He grinned. “They’re dropping like flies around here, thanks to you.” She blushed, and he took a few steps closer, looking serious. “We owe you so much, Sage.”
Her pulse quickened at the look in his eyes. She’d been terrified when she heard he went to the river, thinking they might be ambushed. Then she remembered what else had happened that day. “The duke came to see me while you were gone.”
Alex froze. “What did he want?”
“Idle talk.” She repeated the conversation for him. “You don’t think it means anything, do you?”
He frowned. “Maybe, maybe not.”
“Normally he chats up Clare, but she’d gone to get some water. Maybe he was just looking for her.”
“You were alone?”
She nodded.
“Dammit, Sage, I told you not to go off alone.”
“I was in plain sight,” she argued. “It was only a few minutes.”
“We’re counting the hours until all hell breaks loose.” He reached for her arm. “A lot can happen in a few minutes.”
He didn’t trust her enough to decide what was too risky. She elbowed his hand away furiously. “Don’t I know a few minutes can change everything!”
The blood drained from his face, leaving his normally dark skin pale. Alex reached for her again, brushing his fingers down her arm, leaving a trail of goose bumps. “Sage, please. I don’t care what he does to me, but you…”
How did he keep doing that? How did he make her want to claw his face one minute and kiss and reassure him in the next?
“What’s that?” The moment ended as his dark eyes snapped to the window. The sound of shouting came from the courtyard. He crossed the room to look out. “Something’s wrong.” He pivoted back to the door. “Stay here.”
Sage ignored his command and made to follow him. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to be alone.”
She expected him to force the issue, but instead he grabbed her hand. “Then for Spirit’s sake, stay close and do what I tell you.”
She barely got the door closed behind them before Alex rushed her down the passage and outside. All around the inner ward, people were staring up at the keep.
In the pillared bowl atop the tower, a great pyre blazed, casting a golden glow over the granite walls. The bloody body of a man painted with the white four-pointed star of Kimisara hung by his neck below. A soldier in black sidled up to them and said everyone was describing the man as a captured spy.
“I think that Kimisar you saw is still here,” Alex observed dryly.
67
SAGE WATCHED THE officers argue over what it meant.
“If you’re going to make a point with a body, you hang it where everyone can see it,” Casseck insisted. “It’s hanging over the west side, not from a pole over the top. The Kimisar are all to the west. They’ve abandoned D’Amiran.”
“That must have been the unlucky bastard who delivered that news,” said Gramwell. “But why would they leave? Is someone coming from that direction?”
Alex held up a hand. “Doesn’t matter. Now this morning’s report makes more sense. Their absence leaves an opening to get red blaze to the scouts, but it may not be open for long. Now is the time.” Casseck and Gramwell nodded. “Once the scouts have it, a pair of men can get to where the signal can be seen in two days. It’ll be a minimum of five days more for reinforcements to arrive, but let’s assume ten total. We’ll lose the man who goes out, so that leaves us with twenty-nine to take control here.”
“Doable,” said Casseck. “Especially if the remaining scouts can make their way in.”
“Which would bring us up to thirty-three.” Alex crossed his arms. “So now we need to get out. What about the sewer, Gram? You found a drain by the river on the south side.” He indicated the spot on their sketch.
Gramwell shook his head. “The end’s covered with a grate of iron rods—old, but solid. I got one vertical bar loose, but the rest are stuck fast. No way any of us can fit through. Charlie could, but he’d never make it that far in the dark alone, especially if the forest is crawling with D’Amiran’s guards.”
Alex nodded in agreement, and Sage felt relieved Charlie’s illness made it an easy decision.
“How about a dog?” asked Casseck. “It’s far, but not impossible.”
“They’re all sick now,” Gramwell said. “Apparently the illness affects them, too. We’re lucky they contacted the scouts early today.”
“How large is the gap in the grate?” Sage asked.
Gramwell rolled up his sleeve to show the marks he’d made on his arm. Casseck dug out a knotted cord to measure. “Looks like about seven inches high and a bit less than a foot wide.”
Sage laid the cord on the corner of the table to visualize the size. After a few seconds she looked up. “I can get through.”
Alex sighed. “I knew you were going to say that.”
Casseck and Gramwell exchanged glances but didn’t dare say anything.
“Maybe I should check on Charlie while you three discuss it,” she said. It would go better if she wasn’t there.
Without a word, Alex pointed to the side door and she ducked into the attached room. She knelt by Charlie’s cot and brushed sweaty hair from his forehead. His breathing was deep and regular, a sign he would be much better by morning. Alex’s sword lay on the bed next to Charlies’s, and she suddenly knew he’d been the one tending to his brother. There was only one other person he ever entrusted Charlie to, and that was her.
Alex pushed through the door and came to stand at Charlie’s feet, arms crossed. “I don’t like it.”
She didn’t look up. “Do you have a better idea?”
“Not yet. I just need time to think.”
“We’re out of time.” She pushed herself to her feet to face him. “I know how to move through the forest quietly and how to find my way at night. I can climb trees and rocks. No one will notice I’m gone until it’s too late—maybe even not at all. You can send me off before the evening count.”
“And when you run into one of D’Amiran’s sentries?”
“With the sickness there are fewer out there.” She raised her chin. “And you’ve taught me to fight. I can make it.”
His eyes narrowed. “One lesson doesn’t make you a warrior, just less helpless.”
“You brought me into this.” She crossed her arms to mirror his.
“I never should have.” He closed his eyes and put a hand to his forehead. “You don’t need to punish me. I do that well enough myself.”
“This isn’t about you and me,” she said. “This is about what needs to be done and the only person who has a chance of doing it.”
“I know you hate me.” He dropped his hand and focused on her. For the first time she realized how tired he looked. Did he ever sleep? “But I can’t lose you, Sage. It would kill me.”