The figure in white barely gained its footing before Solomon charged, plowing into it as fast and hard as he was able. The thing lost its footing, stumbling and reeling, the whistling cutting through the air again. Solomon kept pushing, not giving it a chance to catch its balance, until they both tumbled from the back of the wagon and down the steps.
The fall took the breath from Solomon, but he rolled over, moving away from the thing, and staggered to his feet. He drew his sword as the thing in white surged upright and came for him.
Solomon jumped back, barely escaping a vicious swing aimed at his head. He stepped inside the blow, his sword moving to cut at its chest. The masked figure didn’t even bother to block. Solomon’s sword tip sliced through the white outfit, parting it, but no blood flowed from the wound. The figure did send up another whistle and back away, however.
“Ah, you can be hurt,” Solomon said, smiling at his opponent. “That’s good to know.”
He advanced again, his sword moving in a blur. The masked figure used its arms to block the blows, but each time, Solomon’s sword bit like an axe going into a thick log, and each time a whistle of pain exploded from the thing.
Finally, it had enough and turned tail and ran. It loped off into the dawn’s light, moving rapidly. Moments later, it was gone from sight, and Solomon lowered his sword, panting.
“What was that?” he asked Gan-Rowe when the elder Mar-trollid approached.
“I don’t know,” Gan-Rowe said. “Something I’ve never seen before.”
“Which way was it heading when it ran off?” Solomon knew the answer even as he asked the question.
“Toward Dunfield, I’m afraid.”
“Thought so. I think I might have to skip that breakfast,” Solomon said.
Chapter 16
“Then now is not the time, after all.” Lord Childress closed his eyes, absorbing the news that Jocasta had just given him.
“Or is it?” Darius said.
Childress’s eyes snapped open and he sat forward. “What are you talking about? Who are you anyway?”
“I’ve told you,” Jocasta said. “This is Darius. He’s my aide and as such needs to be privy to what’s going on.”
Childress continued to eye the other man with obvious disdain. “A mere commoner, apparently. What exactly qualifies him to be your aide? And please don’t tell me there’s truth to those salacious rumors floating around.”
Ah, so there was something that could get under the old man’s skin after all. “Whether there is or not is no concern of yours, or anyone else’s.” There, let him chew on that one for a while. “As for what qualifies him, I do. And that’s the end of it.”
Childress scowled and sat back in his chair.
“And what I’m talking about,” Darius said, “is that maybe now is the perfect time to move.”
“You would move against House Glittering Birch without the support of Solomon and Towering Oaks? You know they won’t commit to such an act without him around. And the other Houses won’t support us without them.”
“No,” Darius said, “I’m certain you’re right. Or you would be. If we were to move against Glittering Birch.”
He glanced at Jocasta, who inclined her head, giving him permission to continue.
“Glittering Birch is on the way out anyway, if what you’ve told us is true.”
Jocasta watched Childress’s reaction to Darius’s use of the word “we”. Childress had told Jocasta, and Jocasta only, about Jamshir’s bizarre actions and Bragnold’s ineffectiveness. This was news to him that she had shared that information.
The old man was an expert at these games, though. His face revealed no reaction whatsoever.
“Do you doubt me?” he asked, his question directed at her.
“No, not at all.” That was nothing more than truth. She never doubted that what he told her was real, she simply doubted that he told her everything he knew.
“Then what is it that we’re talking about?”
Darius opened his mouth to speak, and Childress rounded on him. “Not you, boy. If this is heading where I think it is, I want it from her.”
For a moment, Darius looked as if he were about to argue, but then shut his mouth and turned away from the old man’s glare.
Childress turned back to her.
“The time isn’t right to strike at Glittering Birch, that’s true.” Jocasta stood and walked to a window that looked out over the carefully tended gardens of House Whispering Pines. “But it might be the perfect time to strike Towering Oaks.”
He was laughing before she even turned around.
“If this is what passes for advice from your new ‘aide’ than I’m afraid you’ve sorely misjudged his usefulness. And if you’re taking it seriously, perhaps I’ve done the same with you.”
He climbed to his feet. His laughter stopped but his eyes never left hers. “You need to think more with your head, dear. Towering Oaks may be bereft of Solomon at the moment, but he will return. Probably right in the middle of any action against them, as he is wont to do. And do you think them helpless, merely because he is not there? I think not. And one more point to consider. We have no one inside there. We have no information about them other than what you’ve been told.”
He turned and began to leave the room, ignoring Darius.
“There’s a way,” Jocasta said, stopping him in his tracks. “We use Glittering Birch. Let them attack, while we ‘support.’ With Towering Oaks already depleted, the two Houses will destroy each other, or near enough. Even if Solomon does come back, what can one man do? Then we’ll remove Jamshir and his House, and no one will thwart us.”
Childress slowly turned. “You would align us with the House that nearly destroyed us as well? That
