Rebel's Cage (Book 4) (55 page)

His gaze hardened then and he opened his mouth, but stopped himself, angrily collecting things with more fervour than they deserved. ‘You know, you have this amazing ability to make things so much harder than they need to be. We’re not adversaries, and yet, you keep pushing me, treating me like I’m your enemy.’

‘No, Finn, I don’t.’ Jenn did up the last buckle of her saddlebag and got to her feet. She stared down at him for a moment, until he looked up and met her gaze. Then, with a sigh, she added, ‘You and Micah … you’ve always been Robert’s men. Neither of you will ever trust me the way you trust him. And where do you think that leaves me?’

She didn’t wait for a reply. She simply gathered up her cloak and opened the door. She almost walked straight into Micah, who looked surprised, and full of news.

‘Are we leaving?’

‘Yes.’ Jenn squeezed past him and headed out to the horses.

*

Micah took one last look around the room to make sure they’d left behind no sign of their visit, then picked up his bags and
hurried out after Finnlay. He hadn’t missed the undercurrent of tension between him and Jenn, something which seemed to happen with increasing regularity. It had to be because of Robert.

Wasn’t everything?

‘Finn!’ He ran across the empty hall, his boots making huge noises as he caught up. ‘Wait. I need to tell you something.’

Finnlay barely looked at him as he pushed the heavy wooden door open and squeezed through, holding it for Micah to follow. The night air was sharp and bitter, promising rain or sleet later. There was no sign of Jenn; by now she would be in the wood, saddling the horses.

Micah matched his stride to Finnlay’s, picking his way between the snow-covered rubble towards the open field and the shelter of the forest. Even though Jenn couldn’t hear them from this distance, he still kept his voice low. ‘I spoke to those villagers.’

‘Oh?’ Finnlay didn’t seem very interested. ‘What did they say?’

‘In words, not too much.’ But it hadn’t just been the words, or the prayers, or anything else tangible. It had been in the way they walked, held themselves, in the looks they shared and how they’d viewed him as either an enemy, or a potential convert.

‘Anything we need to worry about?’ Finnlay swung his saddlebags over his shoulder.

‘That depends,’ Micah replied, not at all sure this was such a good idea. Actually, he
was
sure it wasn’t a very good idea at all.

‘On what?’

‘On how many rumours you’ve heard over the last year or so.’

‘Which rumours?’ Finnlay’s voice betrayed his underlying irritation, but Micah ploughed on regardless.

‘The ones about the incarnation of Mineah coming back to battle against the evils of sorcery ravaging the land at the moment.’

Finnlay sighed. ‘What about them?’

‘These people believe that …’ he swallowed, then continued, ‘that she’s been here a while and that … well that she’s … Jenn.’

Finnlay came to a halt. ‘Are they serious?’ he whispered. ‘And that’s why they come up here?’

‘To pray, yes,’ Micah agreed. ‘Look, I’ve heard a hundred different things about Jenn over the years – mostly because of her appearance at Shan Moss after she was supposed to have been killed in the fire at Clonnet. Enough people saw her to recognise her, and too many people saw her use some kind of power
against
two sorcerers.’

‘But that doesn’t mean they could—’

‘Finn,’ Micah put a hand on the man’s arm. ‘I’ve been to Alusia, remember? Robert and I went to the site of the last battle with the Empire, when Mineah was supposed to have fought against the Cabal. I saw the marks in the earth, caused, according to legend, by
her
power.’

‘And Robert said that only meant she might have been a sorcerer.’

‘Isn’t Jenn? Isn’t she a different kind of sorcerer?’

Finnlay raised his eyebrows at that. ‘How bad are these rumours?’

‘I’ve had them whispered to me in the odd tavern here and there. It’s not a flood – but if she’s seen again, and people hear about it, it could gather momentum. These people are very serious. They’ve already got men walking the country delivering the message. I get the impression that these nightly visits are a prelude to building some kind of shrine. As this is her birthplace, they see Elita as a holy place.’

‘This is not my area of expertise, you know. I wonder if McCauly has heard about this.’ With a deep sigh, Finnlay said, ‘And we can’t tell her.’

‘Why not?’

