The King's bastard

'The pride Lence warned us about?'

He shrugged. There were plenty of them up on the Divide, more on the other side on the spars than on Rolencia's borders. It was rare for them to come down this far into the valley. 'They must have woken early this spring. I wonder if there's another new seep. That could've disturbed their winter sleep. At any rate, they're here and they're hungry.'

Byren waited, but no one accused him of nearly killing them by mistaking Lence's warning. For once Piro held her tongue. The thing was, he hadn't misremembered it. Had he?

'What'll we do?' Garzik asked, eyes searching the circling trunks as if expecting further trouble.

'Sleep up a tree for tonight — '

'They can climb,' Garzik insisted.

'True, but they'll be gorging themselves on that poor horse.'

'And tomorrow?' Garzik asked.

Byren glanced to Orrade.

'We'll need shelter,' his cousin muttered. 'They'll pick up our tracks and follow us. If we climb a tree we'll be trapped. They could out-wait us, pick us off one by one — '

'Eh, it's not that bad,' Byren interrupted, seeing Piro's pinched face. She turned to him hopefully. 'If we leave the horse trail and march across country to Lake Sapphire — '

'But we don't have skates,' Garzik pointed out.

'They do at Narrowneck tradepost.'

'Good idea,' Garzik agreed. 'We'll be safe there and we can borrow skates.'

'See, Piro, there's nothing to worry about.' Byren squeezed her cold little hands. 'Now, gather your things and we'll sleep up a tree just to be sure.'

She nodded. Trusting him, she began sifting through their collapsed snow-cave to find her belongings and repack her travelling kit. Orrade caught Byren's eye, his expression grim. It was not as cut-and-dried and Byren made out. It was debatable whether they'd make it as far as the tradepost before the manticores attacked.

'We'll be defenceless, easy prey while we're walking.' Garzik frowned. 'If only I'd brought my hunting bow.'

Byren forced a hearty laugh. 'Planning on killing yourself a manticore, Garza? You trying to outdo me?'

The boy grinned and relaxed, but Orrade held Byren's eye. They both knew the dangers.

'Sylion's curse,' Byren muttered, 'I should have listened to Piro.'

'Why should you have listened to me?' Piro asked as she rejoined them.

'You said Lence warned — '

'A slip of the tongue. That's all it was. Horse trail, canal.' She shrugged this aside. 'What do I do with my pack?'

'Garza can climb up, toss a rope down and haul it up,' Orrade told her.

Had it been a simple slip of the tongue on Lence's part? Byren cleared his throat. 'Piro, are you sure Lence said he and Cobalt saw the manticore spoor on the horse trail?'

She frowned, thinking back. 'Cobalt didn't mention it. He arrived at Dovecote with Lence but he went on ahead to Rolenhold to let them know about Lence staying at Dovecote. When I was about to leave, Lence told me to take the canal.'

And Byren was certain Lence had told him to take the horse trail. He felt sick at heart.

'What?' Piro asked, reading his expression.

But he shook his head and cupped his hands. 'Step up. Climb as high as you can.'

For a moment it looked as if she would argue with him, then she sprang into the branches, climbing like a monkey, dislodging snow on his upturned face.

'Here, watch it!' he called.

She giggled, sounding so young and unaware of the danger that he vowed he would get her safely back to Rolenton, even if he had to kill the whole the manticore pride to do it.

But then what would he do? Sit at Rolenhold waiting for Lence to find another way to kill him? His whole body revolted at the thought. He could not accept that Lence had sent him into the path of danger. Lence didn't need to kill him. All he had to do was accuse him of being a Servant of Palos.

'Do you mean to stand there all night?' Orrade called down. Byren hadn't even noticed him climb the trunk.

'What? Here, catch.' He tossed his pack up to Orrade and climbed up, settling in the crook of the tree on a horizontal branch, three body lengths from the ground. This tree had branches like the spokes of a wheel. His was twice as thick as his waist and Orrade settled onto the corresponding branch beside him.

'Tie yourself in, Piro. You don't want to fall,' Byren called up to her, suiting his actions to his words.

'I'm not afraid of heights.'

'Tie yourself in anyway,' Orrade told her. 'You too, Garza.'

'I'm not a child!' Garzik insisted from a body length above them.

Byren could not summon up a smile, as his mind circled back. Even if Lence had deliberately sent him on the dangerous road… 'What were the chances of the pride finding us?'

He didn't realise he'd spoken aloud until Orrade answered.

'They're hungry. We crossed their path…'

'But there was a chance we'd miss — '

'I did not mention it before…' Orrade whispered reluctantly. 'But I dreamt of a manticore with Cobalt's head.'

Was it a dream or a vision? Byren didn't want to ask and it was clear Orrade didn't want to make the distinction.

'Even if Lence sent Cobalt on ahead,' Orrade continued, 'how could Cobalt ensure the manticores would attack us?'

'He couldn't,' Byren decided. Clearly, Orrade had come to the same conclusion as him — Lence's misdirection had been deliberate.

Orrade leant closer to be sure they could not be overheard. 'At best someone could have lured the pack down into the valley with cuts of meat and tried to keep them in the vicinity of this camp. But that would be incredibly dangerous and — '

'And it would only work if Lence was sure we were going to use the horse trail back to Rolenton,' Byren admitted, forced to consider the possibility. 'I know Cobalt's cunning, but I don't see how he could have lured the manticores to this camp site. Their attack was just bad luck.'

'Can you be sure?' Orrade asked softly. 'Lence believed Piro was going back to Rolenton with Garza so he told her to take the canal. Then he deliberately directed you towards the horse trail. I think that — '

'If he planned to kill me he was taking a gamble on the manticores doing the job for him,' Byren snapped.

'True. But his plan had one advantage. No blame would ever find its way back to him.'

'Lence is not that devious.'

'Cobalt is.'

'We're arguing in circles,' Byren muttered, frustrated. 'Even Cobalt could not lure a whole pride of manticores to this camp site. Horse trail… canal… who says it wasn't a slip of the tongue on Lence's part? I can't believe my own twin would send me into danger. Back at midwinter he saved my life!'

Orrade said nothing.

The old seer's words replayed in Byren's head. She had been right so far, yet he had done everything he could to prove her wrong. He was not going to let things get to the stage where he had to kill Lence to save his own life. 'Before Cobalt — '

'Lence has always wanted Elina — '

'Yes, but before Illien came back, he was resigned to marrying the Merofynian kingsdaughter.' Byren debated telling Orrade about Lence's claim that the Merofynian throne should have been his. How many kingdoms did one man need? 'If I could just get rid of Cobalt — '

'What are you suggesting?' Orrade asked. 'Do you mean to take insult at something and force a duel on him?'

'No.' Though that wasn't a bad idea. 'I'm thinking of suggesting that he become Rolencia's ambassador to Ostron Isle.'

'But Rolencia already has an ambassador on Ostron Isle.'

'He's one of father's old honour guard. I think he's become a bit of a recluse. He didn't even tell us that Cobalt was marrying into the elector's family. Father could invite him back for Lence's wedding and Cobalt could be sent in his place.' Then Orrade would not get a chance to live where he would be accepted, but it would get rid of Cobalt. 'He knows the elector. He would be ideal.' If he actually had Rolencia's best interests at heart, that is. Byren suspected that Cobalt only had one person's best interests at heart and it wasn't Lence's. His twin was in for a nasty shock.