He'd broken into an ancient tomb, been chased out of it by an undead murderer, been rescued by a living one, visited a man whose career revolved around killing people, and had the most uncomfortable confrontation in his entire life, all in the last day.
And at the end of it all, everyone was pissed at him. Nika was pissed at him. Arlen was pissed at him. Grace had been pissed at him because she hadn't been allowed to come to the castle with them, and that sulk would last into the next day at least. Yddris was absent but probably peed off about Usk's involvement, too.
"You look like someone's pissed in your beer." Koen sat down opposite him. Jordan just grunted at him, feeling very hard done by.
At least Koen still liked him. But then his thoughts veered towards the darker idea that Koen still liked him because he had no idea about anything that had happened or what Jordan was involved with.
"No one's pissed in it." Nova hopped up onto a stool beside him. She glanced speculatively at the glasses they clutched. "There might be some sweat in there."
"You sure know how to sell it," Jordan muttered. A reluctant smirk twitched at one side of his mouth. He watched Ren roll around on the table with the ball of twine that a maid had found her to play with and forcibly pulled himself away from his wallowing thoughts. "Have you heard anything?"
"No." The Angel's face was blank, but there was a sort of simmering around her. As if she was angry about something. Or upset. She lowered her voice so that only Koen and Jordan could hear her. "Nika can't get him to take it. He's convinced it's the poison. So we're taking a break for him to calm down and hoping he'll have forgotten about it soon."
"I thought you were keeping Cael off him," Jordan whispered, almost inaudibly. He'd noted a few members of staff drawing closer than perhaps necessary now that Nova had returned from the lord's chambers.
"I have been," she said. "He's just that sick."
He exchanged a look with Koen. Were they already too late?
"When are you going back to try again?" Jordan asked, but regretted it at the long-suffering look she gave him. She pulled her knees up under her chin, which pulled the fabric of her dress tight across her wing stumps. He cursed himself for insensitivity. Of course this was hard for her; Harkenn had tormented her for years. He couldn't fathom how much it must cost her to try and save his life. He suspected his own disgruntlement with the lord paled in comparison to the grudges she had accumulated, and yet he hadn't heard her complain once.
"Soon," she said, before he could apologise. "I expect. I need breaks too. The whole thing is draining."
"Can we get you anything?" Koen asked, before Jordan could think to. "A drink?"
Her eyes roved the cooking pot bubbling on the stove and away again quickly, as if even looking at it was too much to ask. Jordan slipped off his stool and sauntered over to peek inside. It looked as though it was just keeping warm there.
"Is this done?" he asked the cook. "Can you spare any?"
The woman gave him a shrewd look, though it wasn't without a smile. She sauntered over, wiping grease from her fingers onto a dish rag. "Don't you go picking up your tutor's loitering habits, young man. Ask straight off before you go getting under everyone's feet."
Despite her words, she fetched down a bowl from a high shelf and ladled in hot stew. It was thick with vegetables and... "Is this meat?"
"The trade routes have opened up again," the cook said, nodding. "Though hunting still isn't good. At least the huntsmen among the Unspoken can get back into the mountain passes even if no one else can. It's not much, but it's fresh and it's welcome." She snatched up a bread roll off the side and pushed it partway into the stew, glancing over her shoulder as she did so. "I'll make her a spiced cider as well. She looks two shades closer to death'n she did this morning."
Jordan took the bowl back to the table and had to agree. The light from the open kitchen door fell upon Nova's face from this direction, highlighting the drawn greyness of her complexion and the pinch of pain at one side of her mouth. Her dark eyes glittered as he set the bowl down in front of her. "There's hot cider coming, too."
"And you didn't get me any?" Koen mock-whined. "Am I your friend or not?"
"Are you doing mind-magic for hours at a time?" Jordan asked. After his experience on the sharp end of Cael's attacks, he had a lot more appreciation for Nova's skills. "You aren't? Then you'll have to wait for dinner. Ren, leave her alone."
The shadow runner had abandoned her string and now sat a few inches from Nova's bowl, intently watching the spoon as she lifted a mouthful and blew on it.
"It's alright." A rare smile showed on the Angel's face. She set down a few chunks of vegetable on the counter, and Jordan rolled his eyes as Ren fell on them like he'd never fed her before.