‘Would you want to be told there are people out there who think you’re a god? She’s already got too much to worry about at the moment. Let’s see what happens with Andrew and Robert. Then, if I get a chance, I’ll tell her when we get back to the Enclave.’

It made sense. Besides, Jenn probably wouldn’t believe him anyway, given their current problems. ‘And if she asks?’ Micah said.

‘Tell her they’re here saying prayers for her father’s soul. She already half-believes it. And I might suggest Murdoch comes back here in the summer, see if he can find out more.’

‘Good idea.’

‘Come on. If we keep her waiting, she won’t speak to either of us for the rest of the journey.’

‘One can only hope.’

Finnlay let out an involuntary laugh, then elbowed him sharply. ‘That’s not nice.’

‘Sorry.’

But they were both grinning as they entered the forest.

*

Andrew tried not to fidget. He tried to focus his attention on the forest around him, on the cottage he could just see through the trees, tried to practise the things Finnlay had taught him about listening and sensing changes in his natural surroundings – but he failed miserably. It had nothing to do with where he was, who he was with or the fact that he’d just spent the last five days in the saddle. He just didn’t feel like settling, sitting down in one place and not
doing
anything.

For the tenth time since they’d arrived, he looked over to where Robert sat with his back to a tree trunk, not ten feet away, that book open in his hands, reading as though he had no other concerns in his life, as though
things
weren’t happening all around him. The light was fading, and Jenn and Finnlay and Micah would be here soon, but Robert kept on reading.

Andrew had tried asking about the book, about the odd way it had changed shape for a moment, but Robert wouldn’t be drawn.

Didn’t they have things to discuss?

Robert hadn’t mentioned Kenrick again, nor what he claimed had happened to Helen and Liam. If it was true, why hadn’t Jenn said anything to him? Or Finnlay? Surely they knew he’d find out about it the moment he returned to the Enclave. Or would they … find some way to fold the truth
and leave some parts of it out? After all, they hadn’t told him the truth about Robert, had they? And there were still dozens of questions Jenn had said he was too young to know the answer for.

Answers that Robert had given him quickly and openly. Answers that made him feel very …

He leaped to his feet, ready to start pacing.

‘Where are you going?’ Robert murmured without looking up from his damned book.

‘Nowhere. I just want to stretch my legs.’

‘Can’t it wait?’

‘For what?’

‘Until your mother gets here?’

‘Why?’

‘Because I’m holding a mask over us at the moment, and if you move around, somebody could see you.’

‘But I live here!’

‘And you spend hours sitting here, in this part of Lawrence’s forest, don’t you? In the company of a known sorcerer and rebel.’

Andrew sniffed and sat back down, wrapping his arms around his knees. He watched Robert for a few minutes longer, then sighed. ‘I thought that wasn’t really a book.’

‘Of course it’s a book.’ Robert seemed quite capable of carrying on a conversation while reading at the same time, a feat Andrew had never quite mastered. ‘How could I read it if it wasn’t?’

‘Is it interesting?’

‘Quite.’

‘What’s it about?’

‘Well … it says here that young Dukes who don’t let their betters read in peace receive punishment of the most dire proportions.’

Andrew struggled, but his grin won out. He kept his silence for a few minutes longer, but the truth was, there
were
things that needed discussing,
before
his mother returned. ‘So, do you know why it did that strange shape-shifting thing, back at the loft?’

Robert’s answer took a second to emerge. ‘I think so. Why?’

‘Well, it’s just that … well, it didn’t keep its shape after it changed, like the Key, you know? Of course, my mother has to be present for it to shift from that bell to the orb, but once it does, it stays like that until she’s finished with it.’

He stopped talking to find Robert’s gaze had lifted from the book and was fixed on some place in the middle distance. Then his eyes narrowed a little and the faintest suggestion of a smile danced across his face. He nodded once and returned to his book.

But there was no more. No explanation, no discussion. All those years, the books in the alcove, the notes they’d exchanged, the discussion they’d had – even this abduction – all to one purpose. So he would kill when ordered to.

It seemed Robert didn’t trust him after all.

‘So what happens now?’ He’d hoped to keep the bitterness from his voice, but failed there as well. Well, Robert could just interpret that however he wanted.

