02 - The Barbed Rose (45 page)

Not so loud
, the younger woman protested.
What are you doing here? I thought you went to Korbin.

I did. No time to chat, dearest. I need you to call Fenetta in Arikon and tell her we’re riding for the Mountain Gate with rebels hard on our heels, and to get it open
now.

“They’re waking!” Stone shouted from the rear of the too-large caravan. “They’re coming. With reinforcements.”

Now, Karyl. Now.
Kallista cut the connection and started to turn the horse, to go back and join the rearguard action, but Viyelle fought her for control of the reins. Joh had already slipped from the horse with Merinda and into Viyelle’s empty saddle, shouting orders with the authority of a fifteen-year lieutenant.

“All troops to the rear!” He shouldered his new mount into Kallista’s, lowering his voice to speak to her. “If you would ensure the children’s safety, Major?” He made it sound like a request, but it wasn’t.

He rode on shouting more orders, leaving Kallista to do as he advised. “Troops to the rear. Merchants next. Varyl ilian, take the lead. Guard formation, soldiers!”

“Ilian includes you, Lieutenant.” Torchay blocked Joh’s path. “She needs all of us for the magic.”

Kallista leaned to the side to see around Viyelle. She could see Joh struggle with the urge to join the rear guard, but when Stone and Fox cantered up, he wheeled his mount and came with them, leaving the troop sergeant in command. Kallista and Viyelle caught up with Merinda’s slowing mount and Viyelle slid across to join the terrified healer.

“We will keep you safe, Merinda,” Kallista said for the three-thousandth time. She’d never promised Merinda wouldn’t be frightened—though if she trusted the promise of safety, what did she have to fear?

It didn’t matter now. Kallista motioned Viyelle ahead and set her mount to dancing in the road as she forced it to wait the few minutes for their soldier iliasti to catch up.

The road leveled out as the land widened. They were able to pick up their pace, though not to a flat-out run, much as the twitching between Kallista’s shoulders urged it. She kept herself between the babies and their pursuers. Their men kept themselves behind her.

Karyl!
She threw the cry into the void.

I’ve told her
, Karyl replied promptly.
They have to send runners to the gate
.

Well, tell them to hurry
. Kallista wobbled in the saddle and righted herself.

Are you all right?

“Are you all right?” Fox’s question echoed Karyl’s, making Kallista’s head feel hollow.

“Yes,”
she replied to both at once.
All safe—so far. We need that gate open
.

I know. I’m hunting someone closer I can call
.

Kallista let go of the magic and tightened her hold on the reins, though turning her horse aside from the mass scramble down the road would be an impossibility now. Good that she had no desire to do so.

The city walls loomed ahead, the gates recessed so deep into the wall’s thickness, they were hidden in shadow. Aisse vanished into the gloom, Viyelle and Merinda close behind. Moments later, merchants with their pack mules crowded into the protected area after Kallista and her ilian.

A shout filtered down through the murder holes overhead. “Who seeks entrance to Arikon?”

“Major Kallista Varyl, Special Attaché to Serysta Reinine, with my ilian,” she shouted back.

“All those are your ilian?”

Kallista looked at the people packed in around her. “And four merchant caravans, and a troop of cavalry—the Fifth Tironde Regulars. You should have received word from the palace we were coming.”

“Heard nothing. Need a password, or orders from inside.”

She swore, then shouted, “I am Major Varyl. I order you—”

“How do we know you’re the major? I take orders from no one but my superiors in Arikon.”

She hadn’t thought that one would work, but had to try it. Just how far was it from the palace to the gate?

Beyond the edge of the gate recess, where the soldiers had created a fence of bayonets, the rebels gathered, more of them every moment. As their numbers grew to more than double Kallista’s entire force, so did their courage. Her people could hold them off for a time, but not much of it. They needed the gate open.

Karyl, ask Fenetta for today’s password
.

Moments later, Karyl came back with
Patience. The password is Patience
.

Bless you
. Kallista shouted over the rising rumble from rebel throats, “The password is patience!”

“How do you know that?”

“My farspeaker asked yours. How do you think? Now let us in, dammit!” Her temper had frayed beyond mending. If she could have sent lightning up the murder hole to sting the idiot—who was admittedly only doing his job—she would have. But the stone in the walls would swallow it.

