Law of the Broken Earth(42)

“Well, Mienthe, ordinarily people don’t just know such things,” Niethe said reasonably.

“She told me she knew exactly where Tan was, direction and distance, and she made me believe it,” Geroen said. “Nobody else did, or could, or I thought so, though I admit I maybe should have let that spy go before risking Lady Mienthe in Linularinum.”

The royal captain snorted under his breath.

Geroen flushed slightly, but kept his eyes on the queen. “Well, but at first we thought maybe we could get him back without even crossing the river, and well, anyway, granting I never thought for a moment her lord cousin would approve, when that hope failed I thought we might risk a brief little excursion into Linularinum to get him out.” Geroen paused again.

Captain Temnan drew breath to speak, but Mienthe leaped in before he could. “That was my doing, really.” And then she went on, in her firmest tone, telling the rest of it so Geroen wouldn’t try to take all the responsibility back on himself, as he clearly felt he ought to do. She explained how they’d crossed the river and found Tan. Geroen filled in some things she hadn’t noticed about the barn and the people they’d surprised there, and the way Tan had been all chained up. Mienthe hadn’t noticed the part about the slip-chain around his neck. She bit her lip and tried hard not to think about that, or about what might have happened if they’d been captured by the sort of people who would do things like that.

Temnan didn’t look surprised by any of these details, but Niethe sat back in her chair, looking rather grim and ill. Mienthe thought the queen’s imagination had taken much the same direction as hers on that topic.

To distract them both from any such ideas, she quickly picked up the story again. She explained about the strange things they’d found in the barn, the book and the other things. “I looked at the book; I’ve looked all through it, but every page is blank,” she explained. “There are inks in six different colors, and nine kinds of quills, but they all look perfectly ordinary to me.”

The queen nodded. “Well, that was well done, bringing all those things away with you.” Her tone implied that it might be the only thing they’d done of which she wholeheartedly approved, though she didn’t actually say so. “I’m very certain the mages in Tiearanan will be most interested in those items.”

“But what do you suppose the Linularinan agents meant to do?”

Niethe lifted her hands in a pretty shrug and raised her eyebrows at Temnan.

The captain of the royal guard tilted his head. “One would hardly care to guess. Geroen, have one of your men fetch from her rooms the items Lady Mienthe described and bring them here.”

Geroen’s face, Mienthe thought, was really a good one for a guard captain: heavy-boned, rather coarse, and unusually hard to read. He was probably good at pian stones; nobody would be able to tell from his expression what stones he had in reserve. But she could see he didn’t like to be commanded by Temnan, royal guard captain or not. She said hastily, “If you would be so good, Geroen.”

Geroen nodded stiffly and stepped briefly out to give that order.

The queen said thoughtfully, “One ordinarily expects a legist to draw up contracts. I wonder what contract these men had in mind for Tan to write out? Well, and after that?” She listened intently and quietly, but once Mienthe had finished, she asked, “But why did they pursue Tan with such dedication?”

“For personal vengeance?” suggested Temnan.

Mienthe looked doubtfully at Geroen. “Would you say so?”

The captain hesitated, then shook his head. “Lady… no. As you ask me, I’d say no. I haven’t questioned Tan, not seeing as he was in any condition to answer, but that was an interrogation, is what I’d say, not just some Linularinan fool indulging himself in a wild venture to get himself a chance at his personal enemy. Tan did say… Let me see. Something like, That wasn’t some petty street-thug; that was the Linularinan spymaster. ‘The’ spymaster, he said, not just ‘a’ spymaster. He called him by name. He said it was Istierinan.”

“I remember that name—” Mienthe began.

One of Geroen’s guardsmen came in before she could finish her thought, bending to murmur to the captain.

“Tan?” asked Mienthe.

“He’s unconscious and expected to remain so for some time,” Geroen reported, dismissing the man with a curt nod. “I’ll give orders for my men to stay on close guard, but I don’t know how those Linularinan agents got through my men the first time.”

“I’ll give my men orders to stand alongside yours,” said Temnan, and added, his tone a trifle supercilious, “if you’ll permit me, Captain Geroen, and if Her Majesty approves. I’ve men from Tiearanan who might notice magework if anyone starts anything of that sort.”