“He was a shifter,” Glynnie pointed out.
Holm pushed past. “You’re taking on more than your due, Tali. And you’ve got a short memory. The blood is yours and his, from when you tried to heal him.”
She looked up at him. “But where’s the body?”
Holm sauntered across, flipped the hanging bedclothes up onto the bed and said, “Right here.”
Tali looked down. “Why would they dump his body under the bed?”
“They didn’t,” said Holm. “I did.”
“Why the hell would you do that?” said Rix.
“He was sleeping so soundly after Tali’s failed healing that I knew he’d be helpless if there was a mutiny. I shoved him under the bed and pulled the bedclothes down so he couldn’t be seen. It must have fooled the mutineers, too. Guess they thought someone else had killed him first.”
“You mean he’s not dead?” Tali scrambled under the bed and took Tobry in her arms. He let out a great snore, but did not wake.
“No,” said Holm, “but he’s going to murder you when he wakes up.”
Rix chuckled. “Serves her right. I think we’ll leave them to each other. Come on.”
He walked up with Glynnie. “Rix?” she said.
“Yes?”
“If we survive the war, will you come with me to Caulderon and find out what happened to Benn?”
“Yes, I will,” said Rix. After this night, he could refuse her nothing. “No matter what.”
CHAPTER 67
Dawn finally came, one of the longest nights of Rix’s life. He did the rounds with Glynnie and Holm, inspecting the grim tale of the mutiny.
In addition to Swelt, seven servants were dead, three of them murdered while they were asleep. They included a fourteen-year-old serving girl who could not have threatened any of them. Ten mutineers had been killed and another eight captured, five of them by Nuddell’s men when the guard mutineers had attacked the barracks.
“This is all my fault,” said Rix.
“You didn’t mutiny,” said Glynnie. “You didn’t murder innocent people in their beds.”
“But I knew Blathy was trouble; you told me the day we came here. You told me to get rid of her and I didn’t. A good leader would have paid her off and had her escorted from the plateau.”
“Yes, but — ”
“Let him get it out, Glynnie,” said Holm. “Rix is in charge. He needs to say it.” He looked at Rix. “If Blathy had been a man, you would have acted instantly, wouldn’t you?”
“I was brought up to respect women and treat them fairly.”
“So you dithered. You allowed her to stay where she had no right, and now innocent people are dead.”
“Yes,” said Rix.
“What’s done is done,” said Holm, “and the only way to make up for it is to be the leader Garramide requires.”
“And first of all, there has to be a trial,” said Rix wearily.
“Why?” said Glynnie. “Everyone knows they mutinied.”
“To show that, in Fortress Garramide if nowhere else, we hold to the rule of law. If I put them to death there will be those here, and outside, who’ll call it unlawful killing. A trial sets the rules for everyone.”
He called the servants together, and those guards who could be spared from the walls, and appointed a jury of three, avoiding both his own allies and the friends and relatives of the murdered servants.
The trial did not take long. The names were read before the assembly, the evidence sworn, the prisoners given a chance to speak in their defence. Five did; the others did not. Some could not even justify their actions to themselves.
“Guilty,” said the jury of three.
“Take them out,” said Rix to his sergeant.
“Yes, Lord,” said Nuddell, sweating profusely, and clearly regretting that he had taken the sergeant’s badge. “The sword or the rope?”
“The sword is reserved for those with a shred of honour left. Mutineers get the rope.”
The prisoners were taken away and dealt with. The servants and guards returned to their duties. Rix lowered his head to the bench and closed his eyes. No sleep last night, and there would be none today, for the enemy could attack at any time.
“Rix?” said Glynnie.
He sat up. She had changed her clothes, washed the blood off her hands and was standing before him holding a tray. Steam rose from the spout of a teapot and issued from beneath the covers on several plates.
“You saved my life, Glynnie. You don’t have to wait on me.”
“Would you have me lie idle when there’s work to be done and twenty-five less people to do it?” she said coolly. “Besides, you also saved my life.”
“I saved your life?”
“She knew I was hiding under the bed. She was whispering to me, telling me how she was going to unseam me from top to bottom and spill my guts on your sheets. If you hadn’t come in when you did, she would have. She hated me nearly as much as she hated you.”
“Why did she hate you?” said Rix, bemused.
“She thought I was your woman! She wanted to rob you of everything you’d taken from her.”
“But you’re not my woman.” Rix’s head was aching.
“She dropped you beside the bed so I’d have to watch her cutting your throat. It didn’t occur to her that I’d fight just as hard for my man.”
Glynnie gave him a fierce, searching glare. He was trying to think through what she meant — whether she was serious, making a joke or simply being sarcastic — when a cacophony of signal horns sounded outside.
“They’re attacking!” Glynnie threw herself into his arms, clinging tightly for a couple of seconds. Just as suddenly, she wrenched free. “We’ll need hot water. Bandages. Food and drink.”
“Not immediately we won’t,” said Rix. “Eat first,” but she was gone.
He could still feel the impression of her arms around him. He poured a cup of tea and ate some bread and grilled meat. He was trying to clear away all the doings of the night, to concentrate on the coming battle, when Tobry joined him.
“I heard horns,” said Tobry. “But…”
“They didn’t sound like war horns to me, either. Grab some food and come on.”
Tobry took tea, glanced at the food, shook his head and winced. “Not sure I can stomach it right now. My head feels peculiar. Never felt quite like it before.”
Rix rose and they headed for the wall. “Bad dreams?” he said innocently.
“You might say that.” Tobry rubbed his head. “Ahh!”
“Something the matter?”
“Great lump on my head. Feels as though I’ve been whacked with a mallet.”
“Maybe I did it,” grinned Rix. “I’ve wanted to often enough.”
“Very funny. And I woke up on the floor under my bed.”
They passed out through the doors. In the yard, the wind was howling.
“Under your bed? Have you been drinking?”
“With scrape marks across my back, as if someone shoved me underneath.”
“Maybe Tali did it, to hide you during the mutiny.”
“I’m not in the mood for jokes, Rix.”
“It’s not something I’d joke about.”
“There was a mutiny?” Tobry swung Rix around by the shoulder, eyes wide. “Tell me?”
Rix jerked his head towards the back of the tower, out of sight of the enemy.
Tobry took in the eight bodies dangling there. “I slept through it all? What happened? Is Tali all right? Is — ?”
“Tali’s all right. But it was a close thing. We might all have been murdered in our beds. As it is, we lost Swelt and seven others.”
“That’s bad. Strange fellow, Swelt,” said Tobry. “Couldn’t work him out. But he treated me decently enough… considering.”
As they were climbing the tower behind the gates, the horns sounded again. They reached the top to see that the enemy were pulling back.
“I don’t believe it,” said Rix. “They must be trying to lure us out.”
“Odd sort of a ploy. Lure us out to what?”
“I don’t know.” Rix scanned the plateau with his field glasses, in case they had brought a second force up the mountain.