THIRTY-THREE
“Elliot’s alive!” Jennifer exclaimed.
“You said he was dead,” Drake said to Kay.
“ You said he was dead,” Kay said to me.
I was too surprised to reply.
“Clearly none of you know the great Elliot Spears,” Medraft said ironically. “He can never die.”
“Don’t take your eyes off her,” I told Bob. He nodded, Medraft’s sword still in his hand, and stood behind Megan Drake. He placed the blade flat on her shoulder, its edge against her neck. She glared javelins at me.
I held back the tent flap so we could all see. Rattling down the hill the same way I’d come was a wooden hay cart pulled by a lone horse. The driver was indeed Elliot Spears, his tattered clothes revealing bandaged wounds even at this distance. In the cart were the bodies of at least half a dozen men, their limbs flopping as the rough wheels traversed the battered road. Unlike me, no one moved to block his path. A wave trailed and spread from him through the army, as the men realized who he was and stood to get a better view.
Spears stopped the cart beside my wagon. He winced as he stepped to the ground and looked back at the mercenary army. If he’d yelled, “Boo!” half of them would’ve fainted.
Spears saw me in the tent opening. “Mr. LaCrosse. I’m glad to see you safe. Things were more difficult than I expected. I got sidetracked.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” I said.
“Elliot!” Drake cried as he strode from the tent. The two men embraced. I had a sudden flash of the question that every small boy on Grand Bruan must ask at some point: in a fight between these two great warriors, who would win?
“I can’t tell you how happy I am to have you here,” Drake continued.
“Since the pyre remains unlit, I assume I’ve arrived in time to fight for the queen’s honor.” Spears nodded at the mercenaries. “But what is all this?”
“Guess,” Drake said.
“Medraft,” Spears spat.
“Good to see you, too, General Spears,” Medraft said as he sauntered from the tent. “We thought you weren’t coming. The queen’s guilt or innocence is now in your capable hands.”
The look Spears gave the younger man could’ve melted rock. “Yes, despite your best efforts, I am here. Next time send better assassins.”
“ My best efforts?” Medraft shot back. “I’m only interested in justice. If the queen’s integrity is compromised, then it’s a threat to the whole kingdom. My army is here simply to maintain order.” He nodded at the corpses in the cart. “I have no idea who those men are. Or rather, were.”
Spears ignored him and looked at me. “Did you do as I asked?”
The look in his eye reminded me of those dogs that appear blase and indolent until their master orders them to attack. I had no idea what would happen when he learned of Jenny’s fate. It wasn’t inconceivable that he’d blame-and take it out on-me. I said, “Yes.”
Spears turned to Drake. “Then when do we begin the battle and clear out this trash?”
“We were just passing the time by discussing some events of the past,” Medraft said. “Family stories I’d never heard before. They were quite compelling.”
“No one was speaking to you,” Spears snapped. “Enjoy the sensation of your head on your shoulders while you can.”
Gillian emerged from the tent behind Drake. He said softly, “You’re a rather large target, Your Majesty, for an archer out to make a name for himself.”
I think at that moment Drake would’ve preferred wading naked into the opposing army to going back into that tent, but he nodded and led the way. I dropped the flap when we were all back inside.
Spears stopped dead. “Why is that coffin here?”
Protocol saved me from having to answer. “Elliot,” Queen Jennifer said with relief; at the sound of her voice Spears immediately dropped to one knee and lowered his head.
“Forgive my rudeness, Your Majesty,” he said. “I am your servant.”
She offered her hand, and he kissed it, ignoring the cuffs around her wrists. “No forgiveness is necessary now that you’re here.”
Spears rose with a groan, favoring his right knee. Then he saw the woman tied to the chair, with Kay diligently guarding her. “Megan Drake,” he said coldly. “I thought I sensed your vile hand in all this. If she is to be executed, Your Majesty, I beg the swinging of the blade.”
“Go back to your own country, foreigner,” Megan snapped.
“This is my country more than it will ever be yours,” he fired back.
“I’m not sure any of us can claim the moral high ground here,” Medraft said. “Mr. LaCrosse has been sharing some pretty interesting family secrets.”
Spears frowned at me. “Such as?”
Oh boy. Nowhere to go but forward. “I was about to explain that there would’ve been no opportunity for this plot if there hadn’t been gossip about the queen and you, Elliot. I can say with total certainty that it was unfounded. The queen was not unfaithful. The proof”-my mouth had gone dry-“is in that coffin.”
Everyone looked at the box. Elliot froze, then with a cry of anguish pushed me aside and wrenched off the coffin’s lid. He held it and stared at the apparent body of his Dark Jenny, the love for which he’d risked both his life and his honor.
“Elliot-,” I began.
“Silence!” he yelled.
I didn’t know what to do or say. I didn’t know what would happen.
Queen Jennifer stepped forward, looked inside the coffin, and gasped.
Drake’s eyes opened wide.
Megan strained to see.
Gillian and Bob Kay exchanged a confused look.
Spears made a strangled sound and stepped away from the coffin. Again there was that terrible instant where he seemed to grow larger and broader, as if his muscles could expand at will. Suddenly Marcus Drake did not seem like the biggest man in the tent.
The moment felt like the one between a flash of lightning and the crash of thunder.
I raised my hands for calm and said, “Nobody jump to conclusions. It’s not what it looks like.”
Spears roared. It’s the only way to describe the sound he made. It mingled fury, agony, and outrage. He swung the coffin lid as if it weighed nothing. Even in the tent’s impossibly confined space, he missed everyone but his target, Ted Medraft. “ You did this!”
The wood cracked lengthwise from the impact against the side of Medraft’s head. The would-be usurper spun in place and dropped without a sound.
“Teddy!” Megan cried, and strained with all her strength against the bonds holding her. Kay firmly held the chair. “That’s my son, you foreign bastard!”
Spears looked down at the two halves of the broken lid, one in each hand.
Gillian stepped forward and put a hand on Spears’s arm. Calmly he said, “Elliot, please-”
At the instant of contact Spears spun around with one half of the lid in his right hand like a blade. The broken, jagged edge slashed across Gillian’s exposed throat, and for a moment I saw a ghastly cross-section of blood vessels, muscles, and windpipe.
Gillian’s eyes opened wide and his hands rose to his neck. His fingers found the edge of the gash just as the blood started to surge forth. He fell back into the tent wall, clutched at the canvas, and slid to the ground. He died almost at once.
Queen Jennifer shrieked.
The sound snapped Spears back to reality. He looked down at the two halves of the coffin lid and threw them to the rug as if he didn’t remember where they came from.
“I’m not dead yet, Mom,” Medraft said woozily. Blood coursed down the side of his face, but he managed to get to his feet. He smiled and said drily, “The heir to the throne of Grand Bruan still lives.”
That got Spears’s attention. To Drake he said, “What does he mean by that?”
Medraft looked down at Gillian and shook his head. “Poor Tommy,” he said flatly. Then he gingerly touched the gash under his hair. “Apparently not only is King Marc my uncle-”
“Stop!” Queen Jennifer said. Her voice had an assertiveness I hadn’t heard before, and it got everyone’s attention. She looked at us with an authority that easily overwhelmed her plain dress and shackles. “Just… stop, all right? All we’ve heard are wild accusations, with no proof. Including this woman in the coffin, whoever she is.” I caught her momentary look of pleading desperation toward Spears. Please go along. Please don’t give away the truth. “It’s clearly just more of Megan’s attempts to drive wedges between us, just like the absurd charge against me.”