sense of reality.”
The truth wasn’t working, Rienne saw. It was time for a well-crafted lie.
Rienne choked back a cry of despair and fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands. “Oh, why am I still trying to protect him?” she wailed.
“It will go better for you if you don’t,” Ossa observed. Rienne could hear the hope in her voice. The dwarf thought she’d broken Rienne at last.
“He left me,” Rienne sobbed. “He went back to that elf trollop.” That was a risky lie, she realized. Senya had escaped the Starcrag Plain with Haldren-if she’d been captured and Ossa knew about it, her story would collapse.
“Where?” Either Ossa believed her, or she was trying to trap Rienne in her lie.
“Stormhome.” She and Gaven might have been seen together there, before boarding Jordhan’s ship.
“Where did they go from there?”
“I don’t know. They took a ship-I think they persuaded or forced some Lyrandar captain to take them off somewhere.” If she could make Ossa believe that Gaven had left Khorvaire, moved beyond House Kundarak’s reach…
“And where have you been all this time?”
“I stayed in Stormhome.”
“Have you seen your family? Gaven’s brother?”
Ossa would have had both her family’s estate and Thordren’s house watched. “No. I lay low, mostly kept to the wharves.”
Rienne risked a glance at the dwarf. Ossa had passed the lantern to one of the dwarves behind her, shrouding her face in darkness, and she rubbed her temples with two thick fingers.
“Look at yourself,” Ossa said at last. “I don’t know whether to hate you or pity you. You wasted your youth following Gaven around. He went mad and ended up in the care of my House, and what? You tried to settle into a normal life, but you never stopped pining for him, did you?” Her voice dripped with scorn. “He escaped and you ran to him, ready to start following him again. And then he runs off with the elf trollop instead of you.”
Rienne felt a weight in her chest. She had to remind herself that Ossa’s words weren’t true-Gaven hadn’t gone off with Senya again.
“I can’t punish you any worse than you’ve already punished yourself,” the dwarf added. “Go ahead and live your pathetic life.”
Rienne swallowed hard as Ossa turned and led her silent dwarves back the way they had come. Ossa’s words weren’t true-at least not the last part. But the rest still stung.
Morning brought another meal, and another one in the mid-afternoon. The guards shrugged off her questions, and then another night fell. Two more days crawled past. Exhaustion finally allowed her to sleep on the hard cot. When her stomach told her it was time for the afternoon meal on the fourth day, she watched as footsteps approached the corner of the hall. Padar emerged around the corner, turned and told someone else to wait, out of sight, and then approached her cell.
“Good afternoon, Lady Alastra,” he said. “I am sorry that your stay here has stretched on so long.”
“You brought a scribe?” Rienne’s eyes darted back down the hall, eager to see the means of her deliverance.
“The situation has proven much more complicated than I had any reason to expect. Not exactly a routine case of missing traveling papers. Your family’s ties to House Lyrandar initially made our government reluctant to touch your case.” He referred to a sheaf of papers in his hand-an increasingly irritating habit. “But then we learned you’ve been connected to an excoriate who also happens to be a fugitive from Dreadhold. So House Lyrandar wants nothing to do with you.”
Rienne’s hands went cold on the iron bars.
Padar swallowed and continued. “House Kundarak, as you know, involved itself. But they decided to lay no claim on you, and the other Houses have followed their lead. That accounts for the delay. In fact, I’m somewhat amazed that we received responses from all the Houses so quickly.”
“So what now?” Rienne asked. Her voice sounded more desperate than she intended.
“Now, in the end, your case turns out to be a routine matter of missing traveling papers after all.” Padar smiled weakly. “I did indeed bring a scribe from House Sivis to complete your traveling papers. He is waiting downstairs.”
Relief washed over her and she sank down on her cot. “Thank you,” she breathed.
“In addition, it appears that you still have at least one friend in House Lyrandar.” Padar turned and called down the hall, “You may approach now.”
Rienne stood again, went to the bars, and looked down the hall. A young guard appeared around the corner first, a halberd in one hand and a heavy ring of keys in the other. Another man followed, a broad smile lighting his weathered face.
“Jordhan!” Rienne laughed with raw delight. Only Gaven’s face could have been a more welcome sight. “You’re back!”
