Covenants (29 page)

There was a pause as everyone stopped to consider that.

"Perhaps I sent the lieutenant away too soon," Suiden said. He motioned to a trooper who had on more clothes than the rest. "Bring Slevoic back up here." He turned again to Groskin as the soldier pounded down the stairs. "As Sro Laurel has pointed out, Rabbit has had several attempts on his life and all you can natter about is hexes and what's unnatural. Murder is unnatural." His green glare swept the hallway and everyone in it. "You shriek at a hair in your soup while you dine sitting on a muckheap."

"But sir—" Groskin tried.

The flames leapt up again in Suiden's eyes. "You disobey a direct order and leak restricted information.

You incite the men against Rabbit and are neck-deep, unwitting or not, in a plot to murder him. You encourage insubordination." He took a steadying breath but roared anyway, the windows rattling. "And because of your gross stupidity and willful blindness you are made the House of Dru's dupe!"

"Sir," Groskin tried again.

"Don't bloody 'sir' me. I took you on, Lieutenant, when no one else would—"

Groskin's head went down.

"—but I'll be damned if I'll wink at subversion by my lieutenant.” A faint cry came from the first floor and heads turned. Suiden stopped in midtirade and frowned, moving over to the banister. We caught the sound of running feet, growing louder until the trooper skidded into the bottom step. "Sirs, come quick!

It's— Come quick!”

Thoughts of hexes and subversion (along with blankets, clothes and women healers) were forgotten as we all rushed downstairs. Slevoic's guard lay on the floor of the room, a lump swelling on the side of his head, his knife and sword gone. The royal physician pushed past the crowd at the door and knelt down beside him.

Suiden turned and shoved us all out of the room. "Quick, search the embassy. I want Slevoic found—not you, Rabbit." I skidded to a stop as the rest of the men scattered in different directions, Jeff barely missing crashing into me. "I'm not chancing you and Slevoic being alone, even for a few moments. With me."

He started down the hallway towards the front door, Jeff and I behind him. But we didn't get very far before another shout went up from the courtyard. We spun around and ran out an open side door, sprinting past the fountain to the gathering crowd in the vegetable garden—and came to a slamming halt.

A moment later Javes arrived, pushing to the front, his eyes wild as he stared down.

"Who—" Javes began. He turned to me. "Who is it, Rabbit?” I shook my head as I felt my hands start to tremble again. "I don't know, sir.” Javes looked over at the troopers who had come out after us. "Who's missing?" They also shook their heads, their eyes wide in horror, and Javes snarled, "Well, bloody do a count!”

There was a quick count as more men poured into the garden, and then someone called out, "Basel, sir.

Basel's missing.” He must have been gathering his herbs for breakfast when he translated.

"Sixteen points," Jeff said, goosebumps all over his skin although the new day was already hot. "Back home I would've hunted him and mounted his head on my wall for all to see."

The white stag's antler spread was impressive.

'To us his kind are sacred," Laurel said from behind me, "and we would have revered him." The Faena walked over and crouched down beside the deer but it was obvious that there was nothing he could do, as Basel's eyes were already filming over. Flies buzzed both at the gaping slit in his throat and the blood-soaked ground. "Bringers of Spring," the cat said, his voice soft. "They leap down from the heights, Lady Gaia riding on their horns."

"Lady Gaia?" Javes asked.

"The fertile earth," Laurel replied.

I noted footprints leading out the garden gate that led to a throughway between the embassy and its next-door neighbor. I then looked back at Basel's body crumpled in the small space, and measured distance. "But why kill him? He couldn't have given any sort of fight at all. There wasn't room.”

"Oh so innocent Rabbit," Javes said. "Why did Slevoic do his best to torture you for three years?

Because it gave him pleasure." The captain also looked at the tracks going out of the garden gate, his face tired. "I suppose he escaped through there." He sighed and started herding us back into the embassy, but stopped as he caught sight of Suiden. Behind the captain was Groskin, his eyes fixed on Basel, and next to them was Esclaur (still blanket draped) flanked by the two royal guards and the healer.

She came up to Basel's body and stared down at it, then shook her head, her eyes sad.

"It's not your fault," Javes said to Suiden. "No one would have guessed this."

"Something to tell Basel's family," Suiden said.

