Clara

On one hand, they had seriously misunderstood who and what Geder Palliako was. But on the other, he appeared to be on their side. For the time being, at least.

Still, Clara's heart ached for Phelia.

The bedroom was darkened, heavy curtains pushing the daylight away. Phelia lay on her back, the salt tracks of dried tears marking the corners of her eyes. Clara sat beside her, stroking her shoulders and arms the way physicians did when someone had taken a blow to the head or received shocking news. When Phelia spoke, the hysteria was gone. There was no more room for pretending that things could end well, and Clara could hear in the woman's voice that losing that hope had been a relief.

"Will he really keep Feldin safe?" Phelia asked. "If I give him the letters, will Palliako really see that Simeon doesn't kill him?"

"That's certainly what he said," Clara said.

"Do you trust him?"

"I barely know him, dear."

They lapsed again into silence.

"If the king already knows anyway," Phelia said. "If he only wants to see who in the court of Asterilhold was involved... I mean, with all that Palliako already knew, Aster was never in any real danger. Not really."

"That's one way to see it."

For the better part of an hour, Geder Palliako had coaxed Phelia into admitting everything. Feldin's complicity in the mercenary riot, his connections in Asterilhold, his alliances within the groups fighting for a farmer's council. Any one would stand as treason. Together, Clara didn't see room for mercy. Which wasn't what Phelia needed to hear now.

"How did it all get so out of hand?" Phelia asked the darkness. She sighed. It was a small, hard sound. "Tell him I will. I'll take him to Feldin's private study. I have a key, but there will be a guard. And he has to swear that it will only be exile."

"All right."

Phelia took Clara's hand, holding it like it was the only thing that kept her from falling down a cliff.

"You won't make me go alone, will you? You'll come with me?"

There was nothing Clara wanted less. Phelia's eyes glittered in the twilight of the room.

"Of course, dear," she said. "Of course I'll come."

In the smoking room, Clara found the men waiting with such anxiety she imagined herself as a midwife come to deliver news of a birth. Dawson stopped his pacing as she walked in. Geder and Jorey looked up from a game of cards they were only half playing. Only the quiet priest seemed unconcerned, but then she supposed unnatural serenity was part of his work. Even Vincen Coe was there, brooding in the shadows the way he so often did. The air was close and hot, like every sip had already been breathed once before.

"She's agreed to take Lord Palliako to the letters," Clara said, "but only if he swears Simeon won't have Feldin executed and if I'm with her when they go."

"Absolutely not," Dawson said.

"She will lose her nerve, husband," Clara said. "You know what she's like. I'll take Vincen with me, and we'll be fine. The four of us - "

"Five," Geder said, "with Basrahip."

"I'm going too," Jorey said.

"Of course you aren't, dear," Clara said. "Feldin only allows me because I'm a woman and he finds me feckless and charming. Vincen's a servant. Lord Palliako and..."

"Basrahip," the priest said.

"Yes, that. Phelia was here for the needlework and had an example she wanted to show me, so I went home with her. Along the way, we bumped into Lord Palliako and his friend and Phelia invited them along so we could hear stories of his summer travels. Perfectly innocent."

"I don't see why I couldn't be part of that," Jorey said. "Or Barriath."

"Because you are your father's sons, and I am only his wife. You have a great deal to learn about the place of women. Now, I suggest we do this before Phelia has a change of heart, poor thing."

Walking out to the carriage, Clara felt proud of Phelia. The way she held herself. The polite nod she gave to Dawson as they pulled away. The autumn sun was already near the horizon, the flame seeming to dance on the rooftops as the driver threaded his way through the streets. The city seemed clearer than usual, the sounds of wheels and voices sharper and more real than she was used to. The buildings they passed had rich textures in the stone of the walls. They passed a young Tralgu pushing a cart piled high with grapes, and Clara felt she could have counted each individual fruit. She felt as if she'd woken up twice without going to sleep in the middle. She wondered if it was how soldiers felt on the morning of a battle. It seemed likely.

Geder Palliako smiled at everything. She still thought of him as the pale, pudgy boy who'd ridden off to war in her son's company. In truth, his travels had left him leaner and darkened by the sun. And more than that, his eyes had changed. Even when he'd returned from the city he'd killed, there had been a shyness to him. It wasn't there any longer, and she thought he looked less handsome for the loss. She found herself wondering what he had really been doing all those weeks he pretended to have been in the Keshet. When his priest caught her staring, he smiled. She turned away.

The private courtyard wasn't half dead any longer. As many lanterns and candles were glowing in the windows of Curtin Issandrian's mansion as in Feldin Maas's. The carriage jolted to a stop and a footman ran out with a step for them. Phelia first, and then herself. Geder Palliako, the only man of blood. Vincen Coe and the priest paused, unsure for a moment, and then the priest smiled and waved the huntsman on.

The door slave was a different man, Firstblood this time, but so thick with muscle he might have been the priest's twin. Vincen and Geder turned over their swords and daggers. The priest had no weapons.

"The baron wanted to see you when you came," the door slave said. "He's in the rear hall."

