Eventide (Meratis Trilogy Book 2) (20 page)

On his approach, a guard came out of a small room in the corner across from the girl’s cell. It was the same guard who had acted incredulous at the idea of giving the prisoner light, and even now she looked down her nose at Jeff.

“Anything you want?”

Jeff shook his head. “Just to talk with the prisoner. Alone, if possible.”

The guard sniffed. “Be my guest.” At a volume Jeff didn’t know if he was supposed to hear, she added, “Might as well get some use out of the light. Waste of money keeping them lit for her.”

She disappeared back into the guardroom and shut the door.

Jeff rocked up on his toes and back on his heels, looked up and down and corridor for something to sit on. A stool sat next to the guardroom, and he pulled it closer, perching on the edge of it a safe distance from the bars.

The girl remained statue-still. Dampened by the frolic in the stream, her short hair stuck out in all directions, the dirt washed away to show its true blue-black colour. In contrast, even in the dim light, her blue eyes appeared lighter, more striking.

At first he hoped she would be the one to break the silence, but when it became clear that wouldn’t happen, he said, “It’s pretty strange, being on this side of things.” He waited, tapped his fingers on the underside of the stool. “Your sister kept me pretty good company when I was in your place.”

A faint hiss echoed around his ears. The young woman’s eyes narrowed at the mention of her sister, and Jeff knew he’d got it right. Was she angry he had the gall to bring her up? But she had no idea the relationship Jeff had developed with the woman who had saved his life.

“You’re Venn Connell, aren’t you?”

Surprise registered on the girl’s face, and she uncurled from her ball.

“Siobhan talked about you. Often, actually.”

That was only true in part. She’d mentioned Venn’s name only twice in their brief acquaintance, but Jeff knew her sister had been the thought behind every question, every threat.

“Don’t say her name,” Venn growled.

Really, if she hadn’t possessed opposable thumbs, Jeff would have thought her part animal, she was so primal, so feral. Even now her top lip curled up in a snarl, exposing straight white teeth.

“You have no right to say her name.”

“And you have no right to judge me for saying it,” said Jeff, getting to his feet. “I owe Siobhan the greatest debt a person can owe, and I can’t even pay it.”

“You killed her, you son of a bitch! She’s gone because of
you
!” Venn cursed and threw herself against the bars, the lock rattling with her effort. Jeff backed up against the wall, his heartbeat in his ears, as she raged out against him.

Two guards hurried out of the room next door, weapons raised, and Jeff lifted a hand to stop them. Brady appeared in the stairway.

“Is everything all right? I heard—”

“It’s fine,” said Jeff. “Let her wear herself out.”

“You shouldn’t be down here, sir,” said the guard from before as she eyed the prisoner. “She’s not safe, that one.”

“Safe enough behind those bars,” Jeff argued. He approached the cell one step at a time, Venn backing away in time with him. He turned to Brady. “Can you give us a minute?”

Brady’s grey eyes stared at him, full of concern.

“Not like she can do anything, locked away in there. I just need to talk to her.”

The scholar hesitated another brief moment and then nodded. “We’ll wait in the guardroom.”

He led the two guards back through the door, and soon Jeff was alone with her again.

Venn pulled her shoulders back, hands balled into fists at her sides. She didn’t speak and Jeff made himself comfortable on the floor, leaning against the wall. He knew his story would stretch past the comfort of the stool.

“You want to know the truth of how Siobhan died?” he asked.

Venn’s hands clenched and unclenched, and Jeff saw how hard she was trying to keep control of her emotions. “I know how she died, you piece of gutter-shit. You shot her through the chest to escape your imprisonment because you weren’t man enough to wait it out.”

Jeff blinked. “Well, that’s an interesting interpretation of events. Where did you hear that?”

She raised a shoulder. “Word spreads.”

“Because, of course, rumour is the most reliable form of newscasting.”

“Fuck you.”

“Fuck you!” Not his wittiest repartée, but she pushed his buttons. “How about I tell you what really happened before you condemn me, and try to murder me over a bit of gossip.”

She didn’t say anything to that, but Jeff could hear her teeth grind together, in time with his own. He rubbed his thumb against the back of his hand to keep them busy so he didn’t go over to those bars and wring her bird-like neck.

“She caught me trying to break the barrier around Raul’s fortress and threw me in a cell a lot less nice than the one you’re in right now,” he started, determined to focus only on the words and not the memories they provoked. “She got off on coming to me with bad news about how my friends were under siege from Raul’s pets. How the fields and houses were burned, how Raul brought down Cordelay with a single attack.”

“You’re not convincing me of anything so far,” Venn mumbled.

“I’m telling you the way it is,” said Jeff. “Your sister was a bitch.” He stopped and took a breath, pulling up his knees and resting his elbows on them, focusing on his hands dangling between. “At first. The other guards did their best to drive me over the edge of insanity. They left me in the dark for two full weeks. My only company was the bugs and rats that crawled over me while I didn’t sleep. They fed me rotten food that, to this day, I can still feel crawling around in my guts.”

“Now you’re trying to make me feel sorry for you? Your story is weak and pathetic.”

Jeff felt his lips twitch into a smile. “Don’t I know it. But words were all I had. So I used them. Peppered the guards with questions. And each time I did, your sister would come, and eventually our conversation moved away from Raul’s schemes. We covered a lot of subjects there in the dark, but the story that stood out was the reason she joined up with Raul in the first place. The reason she left home.”

Venn hissed through her teeth. “She wouldn’t.”

“She did. She told me about the man her parents forced her to marry. Told me what he did to her. Told me what she did to him.” He raised his eyes and met hers. “She told me what you did for her.”

