Igniting Darkness (Courting Darkness Duology #2) - Robin LaFevers Page 0,127

this daft plan,” she says. Even so, I fall back and let her approach alone.

“Hello,” she whispers. “I’ve brought you some company.”

“Good. I am tired of speaking to the walls.” The words rumble out of the depths of the chamber, sounding remarkably like a bear’s growl.

I busy myself with picking the giant lock on the door—which is easier than stealing the guards’ keys, then having to return them. When it is unlocked and opened, the bear makes as if to bolt into the dark cave, but Aeva holds him back—barely.

“Not just yet,” she murmurs. “Beast might not be in the mood for surprises right now.”

“He loves animals,” Sybella says. “He would not mind.”

Lazare looks at her like her head is stuffed with cabbage rather than brains. “It is a bear, not a hunting hound or horse.”

The bear breaks out of Aeva’s grasp just then and lopes into the cell. There is not even time to call out a warning.

A long beat of silence is followed by snuffling noises. Moments later, Beast appears, the bear at his side like a loyal hound. “May I keep him?” Beast asks, rubbing the creature’s head.

Sybella closes her eyes, and I can see the wave of relief sweep through her. “Sadly, no. He’s heard about your cozy den and wishes to have it for himself.”

Beast’s amused expression clouds over. “What do you mean?”

It is Aeva who steps forward to explain it to him.

“Where is this body you spoke of?” Lazare’s question is so close to my ear it makes me jump. “Maybe there’s something we can do with it so it won’t stink up the place and alert everyone to the fact that there’s something dead down here.”

“This way.” I direct Lazare and Poulet to the drain, then leave them to their task.

Beast is dressed by the time they’ve got the body more fully hidden.

“That is no guard’s uniform,” Sybella says flatly.

Father Effram shrugs apologetically. “They had none big enough for Beast. They are also closely guarded. Besides”—he brightens—“it is safer to maintain the pretense we began with than to switch partway through.”

“How are we going to get a man wearing a bearskin out of the palace gate?”

“Beast will discard the skin for his peasant’s garb and leave with the night soil farmers,” Lazare says. “No one inspects those wagons.”

“It will work,” Beast says. “But first, I must say goodbye.”

The bear is happily curled in the thin blanket on the pile of hay that served as Beast’s bed. Aeva is talking with him and gives his nose a final scratch before standing up. “He is ready.”

Beast nods, then kneels down before the bear, putting their faces close together. The words he utters are too low to hear, but something meaningful passes between them. When Beast stands up to leave, Father Effram slips into the cell, carrying a loaf of bread. “I have heard the food they serve the prisoners is unwholesome,” he explains.

Now that Father Effram has made the first gesture, I feel less foolish as I take the small bag I’ve carried at my belt, remove three sweet yellow apples, and set them before the bear. “Even bears do not live by bread alone,” I whisper. The bear lifts his head to eye me with faint curiosity.

Lazare pokes his head in. “We haven’t got all day, people.”

Sybella darts past Father Effram. “Go on,” she tells me. “I’ll be right there.” But of course I stop to see what she is doing. She unwraps a large piece of honeycomb dripping with honey and places it in front of the bear. “Thank you,” she whispers.

The bear leans forward and licks her face, and I must turn away, but whether to laugh or to cry I cannot say.

 Chapter 69

Beast is much more cooperative than the bear, and we move quickly across the inner courtyard toward the east gate tower. “You are certain Angoulême will be there,” Sybella murmurs in my ear.

“I am.” I paid him a visit the night after we all met in the chapel. He was not amused when I stepped out of my hiding place in his chambers and demanded his help—at knifepoint.

Once I explained what we needed, he was more cooperative. “He is not just doing it for me, but because of his dislike of Cassel and his admiration of Beast.”

Before Sybella can press me further, she tilts her head. “Someone is coming.” She listens a moment longer, then swears. “The regent.”

Shock pins me in place. “Here? Now?”

“Which direction?” Beast asks softly.

“From the