“Oh!” Barrowhill said, looking up from her work. “Damn, that’s too bad.”
Something in the way she said it caused them all to turn and look at her.
“What do you mean?” Karn said.
“I mean that I’m serious,” Barrowhill said. “They are on their way to the queen in the north.”
“You sent Harper and Mother to the witch in the north?” Robert practically shouted.
Hal put his hand on his brother’s arm and shook his head.
Karn’s hand crept to his amulet. “Explain yourself,” he said in a flat, deadly voice.
“There’s this other part of the plan that I didn’t go over yet,” the smuggler said. “While the thanes and your spoiled boy king dither over who gets what manor house and title, the empress is on the march. I need things to move a little faster.”
“Go on,” Karn said, a muscle working in his jaw.
“You see, I have family in every port on the east coast,” said Barrowhill. “The empress has already taken Chalk Cliffs, and Spiritgate will be under attack before long. If you think she’ll stay north of the border, I have some genuine clan-made goods to sell you. My family depends on the sea for a living.”
“So,” Karn said. “You betrayed us. And probably collected a pretty price from the queen for doing it.”
“Betrayed is such a negative word,” Barrowhill said. “I think we’re all agreed on the final goal. I just want to move things along a little faster.”
“I see,” Karn said. “And what’s this final goal? Barrowhill makes a fortune? I don’t remember signing on to that.”
Barrowhill shook her head, looking a little hurt. “We all want to send the empress Celestine back east. That’s what we agree on. When word reaches King Jarat that Spiritgate is under attack, he’ll wake up to the danger. But if the thanes have their way, he’ll be dead by then.”
Karn took a step toward her. “Tell me where they are, or you’ll wish you had.”
Barrowhill’s dagger came up so quickly that he took a step back again.
“You haven’t even heard my plan yet,” Barrowhill said. “I promise, it’s a good one. Kill me, and you’ll never hear it. Anyway, they’ve already set sail by now.”
“Southgate, then,” Karn said, with a brisk nod. “That’s the only port close enough. It might be that we can—”
Hal began to laugh, which seemed totally wrong, but once he started, he couldn’t stop. They all looked at him as if he’d gone mad.
“Forgive me,” he said, swiping at his eyes. “It’s just so refreshing to see Lieutenant Karn swigging the same bitter medicine he dishes out.”
“Captain Matelon,” Barrowhill said. “I know you have no reason to trust me, and many reasons not to, but I hope you’ll believe me when I say that the families will be perfectly safe—from the northerners, anyway. I’ve heard from my sources that you’ve been a guest in the north. Were you well treated?”
“Yes,” Hal said cautiously, wondering why a smuggler would know that.
“And you also had some experience with the empress? You were in Chalk Cliffs when it was attacked?”
“Yes.”
“As soon as you came home, you tried to convince your father to let you take an army north to aid them against the empress.”
“Who told you that?”
Barrowhill pulled out an apple and took a bite. “I talk to everyone,” she said, chewing. “I have a plan that will give you an army sooner rather than later. But you might not like some parts of it.”
“I cannot wait to hear it,” Karn said, rolling his eyes.
Barrowhill went down on one knee, spreading her arms wide. “Matelon,” she said. “How would you like to be king?”
49TIES THAT BIND
Leaving his mother under the care of Ty Gryphon and Magret Gray, Ash met with Sasha Talbot and Captain Byrne in the sitting room of the queen’s chambers.
Talbot was visibly nervous, but determined and seemingly well prepared.
“Hear me out,” she said. “As you know, Captain Byrne, I’ve been researching queens and their bound captains in the temple library. I’ve asked you some questions, too. From what I’ve seen and read and heard, having a bound captain now would make Lyss safer, and I’m for anything that would do that.”
She stopped, as if waiting for questions or arguments, but Byrne only nodded. “Go on,” he said.
Once started, it turned into a landslide of words. “I may be getting above myself, but I’ve spent the last three years of my life by Lyss’s side, and I—I don’t think there’s anyone more devoted to her. I know her as well as anyone, and if I could trade my life for hers right now I would do it.
“I know the captain of the Gray Wolves has always been a Byrne, at least for a thousand years, and you might think I shouldn’t be angling for the job, but I have to speak my mind. Simon’s gone, and I’m here.
“Long story short, I’m asking to be named Princess Alyssa’s bound captain. Now, rather than later.” She stood there, then, her fist on her heart, back straight, jaw clenched, as if waiting to be turned down.
Byrne didn’t turn her down. He’d gazed at her, his eyes narrowed, rubbing his chin. Then he glanced at Ash and simply said, “Let’s talk about it in private, Corporal Talbot. I want you to know what you’d be signing on for.”
They must have come to an understanding, because, just two days later, Ash was called to participate in a binding ceremony.
The ceremony took place in the small temple within the queen’s rooftop garden, accessible by secret stairs from the queen’s bedchamber, and by others from the family wing of the palace.
When moonlight flooded through the glass, the handful of celebrants cast long shadows on the stone floor. But Hanalea breathed, as the saying went. The wind from the Spirit Mountains rattled the walls and drove shards of cloud across the night sky, obscuring, and then revealing, the eagle moon.
Ash wore his father’s robes, the Waterlow ravens over top. Sasha Talbot was barefoot, dressed in a
