Stonewiser (20 page)

“A night. We'll start with a night,” Orgos said. “You'll tell him that I'll let you both go the next morning if he complies. But what happens after that? How am I supposed to keep him here, alive, serving me?”

There was no way out but forward. She had to make it all come together. “Do you think so little of yourself to ask that question? I'll be gone, by your oath, won't I?”

“Yes?”

“How will he feel when he realizes that I'm gone, that I've left him behind?”

“He'll be angry?”

“He'll be beyond angry.”

“He'll be crushed when he learns himself betrayed,” Orgos realized. “But I'll be here. I'll keep him from doing anything foolish, for his own good.”

“And then?”

A spark of comprehension ignited in Orgos's eyes. “I'll console and comfort him. I'll seduce him. It may take time, but he'll learn to like me. Won't he?”

Sariah doubted it. “How can he not?”

Orgos stared at her with a hint of respect. “Aye. This might just work. Kael's servitude in exchange for your life.”

“You won't kill him, Orgos. You'll face my wrath if you do. I can come back any time and wise Alabara's stones to dust.”

“You've got my marcher's oath,” Orgos said. “I think I like you, wiser. You're as cruel as they come. If he's as smitten with you as they say, he'll be broken worse than turned soil and pulverized stone when you leave him. Yes, after you desert him, he'll be ripe for me, all right.”

“You want me to do… what?” Kael's smoldering stare shifted from Sariah to Orgos and back to Sariah.

She knew what she would wise from him at this moment— rage, disbelief, suspicion—the wild emotions of a caught beast. Something inside of her was breaking. Her soul, her heart, her spirit, whatever they called it, it was being wrenched from her being.

A chain tethered Kael to the wall post. He stood rigidly before Orgos, hands fastened behind his back, feet restrained by the irons around his ankles. Orgos had learned from Kael's last stay in Alabara. He was taking no chances this time. He was no fool. He had refused to allow Sariah to speak to Kael in private. Instead, Orgos forced her to stand beside him as he explained to Kael the advantages of his proposal.

The whole setup was the doings of an ailing mind. Before he sent for Kael, Orgos had taken pains with his appearance. He had combed out his long hair, making sure to place a few strands over the balding middle. His cheeks were freshly shaven and his scrawny beard had been braided into a plait that dangled beneath his jowls like a turkey's wattle. A whiff of overly sweet perfume scented the air in the chamber.

The table was set with a selection of meat, cheeses and dry fruit. Leandro's tiny snakes and scorpions lined up on their checkered cloth, as if Orgos intended a game or two. A flagon of wine stood on a table by the bed, flanked by two pewter cups. For some reason, the sight of those cups struck Sariah like a fist to the gut.

Even though Kael's hands and feet were bound, Orgos approached Kael cautiously, measuring the rage in the other man with a keen attention to self-preservation. Kael just stood there with his feet planted apart, his matted hair sticking up, and his bruised face caked in dry blood, enduring Orgos's scrutiny.

“One night,” Orgos said. “In exchange, she gets safe passage from the mob. It's not such an outrageous request. All I ask is that you don't fight me. Tomorrow you leave with your woman safely.”

For all his stoicism, Kael flinched when Orgos's hand landed on his shoulder and slithered over his bicep. It moved slowly, as if testing the reality of the man before him. Kael's hands fisted, his body went still as stone, and his face turned blank. Sariah thought she would break. Her resolution was crumbling to dust. Was the promise of Leandro's game worth the risks? She couldn't leave Kael to this man, could she? Not even for a moment. Did she really have the courage to walk away and leave him behind?

“Take the woman to do her wising,” Orgos commanded Alfred.

“No,” Kael said. “I'll have her safe and away before we conclude this transaction.”

“No, nay, no.” Sariah tried to conceal her alarm. “It's all right, Kael. It's all arranged. I'm going to do the wising and only when I return will you… it… happen. We'll be going tomorrow morning. Together.” She hoped he caught the hint.

“I want her out of the settlement before the sun settles,” Kael said without looking at her. Was he trying to wreck her plan?

“You need not worry about me,” she said. “Orgos and I have made very thorough arrangements. Everything's fine.”

“Everything's not fine.” Kael glared at Orgos. “I don't trust you or your oaths. I make my own deals. If you want my—me,” he gulped dryly, “you'll deal with me.”

“Kael?”

“Shut up, Sariah, I know Orgos better than you do. He doesn't intend to fulfill his oaths. Any of them. What is it going to be, marcher?”

“You'll come to my bed willingly?” Orgos said. “And you'll stand whatever I say?”

“Provided you'll give her whatever she asked you,” Kael said. “Let her go. Now. No delays. I must have proof that she's safely away.”

No. That's not what needed to happen. Sariah launched another warning look in Kael's direction, but he wasn't meeting her eyes. She tried to keep desperation from her voice. “I must wise Alabara's stones. The settlement is in danger. Orgos is being fair here, there's no need to—”

“There's need.” Kael cut her off. “Great need. What say you, Orgos? The stones or me?”

Orgos's greedy eyes were fast on Kael. By the changes in Orgos's expression, Sariah could see her carefully negotiated agreement disintegrating before her very eyes. Kael was recklessly undoing her precious gains. She was furious, desperate, terrified.

“Orgos, those stones must be wised,” she said. “You are a marcher. You can't put yourself above duty.”

“I can't, can't I?” Orgos turned to Kael. “I can't send her through the front gates, but she'll be gone, believe me. She can wait for you out in the flats. Nobody wants the wench gone from Alabara worse than I do. Trust me on that, my boy.”

