Return of the Warrior (22 page)

She looked up at his face, then felt her heart sink.

It was Selwyn. His beady black eyes stared out from the slits of his helm as he laughed at her. He removed the helm so that she could see the sneer he raked over her body.

“So you found your prince,” he said coldly. “Good. We’ll make sure to have him present when we carve his seed from your belly. Take her!”

“Something’s amiss,” Christian said as he surveyed the rising mountains around them and saw no trace of the army they had suspected would be waiting for them. By now there should have been a call, a glint of sun on armor…

Something.

But nothing gave away the enemy’s position. It was as if they weren’t there.

“Do you see something?” Ioan asked.

Christian shook his head. “And therein is my problem. There’s…” He let his voice trail off as a sense of doom possessed him. Why had he not thought of
that
earlier?

“Phantom?” he called, then waited for the man to ride apace of him. “How well do you know Selwyn?”

He shrugged. “Since he murdered my father
and tried to kill me, we were never overly friendly. Why?”

Christian ignored his question and sarcasm. “Is there any other place where they could be waiting for us? Another position that would be more advantageous to them?”

Phantom shook his head. “This would be the most likely.”

“Aye, the most likely. The
only
likely place.” Christian cursed at their stupidity.

“Why are you upset?” Ioan asked.

Christian felt a muscle in his jaw begin to tic. “Because he knew this was the only place to attack us.”

Falcon looked bemused. “And how is it bad that he’s not here to slay us?”

Phantom’s face mirrored the dread Christian felt. “You don’t think he…?”

“Aye, cousin, I do.”

“What?” Ioan and Falcon asked at the same time.

“How do you win a chess match?” Christian asked them.

“You capture the queen,” Falcon said at the same time Ioan cursed as he finally understood Christian’s fear.

Ioan looked ill. “You don’t think they waited for us to leave, then marched on Adara?”

Christian didn’t bother answering. He wheeled his horse about and spurred it toward their camp.
He knew to the depth of his soul that that was exactly what they’d done. His heart pounded as fear took root inside him and grew to titanic proportions.

He had to get back to Adara.

“Please let me be wrong,” he whispered over and over again as he raced back to camp.

For the first time since he was a boy, he prayed. He breathed every prayer he’d ever been taught while he urged his horse to fly over the rocky terrain.

But those prayers caught in his throat as he drew near the camp and saw the bodies of his fallen men. They lay scattered about the ground like abandoned dolls. Christian threw his head back and bellowed in agony and rage at the sight of them.

He jumped from the back of his horse even before it stopped, and rushed toward the tent where he’d left his wife sleeping just a short time before.

It was empty. There was no trace of Adara anywhere.

“Damn you!” he shouted as pain ripped through him. How could he have been so stupid?

He left the tent to see Ioan, Corryn, and Phantom reining to a stop in the center of the carnage before they dismounted.

“She’s gone?” Phantom asked, his tone angry.

“Aye.” Sick to his stomach, Christian’s gaze fell to the sight of a man wearing a bright yellow jerkin.

Lutian.

He rushed to the fool’s side, aching over the fact
that he had been loyal to his queen unto the end. Poor Lutian. His face was covered in blood from a beating, and it was obvious from his injuries that he had fought valiantly to save her.

Christian fully expected him to be dead.

He wasn’t.

“Fetch water!” he called to Corryn as he realized the fool was still breathing, although very shallowly.

Corryn ran to obey while Christian carefully lifted the fool up and took him into his tent. He lay him on his cot so that he could rest comfortably. Lutian coughed as his eyes blinked open.

“Christian?” It was the first time Lutian had ever called him by name.

“Aye, my friend. Rest easy.”

Lutian’s gaze was filled with agony. “They took her. I tried to stop them, but—”

“I know, Lutian. It’s not your fault. I’m the one who left her here unprotected.”

Corryn joined them with a skin of water for the fool. Christian helped him to drink a bit, then turned to Ioan, who stood behind him. “Regroup the army. We’ll march on them—”

”Nay!” Lutian sputtered as he choked on the water. He pushed the skin away from his lips. “Selwyn left me alive only so that I could tell you that if your army doesn’t retreat immediately, he will kill Adara.”