No honorifics, no my lady. He might have been speaking to anyone for all the respect in his tone. Clara wondered what sort of men Maas had been taking into service, and then instantly answered her own question. Mercenaries. Fighters. Sword-and-bows. The sort of men who kill for pay. And she was going into the enemy camp. Stepping over the threshold, she faltered. Phelia looked at her, alarmed. Clara shook her head and bulled on. She refused to accept support and comfort from someone in her cousin's position. It would be rude.

In silence, Phelia led them down the wide corridor toward the room where she'd received Clara the last time she'd been. Fresh-cut flowers and garlands of autumn vine left the air smelling rich. The candlelight softened the corners and warmed the colors of the tapestries and the carpeted runner. Geder coughed. A nervous little sound.

At the base of the stair, Phelia turned right, and they all followed her. A short hallway that jogged at the end. Fewer candles were lit here. The shadows thickened and pressed in against them. At the far end of the hall, a thin servant's staircase rose up and a wider set of doors stood closed. They wouldn't have to go so far.

"Who's that?" a man's voice said.

In a recess, a man in hunting leather stood up from where he'd been sitting. The guard.

"My husband sent for me," Phelia said. "They said he was in his private office."

"He ain't," the guard said. "Who're these?"

"The people my husband asked me to bring," Phelia said tartly. Clara could hear the fear in her voice, the despair. She felt a surge of pride for the woman's courage.

"He is here," the priest said. His voice had an odd, unpleasant throbbing quality. "You've made a mistake. He's in the room behind you."

"No one in there, I'm telling you."

"Listen. Listen. You've made a mistake," the priest said again. "He's in the room behind you. Knock on the door and he'll answer."

From the look on the guard's face, Clara was fairly sure anyone beside the lady of the household would have already been knocked to the ground and reinforcements shouted for. Instead, the man turned to knock on the oaken door and Vincen Coe stepped up behind him, wrapping an arm across the guard's neck and lifting him. The man choked and kicked, his hand clawing at Vincen's arm. Clara closed her eyes, and the sounds alone were worse than the sight. After entirely too long, the guard went slack. Vincen lowered the body to the floor and stood with the guard's drawn sword in his hand. Phelia drew a key from her sleeve, fitted it to the lock, and a moment later they were in Feldin Maas's private study.

Vincen brought a candle in from the hallway, and by its light he found and lit the lamps. The room slowly grew lighter, taken by a dark, sullen sort of dawn. Shelves of dark wood and a thin writing desk with a brass inkwell and a white fluff of a feather quill. It was a larger space than Clara had expected. There were no windows, and a lattice of dark and light against one wall led her to think the room had once been used to store bottles. Phelia walked to the shelves like she was walking in her sleep. From amid the clutter of scrolls and codices, she took a simple wooden box, its top fastened with a hook and hinged with leather. She held it out to Geder Palliako.

"They're ciphered," she said. "I don't know the code."

Geder took the box, grinning like a boy with an unexpected present. As soon as it left her hand, Phelia closed in on herself, as if her bones had gone soft and smaller.

"Thank you, dear," Clara said. "It was the only way. You know it was the only way."

Her shrug was painful to watch.

"I don't know how it came this far," she said. "I truly don't. If I could have - "

The roar was inhuman. Anger and wildfire and murder made sound. Clara screamed even before she knew what it was.

"What in hell is this?"

Feldin Maas stood in the doorway, a bare blade in his hand. His face was flushed almost purple with rage. Two more men stood behind him, blocked from entering. If he closes that door, Clara thought, we're trapped. And if we're trapped, we're dead.

"No, Feldin," Phelia said, walking forward. "It's the right thing. It's what we have to do. Lord Palliako's promised mercy. He knew everything anyway."

"You brought them here? You betrayed me?"

"I - "

Maas's sword reached out swift and sudden as a lightning strike. Clara, behind her cousin, didn't see the blade strike home, but she heard it. She saw the horrible play over Feldin Maas's face: surprise, horror, grief, rage. Even before the blood, Clara knew the woman was dead.

Vincen Coe boiled past her, shouting and swinging his stolen blade like a scythe in a meadow. Maas fell back into the hallway from the sheer animal force of the attack. For a moment, the doorway was clear. Geder Palliako stood over the fallen woman, his jaw slack and his face pale. Clara pushed him, moving him toward the door.

"Go!" she shouted. "Before they seal us in!"

Geder and the priest hurried out. The sound of blade against blade almost made Clara pause. I'll surrender, she thought. They wouldn't harm a woman. It was an idiot's thought. A reflex. Against all instinct, she ran out toward the fighting.

If the corridor had been wider, Feldin and his two guards would already have gotten around Vincen and cut him down. Instead, the huntsman swung hard and fast, his blade filling the space, holding them at bay. Sweat was pouring down his face, and his breath was fast. Feldin waited with a duelist's eyes, looking for an opportunity.

"Run!" Vincen shouted. "I'll win you what time I can!"