In reply, the gates banged, swayed, rumbled as the locks were opened. They swung outward, just wide enough for a single rider to pass through. Kallista pushed Aisse and her horse with the baby packs through first, then Viyelle with Merinda and Rozite. She let Torchay shove her inside next, and soon they were all gathered in the cobbled courtyard, the merchants crowding in behind them, as they dismounted and stretched aching muscles.

“Apologies, Major.” The guard captain came striding up, looking a bit vague as to just whom she needed to address. Kallista was out of uniform. “The palace runner just now reached us. The city is pure chaos.”

“No harm done, save perhaps to my temper.” Kallista didn’t salute, but smiled and offered her hand.

The captain clasped it briefly. “We’ll have to keep the merchants here until they’ve been cleared and their baggage searched. We’ll look after your troop as well, if you’re willing.”

“Good enough.”

“The Reinine’s compliments and will you report to her immediately.”

“Very good, Captain. Carry on.” Kallista nodded briskly to the captain’s salute, turned to her ilian and sighed. “So. I need to go. Why don’t the rest of you—yes, except for bodyguards, Torchay—follow at your own speed and get settled in. We’re still in Daybright Tower, I assume. We can join you as soon as the Reinine finishes with us.”

Aisse shook her head, disturbing the baby in her arms. “No. We stay together. You said it. We stay together from now on.”

Kallista took a deep breath and let it out. “Your decision. But if you’re coming, come.” She hoisted herself back into the saddle, barely stifling a groan. Stone didn’t bother to stifle his.

The Reinine’s work chamber had soft chairs, steaming cups of cha and thick, meaty bread rolls. The council members frowned at the babies’ presence, especially when the babies stayed and the council was dismissed. After introducing Merinda to the Reinine, Kallista held a daughter with one hand, a bread roll in the other and ate while she caught the Reinine up-to-date on everything that had happened since their departure. Then she held both daughters in her lap and listened to the Reinine’s report on events in Arikon.

“So in all,” Serysta Reinine concluded, “the rebels are more active in Arikon than we like, but it’s nothing we cannot handle with the resources in the city.”

“What about outside Arikon?” Kallista let Torchay take a sleepy Lorynda and hand her off to Fox. “Was the information we sent helpful?”

“Very much so. Unfortunately, it indicates that the rebels are planning a massive attack, and more recent information suggests that the attack will be against Arikon, and soon.”

“So.” Kallista took a deep breath, wondering if the skirmish on the road had been for show. No, she decided. Capturing all the godmarked in Adara would have been a devastating blow to the loyalists’ cause. “Do you think it will make any difference, the rebels knowing we’re all back in Arikon?”

“Who can say?” The Reinine dangled an enormous jewel on a heavy gold chain in front of Rozite and smiled when she stuffed it in her mouth.

“One more thing I have learned,” she said. “It was High Steward Huryl who sent the gold for your iliasti to carry to Korbin. And it was Huryl who turned my comment that the children would be safer in Korbin into that most strongly worded suggestion.”

“Huryl?” Kallista blinked. “But why? I know the man has never liked me, but he’s always been loyal to you and Adara. Hasn’t he?”

“Always.” Serysta Reinine sighed and leaned back in her chair. “Though I will be first to admit the man has flaws. He is ambitious and jealous, especially of his influence with me. Perhaps he thought with your ilian divided, you would not stay long in Arikon—which was true. Or perhaps—” She shook her head. “He has never been vicious before.”

Her Reinas, the stocky, shaved-headed Keldrey, cleared his throat and Serysta waved a hand. “All right, yes, he has been ruthless, but never to this scale. Never a thing that put innocent lives at risk.”

“Where is Huryl?” Kallista asked, suddenly realizing. “I saw him when we first arrived, back in Miel, but—have any of you seen him since?” She checked with the iliasti who had been with her in Arikon.

“I did a few times,” Viyelle said. “Before I moved my quarters in with yours.”

“Demons?” Torchay kept his voice quiet, but Kallista heard him. They all did.

“Surely not.” The Reinine looked as if she didn’t want to believe it, but did. “He has served so well and so long.”