Phantom scoffed. “If you retreat, he will kill her anyway,” he said ominously.

Christian’s mind whirled as he considered his
options. “Did he say anything else, Lutian?”

“He wants you to give yourself up to him. Your army is to withdraw and in three days hence you are to go alone to St. Sebastian’s Abbey to turn yourself over to him. He has left men behind to watch and if by nightfall you fail to set off toward the abbey and the army fails to withdraw from their borders, Adara dies.”

Phantom and Ioan erupted into curses while Christian thought the matter over. There had to be a solution to this.

“I say we march onward,” Phantom growled. “What guarantee do we have that she lives? He’s a sneaky bastard who is just as likely to have already killed her.”

Christian wasn’t so sure. “He needs Adara to control her people and to add legitimacy to his son’s claim for the throne. Given that, I doubt he’s killed her yet.”

“Then what do we do?” Ioan asked. “It sits ill with me to be held hostage by any man.”

Christian stood up and let his thoughts whirl as an idea began to take form. “Our options are few. We either need to get to Adara before she reaches the city or we need to be able to break her out before they hurt her.”

“The land here is too flat and open to march for long,” Ioan said. “There’s nowhere to ride in secrecy. They’ll see us coming after them.”

Lutian sighed. “We are still a week from either Elgedera or Taagaria.”

“Nay,” Phantom said as he stroked his beard thoughtfully. “We are week out for a thousand men. For a small group of a dozen or less—”

“We could be there in a few days,” Christian said as he followed Phantom’s line of thought. “What are you thinking, exactly?”

One corner of Phantom’s mouth quirked up as he exchanged a knowing look with Lutian. “I was merely thinking that what we need to do is
steal
our lady away from them.”

Christian frowned. “Steal?”

Lutian smiled, then winced as if pain had cut through him from his damaged ribs. “Aye, there are many in Elgedera who hate Selwyn and who know the back alleyways of the city better than the rats who live there.”

Phantom looked to Lutian. “Is the Grand Vizier still in charge of the alleyways?”

Lutian nodded.

Christian was completely confused. “Grand Vizier?”

Phantom gave a light laugh. “He rules the thieves of Elgedera and he owes me favors still.”

“So what’s your plan?”

“Retribution, Brother Christian, grand retribution.”

“They withdraw.”

Adara stopped trying to work the ropes free from her hands as she overheard a messenger speaking to Selwyn. On the back of a white mare,
she rode with her hands tied before her, between Selwyn and his general.

Selwyn laughed. “So the prince is craven after all.” He looked at her and sneered. “Or mayhap you’re not worth fighting for.”

She scoffed at him. “If you truly believed that, you wouldn’t have threatened him. He only does what you said because he has no wish to see me harmed.”

Selwyn curled his lip at her before he turned back to his messenger. “What of the bastard imposter? Does he ride with the army?”

“Nay. We saw him head out toward the abbey alone just as you instructed.”

Selwyn’s smile turned insidious. “Are the assassins in place?”

“Aye, my lord. They will kill him the moment he enters the abbey’s gates.”

Selwyn looked about with pride and delight beaming on his oafish face. “I want his head delivered to me after they sever it from his body.”

“I shall see it done.”

Adara’s heart hammered at their words. Surely Christian wouldn’t be so foolish as to fall for such a trap. Nay, she had faith in him. Even so, there was a part of her that didn’t trust Selwyn not to have more treachery lying in wait for all of them. God have mercy on them all.

Terrified for her husband and child, Adara forced herself not to show her fear to her enemy. She would be strong for Christian.

“Have you nothing to say, Majesty?” Selwyn asked her.

She feigned supreme nonchalance. “What would you have me say?”

“I would expect you to beg for the life of your husband.”

She gave him an arch stare. “I would rather die than beg anything from you. Besides, I know you better. There is nothing on this earth that could make you spare his life.”

“You are an intelligent wench and would have made a fine match for my son. Too bad you refused to see our cause.”

“I might have seen your cause, had I not seen your heart first. I have faith in God that no one as foul as you will remain in power.”

