Eventide (Meratis Trilogy Book 2) (25 page)

He stopped a second time on his way back to his room, this time outside Cassie’s door. He thought about what Jasmine had said, thought about the injured men, and the eagle attacks. Time was running short. He wanted to talk about all these things with Cassie, see if she would be willing to take things one step at a time and face the next battles together. But his old friends Doubt and Fear, returned. Halfway towards knocking, Jeff let his hand drop, fall by his side. He would tell her, but not today.

He stepped away from the door just as it opened, Darcy emerged with Cassie behind him. They were both fully dressed, but with the sharp eye of jealousy, Jeff thought he detected a hint of dishevelment in her appearance.

“Hey Jeff,” Darcy greeted, sounding sincerely pleased to see him. Not the least amount of bragging or smugness in his voice. Jeff hated that. As if the guy thought himself so certain of his conquest, he couldn’t even be bothered to rub it in.

“Hey,” Jeff replied, unable to reach the same degree of nonchalance.

“Darcy was teaching me some new self-defense moves,” said Cassie, smoothing out her ponytail. “I figured it couldn’t hurt, considering everything. Do you know what the commotion was all about? We went to find out, but everyone was running around.”

“Right. Yeah. Good idea.”

“Everything okay?” Darcy asked.

“Some of the queen’s men just arrived. They were attacked on the road, and we’re not sure they’re going to make it. And the Keep was attacked.”
Which you’d know if you hadn’t been so busy,
the green-eyed demon accused.

Cassie’s mouth fell open. “Attacked? Is it over? By who?”

“More like by what. It was some of Raul’s eagles. We got them down, but there might have been a few casualties.” His voice sounded bland and robotic to his ears, doling out the facts without the emotions. He looked to Darcy. “Jayden’s with your dad, filling him in if you want the rest of the details.”

He started walking away, but Cassie called him back. “Jeff, are you all right?”

Jeff paused, turned back with a small smile. “Tired is all. Just need some sleep.”

He made it back to his room and slammed the door, flopped down on the sofa, and poured himself a cup of wine from the pitcher on the table.

He drank a cup to forget Darcy’s relaxed presence in Cassie’s room, and the thought that she was better off with someone who wasn’t a confused mess. Drank to forget about Raul for a while, to block out the worry of what would happen next if they failed. To forget about the men downstairs, their bodies festering with poison.

He drank until his thoughts were fuzzy, and then he fell into a wine-induced sleep.

Through the haze, a voice called him awake. Someone yelling inside the Keep. Moonlight spilled through the window over the empty bed and it took Jeff a few moments for his brain to work through the alcohol and make out the words.

“Murder! Murder! The Keep has been attacked!”

Chapter Sixteen

“Murder!” The voice cried again, and this time Jeff shot up with a jolt, the words and panic sinking through his cotton-filled thoughts. Holding onto his head to keep the room from weaving, he got to his feet, and tore open the door.

“Stay inside,” Jayden ordered as he ran past, shoulder-checking Jeff back in.

But again Jeff’s curiosity won over his personal safety. Ignoring Jayden, Jeff pursued, listening for sounds of battle or chaos in the direction of the screams, and hearing nothing. Jayden outpaced him and was soon out of sight.

As Jeff reached the main level, the sound of clashing swords rang from the dungeon, and Jeff tripped on the stones as his haste fought against his fear.

A piercing scream and then the fighting stopped, followed by the clomp of heavy boots speeding up the stairs. In the darkness of the hall, a shadow pushed against Jeff, and they both stumbled backwards. Connecting the scream with the fleeing shape, Jeff pushed reason and intelligence aside and swung a fist at the shadow before it could regain its balance.

This is dumb, this is dumb,
Jeff chanted as the blow struck what might have been his temple. The stranger reeled back, but Jeff’s punch hadn’t been hard enough. The shadow threw a swift blow to Jeff’s gut and fled as Jeff gulped for air.

He debated pursuing the attacker, but the sound of footsteps had already faded away, and in the darkness Jeff couldn’t tell in what direction. On top of that, rationality had begun to sink back in, and he could only be shocked by what he’d found the courage to do.

