Crawling back through the window got him additional splinters and cuts, but he ignored them.
He hurried through James’s room, down the stairs, and into the common room. Gina lay on the floor. William knelt, but was relieved to discover she was merely unconscious. From the bump he felt on the back of her head, as long as she didn’t have a broken skull she’d be fine in a few days. He looked around the room and saw another form lying on the floor, a customer who had been bludgeoned into unconsciousness. William inspected him and found him alive, if barely. He moved both prone figures to a relatively safe location behind the bar and then stood up and surveyed the damage.
The common room was mostly intact, so the thugs who had come to attack them had entered quickly and quietly. Jazhara and William had been in their rooms, and William had still been in the hope of a late-night return by Sir James. Otherwise he would have been fighting that thug in his smallclothes rather than a heavy-duty tunic and trousers. Given the number of splinters he could feel in his back and sides, he was glad he had not undressed for bed.
Jazhara had been less fortunate, for she was wearing the simple singlet she slept in. Not only was she without her usual belt-dagger, she did not have her belt-pouch which contained her magical trinkets, potions, and powders. Even so, her innate magic ability was prodigious, so those who had captured her must have possessed some means of counteracting that.
Which meant she was the target, as he had suspected.
He stood motionless, looking down at the unconscious barmaid and the guest, uncertain what to do next. Going to the Durbin authorities would probably be next to useless: as the cousin-by-adoption to the royal house of the Kingdom of the Isles, he would receive all manner of reassurances and promises, but he knew the governor and his court would be far more likely to look for someone to blame so that they could present someone’s head on a pike to Lord Hazara-Khan while explaining how a member of his family had been abducted. It might prove smart politics, but would contribute nothing towards finding and retrieving her safely.
William was frustrated. He had no idea what to do next. His normal sense of responsibility and duty was overlain by his rediscovered passion for Jazhara. He now knew she was the woman he was fated to love for the rest of his life. His budding romance with Talia the innkeeper’s daughter had taught him that love came in many forms, and that there were many worthy people deserving of that affection, but Jazhara was that special person who made his life complete. He had seen such a love between his mother and father who, despite being born on different worlds to profoundly different cultures, managed to bridge the gulf between them with a passion that still abided.
He would not lose that. For he knew that if he did, he would never find its like again.
He took a deep breath and one more time looked around the room.
What would Jimmy do?
he wondered.
• CHAPTER TWELVE •
Improvisation
J AMES WINCED .
‘Stop twitching. This is hard enough as it is,’ said Brother Eli.
James had arrived at the shrine of Ban-ath at sunrise, and behind it had found the monk asleep in his tiny shack. Now James lay face down on the monk’s disreputable bed. He vowed that his next votive offering to the God of Thieves would be bedding and a fresh blanket for the monk. Eli dug into him again with a needle and fished out another nasty wooden splinter. ‘There,’ he said triumphantly. ‘That’s the last of them.’
James started to rise but the monk’s beefy hand pushed him back down. ‘Let me put some unguent on those so they don’t fester. Some of those splinters went fairly deep, lad.’
The monk fetched out a jar from under a table piled high with books and scrolls, and unscrewed its metal lid. The stench that struck James was enough to make him jerk back. ‘What is that?’
‘It’s a
He hurried through James’s room, down the stairs, and into the common room. Gina lay on the floor. William knelt, but was relieved to discover she was merely unconscious. From the bump he felt on the back of her head, as long as she didn’t have a broken skull she’d be fine in a few days. He looked around the room and saw another form lying on the floor, a customer who had been bludgeoned into unconsciousness. William inspected him and found him alive, if barely. He moved both prone figures to a relatively safe location behind the bar and then stood up and surveyed the damage.
The common room was mostly intact, so the thugs who had come to attack them had entered quickly and quietly. Jazhara and William had been in their rooms, and William had still been in the hope of a late-night return by Sir James. Otherwise he would have been fighting that thug in his smallclothes rather than a heavy-duty tunic and trousers. Given the number of splinters he could feel in his back and sides, he was glad he had not undressed for bed.
Jazhara had been less fortunate, for she was wearing the simple singlet she slept in. Not only was she without her usual belt-dagger, she did not have her belt-pouch which contained her magical trinkets, potions, and powders. Even so, her innate magic ability was prodigious, so those who had captured her must have possessed some means of counteracting that.
Which meant she was the target, as he had suspected.
He stood motionless, looking down at the unconscious barmaid and the guest, uncertain what to do next. Going to the Durbin authorities would probably be next to useless: as the cousin-by-adoption to the royal house of the Kingdom of the Isles, he would receive all manner of reassurances and promises, but he knew the governor and his court would be far more likely to look for someone to blame so that they could present someone’s head on a pike to Lord Hazara-Khan while explaining how a member of his family had been abducted. It might prove smart politics, but would contribute nothing towards finding and retrieving her safely.
William was frustrated. He had no idea what to do next. His normal sense of responsibility and duty was overlain by his rediscovered passion for Jazhara. He now knew she was the woman he was fated to love for the rest of his life. His budding romance with Talia the innkeeper’s daughter had taught him that love came in many forms, and that there were many worthy people deserving of that affection, but Jazhara was that special person who made his life complete. He had seen such a love between his mother and father who, despite being born on different worlds to profoundly different cultures, managed to bridge the gulf between them with a passion that still abided.
He would not lose that. For he knew that if he did, he would never find its like again.
He took a deep breath and one more time looked around the room.
What would Jimmy do?
he wondered.
• CHAPTER TWELVE •
Improvisation
J AMES WINCED .
‘Stop twitching. This is hard enough as it is,’ said Brother Eli.
James had arrived at the shrine of Ban-ath at sunrise, and behind it had found the monk asleep in his tiny shack. Now James lay face down on the monk’s disreputable bed. He vowed that his next votive offering to the God of Thieves would be bedding and a fresh blanket for the monk. Eli dug into him again with a needle and fished out another nasty wooden splinter. ‘There,’ he said triumphantly. ‘That’s the last of them.’
James started to rise but the monk’s beefy hand pushed him back down. ‘Let me put some unguent on those so they don’t fester. Some of those splinters went fairly deep, lad.’
The monk fetched out a jar from under a table piled high with books and scrolls, and unscrewed its metal lid. The stench that struck James was enough to make him jerk back. ‘What is that?’
‘It’s a
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