The Shadow's heir

“I didn’t do nothin’!” Laela burst out. “I swear, I ain’t done nothin’! I didn’t know the King was missin’ at all until yeh told me-I swear!”

Torc clutched his throat as if it were hurting him. “I was a slave until the King set me free,” he said quietly. “I owe him everything. And I don’t care what I have to do to ye to find out where he is now. I will find him. And ye’ll help me, or die. Think about that.”

Then he was gone.

13

Back at the Blue Moon

Laela didn’t sleep that night, even briefly. She didn’t want to sleep, even if it would mean an escape from her fear and hunger.

Whatever happened from here on, she knew her life in the Eyrie was over. She’d already decided that when they came for her in the morning she’d tell them about Yorath. Whether they’d believe her was another question. The memory of Torc’s hostile face gave her the grim feeling that they wouldn’t believe her and would probably torture her regardless. And. . what then? What would she tell them?

Nothing, that was it. She’d tell them nothing, because that was what she knew. And if they had nothing to torture out of her, then they’d have no reason to stop.

She knew what happened to people who were tortured. Her father had told her. It didn’t matter whether they talked or not; they always cracked in the end. After that, they died. If not by execution, then from infected wounds, or insanity.

She spent that night pacing again, her mind in a whirl. Thoughts of the fate ahead of her mixed with thoughts of Yorath and his sweet smile, and she felt sick to think she’d have to betray him to get out of this situation. He’d asked her over and over again to keep it a secret; he’d been so frightened that he might make the King angry, even now.

But the King was gone, and Laela knew that betrayal was her only chance.

To her surprise, she realised that, mixed in with her fear for herself, was worry about the King. Arenadd.

What could have happened to him? Was he hurt-had he been kidnapped?

Maybe he had run away.

She remembered the bitter way he’d talked about his Kingship-how depressed he’d seemed. Maybe he’d killed himself.

But she remembered seeing him the morning before he’d vanished, and noticing how energetic he seemed all of a sudden. Cheerful, even. That wasn’t the look of a man planning to kill himself that night. It had been closer to the look of a man who had something completely different on his mind.

He’d looked like someone who had something planned-something important and special.

He’s run away, she thought. Must have done. He decided to do it yesterday or the night before, an’ he did it that night, after he’d talked about Amoran to throw me off.

But where could he have gone? And would he really run away from his responsibilities like that? He hadn’t struck Laela as the sort to abandon something as important as an entire Kingdom. But maybe she’d judged him wrong.

It was too much for her to figure out, and she sighed and drank the last of the water.

• • •

Morning saw her sitting hunched on her bench, staring at the floor with blank, dead eyes. She had no idea what time of day it was, but it felt like morning. It had to be.

The by-now-familiar jingling of keys made her look up, her tiredness vanishing as her heart leapt into her mouth and started pounding furiously.

A solitary guard came in, leaving his friend outside to watch the door. “Get up.”

She did. He stepped forward and shoved her toward the door, and she went meekly enough though her mind was racing as much as her heartbeat. She desperately wanted to speak up and tell them about Yorath, but something held her back. Part of it was her final reluctance to expose him, but it was also a more practical thought-that the guards were just guards and wouldn’t want to hear anything she had to say. They had no power to set her free anyway. If she told anyone, it would have to be whoever interrogated her.

The guards took her along the same narrow passage as before-she was befuddled by her lack of sleep and couldn’t remember which direction they had been going in when they’d arrived and whether they were following it now.

They reached a door at the end, and once the guard in front had identified himself to his comrade on the other side, it was unlocked, and they went through. Not, as Laela had expected, into a torture chamber, but into a small space that looked like a guardroom. Numerous guards were in it, relaxing at a table and sharing gossip and a game of some sort. Most of them barely glanced up.

Laela’s own guards escorted her to the other side of the guardroom and through another door. That took them to a set of stairs that led them straight upward, and as Laela reached the top, she squinted as light hit her eyes. This wasn’t right. .

At the top of the stairs, the guards pushed her out and into a much more ordinary corridor, where a man was waiting for them. He wore armour like the guards, but carried himself with more authority than they did, and her two escorts bowed their heads to him.

“Who are yeh?” Laela demanded. “What’s goin’ on?”

The man looked distastefully at her. “I’ve been ordered t’pass this onto ye by Lord Torc.”

Her heart quickened. “What?”

“Yer tutor came forward this mornin’ and told the Master of Law he was with ye all last night an’ there’s no chance ye could have gone anywhere else without him seein’. Since there’s no proof he’s lyin’, the law says ye must be set free.”

Laela felt warm all over. “They’re lettin’ me go?”

A nod. “However, the Lady Saeddryn, as actin’ ruler of the Eyrie, has ordered that ye cannot stay here. Ye’re t’leave the Eyrie immediately, an’ if ye come back, ye’ll be thrown back into the dungeons for trespassin’. Is that clear?”

She nodded dumbly.

“Good. Now get goin’.”

Laela walked past him with as much dignity as she could muster, and followed the corridor around until she reached the door leading out into the city.

Where Yorath was waiting for her.

Laela stared at him for an instant, then threw herself into his arms. “Yorath!”

He returned the embrace. “Laela, thank the Night God ye’re safe! They didn’t hurt ye, did they?”

She realised she was on the verge of tears. “No. They were goin’ to, but they didn’t. Yorath, yeh saved me. They was gonna torture me in there-if yeh hadn’t. .” She hugged him more tightly.

“Well, I couldn’t just sit by an’ do nothing!” said Yorath. “I knew ye hadn’t done anythin’ wrong. An’ besides. .”

Laela pulled away to look him in the face. “Yeah?”

He hesitated. “Never mind. Laela. . look, I’m sorry. I did what I could for ye, but Lady Saeddryn’s in charge now since she’s the King’s oldest blood relative. I can’t go against what she says.”

“I know,” said Laela. “It’s all right; I ain’t blamin’ yeh. I don’t wanna stay here anyway. Not with the King gone. Gods, Yorath-what happened to him? Where did he go?”

Yorath shrugged helplessly. “No-one knows. He just vanished out of his room, an’ no-one saw him go in or out. The whole city’s in an uproar. Skandar’s half-mad.”

“Wait-Skandar?”