His moment of pride was replaced by worry as the sweet metallic smell of blood hit his nostrils.

A sudden flash of light as the torches downstairs were lit, and then he heard Jayden’s yell, and the clatter of a sword falling to the floor.

“Oh gods, Jasmine, sister, it’s okay. You’ll be okay.”

Jeff flew down the rest of the stairs and jogged to the end of the corridor. He stopped when he saw the scene in front of him.

Both of Venn’s regular guards, the two Jeff had threatened to rewrite into nothing, lay dead on the floor, blood spread out around their bodies and spattered on the walls. Jayden was on his knees, facing the stairs as he bent over the form of Jasmine who lay across his lap. He brushed her hair out of her face, smearing blood across her forehead. Panic swirled behind his sea-green eye.

She was conscious, but barely, her fair skin looking white and clammy under the torchlight. Jayden’s hand reached to cover hers, which pressed against her stomach, blood seeping between their fingers. Her breaths came short and shallow, face pinched with pain.

Jeff whipped his head towards Venn, who knelt on her knees in the cell, hands clasped around the bars. Her face and hands were covered with blood, eyes glazed over as she stared at Jasmine, but otherwise she appeared unharmed. For a brief moment, he felt a torrent of fury that she had done this, but reason crept in, and he saw the cell was still locked and barred.

As soon as his brain ran through everything he saw, he dropped to his knees on Jasmine’s other side.

“What happened?”

“Attack. Tried to—kill Venn—” Jasmine panted.

Jayden hushed her, smoothing down her hair before hurriedly returning pressure to her wound.

“Go, get Maggie, get Brady, get help!” he barked.

Jeff started to get to his feet, but Jayden grabbed his wrist, forcing him back down.

“Not
you
,” he said, and jerked his chin towards the stairwell. Jeff looked over his shoulder to see two guards scrambling back up the steps. “I need you to press down here. We need to stop the bleeding.”

Jeff pressed down with both hands, not relenting even when Jasmine yelped. Jayden eased her gently to the floor so she lay flat and then he rose to his feet. His hand trembling by his side, he turned towards Venn. “Tell me.”

Jeff watched as the girl blinked a few times, trying to focus, her attention rapt on Jasmine.

“Tell me!” Jayden repeated.

Venn jerked back and stood up, her shoulders straight and chin raised. “I was asleep. The torches weren’t lit so I didn’t see anything. But I heard him. At first I thought it was just one of the guards walking around, but then someone screamed. Then the other guard woke up and started yelling that we were being attacked. They started to fight, I heard the blades, and then that woman—”

“
Lady
Jasmine,” Jayden corrected through clenched teeth.

“Sure. She ran down. The second guard fell, then she screamed, and whoever it was ran away. You passed him on the stairs.”

“Couldn’t see a blasted thing with one fucking eye,” Jayden raged, the anger directed at his own weakness, Jeff could tell.

Jeff thought of the shadow. Very likely that had been Harold, slinking away. He’d been pretty spry for a paper pusher of his years.

Jasmine writhed on the floor beneath Jeff’s hands as another wave of pain passed through her, her face scrunching up, sweat mixing with the blood on her cheeks. She choked on a breath, a weak coughing fit followed, and then another gasp of pain.

Jayden strode up to the wall, slamming the heel of his palm into the stone before coming back to Venn.

“Stop—pacing,” his sister scolded. “Making—me dizzy.”

He dropped to his knees beside her. “Where the fuck is everyone?”

Jeff wished he could say something to help, but fear had numbed his mind to realities and possibilities. “She’ll be okay.”

Jayden’s hardened stare moved up to meet his.

Footsteps on the stairs announced someone’s arrival. Jayden looked up expectantly, but from the disappointment on his face, Jeff guessed it wasn’t Maggie.

“Ah shit,” Michael Dorning’s voice sounded behind him. “This don’t look good.”

“Did you pass anyone else in the halls? Are they coming with help?”

