TheKingsViper by Janine Ashbless Page B

not
any longer. I’m sorry.”
    She sat up, her eyes burning. Didn’t he know what he was
saying? “Then it’s all for nothing!”
    “You will live. The honor of Ystria will be intact. That’s
hardly nothing.”
    She didn’t understand how he could be so calm. “But why are
you doing this? Why are you risking so much, knowing that your own King will
have you put to the torture? Why are you taking me back at all?”
    He shrugged. “Loyalty. I am the King’s man, whatsoever he
chooses to do with me.”
    She shook her head as if trying to throw something out of
it. “I cannot believe this.”
    He smiled, wryly. “You get your wish though. You will not be
Queen.”
    “Oh dear God.”
    He got to his feet, brushing off his filthy clothes, but she
sat with her face in her hands. “Come on,” he said softly, holding out a hand
to help her up. He did it seemingly without thinking, but as she put her
fingers in his both of them froze momentarily, shocked by the implication of
that touch. Then he pulled her upright. She was trembling slightly.
    “You must never,” he said, keeping his voice low, “by
anything you say for the rest of your days, suggest to anyone that there
might have been any impropriety between us. Not a touch, not a gesture. Do you
understand? Don’t trust anyone, even those of your own kin, even the kindest
and most loving of friends. If you make any mistake, we will both die. You will
be beheaded, and I will be publically castrated and then drawn and burned.”
    “Oh God!”
    “Do you understand?” he repeated urgently. “Both our lives
depend on your silence.”
    “Yes.” She nodded, her lips white.

Chapter Four
     
    When they came in sight of Rounay at last, they paused at a
milestone to rest. The town lay sprawled out in the valley below them, a jumble
of red stone walls and roofs under a pall of wood-smoke.
    “There,” said Severin. “Do you see it?”
    “What?”
    “Beyond the river…”
    Eloise was able to make out the silver sliver of the river
between the walls. “Yes?”
    “The far bank, that’s Ystria.”
    She took a deep breath. That first glimpse of their homeland
was nothing more than a blue-green line of hills from here. She had expected to
feel relief when she saw it, after so many weeks wandering and afraid, but now
the weight of the information Severin had confided lay like a stone in her
chest. “So we cross here?”
    Severin shook his head. “There was a crossing many years
back, before Henrick’s reign. The river runs shallow here with low banks, and
when the water is low in summer it’s practically a ford. Rounay was a trade
town in those days. Now…it’s a garrison. This is the easiest place to get an
army across the river-border—in either direction. Both banks will be watched
and guarded.”
    “Then what do we do?”
    “We go a day or so upriver, to where it flows faster and the
access is steep. And we swim it. You can swim, can’t you?”
    “I’m a daughter of Venn,” she said with a tired laugh. “Of
course I can.”
    “Good. Well, with luck we won’t be drowned or broken on the
rocks or shot by a patrol—and we will be home.”
    Eloise rolled her eyes and ran her fingers through her hair.
“And you make it sound so easy!”
    “Nothing’s easy. But we have a chance now.”
    She sagged a little.
    “Tonight though,” Severin added, eyeing her, “we will stay
in an inn. There’s no casual fieldwork round here anyway, so close to the city.
Tonight…hot food and clean sheets. A private room. And we’ll pay for someone to
launder your clothes. Would you like that?”
    It was Eloise’s turn to shake her head. “We haven’t got any
money.”
    “We’ve got the farmer’s money. He wasn’t entirely lying
about being on his way to market.”
    “Oh.”
    “For one night. To strengthen us for the crossing. And what
lies beyond.”
    It was odd, she thought, that it almost sounded as if he
were being sentimental. She searched his face and