walls, she could hear the echoing rumble of drums and the shouting of voices. Sasha threw a questioning glance up at Teriyan.
“Soros Square,” he said grimly. “Lord Krayliss dies a glorious death.”
Sasha recalled the execution stand…she'd snuck away, once, to see what her minders had insisted no little girl had any business seeing. For once, they'd been right.
“Nothing glorious in that death,” she said quietly. “In battle, at least you have the mercy of being surprised. Isn't it a little late for an execution?” It was after midnight, she'd gathered.
“It took the carpenters this long to erect the platform,” Teriyan replied, peering into the gloom as he strode, a hand on the hilt of his blade beneath the cloak. “No matter, it creates a diversion for us, in that, his death proves far more useful for the Goeren-yai than his life.”
It sounded a particularly callous thing to say, even for Teriyan. “You set him up for this,” Sasha said bluntly.
Teriyan grunted. “He set himself up. We needed him out of the way, and we needed a diversion…” he shrugged. “He gets his martyrdom, we get a blind space in which to organise, and most of brother Koenyg's loyal guards are busy expecting trouble at the execution. As if we'll all rise up in protest over that fool getting the axe. Koenyg sees everything, but understands nothing. We're heading north.”
Organise? The Goeren-yai? Sasha stared up at his rangy height, her suspicion mounting. Teriyan had been most insistent in accompanying her on this trip. Teriyan, who had many friends and contacts amongst Goeren-yai all over Lenayin. Any Baerlyn man could have accompanied her, but Teriyan had insisted it should be him. “How long have you been plotting?” she asked, her jaw tight.
Teriyan threw her a serious look. “Look, Sasha…you didn't think the concerned folk across Lenayin wouldn't have someone keeping an eye on you all these years? Why do you think you haven't had crowds of the curious and the worshipful come clustering about the ranch or the Steltsyn all days? They needed word on what you were up to. I gave it. Nothing more.”
But it had gained him status, evidently. “Kessligh knew about this?” she asked tightly.
Teriyan shrugged. “A little. Never seemed real interested, truthfully. Certainly he appreciated anything keeping the crowds away.” Sasha felt her head spin as several new pieces fell into place. Kessligh's displeasure with her occasional long nights in the Steltsyn. Teriyan, on one occasion, sheltering her from the overly nosy questions of one particular out-of-towner. He'd had his curiosity answered later, it seemed.
“You didn't tell me,” she muttered.
“Sasha…”
“Damn it, I'd have understood! I'm not stupid, I knew that you and the others deflected some attention from me…but you were using me, weren't you? Planning a bloody uprising, just like Koenyg suspected…”
“Oh aye, and how safe would that have been, to tell you everything?” Teriyan retorted. “Your brother Koenyg sending his damn spies through the Steltsyn every few weeks…we learned to spot them, you know, even if you never did. Those merchants, traders, wandering minstrels, even some of the damn pilgrimage priests, all fishing for stories about you.”
“They weren't all working for Koenyg,” Sasha said disbelievingly. She felt suddenly uncomfortable. Could they have been? “Travellers gossip, it's not like every traveller who asks questions is pocketing Koenyg's gold.”
“And that's been the difference between the two of us for the last twelve years,” Teriyan said firmly. “You could afford to think that, up on your hill with your legendary warrior to watch over you. The rest of us learned to be suspicious. There's a whole stack of rumours and stories about you moving about the towns at any given time, Sasha. You don't think Koenyg wasn't listening to all of them? You don't think that at the first suspicion you were going to be a threat to the lords, by giving the Goeren-yai someone to rally around, he wouldn't have come down on Baerlyn like an avalanche?”
“He'd never have dared,” Sasha retorted, eyeing a shadowy figure moving on the dark road ahead. “Any move against me or Kessligh would have achieved exactly what he didn't want—angry mobs of Goeren-yai looking for blood.”
“Aye, well maybe you could take that risk. Me, I've got family in Baerlyn, and I'm responsible for all the other families too.” He too watched the dark figure ahead. It vanished down an alley. “The lords thought you more of a risk than Koenyg did, they were twisting his arm all the time…shit, you saw what