The body groaned again and Adrina stopped thinking of her own troubles long enough to wonder who it was. She sat up carefully and moved across the small gap separating them on her knees. Her companion was a young woman with short-cropped red hair wearing dark, close-fitting leathers and a silver collar smeared with dried blood.
“R’shiel?”
It couldn’t really be anyone else, but she was hardly what Adrina had envisioned. The girl was younger than she expected, and in her present condition she was far from the matchless beauty Damin had described.
What did one say to the fabled Harshini demon child?
“I’m Adrina,” she said, unable to think of anything else.
R’shiel stared at her uncomprehendingly.
“We have a mutual friend,” she added inanely. “Tarja Tenragan.”
I sound like Lady Chastity.
The demon child blinked at the mention of Tarja’s name, but that was the only reaction Adrina could get from her.
“R’shiel?”
She shook her shoulder, gently at first, and then quite roughly when that had no effect. Although R’shiel’s eyes were open, there was no light of comprehension in them. Adrina shrugged and immediately regretted it. Her shoulder was pounding and there was no point speaking to someone who was so obviously not listening. Brak had said something about that. Something about R’shiel retreating so far into herself that she was almost comatose.
“Well, I hope you don’t stay away for too much longer,” she told R’shiel irritably. “Right now the only thing that’s going to save either of us is a bloody miracle, so if you don’t mind, get over whatever it is that’s upsetting you girl, and come to your senses. There are people here who need you.”
Her reprimand delivered, Adrina sat back on her heels and waited for them to come for her.
Chapter 64
There are people here who need you.
The words filtered down through R’shiel’s pain. She did not know who had voiced them, but they echoed through the emptiness like a reproach.
I warned you, demon child. If you will not come to me through love, you will come to me through fear. The end result is the same.
The memory of the pain was too fresh for R’shiel to deny Xaphista’s claim. But if she could not face him, she could run from him.
There are people here who need you.
R’shiel clung to the thought, clawing her way back to sanity with every scrap of her remaining strength.
She blinked suddenly and looked around. Canvas walls surrounded her and the ground where she lay was cold and hard. She turned her head, ignoring the pain the movement caused as the square of bright light intruded. It was blocked a moment later by the figure of a man stepping through, followed by several others. They were Defenders, but that meant nothing. The Defenders were her enemies now.
Someone pulled her to her feet, along with another prisoner. R’shiel did not have time to wonder who she was before they were both hustled out of the tent and led through the camp to Lord Terbolt’s tent.
Waiting inside was Lord Terbolt, a young man with brown hair and angry eyes, and in the corner, the young Karien boy who had been a prisoner in the Defenders’ camp. She could not imagine how he came to be here.
“Your Highness,” Terbolt said with a short bow.
R’shiel was a little surprised to hear her fellow prisoner being addressed so formally. It hurt too much to move her head so she tried to study her out of the corner of her eye.
She was shorter than R’shiel, but even her rough clothing and her dishevelled appearance could not conceal her innate beauty. She was foreign; her skin was dusky and her hair much darker than R’shiel’s, and she had startling green eyes. Perhaps she was Fardohnyan. She certainly wasn’t from Medalon and Karien never produced such exotic looks.
“And this is supposed to be the demon child?” the young man asked sceptically. “She doesn’t look much, does she?”
“I recall thinking the same thing when I met you, Cretin,” the woman snapped with a surprising amount of venom.
The young man leapt to his feet angrily. “You will only speak when spoken to, whore!”
R’shiel fought to stay conscious, the argument between the angry young Karien and the beautiful Fardohnyan woman giving her something to focus on. She didn’t know either of them, but their conflict kept the nothingness at bay. It kept away Xaphista’s persistent attempts to coax her back down into the hole. If she went back now, she would never escape. She knew that with a certainty.
“Don’t you dare speak to me in such a tone!” the Fardohnyan declared. “When my father hears about this —”
“When he hears about what, Adrina? Your treachery or your Hythrun lover?”
Adrina. Damin’s floozy in the see-through dress. Hysterical laughter bubbled up inside her but she fought it down. The sobering process was helped considerably by the realisation that this young man was probably Prince Cratyn. And the Hythrun lover? Even in her semi-conscious state, R’shiel could easily guess who that was.
“What lover?” Adrina scoffed. “Is this some pathetic story you’ve invented to provide an excuse to have me stoned? No one will believe you, Cretin. I am a loyal and dutiful wife. It is you who could never get the job done.”
Cratyn smiled coldly. “I have a witness, Adrina.”
R’shiel’s eyes fixed on the Karien boy, who looked as if he would rather be any place but in this tent. He was so guilty he was trembling with it.
Adrina glanced at the boy also, then laughed. “Mikel is your witness? A boy who’s spent as much time with the enemy as he has with you? He’s not even a disciple of the Overlord. He follows Dacendaran, the God of Thieves, and I have that from the god himself.”
“There are no other gods,” Cratyn retorted.
Good, then you don’t need me, R’shiel said to herself.
Terbolt turned to the boy who cowered under his gaze.
“Is this true, boy? Do you follow a false god?”
“No!” he cried. “I follow the Overlord.”
“That’s not what Dace says,” Adrina said smugly.
“Dace?” The boy looked utterly confused. “But he’s just a thief.”
“Then you do know him?” Terbolt asked.
“Well, yes, but —”
Cratyn grabbed the boy and shook him savagely. “Is this true? You are an agent of the God of Thieves?”
“Pick on someone your own size, Cretin.”
He threw the boy down and turned on the princess, slapping her with a vicious backhanded blow. “Shut up!”
Adrina stumbled backward but when she looked back at him, once she regained her balance and wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, her eyes were full of defiance.
“It’s not going to work, is it, Cretin. What was your plan? Hunt me down and kill me and claim the Hythrun did it? Only the Defenders found me first, so you had to fall back on your other plan, didn’t you? Accuse me of adultery and have me stoned. But your star witness can’t testify for you, can he? He isn’t just a disciple of Dacendaran, he counts him as a friend! Now what are you going to do?” Cratyn hit her again. Adrina staggered backwards, then turned on R’shiel. “Hey! Demon child! If you’re thinking of doing anything useful, now would be a pretty good time!”