Rebel's Cage (Book 4) (56 page)

Jenn would not want to turn her son into a killer, or a King.

Robert turned for his horse, tightening the girth strap and making ready to leave.

‘Robert?’

He froze, hands still on the saddle, Senses vanishing in the wake of her too-familiar aura. Like a statue he waited.

This was simply not fair.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said evenly, betraying nothing. ‘I realise you don’t really want to talk to me but there are things we need to discuss.’

‘Isn’t that what mindspeech is for?’ Suddenly unfrozen, his hands finished their work and he moved around the horse, ashamed that he felt the need for such protection against her.

‘Only if it
is
used – and more than twice in eight years.’ She took a step closer and he had no choice, as he had never had a choice, but to look at her.

Like himself, she had been touched by the Key that day, and now she stood before him unaged, unchanged and yet so terribly different in ways that made him quake inside. He saw the long dark hair, bound up in a thick braid which fell over her shoulder. He saw her oval face, so like her son’s, the eyes, nose and mouth, familiar and yet not the same at all. Andrew was everything Jenn would have been if she’d been a man – but did he have her courage? Her determination? Her ability to manipulate those around her to achieve goals she never spoke about?

Had she been like this since joining with the Key, or had he been blind to it for years before that?

‘What do you plan to do with Andrew?’ Her voice held memories. ‘Or can’t you tell me?’

‘You know the answer to that. You always did have the habit of asking questions you already knew the answers to. I’m sure you, Micah and my brother have discussed it at length.’

‘So it’s true?’ Her eyes went wide at this. ‘And what if I want to stop you?’

‘Don’t.’

‘Could I?’

And suddenly, he knew how to keep the fear at bay and yet hold the demon in check. He moved back around his horse, dropping the reins, walking up to her, noting how she became wary, but not afraid, as though fear between them still didn’t exist, as it never had, and then he was there, before her, his arm slipping around her waist, his hand catching under her chin, lifting her face towards him.

He kissed her.

Fear, like desire, rose in him, flooding through his body, awakening him like nothing had over the years since he’d last seen her. Something in her fought him, but without strength, and that was enough to encourage him, to take whatever it was he needed without giving anything back.

They broke apart, breathless. For a moment, he retained his hold on her, then he dropped his hands and stepped back. Her gaze was locked on his, open and yet wholly closed to him. She was shaking slightly, but she said nothing.

‘Don’t try to stop me.’

He caught up his reins, led his horse past her and on towards the clearing. He stopped then, unable to avoid facing Micah. Pale blue eyes watched him without blinking, without expression, and Robert knew it was up to him to speak first this time.

‘I’m sorry about your father.’ There was a faint flicker in those eyes, and Robert continued, ‘I spoke to Durrill. He said your mother and the rest of your family are well.’ His voice trailed off. He couldn’t say any more to his once-closest friend. The time for that had long since passed. But no matter what else, Micah
had
spent the last eight years protecting a future King, and for that, Robert added, ‘I am very sorry about David. He was a good man.’

For a moment, Micah just continued to stare at him. Then he nodded slowly. ‘Thank you, my lord.’

In the ensuing silence, Robert looked at Finnlay, then at
Andrew. ‘I’ll see you in two days.’ With that, he swung up into his saddle and rode away, kicking his horse into a gallop, invisible ghosts snapping at his heels.

*

Andrew stared at the patch of darkness Robert had disappeared into. Why did he feel like he’d just failed somehow?

He turned back to the others, in time to see the last of a look pass between Micah and Finnlay, something far beyond anything he was privy to. And then his mother emerged from the forest, deliberately looking at neither of the men, but keeping her attention on Andrew instead.

The clearing drew forth the last of the afternoon light, helping the odd silence. It was just enough to see something glisten in Jenn’s eyes, then she gave him the kind of smile he had never seen before on her. It touched him deeply, but left him unsettled – like so much else that had happened in the last hour.

‘You and Micah should go on to Maitland. You’re a day late already and Bella will be worried.’

The words, tone, gestures, all seemed so normal, but he couldn’t escape the conviction that something very important had just happened and he was the only one who didn’t understand it. ‘What about you?’