"Since when did you become Nika?" Koen grumbled, watching the stew almost as intently as the animal had been. Jordan was glad he had been behind Koen at those words, as he couldn't quite suppress a flinch at the reminder of the previous night. Nika's fury and disapproval over the encounter had almost physically chilled him. He wished Arlen hadn't been such an arse over it, like he was trying to get Jordan in trouble. He knew that the assassin had wanted him to pick a side â his specifically â but instead had left him in an excruciating mediatory limbo that no one was happy with. Surely he couldn't have expected Jordan to betray Nika â not after all the man had done for him, with very little repayment. Arlen had granted him a huge favour that he suspected he wouldn't have done for anyone else, true, but it came with a heavy price. And it wasn't easy to get past the way it had all started.
He returned to his pint with a sigh. Koen noticed. "Something's bothering you."
"Something's always bothering me." He tried for a light tone and only ended up sounding bitter.
Before Koen could reply, the captain of the guard entered the kitchen. His heavy brow was furrowed, deep lines of displeasure at either side of his mouth. He scanned the room and met Jordan's eye, and beckoned to him before retreating to the corridor outside. A stunned silence followed; it took him a moment to find the wits to move. Had the captain found out about Usk's presence the day before â did he think that Jordan had invited him in? He didn't think Harkenn would take kindly to that idea at all. The thought induced him to hurry out; he didn't want that misconception to hang around for too long. He met Nova's eye as he went; she looked as startled as he felt.
Devon waited for him a little way down the corridor. He didn't wait for Jordan to reach him, only beckoned and walked further from the kitchen door. When there was no chance of anyone coming in or out eavesdropping on them, he leaned in and said, "Did anyone get into the castle through that entrance?"
His dark gaze was measuring. Jordan blinked at him. "You mean did I let anyone in?"
"You. Or Anarabelle. On purpose or by accident. Is there another entrance down there?"
"Not that we could find." He swallowed. "There was...something down there. One of those Unspoken murderers. But we locked it in."
He could tell immediately that this was not what the captain had been getting at. "And you didn't tell anyone? You did not report it immediately? You know there are Unspoken in this castle frequently, you being one of them?"
"Yes, I know, I know." He bent under the weight of the man's disapproval. In the chaos of the visit to the poisoner and the rush to get the antidote into Harkenn, Jordan hadn't found a good moment to tell anyone. He hadn't seen Yddris at all, and Nika had been furious with him, but it seemed stupid now to not at least have left a note with a guard. "I had to leave in a hurry."
"Night take me." The captain groaned.
"Why? Has something happened?"
Devon looked at him for a moment, evaluating. "Ethred is not in his cell."
"Ethred... Oh. Oh, shit."
"We found no one in the office and the cell empty," Devon continued, "For some reason, the guard rota was messed around with and no one was assigned for the night shift, even though I wrote that rota myself a week ago and authorised no changes since. I have not been able to gain access to the lord's chambers to report it and I dare not leave it with anyone else. The Caelumese delegation has taken to wandering freely around the castle, and I have only just managed to shake Cael. He has been shadowing me since the physician arrived."
"You want me to get in there and warn them," Jordan guessed. "Why not Nova?"
"I thought you may have a better idea of what has happened."
Jordan stared blankly. Then something came to him, a tickling of memory â no. Surely Marick wouldn't follow through with the breakout despite losing the vote. Who had helped Ethred if the Devils had voted it down? The Caelumese? How would they have known how to do it?
"Ah, fuck," he whispered. Gelert might have. Neither he nor Cael would have told Arlen of their plans. And it was no guarantee that Marick hadn't gone through with it anyway.
A light rattle drew their attention to Nova approaching down the corridor. He could tell from her face that she'd heard the whole thing.
"You need to tell Yddris," she said.
Jordan nodded, feeling sick. He had allowed himself to hope, just for a moment, that finding the antidote would take things back out of his hands. He was sick of the plotting and intrigue, of the constant questions with no answers, of people entrusting him with dangerous information even though he was constantly and effectively getting blackmailed. He had never felt further from Grace. Perhaps her quick mind would have been able to help him put things together, if he'd been able to get past his terror of her knowing too much. He resolved that he had to change that before he lost her altogether.
As he hurried away from Devon and Nova, he tried to piece it all together, but there were too many holes. A crypt hardly anyone knew about, which Unspoken killers were somehow getting in and out of without anyone noticing. Perhaps they all had a copy of the key â but how did they get past the guard? Before that, the sabotage of House Kiel, and afterwards the mass breakout from a plague hospital. Harkenn was poisoned and fading fast, and the Angels in attendance were growing bolder. He was certain they had something to do with it all, but how? And Marick â Marick was another mystery. If he and Cael were working together, that would explain how he had known Jordan had been locked in the crypt, but not why he had sent help. If he was so desperate to be rid of Arlen, why do it in such a roundabout way?
