Canavan Trudi - The Traitor Queen

“I’ll have another bed and a screen brought in, my Lady,” he said, then hurried away.

She entered the room, and Regin followed.

“Should I offer to sleep on the floor?” Regin asked.

Sonea turned to see him smiling. “I won’t spoil anybody’s night by insisting on having the best room, or two rooms, but sleeping on the floor is going a bit too far.”

Before long the arrangements had been made. A generous meal and a bottle of wine were laid out on a small table. The wine was very good. Too expensive even for a local wedding, Sonea suspected. More likely the Guild had ensured a supply of decent wine was kept here for its members.

“Do you have more of this wine?” she asked the young woman when she returned to collect the dishes.

“Yes, Lady.”

“Are the newly-weds still here?”

“About to leave, Lady.”

“Give them a bottle as a wedding gift.”

The young woman’s eyes widened. “Yes, Lady.”

Regin’s pursed his lips, then to Sonea’s surprise he slipped out of his chair and quietly followed the woman downstairs. When he returned, Sonea raised an eyebrow at him.

“Just making sure the gift reached the recipients,” he said. He sat down. “So. Fergun’s Rest.” Regin frowned. “Didn’t he run away when the Fort was attacked by the Ichani?”

“He hid. Which was the only sensible thing to do.”

“And cowardly.” Regin shrugged. “Still, nobody knows how they’ll react when confronted by a real battle. Naming a Stayhouse after him?” He shook his head. “Tell me there are Stayhouses all over Kyralia named after magicians who died in the war, not just Fergun.”

“I don’t know. I hope so.” She grimaced. “It irks me more that a man who locked up my friend so that he could blackmail me has anything named after him, but that’s too personal a grudge to justify not honouring him among the rest of the dead.”

Regin looked at her. “Ah, that’s right. He wanted you dishonoured and thrown out of the Guild to ensure no lower-class people would join the Guild again.”

“Yes. He’d be horrified, if he were alive today, at the changes in the Guild.”

“You never know. He may have changed his mind, after the invasion. Lots of people did, you know.”

She looked up at him. He held her gaze for a moment. In his eyes was a hint of expectation. For what? For me to acknowledge he is a much better person now? Reassurance that I don’t hold a grudge still? Or to admit I have come to trust even him? Perhaps even like him? Well, maybe I shouldn’t go that far. She drew in a breath to speak.

— Sonea?

Administrator Osen’s voice in her mind made her jump. She let out the breath in a startled gasp. It was always surprising to be contacted through one of her blood rings, since she never knew when the other person was about to put it on.

— Osen!

— I have good news, Osen sent. King Amakira has released Lorkin.

Relief rushed through her, followed by a new anxiety.

— Is he all right?

— Yes. We don’t think he was tortured or harmed, though Dannyl suspects the experience was harrowing.

— Will he be leaving for home soon? Should I meet and escort him?

— Amakira has forbidden him from leaving the Guild House.

— Oh.

Anger flared inside her, then a quieter puzzlement. Why release Lorkin then force him to stay in the country?

— At least he is one step closer to coming home. We will continue to insist Lorkin be allowed to return, through Dannyl.

— And myself?

— Yes. There is no need to change plans and you still have the other matter to attend to.

— Of course.

— Good luck. I will contact you if I learn more.

— Thank you.

A feeling of silence where his voice had been told her he had taken off the ring. She blinked as her eyes registered her surroundings again. Regin was watching her closely.

“Was it Lorkin or Osen?”

She stared at him. “How did you know Lorkin had one of my blood rings?”

His smile was lopsided. “As if you’d let him out of your sight without one.”

She nodded. “Yes, it wouldn’t be hard to guess that one correctly. It was Osen. Lorkin has been released, but the Sachakan king has forbidden him to leave the Guild House.”

Regin straightened. “That’s good news. Are we still travelling to Arvice, then?”

“Yes.”

His eyes narrowed. “Not simply because you want to make sure he gets home?”

Sonea crossed her arms. “You think I’d disobey the Guild?”

“Yes.” He held her gaze, but was smiling. “But only for Lorkin’s sake.”

“I didn’t run off to save him when he first disappeared,” she reminded him. “Anyway, Osen’s orders were to continue with our plans.”

Regin nodded. “All of them?”

“Yes. What plans did you think we might abandon, at this point?”

He shrugged and looked away. “I don’t know. You said ‘plans’ not ‘plan’. We have only one official reason to be going to Sachaka.”

“With multiple possible outcomes to deal with.” Sonea rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Are you going to spend the entire journey looking for hidden objectives and secret motives in everything I say?”

“Probably.” Regin grinned. “I can’t help it. It’s a habit. It could be considered a talent. An annoying one, perhaps, but I do try to use it for good.”

Sonea sighed. “Well, don’t annoy me without good reason. That would not be good.”

“No.” He shook his head in emphatic, exaggerated agreement, his eyes bright with humour. She felt a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth, until she recalled that he was right: there was another reason for their journey. She felt a brief but powerful urge to tell him about the meeting with the Traitors.

Not yet.

She sighed and finished her glass of wine. “Then I hope you don’t snore, because I’m used to working night shifts and wake up easily. If I don’t get a full night’s sleep I’m going to be cranky.”

He rose and started toward the bed on the other side of the screen. “Ah, Sonea. You ask for the one thing I can’t promise.”

Later that night she did find herself awake and listening to the sound of his breathing. It was not loud, but it was strange to be hearing someone else sleeping nearby.

And unexpectedly soothing, she realised.

Ever since the first time she had climbed down the hidden chimney between the panelling of Sonea’s main room and the outer wall of the Magicians’ Quarters, Lilia had wondered what its original purpose had been. All of the rooms had them, though she suspected none of the occupants knew of their existence. Bricks protruded at regular intervals up the narrow space, too convenient not to be intended as a kind of ladder.

Cery’s guesses included garbage chutes and latrine outlets. Fortunately, there was no sign that the gap had been used for either purpose for a long time, if ever. Lilia thought of them as chimneys, despite there being no sign of soot on the bricks or mortar.

Reaching the top, she peered through the spy hole Cery had drilled long ago. Sonea’s main room was unoccupied.

Where is Jonna?

Perhaps the servant had gone into one of the other rooms. Perhaps she had been called away. Lilia reached out to the latch, then hesitated. It was still possible that Jonna was in one of the bedrooms with a visitor, though Lilia could not think of any good reason a stranger would be in there with her… except a few scandalous ones that Lilia could not imagine Jonna indulging in.

She tapped on the panelling lightly, in a random pattern that anyone who didn’t know there was gap behind the wood might think was a bug scuttling across the surface. A moment later, Jonna hurried into the room, her eyes focusing on the hatch. Though she couldn’t see Lilia, she nodded and beckoned with one hand.