The fury and hate behind those pretty blue eyes wavered, and then grew stronger. Her whole body shivered with the heat of it.

“You know nothing. I don’t care what she told you, you have
no
idea.”

“And it doesn’t matter. But you were the one person she cared enough for to worry about. Did you know Brindley was next on Raul’s extermination list?”

He expected Venn to be stunned, shocked, but her glower didn’t fade. “So? That place is a heap of shit. It’s too bad he didn’t roast it.”

Jeff, thrown by her reaction, stumbled over his words. “But—weren’t you there?”

Again she fell quiet.

He decided not to push the matter and paused to gather his thoughts. “Siobhan helped me escape because she wanted to protect you. She wanted to get me home so that I could stop Raul in my own way. Get him to leave Brindley alone so that you would be safe.”

“Lies,” she said, but the fire of her conviction had ebbed.

“Not. We went up to the tower to break the barrier spell around the fortress. She was Raul’s second in command, and very proud to hold that title, but you were more important to her even than that. We were still in that room when the guard came in. He’s the one that shot her. He didn’t have to. He didn’t even do it because of her betrayal. He did it to get her place by Raul’s side.”

Tears Jeff didn’t think she realised had fallen streaked through the grime on Venn’s cheeks. He ran his hand over his throat, passed his fingertips over the seam of the cut, and lowered his voice as he said, “The last act your sister did was to push me out of the tower. Whether she figured it would kill me, I don’t know, but she did whatever it took to make sure Raul didn’t get his hands on me again. Not for me. It had nothing to do with me. Everything she did was for you.”

As if she picked up on the sympathy he let come into his words, Venn spun around on her butt so her back was to him. She drew up her knees and wrapped her arms around them, hunching forward.

Jeff’s story finished, he rose to his feet.

“No doubt you have your own story to tell, and when you’re ready to tell it I want to hear it.”

He called out to Brady, and he and the guards came back out. Jeff searched the scholar’s eyes to see if he’d been listening, but Brady’s expression was clear.

“Make sure she’s given enough to eat,” he said to the guards. “And decent food, not scraps.”

“Who do you think you are, giving orders?” the same guard asked with a sneer. The other guard didn’t appear as ready to question Jeff’s position, his gaze glued to his partner in horror

Jeff faced the first guard fully, filled with an unusual degree of assertiveness. “I created you. Cross me, and when I get home I will—” he faltered, his mind going blank. Desperate to finish his thought, he said, “write you out of the story. Ask the scholar, here, if you doubt me. Got it?”

The guard nodded, and Jeff backed down. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Venn listening with curiosity. Not wanting to provoke her again, he ignored her, marching back up the stairs with Brady at his heels.

“That was interesting,” the scholar said as they reached the top. “What made you try and talk to her?”

“Because I know why she tried to kill me. You know the guard who helped me escape from Raul’s prison?”

“The one who died?”

Jeff nodded and jerked his head back down the stairs. “That’s her younger sister.”

Brady’s brow knitted together, and he rubbed his thumb over his bottom lip. “Was she there when it happened?”

“No, she was supposed to be in Brindley.”

“Then why does she think you killed her? How does she know you were involved at all?”

“Someone’s spreading rumours,” said Jeff.

“Someone looking to cause trouble?” Brady asked. He passed a hand over his face and smoothed his creased brow. They started walking up the stairs towards Brady’s rooms. “Questions for tomorrow, after we’ve had time to think it over. Three hundred scouts rode out tonight down every possible road. Jayden was hoping the girl could narrow it down, but I guess that’s not likely. Still, it might be worth questioning her again. If she’s been on the road gathering rumours, she could know something.”

“And me?”

“Maybe best you’re not there. She’s not exactly soothed by your presence.”

Jeff resigned himself to the truth. “You’ll keep me updated?”

“Of course. If you’re still here.”

“What do you mean?”

Brady paused outside his door, hand on the doorknob. “I expected you and Cassie to see Maggie tomorrow. Look at going home.”

Jeff opened his mouth to contradict him, and then closed it again. Brady was right. He’d wanted to solve the mystery of the assassination attempt and he had. Nothing left for him here.

“I guess that’s true,” he said. “Go back to figuring out my own problems, minus someone who wants me dead.”

“Won’t that be a nice change,” Brady replied with a smile. He opened the door and stepped inside. “It was nice to see you again.”

“You, too,” said Jeff, meaning it.

The scholar shut himself in and Jeff returned to his room. He fell back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. His mind churned with questions, decisions, going back and forth and up and down and around in circles until the room spun, and he had to get up again.

Grabbing a cloth from the dresser, he dipped it into the white and blue basin beside it, holding the coolness against the back of his neck.

No matter how hard he tried to force his conclusions in the opposite direction, Brady’s comment had slammed home one very clear, very unchangeable fact: once again, Jeff had entangled himself in the problems of another world, and created others. He couldn’t leave things the way they were for his friends to sort out. As much as he hated it, he would stay here and see it all through. Again.

“Shit.”

Chapter Thirteen

J
eff awoke to a knock at the door. As had become the norm in his life, sweat had pooled in the small of his back and he couldn’t catch his breath. Startled out of his nightmare, he had no idea what it was about, but he felt like he’d managed all of thirty seconds of sleep and would have handed over his next book advance for an extra few hours. He threw back the comforter and lifted himself off the sofa, shuffling towards the door.

Once he opened it, he forgot all about being tired or depressed when he found Cassie on the other side.

“Hi,” he said, unable to come up with anything better.

“Morning.” She seemed embarrassed to be there, scuffing her toe between the lines of the stone, her gaze focused past his ear. “I thought I’d come and check on you, see how you were doing. Your neck, being back here, everything.”