‘Now you go home, explain to Bella and Lawrence and your mother that you will be going away for a while. Concoct some story between you to cover your absence. When I made my first visit to the Enclave at the age of nine, I arranged with my parents to go on a retreat to a monastery for a month. Then you can collect what small belongings you feel you must have and meet me here again in two days. When you do, I’ll tell you the rest of the plan.’

‘The plan where I kill Kenrick.’

Robert turned his head slowly and pinned Andrew with his gaze. ‘Are you really so shallow, so selfish, as to think that’s all this is about?’

Again Andrew’s face flushed and he looked down. ‘No. I just don’t … I mean, I want to … I don’t know what I’m doing here. Nobody ever said that I would …’

Robert got to his feet, his voice soft. ‘Tell me something: why don’t you have any powers?’

‘What?’ Andrew frowned up at him.

‘I can Sense them in you. You have a sorcerer’s aura and yet you walk about blind and deaf. Why?’

Andrew pushed himself slowly to his feet. ‘You can Sense them?’

‘Of course,’ Robert said. ‘Can’t everybody?’

The silliness of that question forced a smile on Andrew’s face, answered by one of Robert’s. ‘Well, no. Mother can, and Martha and I think, Arlie – but Finnlay’s never been convinced and he’s tried to teach me things, but I can never do what he says. If I
do
have powers, they don’t work very well.’

Robert stared at him for a moment, then said, ‘Close your eyes.’

‘Why?’

‘Just close your eyes.’

Wary for no good reason, Andrew shut his eyes against the darkening forest. Abruptly he was set adrift, unable to feel the ground beneath his feet or the cold air against his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but a wave of dizziness almost knocked him over and he stumbled, opening his eyes again to find Robert reaching out to take his arm, steady him.

‘What was that?’

‘Let me ask you another question first. What would you do if you did have powers?’

‘Do?’

‘Yes, do. Would you do as I ask and take care of Kenrick?’

‘I … I don’t know.’

‘I see. So what would you do with them?’

‘What do
you
do with them?’

‘Fight a very small rebellion and contain the bloodshed as best I can.’

‘Oh. Well … I suppose …’ Andrew had never really thought of this, and now that he had, it was irritating not to have an answer. ‘I’d think of something.’

Robert’s smile was almost overpowering. ‘Yes, I’m sure you would. Come on, let’s go. Your mother is arriving.’

‘But … is that it?’

With a sigh, Robert turned back to him, his gaze hooded and deep. ‘You’ll tell your mother all about our little jaunt, won’t you?’

‘I … am I not supposed to?’

‘You’ll fill in all the details, making sure you tell her much of what I said to you word for word. Am I wrong?’

‘You …’ Andrew swallowed hard, understanding dawning on him too slowly. ‘You don’t trust her. You don’t trust that she won’t tell Nash. But … if Nash is looking for the Key and if she was on his side, why wouldn’t she just give it to him?’

One side of Robert’s mouth lifted in a sardonic smile. ‘Is that all Nash wants?’

Andrew frowned. ‘I don’t know. But does that mean you don’t want me to tell Mother?’

‘No, that means I want you to decide for yourself.’ With that, Robert turned away and headed into the dark forest, away from where the others were just arriving. ‘And in case you’re wondering, this time it
is
a test.’

Andrew, turning back to the Spay, saw the approaching horses step carefully amongst the rock pools. He hurried forward, bursting into the clearing in time to sweep his mother up into a hug. It felt like he hadn’t seen her for a year.

*

Robert watched the boy run towards his mother. Though it was almost completely dark inside the forest now, and she didn’t have his enhanced eyesight, he knew she would know he was here. But he didn’t move forward.

This was so stupid. So … predictable. So unknown. What he felt for her shouldn’t matter any more: he’d once loved her, and believed she’d loved him. But she’d lied and betrayed him in the same breath and that put an end to it.

She’d never told him about her meeting with Nash in Shan Moss. Never told him that the Angel of Darkness had kissed her. Instead, she’d told him she’d never loved him and had stopped him from destroying Nash.

Had she
really
never loved him?

He could feel the warmth of the Calyx close to his skin, the book a hard shape, and comforting. But did he dare try to change it again – what if he unleashed something he couldn’t contain?

He didn’t dare, not without the right setting, and perhaps
some help if something went wrong. But what was the right setting? Jenn? The Enclave – and would it be safe to trust them with such knowledge?