Dark Jenny (26 page)

“You hear me?” Hoel’s struggles made the wagon creak. “I’m a Knight of the goddamn Double Tarn, you can’t intimidate me.”

I picked up Agravaine’s severed head by the hair, with its smashed and ruined face, and plopped it beside the sword in front of Hoel. “Your friend had an attitude with me, too. Look at him now.”

Hoel sneered up at me. “I remember him being taller.”

I slapped him so hard his head slammed against a wheel spoke. Fear mixed with his hatred when he glared back at me. “You’re a big man with someone who can’t fight back. Untie me, then we’ll see how tough you are.”

“I am going to ask you questions,” I said carefully. My chest was so tight with fury the words came out as a wheeze. “Answer them, and you’ll live through this day.”

“And if I don’t?” he sneered mockingly.

I pushed his bruise-colored pinkie back until it snapped. His hands weren’t as numb as he thought. His scream startled a flock of birds from the nearby trees.

“Nine more fingers and ten more toes,” I said. “Plus a mouthful of teeth and a couple of balls. I sure do hope you keep trying not to be intimidated. Now: who sent you here?”

He glanced at the severed head. “Look, we just followed Agravaine. He outranks us, we have to do what he says.”

“Like when you ambushed me in that courtyard at Nodlon?”

Hoel nodded and tried to laugh. “We were just delivering another love poem from General Medraft to the queen, we didn’t even know you’d be there. We just had standing orders that if we saw you again, to make sure you didn’t cause any more trouble.”

“Standing orders from who?”

He tried to hold it back, but when I reached for his hand again, he broke. “A woman. I don’t know who. I never saw her face. She had on a cloak, but you could tell she was a woman.”

“What did she say?”

“I didn’t hear.” I reached for another finger and he added quickly, “No, seriously, she never spoke to me or Cador. She only talked to Agravaine.”

“I thought he hated women. But he took orders from them?”

“She didn’t give the orders, she just relayed them from Medraft. At least, that’s what I figured.”

“Why did Medraft send him secret orders?”

Hoel laughed. “The general had Agravaine convinced he’d be seneschal when Medraft took the crown. I didn’t believe it, but I figured I might get some advancement if I went along.”

“So Medraft
is
planning a coup.”

Hoel nodded. “Agravaine said Medraft knew something the king would never want to get out publicly. He was sure he’d even abdicate to keep it quiet. Medraft just had to wait for the right moment.”

“What was it?”

“The moment?”

“The
secret
.”

Hoel shook his head. “I don’t know. Really. As far as I know, Medraft never told Agravaine, either.” Hoel nodded toward the cottage. “I guess it was about that woman inside. That isn’t really Queen Jennifer, is it?”

“Depends on who you ask,” I said. But it confirmed what Kern had told me. That act of perversion and violence had started a whole chain of events long before I got to this wretched little island, but I’d be goddamned if I wasn’t the one who was going to stop it. And make sure the murderers involved paid. If I survived that long-ago whorehouse massacre for anything, it was for things like this. “Does Medraft have troops?”

“Yeah. He’s been bringing in mercenaries and soldiers from the Spatelo islands. They’ve been smarting ever since Marcus ran them out.”

“What about the rest of the Knights of the Double Tarn?”

“They’re outnumbered and out of practice. But they’re all with Marcus, no question.”

“Except you three loyal men at arms.”

He looked down and said nothing. I wondered how truly loyal the other knights would be if they knew what Marcus had done. I realized that’s exactly what Medraft was counting on. He knew nothing about the switched Jennifers, which meant I had a hole card. If I could figure out when to play it.

“Next question,” I said. “What exactly were you supposed to do with Spears and me when you found us?”

He swallowed nervously. “We, ah … were supposed to make sure Elliot didn’t show up to defend the queen.”

“You three losers against him?”

“We weren’t going to
fight
him, we were going to tell him the king had moved the trial to Motlace.”

“And me?”

“We were supposed to, ah … eliminate you. Then bring your head back to Nodlon.”

“How did you know to find me here?”

Again that nervous swallow. “We made one of the stableboys tell us. Agravaine spoke his language.”

I knew which stable boy they meant. “He was a little kid.”

Hoel looked desperately guilty and fearful. “I know.”