‘I’ll follow on my own. Finnlay will have to wait for us at Micah’s cottage, as usual.’

Micah could get away with going through the gate after dark, but anybody who saw his mother would immediately recognise her, since she looked so much like her sister.

He watched her for a moment, remembering the strange look shared by Finnlay and Micah, and blurted, ‘Mother, will you walk back to my horse with me?’

Surprised, she said, ‘Yes, of course.’

He caught her hand and she walked alongside him into the darkness of the pine trees, to where his horse was tethered. ‘What happened?’ he murmured. ‘Between you and Duke Robert?’

He felt her stiffen beside him. ‘I tried to ask him about his plans for you.’

‘And?’

‘And he wouldn’t tell me.’ She came closer, brushing his hair down with a gentle hand. She had always touched him, always made sure he knew how much she loved him, how important he was to her, even though she’d chosen to live in the Enclave, rather than live with him.

‘Andrew, are you all right?’

‘I’m just … I don’t know, confused, I suppose.’

‘I don’t know what to say to you, my love,’ she whispered. ‘I know you have questions and I know you need answers. I wish that he …’

Andrew held his breath, waiting for the rest of the wish, but it never came.

In the silence, he found he could only leap head first into the test. But at least it didn’t have to be entirely on Robert’s terms. ‘Just tell me one thing, Mother.’

‘I’ll try.’

‘Can I trust him?’

She muttered under her breath, ‘When I get my hands on him, I’ll … what he’s done to you …’ She stopped abruptly, faced him again and put her hands against his cool cheeks. ‘Yes, you can trust him. You
have
to trust him.’

Shock washed through him. ‘Does that mean you agree? That I should do as he says?’

She pulled him close then, as she had when he was a child. ‘It means, my love, that I can’t help you in this. I would fight to the death for you, but in this, I … I cannot stand against him.’

He pushed away from her. This couldn’t be his mother speaking! She would never condone something like this! And yet, it
was
her. He grabbed his reins and headed back to the clearing. ‘We’ll talk about this tomorrow.’

‘Andrew, wait!’

‘Why?’ Stubborn and defiant, he turned to face her.

‘There are things you don’t understand.’

‘And that’s
my
fault? If you’d wanted me to understand, you should have told me a long time ago.’

‘I was trying to protect you.’

‘And that makes a difference? That makes it right? Mother, do you have
any
idea what he wants me to do? Do you? What in Serin’s name were you trying to protect me from? The truth of who I am? Was that ever going to change it? Make it go away? No! So now I have to listen to … him and what he says and you tell me you can’t stop him.’ Andrew came to a crashing halt, his throat tight, his eyes stinging. ‘I … worshipped him, Mother. And he thinks I’m a coward and a traitor. I …’

Jenn moved forward, her hands reaching for him. ‘I’m sorry, love. I never wanted this to happen—’

But the moment she touched him, he flinched, unable to believe such comfort now. Nor could he look at her. ‘Don’t, Mother. Just … I’ll see you tomorrow.’ He didn’t wait for more. The moment he reached Micah, he swung up into his saddle and kicked the horse into movement. Micah joined him as they headed north, to join up with the road they were supposed to be travelling.

They rode in silence, after a while passing through a crossroads with a busy tavern, when they made it look as if they’d come directly from Marsay. All necessary lies. All sacrifices to the gods of survival.

He felt ill.

So this was the life of a rebel, then. Doing things under cover of darkness, hiding, pretending, keeping secrets and living with half-truths. No wonder Robert had such a problem with trust.

‘Micah?’

‘Yes, my lord?’

‘Could you have stopped him?’

‘Taking you?’

‘Yes.’

‘I don’t know.’

‘That means you could have if you’d wanted to, doesn’t it?’

‘You’ve spent a week with him, my lord. Can you honestly tell me any man alive has the ability to stop him doing anything he wants to?’

Andrew could see the lights of Maitland Manor appear in the distance, but even as they gave him that familiar welcome,
something about them had changed. Or perhaps it was he who had changed. ‘My mother stopped him from killing Nash.’

‘No, she didn’t.’ Micah replied so softly Andrew almost didn’t hear it. ‘She stopped him from killing himself.’

