Peter Brett - The Skull Throne

“Wha’roo doing?” Rojer asked through swollen lips as she ignored the herbs in her apron pockets, reaching instead for her warding kit.

“Hold still,” Leesha said, taking a thin brush and a jar of ink. “We don’t have a lot of time, and I promised Amanvah to restore you before we talk.”

“Restore?” Rojer asked. Or tried to. His face was refusing to play its proper part in forming words.

Leesha didn’t answer, stripping his clothes away with no allowance for modesty and painting wards on his skin. Rojer shuddered when she reached into her hora pouch and produced the demon bone, but the pain was too great for him to argue.

The wards warmed as Leesha passed the bone over them, glowing softly and sending a tingle through his skin that penetrated deep into muscle and bone, numbing the pain and reducing the swelling. His vision cleared, lips shrinking back to something of their old agility. There was room in his mouth once more, his tongue slipping instinctively into the gap where the baton had knocked out his teeth. Weariness washed from him, and he felt strong, alert.

He clenched a fist, power surging through him. The door that had seemed to impenetrable before did not appear so formidable now. He could smash right through and fight his way from the cathedral. Lose himself in the streets. Find a way out of the city …

But then the bone crumbled in Leesha’s hand, and the mad feeling of power left him.

“Night,” he said as he pulled his clothes back on. “Easy to see how folk might get addicted to that.”

“Not much I can do for your missing teeth,” Leesha said. “We can have new ones made of porcelain. They can be tinted to match your remaining teeth, or something more colorful, if you prefer.”

Rojer shook his head. “The thing I love best about motley is that it comes off.”

Leesha nodded, reaching into her bag and producing a most welcome sight. His fiddle case. “Amanvah wanted you to have this … to pass the hours.”

Rojer quickly opened the case, relief flooding him as he saw the warded chinrest sitting in its velvet compartment. Pointedly, he set it on the bed between them. Amanvah would be able to hear everything, even if she could not respond.

“Rojer, what happened?” Leesha asked.

“I was a fool,” Rojer said. “Thought we were safe in the palace. Thought I could tweak Jasin’s nose and poison his reputation without playing the price.” He hung his head. “This is all my fault.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” Leesha snapped. “You didn’t start this.”

“I did,” Rojer said. “I started it when I punched Jasin in the nose.”

“My mum punched me in the nose once,” Leesha said. “I didn’t feel the need to murder her and anyone standing between.”

“Not excusing Jasin,” Rojer said. “That son of the Core got what was coming to him. But I knew what he was, and woke the demon anyway. Now Jaycob and Coliv are dead.”

Leesha took a pocket watch from her apron, looking at the time. “They only allowed me an hour, Rojer, and we’ve but a few minutes left. You’ll have plenty of time alone to philosophize, but for now I need to know everything you can remember about last night.”

Rojer nodded. “Jasin came to kill me. He must have bribed some of the palace guards to help. He said there was a lord who would pay for Amanvah and Sikvah.”

“Did he say who?” Leesha asked.

Rojer shook his head. “I wasn’t in a position to ask details.”

“Go on,” Leesha said.

“They must have known we’d avoid the great hall on the way back to our chambers,” Rojer said. “They were waiting in the lower hall. They shot Coliv, but he fought to the last, killing almost all of them. He left Jasin to me.”

He deliberately kept things vague, leaving out Sikvah’s involvement entirely. He still did not know what to think of that. His sweet, submissive Sikvah had become something terrifying right before his eyes. But whatever she was, she was his wife, and he would not betray her.

“So it was self-defense,” Leesha said.

“Of course it was ripping self-defense,” Rojer snapped.

“That’s not what Minister Janson is saying,” Leesha said. “He says he saw you pull a knife on Jasin a few days ago.”

Rojer looked down. “Well, ay … but only after he attacked me.”

“He attacked you and you didn’t say anything?” Leesha demanded.

“Do you go running for help every time someone shoves you?” Rojer asked. “Or do you just shove back harder?”

“I try not to shove anyone at all,” Leesha said.

“Tell that to Inevera,” Rojer said, and watched in satisfaction as Leesha choked on her next words.

“Well it doesn’t matter now,” Leesha said when she recovered herself. “Janson is claiming it was you that went after Jasin.”

“With my wives and Kendall in tow?” Rojer asked incredulously.

Leesha shrugged. “It could have simply been an argument that went too far. And when the guards tried to stop it …”

“We murdered them all?” Rojer asked. “Does that sound even remotely plausible?”

“Plausible or no, Jasin and is dead and you were found over him with a bloody knife,” Leesha said.

“Find Cholls,” Rojer said. “Master of the Jongleurs’ Guild. I told him months ago that Jasin killed Jaycob and put me in the hospit.”

Leesha nodded. “I will, but can he be trusted? The first minister seems to had everyone cowed.”

“Put Gared in the room when he’s questioned,” Rojer said. “He was there when it happened.”

“Gared knew?!” Leesha blurted. “Months before you said anything to me?”

Rojer gave her a level look. “Gared happened to be in the room when the guildmaster questioned me on my disappearance last year. He didn’t know what he was hearing at the time, but it’s a safe bet Cholls doesn’t know that. My guess is that if he knows Gared’s there to contradict him, he won’t have the stones to lie.”

“Even if he tells all, it will only strengthen your motive,” Leesha said.

“I already have motive,” Rojer said. “This will give Jasin one as well.” He put his arms around his knees, pulling them up to the chest. “How are the women?”

“Amanvah and Kendall are under house arrest until the trial,” Leesha said. “I’ve assigned Cutters to stand with the palace guards. They’re not happy, but they’re safe.”

Rojer swallowed, noting the omission. “And Sikvah?”

“Sikvah,” Leesha said quietly, “is missing.”

Leesha’s legs ached by the time she reached the bottom of the seemingly endless stairwell. Her sleep was growing increasingly restless as the pregnancy progressed, leg cramps in the night leaving her with lingering pain.

But she was no stranger to the cathedral towers, and as she left the South Tower, she circled the halls until she reached the East, where she began to climb once more.

Rojer was in greater trouble than he realized. Araine herself had been forced to intervene with Shepherd Pether before the furious Janson relented and let the Tenders carry the unconscious Rojer to the protection of the cathedral.

But while he was safe until his trial, there were too many dead for him to walk away from this. And Sikvah? Where was Sikvah? The guards claimed never to have found her after the attack. Had she been spirited away by whatever lord Jasin had been working with? Even the Deliverer’s niece was hostage enough to start a war they weren’t ready to fight.

The thoughts took her mind from the endless climb to the top of the tower, where she found a cell similar to Rojer’s. The guard nodded to her and moved to open the door. They were used to her by now.

“Jona,” Leesha said, as the man looked up from his books. The Tenders had him copying Canons as penance while they debated his fate.