The Traitor Queen

the slaves to them to have their minds read.” He looked at the failed abductor. “We should lock him up somewhere out of sight, too.” He sighed. “This barely qualifies for the term ‘plan’, but it’ll gain us some time to think of a better one.”

Chapter 13 Unexpected Help

“I’m a bit... new at this,” Lorkin said, his expression apologetic as Dannyl sat beside him. “It may take a while.” Dannyl shrugged. “Don’t hurry it. I have plenty to think about. Like a way to get you out of this mess.”

“Let’s hope we have time enough for both tasks.” Lorkin called one of the slaves over. The man threw himself to the floor. Lorkin instructed the slave to kneel before him, then placed his hands on either side of the man’s head and closed his eyes.

Dannyl examined the rest of the waiting slaves. Aside from a few eyebrows rising in surprise, they showed no expression that might indicate which were the king’s spies. He looked across at Tayend, sitting on the other side of Lorkin. The Elyne met Dannyl’s eyes and nodded, perhaps indicating that he was keeping an eye on the slaves, too.

The Traitor woman, Savi, had assured him other Traitor spies would be among the slaves and would help should a fake slave react to imminent discovery by attacking them. It would be better if they were not forced to reveal their identities, however. As for the failed abductor, he had been locked in a stone-walled storeroom under the kitchen, watched over by Savi and Merria.

So. Time to get thinking, Dannyl told himself. If the king did arrange this, then he will know his plan has failed when his abductor doesn’t turn up with Lorkin. He may already know it’s failed, if the man was supposed to deliver Lorkin by now. So what will he do?

He can’t do anything unless we reveal something happened, unless he had another spy in place ready to slip away and call for “help”. So what if he did? If we claim Lorkin read the abductor’s mind and found out the truth, the king will insist on taking the man away to check. The man will suffer some kind of accident so when Amakira claims the man was tricked into thinking he worked for the king, nobody will be able to prove otherwise. He’ll then use the attempted abduction as an excuse to take Lorkin away.

If we pretend nothing happened, the king will know we’re lying. The abductor can prove otherwise. Dannyl did not want to kill the man. Not just because he’d rather not have to murder anybody, but if evidence was found that a Kyralian had killed a Sachakan – especially a free Sachakan – it would weaken the already shaky peace between their countries. And I’d end up in the palace prison for having destroyed the king’s property.

What else could he do with the man? Smuggle him away? With the House being watched so closely that even a Traitor didn’t think she could sneak out, he doubted they’d succeed. If we kill him we’ll have to destroy the body completely or make sure someone else is blamed. I’m not sure how to do the former, but it has to be less risky than the latter. He shook his head. I can’t believe I’m contemplating this.

A faint hammering noise brought his attention back to his surroundings. Lorkin had sent the first slave away to the other side of the room. He looked at Dannyl.

“I think someone’s knocking on the front door.”

With all slaves in the Master’s Room, there was nobody outside to greet anyone. “Well, that didn’t take long.” Dannyl muttered.

“It’s not too late for social visits,” Tayend pointed out. “According to Sachakan customs.”

Dannyl sighed and stood up. “I’ll go see who it is.”

Lorkin didn’t look reassured. “Should I... clear the room?”

“Yes, but...” Where to put the slaves?

“Take them to my rooms,” Tayend offered. “You can continue the mind-reading there.”

Dannyl looked at the lone slave who had been read. “Is he trustworthy?”

Lorkin shrugged. “He’s not a spy, if that’s what you mean.”

“Good enough,” Dannyl beckoned to the man, who hurried forward and threw himself on the floor. “Wait until everyone but me has left the room, then go bring our visitor here,” Dannyl ordered.

Within a surprisingly short time, Dannyl found himself alone in the Master’s Room. He drew in a deep breath, let it out slowly and braced himself for a troupe of Sachakan magicians to emerge from the corridor. Only one set of footsteps reached his ears, though, then a lone man appeared and hesitated at the threshold of the room.

“Achati!” The name leapt out of Dannyl’s mouth. “Ashaki Achati,” he quickly added, as proper formality dictated.

Achati’s forehead was deeply wrinkled. He searched Dannyl’s face as he hurried forward. He looks anxious, Dannyl thought. He’s actually wringing his hands.

“Ambassador. Dannyl.” Achati paused two steps away, once again gazing at Dannyl searchingly. “I must warn you of a plot. I expect that you won’t believe me, but I had to at least try to warn you. The king has a spy among your slaves. Probably a man, since we have few woman magicians and they aren’t trusted. He will try, some time in the next few days, to abduct Lorkin. You need to keep a watch and limit the slaves’ access to Lorkin. And perhaps, to weed out the spy, you could use those interrogation skills you put to use when we were looking for Lorkin.”

Dannyl stared at Achati in amusement and suspicion. What is he up to? Why warn us when it’s already happened? Does he mean to trick us into trusting him? Has the king sent him to check if his abductor has acted yet? Hmm. I guess I’ll have to play along and see where this leads.

“When we thwart this abduction, what should we do then?” he asked. “Kill the spy?”

Achati shook his head. “No, you would be destroying the king’s property.”

“Only if the spy is a slave, and the king admits he owns the man.”

“Oh, he won’t admit to anything. He’ll claim to have no knowledge of the plot, and say the man was bribed by the Traitors. When the man is revealed to be a magician, not a slave, you’ll be charged with murder.”

“Despite the fact that I didn’t know this?” Dannyl shook his head. “So he’s setting me up, then?”

Achati shook his head. “Not specifically, but if you were foolish enough to kill the man, it would give him the perfect excuse to send you back to Kyralia.”

“Then what is the king’s aim? Ah. It’s to manufacture a good reason to claim Lorkin isn’t safe here and take him away.”

Achati’s mouth twisted into a grim but approving smile. “I knew you’d see the danger.”

“So what do we do? We won’t be able to pretend nothing happened. The spy will inform the king of his failure. He’ll try again, or the king will send another spy to abduct Lorkin. There may already be others here already, in case the first attempt fails.”

Achati grimaced. “If Lorkin can be smuggled back to Kyralia, you should arrange it.”

Disobey the king? That’s not what I expected. “How?”

Pinching his lower lip between two fingers, Achati frowned. “If there are any Traitors among the slaves, they might be able to arrange it.”

“With the House being watched so closely? I doubt it. Is this all a ploy to capture some Traitors?”

Achati opened his mouth to reply, but another voice cut him off.

“Well, well. Ashaki Achati. What brings you to the Guild House at this late hour?”

Dannyl and Achati turned to see Tayend stroll into the room. The Elyne’s lips thinned in apology as he approached Achati. He glanced at Dannyl. “Merria is helping out,” he added quietly, reassuring Dannyl that Lorkin wasn’t dealing with the slaves alone.

Achati nodded. “I was sent to make another attempt to persuade Lorkin to talk tomorrow, but...” He repeated his warning about the abductor. “That is my true reason for visiting.”

“You think Dannyl should interrogate the slaves?”

“Yes, to find out which is the spy.”