The Beauty of Darkness - Mary E. Pearson Page 0,129

the Komizar had won.

Seeing Malich dead was suddenly a very small victory. The satisfaction trickled away, like his blood across the floor. His death only gave me an ending—it didn’t give back what had been taken.

The path here was a blur and I wasn’t sure where I was, but it wasn’t the citadelle. Maybe one of the outbuildings? Why would they chance dragging me out in the open when the citadelle prison had been only steps away? I didn’t think they had taken me as far as Piers Camp, but I couldn’t be sure.

I tried to stand to search the room for something to use as a weapon, but my injured leg buckled under me, and my face slammed into the dirt floor. I lay there like a wounded animal. Do we understand each other at last? I choked back angy tears. No! I pushed with my one good hand, trying to get up. I’d thought the situation couldn’t get any worse, but I was wrong. I heard footsteps, muffled shouts, and squinted against the sudden bright light as the door swung open. More prisoners were flung inside, the door slammed, and the room plunged back into darkness.

He is near my children,

His lips brush my neck,

His spittle wets my cheek,

His caress crushes my breaths,

More than swords,

More than fists,

My words frighten him.

I see my end,

But the words I have given you,

I pray, those he cannot take.

—Song of Venda

CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

RAFE

Only a few of us rode through the woods. The rest remained in town, dispersed so as not to attract attention—but ready. As we got closer to the cottage, I put my hand up, a wordless order for everyone to stop. They heard it too. An angry squalling. A cat perhaps, or—

We broke into a gallop. As we neared, I spotted Kaden running from the woods toward the cottage. He saw us but kept running. “Pauline! Lia!” he yelled as he ran. We piled through the cottage door, only to find it empty—except for the howl of a baby. We all looked at the bed at the same time, and Kaden bent down, pulling a bundle from beneath it.

“It’s Pauline’s,” he said as he cradled the baby in his arms. He pulled aside the blanket to make sure it wasn’t hurt. “She would never leave her baby like this.” And then, as if he’d finally registered our presence, he asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”

Before I could answer, Berdi and a young girl burst through the door. Berdi yelled warnings and threats before finally demanding the baby be handed over. It was pandemonium and confusion as questions were hurled until Orrin rushed in and said there were fresh horse tracks outside that weren’t ours.

“Someone took them,” Kaden said. “She hid the baby beneath the bed so they wouldn’t take him too.”

The girl with Berdi darted for the door. “I have to get to the abbey!”

Both Kaden and Berdi yelled for her to stop, but she was already gone. I got on my horse and ran her down, unsure of her motives. She drew a knife to hold me off. That was when she told me about the notices.

CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO

The three of us sat side by side, leaning against the stone wall. I imagined they stared into the black void, just as I did. I was grateful that I couldn’t see Pauline’s face as she recounted the betrayal. Her voice was still filled with disbelief and wobbled in a soft, dangerous way between misery and cold rage. Just when I thought she would break, a terrible quietness roared up in her, one that was feral and sharp and thirsty for revenge.

Gwyneth told me that before they were taken, she had heard Pauline call her from the cottage porch. She had looked out the window, and when she saw the soldiers coming, she wrapped the baby in a blanket and laid him beneath the bed, where he wouldn’t be seen.

Pauline’s voice turned thin and fearful again. “Kaden will find him. Don’t you think, Lia?”

Gwyneth had already reassured her that Kaden would hear him crying when he returned from the mill. I’d started to add my own affirmation when Pauline reached out for my hand and felt the bloody mess of it. I groaned at her touch.

“Dear gods, what happened?”

We had embraced when they were thrown into the room, but in the darkness she hadn’t seen my hand.

I had already explained my encounter with my father, the Chancellor, and the guards who dragged me