“No! I forbid it!” Suddenly, Abioye was there, in front of me and between me and the guard. He was holding out a hand to stop the guard. The second one, who had already cornered Montfre by the model of Torvald paused as well at Abioye’s sharp and commanding tone of voice.
“The queen’s orders,” Dagan crowed victoriously.
There was nothing Abioye could do, I thought. We had to go with my plan. We had to attack.
“No.” But Abioye had already turned his back to me, defiantly facing both the guard and Dagan Mar.
“Are you disobeying the queen?” Dagan Mar was almost breathless with excitement. I could see in his eyes just how long he had been waiting for this moment.
“No, I do not think that it was my sister’s orders to manacle my… aides,” Abioye said. “My sister has never got herself involved in the uglier side of the family business. You know that only too well, don’t you, Dagan?” Abioye said pointedly.
Inyene had been using Dagan for a long time. I remembered Montfre’s story. Possibly even to help one or both of her unfortunate husbands become unfortunate.
“In fact, the queen would expect me as a D’Lia, to look after myself, to be strong!” Abioye spoke with passion. To me, it sounded filled with self-hatred – but that was only because I had heard the other, more vulnerable side of him as well.
Dagan licked his lips calculatingly. But he didn’t deny anything that Abioye was saying, and now I saw how right Abioye had guessed. This petty act of making sure that Montfre and I would be put back in manacles and chains – that we were reminded of just how powerless we were – was all Dagan through and through. I doubted that Inyene had even thought once about me after I had left her sight.
“This came from you, Dagan,” Abioye echoed my own thoughts perfectly. “And, from where I am standing, I am pretty sure that I heard my sister ask me to lead her expedition. Not even you, because you are nothing more than her manservant.” Abioye spat the words at him, and it was like watching the chief overseer get slapped in the face. His lips pursed, his eyes squinted, and his cheeks blushed a deep purple.
“I do not need to remind you, Mar, of your place here. I am my sister’s representative – not you! And if I say that my aides will remain un-manacled, then they shall. Are we clear?” Abioye’s voice had taken on a deeper register as he demanded, and I realized that was what his ‘real’ voice sounded like – when he wasn’t either too drunk or too nervous to think straight. Strangely, he also appeared taller somehow as he stood in front of me. Like maybe he was a lord after all.
“For now,” Dagan Mar muttered in a tight voice, his eyes flaring at the younger man in front of him, and then alighting on me in a look that could have sparked fires.
I glared right back at him.
“You will be gone a long time, Lord Abioye,” Dagan said in a murderous tone as he nodded for the guards to leave the room. “I can only pray that you have a safe journey,” he said acidly. It was the kind of statement that would have kept me up at night.
Dagan and his guards left, and Abioye waited until he had closed and locked the door behind them until he let out a shaking sigh. All the color blanched from his face as his eyes widened. I had seen the youngest of hunters look like that after their first major kill.
“You did well. You were strong,” I said immediately, moving to his side. It was important to hear these things at such times.
“Was I?” Abioye said, his voice returning to its lighter version. “What if I have only made everything worse? Dagan will be watching us now – I am sure of it.”
Yes, he would, I realized. I wouldn’t be able to creep through the keep tonight. I wouldn’t be able to confront Inyene and seize the scepter. Which meant that there was only one plan of action – Abioye and Montfre’s plan.
I can’t, I thought immediately. If Dagan was going to be left behind with Inyene, then he was the sort of man who would only take out his frustrations against the slaves while we were gone. Not that he would stop if Abioye stayed here, I thought. But I would be leagues and leagues away – with no way of stopping him.
But then again – how could I stop Dagan if I remained here? I was caught in this trap of hot and bold feelings when Abioye touched me – just lightly – on the shoulder. “Nothing more tonight,” he said in a low, earnest voice. I nodded. It would be foolish to try and do something now, to hunt on anger and impulse and not patience and determination.
“There are rooms next to mine. Go to them. Dagan wouldn’t dare defy me again so soon,” Abioye said.
“Wouldn’t he?” I said, but it was a rhetorical question. He was right. It’s better to hunt when your prey doesn’t expect it.
I was surprised that Abioye didn’t once again try to insist that we both stay here with him, as his servants or ‘aides’ – but also pleased that it seemed that Abioye was paying much closer attention to how he treated us. It had not escaped my notice that he had told Dagan we were his aides. He escorted us out of his rooms to the doors on either side of his, unlocking each one. “Only I have the keys,” he said. “You will be safe.” And then he paused and handed first me and then Montfre each the key to our own door. “Lock it after you,” he said seriously.
It was a small, inconsequential thing. A normal thing – but I had never had my own key to the many rooms and warehouses that I had been in over the four years. That small act, almost more so than seeing Abioye stand up for me, made me realize how much he trusted us.
“Maybe you’re not so bad after all, Abioye,” I muttered, turning into the room before I could see Abioye’s reaction. And before he could see how embarrassed I suddenly felt.
He was being nice to me. Why? I found my thoughts jumpy and bothersome as I looked around my rooms for the night. They were nowhere near as large as Abioye’s next door, of course – but they were still several steps up from a blanket on the floor of a cramped warehouse.
I wasn’t sure if it was better than the cave, however.
Abioye is being nice because he’s feeling bad, of course. He must have finally seen just how evil slavery was. And just how complicit he had been. Although it’s not really all his fault as well, right? It was his sister’s. And he had been trying to undermine her this whole time by attempting to alert the King of Torvald to Inyene’s plans. I argued with myself as I started to take off the green cloak, and then left it on, and then decided that yes, I would actually take it off.
“What’s wrong with you?” I snapped at my own heightened nerves. It had to be the confrontation with Inyene and Dagan.
But it was strange having people be nice to me, I thought – before once again turning on myself like a cat after its own tail. Isn’t Tamin nice to you? Ymmen? Oleer? Montfre?
“Okay, it’s weird having my oppressor’s brother be nice to me,” I settled for. That felt more true. Maybe it was the years that I had spent seeing Inyene’s keep in the distance and seeing it as the source of all of my woes. It was strange to find myself here, in this room, with other people who were trying to help me undo the damage that Inyene had caused, who had the power to be successful.