The Traitor Queen

looked down. Though it felt like they had been standing like this for an hour, the candle wasn’t visibly shorter.

He looked across the room at Gol, who was also holding a candle at the ready. Cery frowned as Gol shifted his weight and the flame came perilously close to lighting a timer strip. He could hear Gol’s quick breathing. His own seemed too loud. He tried to breathe deeper and quietly, to will his racing heart to slow down, worried that either would drown out the sound of someone approaching.

Skellin – if it is Skellin – is going to hear us and know we’re waiting for him. The only reason we’d stay put is if we knew he was coming was if we had set a trap. I’d realise that. Surely he would, too.

Several ways that his plan could go wrong went through his mind. He knew the trap wasn’t perfect. The minefire might go off before he and Gol had a chance to get safely away. It might go off too late to harm Skellin. While they hoped that it would kill him, their aim was to blow a hole in the Gardens above and reveal the Rogue Thief to the Guild. But what if it didn’t? What if there was no hole, and Skellin survived?

What if Skellin didn’t come personally to deal with Cery? What if Cery and Gol blew a hole in the Gardens, and possibly themselves, only to reveal Skellin’s minions to the Guild?

Gol was looking at Cery now, and shaking his head. In his eyes was a question. How long would they stand like this before they decided Anyi had been wrong, and no intruder was in the passages? Cery looked at his candle. Should they take turns instead? Should they...?

From somewhere down the corridor came a sharp intake of breath. Cery looked at Gol, then followed his bodyguard’s surprised gaze to the doorway.

Someone was standing there. No, Cery realised. Someone is floating there. Someone all too familiar.

“So this is where you’ve been all this time,” Skellin said. Then he whistled. From further back in the tunnels came a piercing reply.

Cery moved his hand in the direction he’d feared to go moments earlier, and heard a sizzle as the timer strip caught alight. He saw a spark flare in Gol’s direction, then turned and dashed for the door to the next room.

And slammed into the wall.

No, not the wall. A barrier of magic. Cery cursed as he realised Gol had encountered the same invisible obstruction. Light filled the room – the distinctive glare of a magic globe light. His friend looked at him, his expression grim and frightened. Cery met Gol’s eyes and grimaced. So that’s it, then. We might have had time to escape if we’d heard Skellin coming... But Skellin had levitated to avoid his footsteps being heard. As Cery turned to face his enemy he saw the flame of the timer strip Gol had lit retreat in its hole. He closed his eyes and held his breath. At least Anyi got away.

“Now, now. No need to brace yourself. It would be rude of me to kill you without having a bit of a chat first. Hmm. Not much of a hideout.”

Cery opened his eyes to see the Thief magician, his shoes now touching the floor, walking toward him. Two men stepped into the doorway behind him. They were young and well muscled. Skellin looked around the room, then over Cery’s shoulder at the next one. “Not as nice as your old one, from what my mother tells me, though perhaps that was your wife’s taste in decoration and you’ve reverted to the habits of your namesake since she died.”

My wife... the hideout... Cold shock and then hate rushed through Cery. Lorandra did murder my family. Though why would she do so when Skellin and I weren’t enemies then?

“Though perhaps you were glad to be rid of her. You were supposed to be so angry that you’d form an alliance with me so I’d find the Thief Hunter for you,” Skellin said.

Cery stared at Skellin. He killed my family to make me want to join forces with him. After he “found” the Thief Hunter – or some poor scapegoat – I’d be indebted to him. He looked at the other wall, seeking the flame of the timer he’d set alight. He saw no spark of light. It, too, had burned back into the wall, toward the tubes of minefire. Soon it would blast Skellin into...

Gol cursed and bowed his head. “Sorry, Cery,” he muttered. “It should have gone by now.”

Cery cursed as he realised the trap had failed. Gol had shown him that the minefire worked. Why not now?

“What are you chatting about?” Skellin came closer, his strange eyes narrowing. He leaned toward Cery and his mouth stretched into a humourless smile. “There’s someone missing, isn’t there? Where is your daughter, Ceryni?”

Cery’s heart began to shrink inside his chest, but he forced himself to laugh. “Do you really expect me to tell you that?”

Skellin shrugged, then straightened and looked around. “No. But my sources in the Guild tell me she is down here with you. I wonder where she could be.”

“Safe from you,” Cery told him. Sources in the Guild? So the rumours are true. But how do they know Anyi is here?

“Is she?” Skellin must have removed the barrier, as he moved past Cery into the next room, his globe light floating before him. “Who sleeps on the third bed, then?”

“Someone you don’t want to meet.”

Skellin didn’t reply. He was looking at the doorway to the passage leading to the Magicians’ Quarters. Though his face was turned away from Cery, the set of his shoulders suggested he was listening to something.

Anyi and Lilia? Cery felt a rush of hope followed by fear. I hope Lilia is ready for this, and Anyi has the sense to stay out of the way.

Skellin took a step toward the doorway, then another. Cery sensed that Gol had crouched down. He looked away and saw that his bodyguard had picked up a still-burning candle. Skellin’s two henchmen had moved into the room, however. They would be able to stop Gol getting to any of the minefire tubes set into the walls.

A laugh drew Cery’s attention back to Skellin. The Rogue had stepped into the passage. He extended a hand toward something out of Cery’s view. An all-too-familiar voice cursed. Anyi appeared, struggling as an invisible force pushed her into Skellin’s reach.

At the sight of her Cery felt his heart jump and twist like an animal struggling to escape – and it hurt. He clenched his fists against the pain and started forward, but something caught and held his legs. Gol, too, lurched to a halt.

Where is Lilia? As Skellin reached out to grab Anyi, she stopped resisting and darted forward. Surely Anyi didn’t come back without Lilia. But the hand that stabbed toward Skellin twisted as it encountered his torso and she cursed in pain. Skellin grabbed her wrist and prised the knife out of her grip. But if she couldn’t find Lilia then...

The Thief looked up at him, grinning. “Safe from me, eh? Looks like you’ve failed to protect your family again, Ceryni.”

Cery gritted his teeth. Had Anyi at least sent a message to Lilia? Was Lilia on her way? Cery wanted to ask Anyi, but the pain in his chest made it hard to breathe and he didn’t want to warn Skellin that Lilia was coming. We have to delay him. Give Lilia time to get her.

Anyi was still fighting, but she could do nothing to harm or unbalance Skellin. Cery swayed as a wave of dizziness hit him, and the room darkened. When his sight cleared he saw that Skellin had pushed Anyi against a wall. She stayed there, held in place with magic. Skellin whistled, and the men pushed past Cery.

“Search and bind her.”

Anyi’s jaw tightened as the men stripped off her coat and felt for weapons. Cery wrapped aching arms around his chest and dragged in a breath to speak.

“You want me, not her,” he managed.

Skellin laughed. “I want all three of you. But you have to die in the right order. And...” Skellin looked up and around as if he could see the magicians above them. “Not here.” He turned to face them, his eyes moving from Cery to Gol. His nose wrinkled and he shook his head. “You’re not worth the trouble.” His eyes narrowed and Cery heard a sickening crack. Gol cried out in agony and surprise, and fell to the floor.

No! I have to stop him killing Gol. Slow him down! Cery tried to think past the fire in his chest. Find some way to delay Skellin a little longer. He opened his mouth to speak but only ended up gasping out a breath. Another wave of blackness consumed him and he felt his knees go weak. He suspected that only