Geder Palliako needed no more urging. He turned, sprinting down the hall toward the staircase and double doors. She caught a glimpse of the wooden box still in his hand. She took four steps after him, but turned back. The priest moved just behind her, retreating from the fight, but not fleeing. Vincen's shoulders worked like a laborer's.

"Oh," she heard herself say. "Oh, not this. Not this."

Feldin's blade swung high and hard, batting Vincen's swing aside. The guard to Feldin's left thrust past him, and Vincen grunted, leaping back. There was blood on the guard's blade. Vincen's blood, spilling on the floor.

"You can't win," the priest said, his voice loud and throbbing. Clara looked up at him, tears in her eyes, but he smiled and shook his huge head. "Lord Maas, listen to my voice. Listen to me. You cannot win."

"I will see your guts," Maas shouted.

"You won't. Everything you love is already gone. Everything you hoped for is already lost. You can't win. The fight is over. You've lost everything already. You have no reason to fight."

Feldin surged forward, but even Clara could see the change in his stance. His swing was more tentative, his weight on his back foot, as if reluctant to engage the fight he had just been winning. Vincen drew back, limping badly. His leathers were red and wet. Feldin didn't step forward.

"You saw her die, Lord Maas," the priest said. "You saw her fall. She has gone, and you can't bring her back. Listen to my voice. Listen to me. The fight's lost. Nothing you can do here matters. You can feel that. That thickness in your throat. You feel it. You know what it means. You cannot win. You cannot win. You cannot win."

One of the guards moved forward, his blade before him, but his gaze kept cutting back to Feldin. Feldin, whose eyes were caught on nothing. Vincen started to close with the man, but Clara rushed forward, put her hand on his arm, pulled him back.

"You can feel the despair in your belly, can't you? You feel it," the priest said. His voice was sorrowful, as if he regretted every word. Each syllable throbbed and echoed within itself. "You feel it in your heart. You're drowning in it, and it will never end. There is no hope. Not now. Not ever. You cannot win, Lord Maas. You cannot win. There is nothing for you. You've lost it all, and you know it."

"Lord Maas?" his guard said.

The point of Feldin's blade lowered to the floor like he was drawing a vertical line in the empty air. In the candlelight, it was hard to see, but she thought there were tears on his mask-empty face. The guards looked at each other, confused and unnerved. Feldin dropped his sword to the ground, turned, and walked away down the corridor. Clara trembled. The huge priest put one hand on her shoulder, one on Vincen Coe's.

"We should leave before he changes his opinion," the priest said.

They backed down the hallway, leaving a track of blood. The guards took a few uncertain steps toward them, then back toward their retreating lord. They reminded Clara of nothing more than hunting dogs given two conflicting commands. When they reached the double doors, Vincen stumbled. The priest lifted him up, slinging him over a shoulder. It took them minutes to find a door that led out, what seemed half the night to negotiate the darkened gardens and reach the edge of Maas's estate. A thick hedge marked the border, and the priest knelt by it, rolling Vincen Coe's body to the ground. There were voices in the night. Shouting and calling. Searching, Clara thought, for them.

"Under here," he said. "Watch over him. I'll bring a cart."

Clara knelt, pushing herself in through the twigs and leaves. The hedge had little space beneath it, but there was some. Vincen Coe dragged himself in after her, digging his elbows into the litter of dead leaves and old dirt. His face was ashen, and everything from his belly down was wet and slick. In the darkness, the blood wasn't red, but black. She pulled him in close to her as best she could without proper leverage. She had the sudden visceral memory of being thirteen, hiding in her father's gardens while one of her uncles dashed about pretending he didn't know where she was. She shook her head. The memory was too innocent for the moment.

Vincen rolled onto his back with a groan.

"How bad is it?" she whispered.

"Unpleasant," Vincen said.

"If Maas uses his dogs, we're as good as found."

Vincen shook his head, the leaves under him making the softest crackling sound.

"By now, I'm sure everything on the estate stinks of me," he said. "Take them till morning to find which blood's freshest."

"Still feeling well enough to joke, I see."

"Yes, my lady."

Clara struggled to rise, squinting through the leaves. There was more shouting now. And, unless she was mistaken, the crash of swordplay. She felt sure she heard Jorey's voice raised in command. In the close confines of their shelter, she felt the huntsman's fast, shallow breath as much as heard it.

"Be strong a bit longer," she said. "Just a bit longer."

When he reached his hand to her, she thought it might be the last gesture of a dying man, but his fingers curled around the back of her neck, drawing her toward him with a definite strength. His lips were rough against hers, surprising and intimate and strong. Clara was shocked, but then gave a little internal shrug. The young man might be dead in the next few minutes, so really where was the harm?

When he released her, his head dropping the inch back to the ground, Clara wiped her mouth with the back of a well-soiled hand. Her lips felt pleasantly bruised, her mind by turns scandalized, flattered, and amused.

"You forget yourself," she said reprovingly.

"I do, my lady," the huntsman said. "With you, I often do."

His eyes fluttered closed. His breath remained painful and quick, and Clara lay in the darkness, willing it to continue until she heard voices she knew as her own household, and started shouting for help.