“You killed him, didn’t you?”

“Cador did,” Hoel said quickly. “Agravaine held him.”

“And you just stood there and watched.”

Hoel’s words spewed forth in an attempt to save his life. “I was just following orders, I didn’t have a choice, I’m a soldier. You were a soldier once, weren’t you? I can tell. We have to do what we’re told, even if it’s awful. A soldier who goes against his orders is a traitor, right?
Right?
”

Despite my best efforts, I recalled that eager little boy’s bright face. “Was it quick?”

Hoel knew what I meant. He didn’t answer.

I slowly drew his sword from the ground, its hilt and pommel still gummy with Agravaine’s drying blood. Dirt stuck to the blood at the tip. The horror on Hoel’s face as the blade rose above him filled me with my own icy joy.

“I have an order for you.” I gripped the hilt with both hands.

Hoel swallowed. “Anything.”

I smiled. “Go to hell.” Then I split his skull down to the bridge of his nose. It took a long time for his corpse to stop twitching.

“That was for you, Jack,” I added, even though no one was alive to hear. I hoped wherever he was, the boy could now rest easy.

chapter

TWENTY-SIX

I left Hoel’s sword outside by his body and went into the cottage. Kern was gone, and the bedroom door was closed. I took off my jacket, went into the kitchen, and found a bucket of water and some soap. Washing my hands did nothing about the blood splattered on my clothes, but I couldn’t help that. I also washed my face and wet down my hair. My beard was starting to grow back. It had been three days since I had a bath, and I could smell it even if no one else could.

My movements stirred up the dust, which sparkled in the light coming through the window. I watched it for a long time; the only sounds were the birds and insects outside, and Amelia’s muffled crying.

Man,
I was tired. Down to the bone. The last time I’d slept decently was before Sam Patrice’s death … three days ago? Had it only been that long? Since then I’d grabbed a few hours here and there, but not enough to call any of it
rest
. Certainly not last night, bouncing in that wagon.

My shoulders and wrists still felt the impact of the blow that killed Hoel. Splitting a skull wasn’t easy, and I was lucky the sword was both heavy and sharp. I looked at my formerly broken hand again, marveling at the flexibility despite the purple blotch over the knuckles. I tried not to think about what it meant.

At last I knocked softly on the bedroom door and went inside. Kern stood at the foot of the bed smoking his pipe, while Amelia knelt and brushed Jenny’s hair. The tall woman hummed a nursery-rhyme song, her voice cracking.

Somewhere she’d found a demure white dress that fit the smaller woman. With her eyes closed and hands crossed on her chest, Jenny did indeed look like a corpse. If she was breathing, it didn’t show, and the giggleweed masked any lingering shatternight odor.

“She was so sweet,” Amelia said, interrupting her nontune. “She just wanted to live with her man in peace. She never wanted to be someone important.” Amelia’s face contorted and she began to cry anew. Her nose ran, the snot pinkish with dried blood, and she wiped it carelessly on her sleeve. “Why did this have to happen?”

“If I could answer that, honey, we wouldn’t be living in the middle of the woods,” Kern answered. He turned his red eyes on me and said, “She’ll stay like this for three days or so. Then it’ll wear off on its own. To bring her out of it before then, wave the fumes from that sealed bottle under her nose.”

I nodded.

Kern waved his pipe at my bloody tunic. “Would you like some fresh clothes?”

“Do you have anything with less than five colors?”

He smiled. “I left all those behind when I quit my job at court.”

“I’ll pass, then.”

I watched Amelia’s brush make its way through Jenny’s hair. She really
did
look like Queen Jennifer with her features immobile and relaxed. Then I had an idea. I was too tired to judge if it was good or bad. I said, “Amelia, do you have any jewelry?”

The question caused her face to scrunch with effort. Her nose, puffy and starting to bruise, did not join the scrunch. She said guardedly, “A little. Odds and ends. Why?”

“Is it sparkly stuff?”

She looked more confused. “Some of it.”

“I need you to use it to make Jenny look regal. I want people to think she
is
Queen Jennifer.” I turned to Kern. “Do you have any wooden planks?”

“Some.”

I patted him on the arm. “Good. We have some carpentry to do. Come on.”