Kael winced at the nickname. “She has to go. Now. And I have to know. Else, you take me dead.”

“You're being difficult,” Orgos said. “But I suppose I like that best about you. It's the challenge, I think. I'm going to enjoy it.”

Sariah fought a suicidal impulse to rip Orgos's suggestive smirk off his face. “It's not necessary to change our agreement—”

“A witness,” Orgos said, ignoring Sariah. “Pick any witness you like.”

Kael sneered. “I don't know the honest people of Alabara.”

“I'm told you know a couple,” Orgos said. “The caretaker? The weaver?”

Sariah didn't need any witnesses. The smaller her escort, the better. “Really, Kael—”

“The weaver,” Kael decided, mostly because they believed the caretaker had betrayed them to Alfred. “You also allow my deck and my friends to go free. Right now. I know you keep them under vigilance.”

Orgos couldn't conceal his surprise and neither could Sariah. How did Kael know that?

“You know where they are, although you haven't seized them yet. Set them free.” Kael must have been talking to his guards while Sariah had been negotiating with Orgos. At the very least, he had been doing some good listening.

“Throw them out kindly,” Kael said. “Tell them I command them to go. I won't be willing if any of my friends are harmed.”

“That's a lot to ask for one night,” Orgos said. “Next you'll be asking for my marcher's right.”

“It's my last condition.”

“Why should I agree to it? I can do as I please with you
and
your friends.”

“That you can. But not with my leave.”

Kael's acceptance, his submission, his compliance, those were Orgos's deepest cravings.

“And if I let them go?” Orgos asked.

“I'm sure you'll require fair trade for that too, perhaps later?”

Sariah blinked twice. Had she just seen Kael… flirting with Orgos? The slight tilt of his head, the shy tug at the corner of his mouth, the faint shrug offering a quick show of the clavicle and the base of the strong neck, they were not imagined. Orgos had seen them too. His tongue ran over his lips. By the rot. What was Kael doing?

Ensuring her life. And the others’ too. Making sure she got out of Alabara with Leandro's game in hand. Doing everything in his power to help secure the tale that would safeguard Ars. She knew what he was thinking. He would see to himself later, if there was a later for him and if there was a way. But all those ifs were making Sariah sick. Because he was also spoiling Sariah's chances of getting him out of Alabara unscathed.

“Throw them out,” Orgos said to Alfred. “Don't harm them.”

“They're close to the gates, my lord. It won't be but a moment.” Alfred went to issue Orgos's commands.

Sariah's pulse was pummeling her ears. She wished she could talk some sense into Kael. But he was still avoiding her eyes, staring straight at Orgos, provoking him with the sheer intensity of his presence.

Orgos fiddled with a lever on the wall. To Sariah's astonishment, part of the wall rolled aside to show a narrow balcony overlooking Alabara's gates. As a precaution, Orgos clutched the lead chain around Kael's neck. Both Kael and Sariah took a step forward and looked down.

Within a few moments, their deck floated into view, pulled by Delis and escorted by a number of Alfred's guards. Mia was not in sight, thank Meliahs. Malord was arguing with the guards to no avail. When the deck reached the gates, the guards halted and turned toward the balcony.

Orgos caressed the length of Kael's back. “Will you wear the chains for me, my boy? It would please me so.”

Every muscle on Kael's body contracted in a communal clench. “
If
you let them go.”

Orgos signaled. The gates opened. The two men watched in silence as the deck advanced down the channel and into the Barren Flats’ vastness. Then Kael and Orgos turned as one and a colorful quad of ferocious eyes fell on her, black and green, hazel and gray.

“Give her things back to her,” Kael said.

Orgos gestured with his head. Alfred, who had just returned, dumped their possessions into a basket.

“The game set too.”

Alfred scooped the snakes and scorpions into their little sack and added it to the basket.

“Satisfied, my boy?” Orgos asked.

“When the witness returns,” Kael said. “Get her out of here.”

Sariah tried to keep her bluff together. It was hard. Alfred seized her arm. Sariah stood her ground. “This is not what we agreed to do, Orgos.”

“I'd say this is better for you, unless of course you'd been planning on betraying me the entire time?”

Had Orgos known? Had she been playing his game all along? She had been a fool to believe his oaths. She might be getting out of Alabara alive and with Leandro's set, but her game was over, and it was Orgos who had won the day.

She made a last, desperate plea. “Kael, please. Some things aren't worth the price.”

“And some are.” He looked out the window. “Go.”

“Your deck, your weave, your red dye, your weapons, your game, everything you asked for is right here.” Alfred tossed the basket in the deck's shelter. “Now be nice and go.”

Sariah felt her mind unraveling, overwhelmed by a sequence of events that had gone terribly wrong. She had a vision of Kael as she had seen him last, darkly outlined against the sunset with Orgos's arms around his shoulders. Meliahs help him. She couldn't leave without Kael. Could she? She needed to stay in Alabara. She donned the weave slowly. She couldn't bring herself to clip on the deck's ropes and start pulling.

“I can't very well go out the front gate.” Sariah tried to stall. “The mob's waiting for me.”

“Never mind that.” Alfred pulled the deck forward. “Come.”

Walking alongside Alfred and his men, Sariah recognized Katrina the weaver. She flashed Sariah a crooked sneer. “Deaf and dumb, eh? What a load of dung that was.”

Kael's damn witness. When Katrina returned and reported Sariah's departure, Orgos's fun would begin. If she could only drown the woman with her glare.

“We don't really need a witness, do we?” Sariah said.

“A witness is what Orgos needs the most,” Alfred said. “He'll be waiting for Katrina, raring to go like a high-strung bull.”