The gate opened and we all turned, but it was only a couple of the lads supporting the throughway's duty guard between them. "Found him in there, sirs," one said. "Slevoic hit him from behind good and proper."

They pulled up short when they saw the dead stag.

As the captains and physician moved to check on the guard, I knelt down beside Laurel. The Faena softly sang a lament and I closed my eyes to pray, only to have them fly open as a gasp ran through the troops. Basel, in man form, stood next to his deer corpse, the early morning sun shining through him, the full moon a pale shadow in the sky. The wind blew softly and I smelled sweet grass and rich loam, as if I were once more behind a plow. Pushing my hair out of my face, I looked down and watched as green shoots pushed through the dirt where the stag's blood had run into the ground.

"Lady Gaia mourns as the moon season is come," Laurel murmured.

It finally dawned on Ryson that hitching his wagon to the lieutenant's star hadn't been very bright and for once he didn't make a bad situation worse by his chronic stupidity. He was helped by Captain Suiden placing him under guard—this time with four soldiers, armed to the teeth.

"I don't want to see you, hear you, or smell you. Is that clear, trooper?" the captain asked Ryson, who nodded frantically.

"Yes, sir. Basel saw us, sir," he said, anxious to redeem himself, and maybe distance himself from the cook's murder.

"Saw what?”

"He was in the garden last night when Lieutenant Slevoic and I got the spiders. The ones that were in Rabbit's room. Basel asked us about it later." He flinched away from the captain's face. "Slevoic told me it was a joke, sir. To remind Rabbit that he was nothing but a puking—uh, a farm boy from the Border, no matter what the king called him. I didn't know they were so poisonous.”

"Venomous, soldier," the healer said, watching Ryson with a fascinated eye. "Poisonous is what you bite, venomous is what bites you—and you would've found out quickly how venomous they were if one had."

"Was Groskin there, trooper?" Suiden asked.

Ryson shook his head hard. "No, sir. Though Lieutenant Slevoic said to say he was." He slid a look at Groskin. "He said to say that Groskin was involved from the beginning ..." Ryson's voice faded again as his brain once more informed his mouth that maybe he should shut up.

"They've both got porridge for brains," I said. "Groskin for trusting Slevoic, and Slevoic for thinking Ryson could keep a secret." My mind skittered over the possibility that Basel had been killed because of Slevoic's animus towards me.

"Oh, I don't know, Rabbit. Ryson did all right until today," Javes said. He eyed the weasel. "What do you mean, 'from the beginning'? What beginning?”

"Later, Javes," Suiden said. "We have to get the ambassador to his audience with the king." But he also gave Ryson the eye. "Afterwards, though, we will chat.”

It being so hot, putrefaction had already started on Basel's body, so Suiden had us move it into the cold storage room. Laurel Faena placed wards around it to help slow decay, but, as the cat told the two captains, "Nature will have her way, honored sirs.”

"Just as long as we can delay her for a few hours, Sro Cat," Suiden said. "I wish to present Basel before the king, along with your spritewood and dragon skin.” Instead of putting Lieutenant Groskin under guard with Ryson, the captain assigned him vigil over Basel's body while the rest of us prepared to escort Laurel to the royal compound. The lieutenant stood at the cold storage room door, wearing his parade uniform. Suiden made the lieutenant give up his knives (all six of them) and his scabbard hung empty as he stared at the wall opposite him, his eyes haunted.

Basel's shade made the men very edgy at first, but as it was Basel, and he did none of the traditional ghostly things like bleeding rivers of blood through his slit throat or giving quick demonstrations of decomposition, they calmed down somewhat. What really helped, however, was that instead of roaming the embassy wailing and clanking chains, Basel attached himself to me.

Having mounted an expedition into our quarters to liberate our clothes and accoutrements from the spiders, Jeff, Esclaur and I retired to the captains' office to prepare for Laurel's audience with the king.

As we dressed, Jeff looked sideways at the haunt who stood next to me. "Why is Basel following you about?”

My hair flopped down into my eyes and I pushed it back. "The moon season started with last night's full moon. In the Border this is the time when the betrayed and murdered"— I too looked sideways at Basel, transparent in the light coming from the courtyard doors—"and I guess he's both, seek justice."

"But we're not in the Border, Rabbit," Jeff pointed out.

"Tell him that," I said.