And now Ethred was missing. None of it was fitting together at all. They were missing something crucial, but he hadn't the first idea what.
He knocked on the study door. There were muffled voices inside, and the guards' faces didn't give him much hope of getting in without things getting uncomfortable. But after a short pause, the door did open, though only Yddris's head emerged. "What? This better be urgent, boy."
"It is."
Something in his tone tipped his tutor off. "Oh, for fuck's sake. What now? Can it wait?"
"I don't think so."
"Then get in here." The words came out on a heartfelt sigh. Jordan stepped into the study, which was stiflingly warm. Nika hovered around a large armchair by the fire, which Jordan belatedly realised contained Harkenn. Even in the couple of days since he'd last seen the man, he had deteriorated further. His skin hung on him, and his orange eyes no longer pierced but instead wandered about the room as if struggling to focus. It felt like entirely the wrong time to be announcing such ominous news, but he had no choice. Again.
"Ethred has escaped," he said without preamble, just to get it out. The words dropped into the silence like lead balloons.
"How?" Harkenn's voice rasped from his chair. Nika stepped closer to it, and Jordan realised he was nervous. Was Harkenn in such bad shape?
"We don't know yet, my lord," he said. "Someone interfered with the rota without consulting the captain, and left the prison block unguarded overnight. At some time on that shift, Ethred got out."
"And no one noticed him leaving? No one noticed a group entering or exiting? How did he get out? I refuse to believe that blundering lummox got out of my prison without help." Despite his ghastly appearance, the lord's thoughts and words were sharper than they had been.
"The captain says they didn't." Jordan paused. "The chamber in the west courtyard, my lord â is there another entrance to it from the city?"
"So that's where you went." Harkenn's wandering gaze found him. He truly looked cadaverous; only a glint of orange showed in the deep hollows around his eyes. Jordan still felt the weight of that regard. "No, there isn't. Not that I have found, nor any of my forefathers. Why?"
He took a breath. Time to take the heat for not saying anything sooner; he seemed to be doing a lot of that lately. "I think it's being used as storage, my lord. For...the walking cadavers. I found a sack of cloaks in there, and after Cael locked us in..."
"Us?" Harkenn tried to sit up his chair but didn't have the strength. Jordan cursed himself for the slip. He didn't want to get Nova into trouble, because she didn't deserve it and also because his sister would flay him alive. "Anarabelle assisted me, my lord. I didn't know where the chamber was, and she's more familiar with history than I am." He couldn't read Harkenn's face. "I apologise for not asking first, my lord."
"And Cael locked you in? How did you get out?"
He didn't think it was over, but Harkenn was likely too weak to pursue that less important line. "There was...there was one of them in a coffin, my lord. It pinned us at the top of the stairs. I was rescued by one of my other teacher's associates."
Harkenn blinked. "And how, pray tell, do so many people have a dark-damned key?" He shook his head. "My thoughts are turning to a sludge again. Yddris, get Anara back up here. And Devon. Boy..." A light flush suffused his cheeks and he fell silent. Nika wordlessly helped him to drink from a glass of water. "Boy, I want Orthan searched. I want copies of that key, I want correspondence, I want to know if there is any evidence that Ethred went back there or where he might have gone. I will be sending a guard unit after you, use it as a distraction if need be. Use whatever resources are at your disposal."
Jordan nodded. He didn't give himself time to dread it; it was a job Arlen was already going to send him on, he was prepared. At least he told himself that.
"What of the plague, sir?" Nika interrupted, as Yddris swept out. "You'll be sending guards into danger."
"There are twelve patients loose, Whisperer," Harkenn snapped. "In a whole city. There are some risks we must take. Go with them if it would please you. I suspect this was the whole idea, that I would not send anyone after Ethred when the plague hospital folded. Well, I'm not falling into line with that one. They've fucked me over enough already. Boy, get going."
He didn't hang about. He turned on his heel and followed Yddris out of the door. There was no time to let Arlen know he was coming, but there was nothing for that. He only hoped the assassin was home when he got there.
He turned when he became aware of Nika behind him. He couldn't help the trepidation he felt; he hadn't spoken to Nika since the confrontation with Arlen and wasn't certain how much of that animosity was his fault. When the Unspoken spoke, however, there was no anger in his voice â only fear.
"I managed to get him to take it," Nika murmured, "you may have noticed a minor improvement." Jordan nodded; he had. "And I know it hasn't been long enough to see results, but if you find anything at all that could be used as a drug or a poison in this search, bring it to me. I think I know what the antidote was for, and it's a poison that's often used in conjunction with others. It doesn't normally work this slowly. Certain other...substances can ensure the death is drawn out. I think he will recover faster if I know whether anything else was used."