*   *   *

IT
was nearly dark before we finished. I’d long since accepted that I’d get no sleep this night, either.

First we cleaned up the mess. We carried the bodies of the three knights far into the cave and dumped them down a crevice so deep we never heard them hit bottom. I used bent nails to attach one of their discarded swords under the wagon’s seat, one along the inside edge of the bed behind me, and one on the bottom of the wagon. It was only overkill if I didn’t need them. Then Cameron showed me his available lumber and we got to work. It was a simple project, and there were two of us, so it didn’t take long.

As the sun set behind the trees, Amelia carried Jenny out to the wagon. I’d hitched up my original two horses; the knights’ mounts ran when I tried to catch them and didn’t look suited to such mundane work anyway. The horses from Spears’s stable were well rested and fed now, so they’d do fine.

Amelia had also done well. In addition to the white gown, the false corpse now wore a tiara, long earrings, and a wide necklace. All were gaudy and weren’t really the jewels they pretended to be. But they worked: Jenny looked angelic and almost magical in them, a sleeping princess awaiting true love’s kiss. If only.

When she saw what waited in the wagon bed, Amelia froze. “No.”

“Amelia,” Kern said gently.

“No, Cammy, that’s a
coffin
.”

“I need to take people off guard,” I said. “A man hauling a coffin gets automatic respect and right of way. And if anyone looks inside, they’ll think it’s the queen, which should be a surprise that buys me some more time.”

“She’s
not dead,
” Amelia insisted. “What if she wakes up inside there?”

“She won’t,” Kern said with certainty.

Amelia looked at him. “Cammy—”

“She wants to see Elliot,” I interrupted. I didn’t have the patience for long explanations. “There’s an army between us and them that we have to get through. This is the only way that’ll happen.” At least, the only way I could think of in my sleep-deprived state, but I saw no need to mention that.

Amelia continued to look at Kern. He said nothing.

At last the tall woman stepped to the side of the wagon and slowly lowered Jenny into the box we’d built for her. She arranged the unconscious woman’s hands on her chest, stroked her hair a final time, and softly kissed her. Backlit by the setting sun through the trees, a lone tear fell from Amelia’s cheek to Jenny’s lips as she stood.

“Good-bye, Dark Jenny,” Amelia said softly.

Then Kern and I put the lid on the coffin.

I only used two big nails, enough to hold it in place. I didn’t want it to be airtight, and if I needed to open it, I’d bet it would be quickly.

Chattering birds settled into the trees for the evening. It would be full night soon. As I put the scabbard Spears gave me across my back, I said to Kern, “I haven’t asked because I hoped you’d offer, but I could use your help.”

“You’ve had my help.”

I climbed onto the wagon seat. “I mean at Nodlon. Come with me.”

He put up his hands. “No. I’m happy here. I’m
staying
here.”

“If Ted Medraft gets the crown—”

“He’ll never bother me.”

“How do you know?”

Kern smiled and waggled his eyebrows. “Because I’m Cameron the Wizard, and I know all.”

I smiled wryly. “If you’re so all-knowing, then what’s the shortest way to Nodlon from here?”

“I’ve got a map for you.” Kern handed me a rolled parchment. “This takes you back to the main road. You’ll come out just to the east of a little crossroads town called Astolat. After that it’s a straight shot.”

I took the reins and was about to snap them when Kern put his hand on my leg and motioned for me to lean down. It was hard to do with the scabbard holding my spine straight. He said quietly, “Because I’m so all-knowing, I’m going to give you some advice. If I were still at court, I’d call it a prophecy and use lots of bells and whistles to scare you shitless, but under the circumstances I’ll skip all that. Are you ready?”

I just looked at him, too tired for a snappy comeback.

He checked that Amelia was out of earshot. She stood in the cottage door, long arms wrapped around herself. Kern said quietly, “Remember I said you had a taste for violence? You need to keep in mind that every man you kill was once somebody’s little baby and had a mother who probably loved him. I’m not saying you shouldn’t kill people; some people
do
need killing. But you should never enjoy it, because if you do, you’ve killed part of yourself that won’t ever grow back. And I don’t think you’ve got many of those to spare.”

I still said nothing. He’d watched me kill Agravaine and seen the results of my discussion with Hoel, so I suppose he felt he understood me. Maybe he did.