A Dance of Cloaks - By Dalglish, David Page 0,36

by poison, blade, Kull or Karak.”

“You would announce our existence to the people,” Pelarak said as his eyes finished skimming over the words. “You would blame their troubles on us? To force our obedience, you threaten to tell lies and half-truths to the city? We fear no mob.”

“You should,” Maynard said. “My people will be among them, and I assure you, they are excellent at inciting violence. Once people die, the king will be forced to send his soldiers. Tell me, how does one win over a city after slaughtering their peoples and their guards? Even better, how does one preach to a city after one’s death?”

Pelarak stopped his pacing and focused his eyes on Gemcroft’s face with a frightening intensity. His old voice was deep and firm as a buried stone.

“Every action has its cost,” the priest said. “Are you prepared to pay?”

“When patience ends, every man is willing to pay a little bit more,” Maynard said as he opened the door to leave. “My patience ended years ago. This war must end. Karak will help us end it. I’ll await your answer by tomorrow. I pray you make the right decision.”

Pelarak let him go. He rubbed his balding head with his fingers, his cold anger giving way to cunning.

“Perhaps you’re right,” he whispered to the empty room. “Perhaps for too long we have stayed neutral in this conflict.”

He knelt by the bed to pray, knowing only Karak’s guidance could keep him on the straight and narrow path to victory.

When they approached the guards, Nava brushed back her cloak and stood to her full height. With her dark clothing and white cloth over her face there was no doubt as to what she was.

“We see nothing,” one of the guards said, repeating the line he had been instructed to say when one of the faceless sought exit or entrance into the city.

Alyssa followed, still clutching Nava’s hand. She had no idea why they were leaving the safety of the walls, and the faceless woman had given her no explanation. Even with her father hunting for her, there had to be safe places in the city to hide.

But why hide? The thought slapped her like a wet cloth. Her claim to the Gemcroft line was most certainly severed. She had been gone so long, little within her family’s organization would welcome her over her father. Perhaps she could flee to safety with one of the foster families she had stayed with the past couple years. The Pensleys would surely welcome her, thought they might also report her whereabouts to Maynard. And of course, there were the Kulls…

They exited the western gate. The road leading southwest was packed tight from all the daily wagons and caravans of trade. Off the path, the tall grass was a deep green and grew as high as Alyssa’s knees. The tug on her wrist giving her little choice, Alyssa followed Nava into the wide fields. They traveled north, curling around the walls and toward the King’s Forest. As they neared the forest, the grass grew shorter in height, and by the time they walked through the rows of thick trunks, it gave way to carpets of fallen leaves.

“Why are we here?” Alyssa asked, rubbing her shoulder with her free hand as if she were cold. She had spent many nights listening to her maids tell ghost stories of the King’s Forest, with its faithless maidens lost for eternity, chivalrous knights who had wandered astray, and scores of evil robbers and rogues eagerly awaiting a man foolish enough to enter alone. Of course, the stories were just to keep the children away from the forest, where poaching was a serious enough offence to warrant death. Knowing this did little to fight back the ghostly chill that gave her goosebumps.

“Do not ask questions when you should know the answer,” Nava said. “Why else would we enter the forest?”

They would kill her, Alyssa realized. Cut her throat and hide her body so when Yoren asked what happened, they would tell him she was already dead when they found her, her blood spilled across the floor and rats gnawing on her insides…

Alyssa waited until Nava tugged on her wrist, and then after her initial stumble forward, she jerked her entire arm to the side. The sudden pull back surprised the faceless woman, and Alyssa’s thin hand slipped free. She bolted the opposite direction, praying she had not gotten turned around inside the forest. Branches lashed at her face, and