“Did he give you a name?” Relam asked, thinking that he would have to see about a promotion for this guard.
“No,” Narin said. “But his face was familiar. Maybe I’d seen him around the palace before, but I can’t imagine why.”
“Do you remember my servant, Aven?” Relam asked. “Was it him?”
Narin threw back his head and laughed. “Yes, it was! I’d nearly forgotten about him. Good thing you got him into the guard, your highness. Helped me out of real trouble last night. Instead, I was able to surprise the other guards and beat them with my cuffs. I knocked Aven over, didn’t really want to bash the kid too, then ran for it and let the city swallow me up.”
“And then you came back here,” Relam guessed.
“No,” Narin said shaking his head. “So don’t interrupt, because there’s still more. I didn’t dare come back here straight away. If I led the guard to Oreius’ place, there would have been all kinds of trouble and I would have had to find a new hideout at the very least.”
“You could also have ended up back in the execution room,” Oreius grunted, sniffing at the soup. “Not quite done yet” he reported, glancing at the others.
“Anyway,” Narin continued, glaring at Oreius, “I moved around the city over the weekend, never staying in one place too long lest I be discovered. And it’s a good thing, too. Oreius told me when I got back-”
“That the city guard was going door to door and searching the area,” Oreius finished.
Relam winced. “That’s not good.”
“No,” Narin agreed. “It’s not. If word of this reaches your father, we’re all in trouble.”
“What are the odds that the news reaches him?” Relam asked.
“I would say extremely good,” Narin said, frowning. “I’m not sure what to do about it though.”
“Lay low,” Oreius advised. “Relam, is there a way that you can run interference on this?”
“Maybe,” the prince said, shrugging. “I could contact the city guard and master D’Arnlo, tell them that they are to bring any reports on this matter to me and not my father because . . .” Relam hesitated, groping for a plausible reason.
“He has more important things to worry about with the regional trade conferences and seasonal festivities,” Narin supplied.
“Yes! Good thinking,” Relam agreed.
“Take the afternoon off,” Oreius urged. “After lunch, go and seek out the commander of the city guard. It’s still Hadere, is it not?”
“It is,” Relam confirmed. “Their headquarters is at the north gate, by the river, not far from here.” Relam leaned over the soup pot, sniffing. “How long until lunch is ready?”
Oreius checked the soup as well. “Now,” he said briefly. “Did you make the bread, Narin?”
“Of course,” the former guard commander replied. “Did you really think I would forget to make the bread when I’ve been under house arrest all day?”
“Just making sure,” Oreius grunted, ladling soup into three bowls and setting them on the counter. “We might as well just eat in here, it will save time and we’ll be warmer too. That’s my one complaint about this house, no fireplace in the dining room.”
“When we have winters like this, it makes you want to have a fireplace in every room,” Narin muttered. “I don’t fancy being in the guard barracks through this season.”
“Does it get cold down there?” Relam asked, spooning soup into his mouth, gasping at how hot it was.
“Extremely,” Narin agreed, nodding. “And damp too sometimes. Most of the time, actually.” He blew on his soup to cool it, then gulped down a large spoonful. “Excellent recipe, Oreius. I may keep that one.”
“You can have it, I memorized it a long time ago,” the old warrior muttered.
“What’s in it?” Relam asked, eating another mouthful.
“Potatoes, cream, some bits of bacon, onion, a few different spices, a dash of wine-”
“That’s the secret,” Narin interrupted. “Good for a cold day.”
“And a bit of this and that,” Oreius finished.
Relam scraped the last drops out of his bowl. “Right, I’m off to try and save all of our necks. Any last-minute advice?”
Narin and Oreius exchanged a glance, then both looked at Relam. “Don’t mess up,” they chorused.
Relam rolled his eyes and pulled his cloak closer around him. Then, he went out the back door and into the blustery winter wonderland of Etares to find Commander Hadere.
Chapter 35
The conditions continued to grow worse. The River Road was slowly icing over, forming slick patches too thin to see before Relam stepped on them. More than once, he nearly fell and recovered only by fetching up against a building. Other passersby were having similar problems. People slipped and slid, horses and carts skated side to side. And through it all the temperature continued to drop and the wind continued to blow.
It took Relam half an hour to make the relatively short journey to the north gate. There he found twenty members of the city guard on duty, checking the people entering and exiting Etares, and another cluster off to one side. Relam made for this smaller group, not wanting to interrupt the normal flow. As he approached, one of the guards held out a sheet of parchment for the others to look at.
“This is a sketch of former Commander Narin,” the guard was saying. “Find him, and bring him here.”
“Alive?”
“Yes,” the guard replied, and Relam heaved a sigh of relief.
“Do we go door to door again?”
“Maybe later, if we don’t have any success in the next few days,” the first guard said, his voice muffled by his hood. “We have the manpower, but we’d have to reduce the gate guards and other patrols for a full sweep.”
“Maybe
