A unified gasp went up, Siora’s included. She had expected ruthlessness from Zaredis, had seen the calculating mind behind his eyes, fueled by an ambition that understood the unavoidable brutality of collateral damage, of extortion in negotiation, and the absolute certainty that he didn’t bluff. She hadn’t expected an understanding of Gharek’s action or the expression in his gaze that told everyone he considered the killing just.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Gharek said, keeping a wary eye on Zaredis’s men still surrounding him.
“Do you have information for me?” Zaredis asked, no longer interested in the corpse at his feet.
“Yes.” Gharek’s features tightened. “My daughter...”
“Is safe and cared for. She’s waiting for you in my tent. You can see her, and then I want your information.” Zaredis’s kindness ended there. “Try any trick to escape with her, and I’ll kill you both.” He turned his attention to Siora and the gelding. “Where did you get the horse?”
She answered before Gharek did, the words sour on her tongue as she mixed honesty with mendacity. “Free traders who helped us when we escaped Midrigar.” That was the truth, and Zaredis’s eyebrows rose with his interest. “I once helped the mother of one of them. They repaid my kindness by giving me this gelding.” She had no intention of admitting Gharek had paid Malachus nearlyall of the coin Zaredis had given them. If he knew, he’d consider the gelding his and take it. He could still take it anyway, even if he thought it rightfully Siora’s, but she hoped he’d leave the horse with her.
“That must have been some kindness,” the general said in a doubtful voice.
“Oh it was,” Gharek replied for her, the acid in his tone making her wince. His feelings for her had changed, softened. Of that she had no doubt, but he still carried a resentment for what he considered as her betrayal of him and Estred, even if he had a better understanding for why she’d done so.
“Come,” Zaredis said. “Your daughter awaits you, and I and my sorcerer await your news.” He narrowed his eyes at his captain and gestured to the dead man. “Dispose of him and bring me the cat’s-paw’s knife. Put the shade speaker’s mount in with one of the herds for now.”
She and Gharek followed the general on foot back to his tent, an entourage of soldiers and ministers following at a respectful distance. Zaredis didn’t bother keeping up conversation. The lack of hospitality didn’t surprise her. They were neither friends nor honored guests but informants under duress. This wasn’t a social visit.
Gharek glanced at her as they walked. “For once you don’t judge me,” he said softly.
His sentence made her heart contract with a hard squeeze. “Killing that soldier?” She shook her head. “No. I can’t find compassion or mercy inside me for such a monster. In your place I might have reacted differently, chosen another path, but Iunderstand why you did what you did. Estred is your daughter, a victim of the world and those like him who occupy it.”
“What would you have done? If Estred was yours?”
He was asking her far more than the question he spoke aloud. Would you kill without remorse? Kill on command? Abduct the innocent and exploit the unwary? Sell yourself if it meant helping or saving a loved one?
All questions with answers that made justice a slippery slope, honor an empty word, and hope a myth. She reached for his hand, startling him. Her fingers twined with his, and she gave his hand a squeeze. “You ask me the questions you’ve already answered for yourself, but I’m not you, Gharek. My experiences aren’t yours. I perceive the world differently from you. I don’t know what I would have done. I begin to understand the fear that drives you as a parent, but maybe you should consider how it rules you so.”
She wished they could stop, for just a moment, so she could enfold him in her arms and hold him close. This brittle, hard-edged man had made love not only to her body but to her heart, bewitching her not only with his touch but with the glimpses into his soul. She’d had peeks into it before, when she lived in his household as Estred’s nurse and watched the way he interacted with his daughter. Then she wondered if two spirits occupied the same body, one loving if melancholy, the other dark, frigid, calculating. She’d learned in these last weeks a spirit had many facets of light and dark, and this man in particular was made up of countless hues and shades of both.
They reached Zaredis’s spacious tent before Gharek could respond, and Siora watched, enchanted, as a noticeable change cameover him. Dusty, bloodied, and bruised, he nearly glowed with anticipation of seeing Estred again, even if it was in the last place he wanted her to be.
Zaredis must have seen it as well, and in an odd gesture of kindness pulled the tent flap open and waved Gharek in. “Go ahead. She’s waiting.”
Gharek didn’t hesitate. He bent to swoop into the interior. A child’s high-pitched “Papa!” carried through half the camp, and Siora smiled at the general, who returned it with a half one of his own. He motioned for her to follow Gharek.
She entered the tent to discover Estred held tight in her father’s embrace, his muscular forearms quivering with the effort not to crush her small body to him. She had no arms to return the hug, but she managed in her own way, her spindly legs wrapped tight around Gharek’s middle as she nuzzled her face into his shoulder. Siora kept her silence, not wanting to intrude on the moment between the two. Zaredis came to stand silently behind her, and she caught an arrested expression on his features before he hid it. One of longing and regret.
Gharek pulled back enough to tip Estred’s face up to the tent’s lamplight for a closer look at her small features. Father and daughter stared at each other for several moments. “You’re well, Estred?” he finally asked.
She nodded, grinning for a moment before an indignant frown chased it away. “I’m fine, though they came and got me before the sun was even up, and we had to ride horses all day and sit in a hot tent a lot of the time.” The grin returned, tinged with pride as well as puzzlement. “They say you’re one of the general’s soldiers now.”
The thin smile he returned lacked any humor. “Not quite, love, though I answer to him for the moment.”
Zaredis’s faint snort captured Estred’s attention. Her eyes rounded, and her mouth fell open when she caught sight of Siora standing next to him.
Siora waggled her fingers in a small wave, her heartbeat thundering in her ears as dread dug a pit in her belly. Gharek had warned her Estred had grieved the sudden loss of her nurse, a vanishing without warning, without goodbyes. To a child, it was the worst sort of abandonment. “Hello, Estred,” she said in a voice that warbled from the knot of tears stuck in her throat. “You’ve grown since we last saw each other, and you’re still the prettiest girl I know. I’ve missed you.”
Estred’s stunned expression instantly changed to one of hurt, of resentment. She buried her face in Gharek’s neck and refused to look at her erstwhile nurse. He turned his head, an I-told-you-so look on his face, along with a surprising touch of pity.
Siora nodded. “You warned me. I knew to expect it.” That didn’t mean it stung any less.
A respectful moment of quiet for the reunion and Zaredis returned to business. He left his place at the tent’s entrance to stride to the table and chair set up for him at the back of the tent. The action must have been a signal for the two sentries posted on either side of the entrance, for they bent and motioned for a small stream of advisers and lieutenants to enter the space and await their commander’s pleasure.
Zaredis leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers just under his chin as he regarded them all. “I’ve kept my part of ourbargain, cat’s-paw. Your daughter is unharmed and well cared for. Even the maid who accompanied her is enjoying my hospitality in a tent she shares only with young Estred here, and they are guarded day and night.”
Siora wondered if Zaredis expected a thank-you from Gharek. If so, he’d no doubt be disappointed. If the cat’s-paw actually survived this entire ordeal, he wouldn’t remember the general had been kind to Estred, only that he’d taken her hostage, for which Zaredis had made an enemy for life.