"Besides, you had nothing to do with Basel's death." Jeff paused. "Did you?”

"Don't be stupid." I carefully inspected my tabard for lurking spiders before jerking it over my head.

"How would they get justice if they haunt their killers? They attach themselves to whoever they feel can avenge them." Or should. I once more pushed away the thought that Basel died because of me, and picked up my empty scabbard. I stared at it.

"You could've been a haunt too," Jeff said, also staring at the scabbard.

Empty or no, I buckled it on anyway. "Don't think about it.”

"We all could've been," Lord Esclaur said. He had won a short but furious battle with the royal physician and was now dressing in civvies provided by Javes. He adjusted his quiz glass, making sure the ribbon wasn't twisted, his hair once again carefully pomaded and curled.

I stared at the captain's spiritual brother in every aspect, even down to translations, bringing to mind the rest of the king's men in waiting. "Tell me, wolf, how long has Javes been part of the pack?”

To Esclaur's credit, he didn't insult me with false protestations of not knowing what I was talking about.

He was quiet for a moment as Jeff and even Basel turned and looked at him. He then smiled the same tongue-lolling grin I'd seen on the captain. "He's been part of the Court quite a while, my lord." He cocked his head. "Not so naive, are. you?”

"They will engrave that on my tombstone," I said, picking up my gloves and a couple of handkerchiefs, giving them a good shake. The feather fell out from one of the yellow squares onto the floor, but no one noticed.

Jeff's brow creased. "But Javes doesn't have a patronymic. Besides, I heard his father's a merchant.”

Army intelligence again.

"That's what he said, but does anyone know who his mother is?" I tucked my gloves into my sword belt, put my handkerchiefs in my other pocket and glanced down, making sure that my trousers draped properly over my newly buffed Habbs (they had gotten smudged between the fight last night and the spider bashing this morning).

"No, Rabbit isn't naive at all," Javes said from the door. I quickly turned around. "Just willfully thick at times about things he doesn't want to be true.”

"Sheesh, you're like twins," Jeff said, looking between Javes and Esclaur. "Uhm, sir.”

"You've always known who I am," I stated. "When you joined us in the beginning, you damn well knew that I was ibn Chause and eso Flavan. Sir.”

Javes met my eyes, the yellow of the wolf changing back into the brown of the man. "My act of ignorance wasn't because of you, Rabbit.”

Somehow that failed to relieve my mind. But then Captain Javes began to frown and he raised his quiz glass. "I say, didn't you get a haircut last night?”

My hand shot up to my hair, and down my hair. I turned my head and could see the ends brushing my shoulder. I tugged it just to make sure it was mine and not some wig someone plopped on my head when I was distracted, and winced. It was mine. "Sodding hell," I whispered, feeling my spine tighten.

"Just what we need, more weirdness." Javes walked over to his desk and rummaged around in a drawer, finding a length of string. "Here." He watched me fumble with it, then took it back. 'Turn around, I'll do it." He combed and plaited my hair into a queue, finding another string to secure the end of the braid.

"Let's not give Jusson's nobles something else to ponder on. If anyone asks, lie."

My palm itched and I rubbed it against my leg.

"Oh, pox on it," Javes said. "Don't say anything, then." The itching faded.

The captain turned to Jeff. "You have Rabbit's back."

Jeff nodded.

"Only Suiden and I can dismiss you. No one else, not even Rabbit, understood?"

Jeff nodded again. "Yes, sir—”

Toe claws sounded out in the hallway. Laurel was coming towards us, running, and I turned again to face me door, welcoming a crisis, any crisis, to take my mind off what was happening to me. The Faena hurried into the room, his eyes wide with his iris a thin ring around his dark pupils.

"Rabbit, did you take the spritewood staff and the dragon skin?” On the other hand, there are some things that should never ever happen. My spine tightened even more as I asked a question I already knew the answer to. "No, why?"

"They're gone."

Bloody, sodding, pox-rotted, blast damn it all to hell.

"How could they be stolen?" Javes asked as we stood in front of the closet where they had been warded.

Jeff and Esclaur looked over my shoulder as I peered in, all of us searching the cubby as if Laurel had missed them as they lay in a dark corner. He hadn't. Javes moved me aside and ran his hands over the shelf where they had lain, but the closet remained empty.