Kallista pinched off a tiny bit of magic and spun it into a demon hunter. “Best to know for sure. Ambition can make some temptations too great to resist.”

She tossed the magic out. It circled the palace a time or two before winging out toward the city walls. Kallista quenched it. “My magic senses no demons in the palace, or even within Arikon, but…”

“But if there’s no demon,” Torchay said in his raspy voice, “why is he avoiding us?”

“Because he doesn’t like us?” Kallista had no other answer.

“We are conducting a discreet investigation into his recent activities—into all the orders sent under my seal—to be sure they are orders I actually gave,” Serysta Reinine said. “So far, the only anomaly is the orders Courier Torvyll brought to you.”

“Let us hope that continues to be true.” Kallista bounced Rozite, beginning to fret, on her knee. “Thank you for allowing my whole family to accompany me here, but if there is more to be discussed, perhaps the children should be—”

“No, no. We are done.” The Reinine stood.

Kallista tried to return the expensive necklace, but when Rozite set up a howl at being deprived of her shiny toy, the Reinine waved it away. “Keep it. Babies need their playthings.”

“My Reinine, this is
not
a plaything.” Kallista wiped the baby-fist-sized ruby on her tunic, realizing the Reinine might not want it fresh from Rozite’s mouth.

“Your daughter thinks it is. Keep it.” Serysta Reinine looked entirely too amused. “I’ll send toys for the other two as well. They should not think I favor one over the other.”

“My Reinine—”
Kallista couldn’t get anything else out. She set the necklace on a table and Rozite howled louder, twisting in Kallista’s arms in a fierce effort to reach it. The Reinine handed the necklace back to the baby, whose screams turned instantly to sniffles.

“Now go.” Serysta Reinine waved them toward the door. “Tend to your children. Find your demons and let me know tomorrow what you find. Go.” She flipped her hands at them like a pie maker chasing away flies.

Kallista could only gather up her family and obey.

Gweric was delighted to see them again, though a bit sulky after his introduction to Merinda, until he realized that her magic was her own and didn’t mesh with the others. He apparently had not liked living alone in the large suite, because he talked without stopping to anyone who would listen. The babies fascinated him, though he didn’t seem quite to know how to react when they took notice of him in return. Kallista had to laugh at his bemused, confused expression when Rozite fell asleep on him in midchuckle.

But finally, they had everything, including babies, sorted and Kallista sent Gweric out with Joh and Fox to hunt up High Steward Huryl and see what their peculiar vision could see.

When they had been gone long enough to have made their way from the residential sectors of the palace to the administrative, Kallista settled back with her other iliasti and slid down Joh’s link to peer out through his eyes. Alongside Fox and Gweric, he found Huryl in the throne room antechamber that served as his office, and they mingled with the petitioners and sycophants that filled it.

Huryl seemed to enjoy the supplication more than Kallista thought attractive, but he listened carefully to each one who spoke to him. She couldn’t tell whether he favored any one over another.

Closer. I can’t see anything from here
.

Joh looked at his companions before responding. Fox gave his head a tiny shake—he’d seen nothing. Gweric had to be prodded to get his attention before he frowned and moved forward.

“Careful,” Joh murmured. He held on to the hem of Gweric’s tunic to slow him down. “We don’t want him noticing us, and you’re rather recognizable.”

The boy nodded and edged behind a tall man in Tandayn brown and blue, searching the room with absent eyes. Joh eased up beside him, his own eyes on Fox’s sightless watching.

Pay attention to Huryl
, Kallista reminded him. She understood Joh’s curiosity, but now wasn’t the time. She didn’t know what she thought she could see through Joh’s eyes. Not the demon, but
something
, surely.

Like the way Huryl’s face went stark white as he stared directly at her. At Joh.
Why?

A moment passed. Others noticed Huryl’s shocked expression and turned to look about the chamber, to see what had affected him so. His aide called his name and Huryl recovered himself enough to blink and look away, if not to regain his color.

He looked at his desk clock and cleared his throat. “I beg your pardons, prinsipi, aili. I have an engagement with the First Advisor.” And with one last, near-panicked look over his shoulder at Joh, he vanished into the throne room in a flutter of multicolored pennants.