‘How do you know that?’ Andrew wanted it to be a question, but it came out more like a demand. He turned to look at Micah, to read the expression in the pale shaded moonlight, but there was something wrong. Micah didn’t appear to be thinking the question over. He seemed to be concentrating on something—

He heard it then: the pounding of hooves from the forest all around them, calls in the darkness and the unmistakable rasp of steel against steel.

‘By the gods, my lord, turn and run!’ Micah pulled his horse around and drew his sword all in the same motion, nothing more in that moment than pure warrior. ‘We are attacked by Malachi!’

DeMassey shouted out another order, sent two men around to flank the pair dodging every attempt to surround them. Then he barked at a man to ride and gather the rest who were guarding the other approach. He kicked his horse, galloping towards the front of the group, ducking under low-hanging branches, rolling each time the animal stumbled beneath him.

It should have been easy. With the experience of his men, their skills, their abilities, the ambush should have been over within seconds. But long minutes after they’d made their first strike, they were still chasing the boy and his guard, running parallel to the road. Two of his men were already wounded, the guard fighting like a demon, continually keeping himself between the D’Azzir and his charge.

They needed to get this done. If they got too much closer to Maitland, the alarm would be raised and any hope of keeping the abduction from the Ally’s eyes would be lost.

But he couldn’t use too much force, didn’t dare give the
order for his men to use combat abilities. One stray shot – and in the darkness, under these conditions, it was too possible – and the boy would be dead. And so would they all.

The road dipped down before them and with his men flanking, his prey stumbled into a shallow gully, hedged with trees. The guard perched ready to fight, turning his horse this way and that, picking out what he could see in the dark. The boy did the same, but with terror in his eyes, his sword pointing warily but effectively.

Without warning, a single bolt of power flew from De-Massey’s left and hit the ground beneath the two as his men surrounded them. Panicking, both horses reared up. With a yell, the boy slid to the ground and DeMassey’s men closed in.

Turned out this was much easier than it had looked.

*

The night crammed close and hostile, forcing Jenn to her feet again and again, to pace before the fire Finnlay had made. They could have gone to Micah’s cottage, but she’d only have to come back this way to go to Maitland. So Finnlay sat by the fire, wrapped in his cloak, a bundle of stark silence, and Jenn paced back and forth, memories of Andrew’s comments deafening her.

‘Will you
please
sit down!’

Jenn came to a halt, staring into the clearing beyond the line of trees in the direction of Maitland. ‘Is it time for me to leave yet?’

‘I’d say they would be going through the crossroads by now. So, no, not just yet. Not unless you want to get to Maitland before Andrew?’

‘No.’ Her fingers itched. She pulled her gloves off and rubbed her hands together, but it made no difference. ‘Are you sure about the timing?’

‘Am I ever wrong?’

‘Not that you’ve told me.’

‘Well, I’m telling you now, sit down and calm down.’

Again she began to pace, rubbing her hands and shaking her head. She shouldn’t be feeling this just because of her argument with Andrew. Or was it that Robert had kissed her? A
tremor ran through her. Wanting and needing had too often taken second place to larger concerns. Just seeing him, standing there whole and alive, had touched something inside her. But Robert hadn’t kissed her out of affection, or love. There had been the taste of revenge on his lips.

What had he tasted on hers?

Something dark swept before her eyes, like a bat flying in the forest, but larger. She stopped, searching for the shadow in the black night. Abruptly all the dissonance coalesced inside her and, terrified, she ran for her horse.

‘Malachi! They’re going for Andrew!’

*

Andrew landed hard on the ground, the wind knocked out of him, the sword bumping from his fingers. Another flash of fire split the night around him, blinding him for a moment. A shout followed it, an order to cease or else, and Andrew blinked, trying to find Micah in the chaos.

‘Andrew? Are you hurt?’

A hand beneath his elbow dragged him to his feet. As his sight returned, his sword was thrust into his hand.

‘Stay close.’

‘What do they want?’ Andrew hissed, seeing more now: perhaps a dozen men, mounted, heavily armed. Malachi all. And he recognised the leader – Baron DeMassey.