Jordan nodded. "I'll look. And...I'm sorry about yesterday. He is a dick sometimes. A lot of the time." A pause. "All of the time."
"Oh, don't worry about that, Thorne." Nika's voice was distracted. "This whole thing is so stressful that I can't seem to get a hold on anything anymore. I shouldn't have gone to meet you, I don't know why I thought it was a good idea. Good luck with this. Be careful. I have to get back to Harkenn."
He squeezed Jordan's shoulder and hurried away. Jordan watched him go for a moment, and then remembered the urgency of the situation and made himself move. He didn't think Arlen would have brushed it off nearly so easily, but it was good to know that Nika wasn't furious with him. It buoyed his mood enough that he found a reserve of determination. It occurred to him briefly that Koen might ask uncomfortable questions later that he wouldn't have good answers for, but there wasn't time to worry about that. If he helped calm this whole situation down, the city would be safer for...
Grace.
He veered off his intended route. He had to make sure someone was watching her while all this was going on. In the chaos, no one had been left with her at the house, and he hadn't checked whether one of Arlen's men was standing in. He wouldn't put it past Silas to capitalise on that lapse.
When he reached Yddris's home, a dark shape detached itself from the gables on the roof opposite. Jordan's heart seized and then relaxed as the shape resolved itself into Usk. The Varthian dropped soundlessly to the street.
"I need help," Jordan blurted out. "Is Arlen pissed with me?"
"Yes," Usk replied without mercy, though a glitter of amusement twinkled in his eyes. "What help do you need?"
"I still need to search Orthan. Nika thinks there might be a second substance involved." He didn't mention that Harkenn had ordered him to do it, nor that he had endorsed involving Arlen's group. Nika knowing about his apprenticeship was one thing, but if Arlen ever found out that Harkenn knew â that he encouraged it â Jordan didn't think he'd survive that argument. "I'm not going to ask Arlen to involve anyone else if he's still pissed at me, but I'd really appreciate some advice on how to do it."
Of course, he hoped against hope that Arlen wasn't so pissed that he left Jordan to do it alone, but he knew better than to beg. Arlen had no respect for begging. He was much more likely to get help if he showed a backbone that he didn't really have.
"I know that Harkenn is sending a guard unit down there soon," he said. "There was a breakout in the prison block. I could use it as cover."
"He will not send you alone." Usk's words were low, and followed a long, thoughtful silence. "He is angry, not stupid. Come."
"But, Grace..."
"Akiva will be taking over from me very soon. She can survive until..."
He cut off, and vanished into the shadows between two houses. Jordan blinked in surprise and looked around to find Koen walking down the street towards him. Had he seen Usk?
"Figured I'd find you down here," the Unspoken said. His tone was friendly; if he'd noticed anything amiss, it didn't show in his voice. "You off on some secret mission?"
"Of a sort."
"I'll watch her. You go and do your mysterious tasks."
"How did you know..."
"You, I guessed. Anarabelle all but ordered me to keep an eye on her, by which I figured you were off doing something important and not watching her yourself. I'll stay with her, you go."
"I'm buying you a pint when it's all over. Three pints. Thank you so much." He paused. "Can I ask one more favour?"
Koen sighed. "You know you don't have to ask permission, don't you? Haven't we known each other long enough yet? Night take me."
Jordan shrugged sheepishly as he gently extracted Ren from his hood. "Could you take her in for me? Grace knows how to look after her, and I don't think it's a good idea to take her with me on this one." It gave him a pang of regret to hand her over â it would have been a comfort to have her with him â but Arlen didn't like her and he had no idea what he was going to run into on this job. "Thank you, mate."
"No problem. You'd do the same for me." Koen cocked his head, his air mischievous. "I will hold you to those pints, though."
"Don't intend to rob you of them. I'll see you soon."
"Be safe," the Unspoken called after him as he hurried down the narrow passageway Usk had taken a minute before. "You know how to signal if you're in trouble."
He held up a hand to show he'd heard, relieved beyond measure. He owed Koen far more than three pints, but it was a start. He didn't know what Usk would have done if he'd refused to leave Grace alone until Akiva got there.
"This way." Usk's voice startled him as he reached the next street. Though light flickered in the windows of the houses around them, no one was braving the outside for fear of the plague. The Varthian had reached another alleyway on the other side of the street. When Jordan reached him, he set a foot to the guttering and swung himself onto the roof.
With a sigh, Jordan followed.
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Thanks so much for your patience.
Regards,
Elinor (S E Harrison)