Captain Rovin snarled down at him.
“Your fate and his is not my decision to make, Sulla. If he doesn’t surrender, Jerrod will be hunted down and killed.”
The door opened and Sulla recognised Lord Ruthven.
“No, Captain Rovin it is not your decision to make.” The nobleman glanced around Sulla’s quarters and finally at Sulla himself. “It is mine.
“Leave us Captain Rovin,” he added, motioning them out. “I have something I wish to discuss with this man in private.”
Sulla saw Ruthven hold his right hand up. A curious ring caught the light, and when the belligerent captain saw it, he nodded.
“Very well, my Lord. We’ll be outside. If he gives you any trouble, just call.”
The room emptied, leaving them alone. After a long minute, Ruthven approached Sulla and leaned down close to him, and when he spoke it was in an angry whisper.
“Where are the documents, Sulla?” he hissed. “Where are the records you used to blackmail me? I paid your man handsomely for your silence, when you first came to me, and now you need to fulfil your end of the bargain. Where are they?”
Hold your tongue. Let him sweat.
Sulla took the goblet in his prosthetics and moved it awkwardly to his mouth. He took a single slow sip, swallowed, and then took another.
Then he looked Lord Ruthven in the eye.
“They are safe with my associate, the werewolf Jerrod. But let me make a suggestion to you, Lord Ruthven. I plan to stay and live in Varrock. A man like me can be very useful to your King. You see, I have other documents, copied from the Kinshra records when I was in charge. Think what your government could do with these!” He laughed at that. “All the dirty little secrets of anyone who matters-from here all the way to Kandarin. The diplomacy of Misthalin would be unstoppable, as would your own rise-”
“Don’t try and tempt me with such insipid talk, Sulla. I have risen well enough without you, and ambition as you have described is the want of weak men. I fight for a greater purpose than myself.”
“Then why did you pay me off in the first place, if you are such a strong and principled man?” Sulla said with a sneer.
“It was easier. Simply that. And I never said I was a principled man, Sulla.” Lord Ruthven moved toward the drawers that sat below the window. “That is something you should appreciate. You see, I have the King’s ear in many matters. If I wish it, I am quite sure I can condemn you to hang. Thus, I am the one making the demands. Not you.”
“Then what do you want?”
“What I paid for. The documents that incriminate me in my dealings with the Kinshra. It was, as you know, a long time ago, but selling weapons to your order was in direct opposition to the commands of the present King’s father.
“Still, I suppose they didn’t do you much good when you attacked Falador.”
“Very well,” Sulla said, biting his lip to keep his temper in check. “You will have your documents-if you do something for me.” He paused for effect. “Like I said, I want to remain in Varrock. There is nowhere else for me to go. Jerrod, too, is in a similar situation. After killing the Wyrd he cannot return home. And you have lost Gar’rth. A werewolf working with you would be useful. His knowledge of Morytania alone is worth a huge amount, and he is tenfold the best tracker in Varrock.”
Ruthven considered his words for a moment.
“I will put that to the King in the coming days. He won’t like having a werewolf here, though. Jerrod will have to live a life under lock and key.”
At least this buys me time. An extension of the King’s mercy.
Sulla nodded slightly.
“That is understandable.”
Ruthven gave him an unpleasant glare and then moved away from the drawers and to the door.
“And those documents,” he said. “If you are to come in and… be one of us, then I will take possession of them. We may as well make use of them where we can.”
Sulla smiled.
“But I am the only one who can read them, Lord Ruthven. They are in an old Kinshra code. You see, I am not entirely stupid.”
“No, Sulla. Not entirely.”
The old man left and Sulla was alone. But he felt good, and he knew it wasn’t just because of the wine he had consumed. He stood up and went to the window to look out onto the palace bailey. He noticed the number of guards and soldiers, far more than there had been the day before.
It appears King Roald could be building an army. But for what purpose?
As Sulla walked back to his chair, something caught his eye. On a cushion on his bed, where he had spent so many hours, was an envelope.
Someone must have slipped it there when I distracted, but who?
His mind spinning, he fumbled it open and saw just a single black mark drawn upon the paper. To most people it would have been meaningless, but Sulla gritted his teeth when he saw it, and his scars began to itch violently.
It was a warning. A warning from the Kinshra that was used to intimidate those who had betrayed the knighthood’s cause, and to tell them they could be killed at any time.
I could be killed at any time…
It could only mean one thing. Someone inside the palace- someone who had been in this very room, talking with him, pouring him wine, eyeing him with unease-was a Kinshra spy.
I am not safe here. If they can leave me a message such as this, then they can easily put poison in my wine or a knife to my throat.
Suddenly, despite the warm summer’s day, he shivered. All his plotting and bargaining now seemed so very fragile. And one thing was for certain.
The palace of Varrock was not the safe place he had thought it to be.