Dorning came around and laid one hand on Jayden’s shoulder, the other holding a swath of dark material. Jeff could see the restraint his friend used not to shrug him off. “It’s the middle of the night, lad, it’ll take a few extra minutes. They’ll be here. And I wouldn’t worry too hard over your sister. She’s made of tough stuff. Isn’t that right, my Lady?”

She managed a weak smile, her face growing paler the longer they waited. Jeff felt a rush of blood slide though his fingers, over his wrist.

Dorning held up the cloth. “Found this on the stairs going out of the Keep. Looks like whoever did this was in a rush to leave.”

“You’ve already been out searching?” Jeff asked, surprised.

Michael raised a shoulder. “I heard the fuss, and the servants all pointing after someone running away. Knew Jayden had come down here already, figured he could handle it.” He scratched at the greying stubble on his chin, his face more drawn and haggard than earlier. “Couldn’t find him.”

“Is Darcy still searching?” Jayden asked.

Michael’s brow shot up in surprise. “No. My guess is he’s asleep. Boy can sleep through an earthquake. I haven’t seen him.”

“We’re coming! We’re here!” Maggie shouted from the top of the stairs. She ran down, her husband, Conrad, and eldest son, William, close behind. “Oh sweet mercy. Oh gods. Jasmine, honey, I’m here.”

Maggie swept in next to Jeff and nudged him out of the way. He gladly stepped aside for the skilled people to take over. His arm had started to shake with the amount of weight he’d tried to apply, and as the shock wore off, he had a harder time staying calm.

“Let me see, sweetheart,” Maggie said as she gently pulled Jasmine’s hand away. More blood spilled out of the wound, and Maggie’s face pinched with tension, her eyes cool and focused.

“Maggie?” Jayden asked, almost pleading.

“It’s bad,” she replied. Her gaze slid over to catch Jasmine’s, and she clasped her hand. “But you’re not going to die. Hear me? We’ll get the bleeding stopped and then the physician can patch you up. If your brother survived having his body cut in half, you can survive a poke to the guts, right?”

“Right,” Jasmine gasped.

Jeff slid closer to the wall as Conrad stepped between him and Maggie and stooped down to pick Jasmine up off the floor. The man had lost a bit more hair from the top of his head in the last few months, and his waistline had grown a little thicker. The muscles in his tree-trunk arms strained with the woman’s dead weight, but the blacksmith didn’t have any trouble once he regained his feet.

“I’ll be there in a minute,” Jayden called after the enchantress as she hurried away. Before William could follow, he reached out to grab his arm. “What about Brady? Why isn’t he here?”

William was one of the scholar’s apprentices. At nineteen, he was a dark haired, lankier copy of his father—one of the few Stanwell children that didn’t take after his mother. Right then, the concerned expression Jeff had seen so often on Conrad’s face crossed his. “He’s in the library, sir, with the doors locked. I haven’t been able to get in to see him all night.”

“Shit.” Jayden ran his hand over his hair and turned back to the pool of blood where Jasmine had lain.

As Jeff watched, Brady’s apprentice turned pale, and he swayed on his feet.

“You all right, man?” Jayden demanded.

William nodded. “Fine. Just the blood, I think. I’ve never seen so much.”

Jeff gave him a reassuring smile. “I know how you feel. Why don’t you head home? Your mum will be busy tonight, I’m sure. Someone needs to look after your brothers and sisters.”

With another nod, his lips pressed tightly together, William cast a curious glance towards Venn before he left. On his way, he almost bumped into the four physician’s aides coming down bearing stretchers, Cassie behind them.

“What’s going on? Is Jasmine all right? I just saw them …” She stopped when she saw the mess and covered her mouth with the back of her hand.

Jeff wanted to go and comfort her, but his feet stayed cemented to the floor, his attention stuck on the physicians loading up the two guards to take them away. Now that the immediate urgency of getting Jasmine in Maggie’s hands had passed, Jeff found he couldn’t stop staring at them, their lifeless eyes directed at the walls. It didn’t matter that he’d spoken to them all of once in his life, it hurt to see them dead.