Igniting Darkness (Courting Darkness Duology #2) - Robin LaFevers Page 0,197

drop into a deep curtsy, hissing at Charlotte to do the same.

“I am the king, demoiselle.”

“What are you doing here?”

He looks at me, then at her. “I have come to rescue you.”

She meets his gaze steadily. “My sister already did that.”

The king looks at me again with a smile that is both rueful and nonplussed. “So I see.”

Nevertheless, he came. He himself rode out to see to our safety. The greatest man in all the kingdom has—finally—bestirred himself on our behalf.

I let the gratitude and thanks that fill my heart show upon my face. He grows flustered, mayhap even blushes, before giving a quick nod.

It is time to go find Beast.

 Chapter 114

Maraud

“Waroch is going to be battered to mincemeat before he even gets where they’re going,” Jaspar said.

“A normal man, maybe. Not him.” Maraud needed to believe that. “It’ll just piss him off even more.” It was late afternoon, and they’d been following Cassel’s party for three days. The poxy bastard of a general carried Beast in a rutting cart. Trussed up like a goose. In a chain.

Of course, there was no way else they could have dragged him anywhere unwillingly, but still it rankled Maraud.

“Have you figured out where they’re going yet?” Valine asked.

“Near as I can figure, it’s got to be Cassel’s holding near Luçon. Unless he’s got more I don’t know about.” Which was entirely possible. He’d been imprisoned for over a year—who knew how handsomely the general had been rewarded during that time.

An hour later when they came around the next bend in the road, a single stone tower thrust up into the sky like an obscene gesture. A scattering of buildings clustered nearby, but not too near, as if they didn’t want to get any closer than absolutely necessary.

“Jaspar, you stay with me. The rest of you, hit the village and see what the locals think of the lord returning. Also see what you can find in way of lodgings.”

“We’re not going to just sleep on the road tonight?”

Maraud glanced around at the empty fields. “We’ll be too easily spotted if they post any kind of lookout at the keep. And an inn in the village will be the most likely place to hear word of when Gen and the others arrive.”

There is a long moment of silence. “You think the king is still going to be with them?”

“Unless he gave up halfway and went home, he’ll be here.” But of course, the king wouldn’t give up. Not with Gen there. He wouldn’t want to do anything that might weaken him in her eyes.

Maraud still couldn’t believe she’d stood straight and proud, looked the king in the eye, then admitted they were lovers. The woman had stones, he’d give her that. And apparently, the king had some as well if he was willing to accept her challenge.

The road forked here, one stretch ambling down toward the village and the other leading to the keep. Maraud slowed his horse and lifted a hand in farewell as the others headed for the village.

“We’d best not come in too close on their tails,” he told Jaspar.

Jaspar slowed his pace. Maraud wished there was a scrap of forest or a tree or two alongside the road to skulk among, but there wasn’t. “We’ll go as far on horseback as that last copse of trees, then tie the horses up there and go the rest of the way on foot.”

Much to his regret, it turned out to be their bellies. They were simply too easily spotted otherwise. After crawling half a mile through rye grass and weeds, they were finally in position to see the main gate. Cassel and his party had just reached it.

A lone figure came scurrying out, bowing and scraping, then another long delay as he returned to the gate tower to raise the portcullis.

“Not expected, then,” Jaspar said.

“No. Looks to be mostly empty. Wonder how long since he’s stayed here.” It was a lesser holding. Once it had held strategic importance, but that was three hundred years ago, when it was first built and long before the ocean waters that had lapped at its base had receded.

Once the general, his men, and the cart hauling Beast had gone inside, Maraud said, “Let’s go see just how secure this holding is.”

 Chapter 115

Genevieve

“Did Maraud tell you where to meet him?” Sybella stares at General Cassel’s keep in front of us so intently that I wonder if she is trying to burn a hole through it. For all that