He drew back as if to strike her, then hesitated. Adara knew he didn’t dare such an affront under the watchful stare of his men. Even though they were Elgederion soldiers, they were still aware of her power and position as the Taagarian queen. As the Elgederion queen. She might not be able to command them, but they were honor-bound to make sure no harm befell her in the absence of their king.

She looked at Selwyn smugly. “Aye, Selwyn, I carry the next Elgederion king inside me. Strike me and your men will revolt.”

He scoffed at her. “We have no proof of your word. For all we know ’tis a bastard you carry.”

“I am the queen of two nations and as such my
word is above contestation by you. I am legally married to Christian and this is the child he claims. It must gall you to know you have failed.”

He gave her a sinister glare. “The game isn’t over yet, my lady. Children are stillborn every day. Women widowed. You will learn your place soon enough.”

He spurred his horse and rode ahead of her.

Adara curled her lip at him. Learn her place indeed. ’Twould be he who learned his, and she would be the one to teach it to him.

The next three days were horrifying for Adara, who had no idea what was to become of her. Selwyn had ridden her into Kricha, the Elgederion capital, under the cover of darkness. They had whisked her up the back halls of the palace and ensconced her in a small room in the northernmost tower under the careful watch of four guards.

Her room was pleasant enough if it weren’t for the fact that she was a prisoner. Neither Selwyn nor Basilli had come to visit her. All she knew was that Ioan’s army was heading back toward Europe and that Christian was headed for a monastery.

Since the messenger had left Selwyn three days ago, no one had told her anything else. She wasn’t even sure why Selwyn was keeping her alive. Perhaps he was waiting for word of Christian’s death.

She had tried many times since her arrival to invoke a riot amongst Selwyn’s soldiers. As their
queen, she should have command of them. But Selwyn had reminded them that it was her husband, not her, who commanded them, and in her husband’s absence, Selwyn was the regent. Their duty was to protect her and their future heir, which meant she was locked in this room with no hope of escape.

Damn him for this.

How could one man so evil continue to thrive? It disturbed her sense of rightness. But she forced herself to have faith. Christian would come for her. She knew it.

Christian was exhausted as Phantom led their small party through the dark streets of Kricha. They had literally crawled up through the drainage trenches like rats to enter the city, which was still active even hours after sundown.

They wore the garb of peasants over their armor as they moved silently. There were only ten of them: Lutian, Phantom, five archers, two knights, and himself. It was a small number, but it should be sufficient to get to Adara and smuggle her out to safety.

He only hoped that Jerome had fooled Selwyn’s spies into believing that he was Christian. With any luck, they had followed the knight to the abbey while Ioan led the army away from the borders.

Fear and anger had been his constant companion these days past as he thought of how fright
ened Adara must be, worried over how they were treating and caring for her. So help him, he would kill Selwyn yet.

None of them spoke as Phantom led them toward the seedier area of town. The streets here weren’t clean and smelled of offal. Several of the men pressed their hands to their noses to help block the stench.

It made it easy to know which of them were members of the Brotherhood. Christian remembered a time when such a smell was as commonplace as breathing.

Phantom paused before a tawdry stew. There were several prostitutes hovering at the entrance who turned a speculative gaze toward them.

“Looking for a bit of entertainment?” one said to Phantom. She was a petite woman with long black hair and painted eyes.

Phantom dropped his cowl.

The woman immediately crossed herself as if she were facing a ghost. “You’re dead.”

Phantom shrugged as he replaced his cowl. “Interesting greeting, Romany. Where’s your father?”

She immediately turned suspicious, worried. “Why do you seek him?”

“He owes me a debt and I’m here to collect it. Now lead me, woman. I’ve no time to dabble with you.”

Fretful, she swept them all with her gaze before she turned to lead them into the stew.

Christian cringed at the filth. There were half-
dressed prostitutes lounging about, many of whom were servicing clients in full view of anyone who happened by. “Interesting friends you have, Phantom,” he mumbled.

“They kept me alive, Abbot. Trust me, that’s not something easy to do in this kingdom.”

Romany led them to a small room in the rear of the building, where she pushed open a door, then hesitated.

Through the opening, Christian could see a group of men playing dice and drinking. They were a loud group that appeared to be made up of three peasants, two lords, and the man he assumed by his coarse nature and expensive clothing to be the one they sought.