‘I insisted on the guards searching Bestiano, knowing they wouldn’t. He saw the King most days, so why search him now? But the damage was done because I’d put doubts in the heads of the Provincari who were witness to it all.
‘And so I walked into my father’s chamber, shut the door, and to Bestiano I did what the assassin told me to do. Render a man useless with a knee between the legs. And then I grabbed his dagger from its scabbard and I walked to my father and I plunged it into his side.’
Froi saw the vicious little teeth clench in victory as she remembered the moment. ‘ “That is for my mother!” I said, and then I twisted the blade, “And that is for Lirah of Serker.” Then in the third second I cut him from ear to ear, “And that is for the people of Charyn!” Only then did I cry bloody murder. “Bestiano has killed my father!” ’
They all stared at her, speechless. Quintana gripped Arjuro’s hand.
‘My mother is lost, blessed Arjuro, never to be reunited with her daughters,’ she said. ‘The only place she’ll find us will be in our dreams.’
Arjuro pressed her hand to his lips. If there was one person he had adored in this world apart from his brother and De Lancey, it was the Oracle.
‘If it’s the last thing I do in this mortal world, Your Highness,’ he said, his voice ragged, ‘I will find her spirit and call her home.’
Quintana leaned forward, her lips close to the Priestling’s ear. ‘If the assassin comes near us or the little King, will you help me cut out his heart, blessed Arjuro?’
Arjuro turned to meet Froi’s eyes. ‘Yes, I think I’d have to.’
The next day, Froi returned from his surveillance to find Arjuro and Gargarin waiting for him in the outer cave. Today it had been too dangerous to venture close to the stream and he had to be satisfied with berries as his pickings.
‘She believes she’s with child and that you’ve been sent to kill the heir to Charyn,’ Gargarin said tiredly.
‘Yes, we’ve already established that,’ Froi said. ‘Are you telling me you believe her?’
‘I don’t know what to believe, except that the most useless girl in Charyn has managed to do something that most men have failed at, including the both of us. So I’m going to have to be less sceptical about her ramblings in the future.’
Froi couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He turned to Arjuro.
‘So now you think she’s the answer to Charyn’s dreams as well?’
Arjuro shrugged. ‘There’s nothing like a bit of patricide and regicide to convince me of someone’s worth.’
‘I don’t care what any of you think,’ Froi muttered, preparing to crawl into the inner cave, ‘because the way I see it, when we get out of here, I’m taking her to the cloister of Lagrami in Sendecane. They’ll take care of her there for the rest of her life.’
Gargarin gripped Froi’s arm gently.
‘We thought it best if you sleep in a separate place until we work out her state of mind. Lirah says –’
‘Lirah?’ Froi said, bitterly. ‘Lirah would like me in a separate place? She weeps for her boy all her life, but the moment she’s faced with me as a son, it’s all too disappointing, isn’t it?’
Arjuro made a sound of annoyance.
‘That’s not what she said at all,’ Gargarin said. ‘Quintana is not of sound mind at the moment, Froi. Anyone can see that.’
Froi shoved him away and crawled into their cave.
Sitting up against the wall as she had since they arrived, Quintana stared up at him, her eyes swollen from the fatigue of keeping them open.
‘Tell her to sleep,’ he ordered Lirah.
Lirah stood and walked towards him.
‘She claims you will kill her and the child if she dares to sleep,’ Lirah said quietly. ‘It’s why she ran from you both times before.’
‘Her delusion about this child will get her killed, Lirah. Speak to her.’
Lirah shook her head. ‘I pledged to take her somewhere safe. When she came to me that day in the inn and told me you were in Charyn to assassinate her, she was inconsolable. Not just about the carnage in Tariq’s compound, but over fear of what you would do. ‘He’ll kill the little King,’ she cried, ‘and Charyn will be cursed for eternity.’
There was anguish in Lirah’s eyes. ‘I owe her this and regardless of whether I believe she is imagining this child, I need to be with her.’
‘Why is she so certain?’ Froi asked.
‘She claims the gods wrote it all over you. She is mad beyond reasoning and we did this to her. I did. The King. You. The whole of Charyn. We created that,’ she said, pointing to where Quintana stared from her corner.
Froi pushed past Lirah towards Quintana, but her savage hiss of fury and ragged breaths of fear filled the cave. Froi felt himself being dragged back by Arjuro and Gargarin while Lirah went to Quintana, murmuring words in the mad girl’s ears.
‘Tell her to sleep, Lirah,’ Froi begged, pulling away from the others.
But the sound of Froi’s voice was Quintana’s undoing and she cried out hoarsely, ‘Please, Lirah. Please, I’m begging you. Make him leave.’
Lirah turned and Froi saw it in her eyes. She wanted him gone, as well. Shaking free of Arjuro’s arms he walked away and crawled back into the outer cave.
He spent the week playing cat and mouse with Bestiano’s riders, watching them search the larger caves each morning. Some days, Froi made sure he left a false trail that had them whispering with feverish excitement. Most days he returned with food and placed it in the tunnel between the outer and inner cave for the others to eat.
They came to the outer cave often, except for Quintana, but Froi barely spoke.
‘We can’t stay here,’ Gargarin said, a week after Froi had been banished from Quintana’s presence.
Froi practised some weapon drills, ignoring him.
‘Either we find a way out past their camp or give her up to Bestiano’s men,’ Arjuro said.
Froi stumbled a moment, his short sword falling out of his hand.
‘If they believe she is with child, it buys her time,’ Arjuro said. ‘What did you say about buying time? Each moment provides … blah, blah, blah.’
If Froi chose to speak to them he’d say it was a bad idea. And what would Bestiano and the riders do after they discovered Quintana had been telling lies when her belly failed to swell. But he didn’t choose to speak and soon they left.
Later, Lirah came to visit.
‘Gargarin says you’re sulking,’ she said, coolly. ‘And Quintana’s still not sleeping, so perhaps you should return and sit in a corner away from her.’
‘I don’t sit in corners, Lirah.’
‘This is not helping anyone.’
‘Is there food in her belly?’ he snapped, pointing a finger to her face. ‘In all your bellies? If not, get out of my cave!’
With a hand she shoved him back. ‘You listen to me, you little Serker savage –’
‘Your Serker savage, Lirah,’ he mocked viciously, stepping closer. ‘His.’
She shoved him again and he felt fury in the push. ‘You were sent to assassinate her, Froi. What do you expect? Regardless of everything, everything,’ she spat, ‘Quintana was placed in my care, and for so long I was the only one she trusted when cowards tried to kill her time and time again. Do you want to know the first time it happened? Have you ever seen a four-year-old child retch over and over again, trying to purge herself of the poison they put in her food, begging me to stop the pain?’
He thought of all those times Quintana tried to eat from his plate and from the plates of those around her.
‘I would never have done it,’ he argued.
‘Why not? It’s part of that wretched bond of yours to those revenge-seeking Lumaterans. It’s the code you live by. Why would I think any different?’