He let out a deep breath. “I won’t lie to you, lass. I can’t hear the name of Kiskaddon without grinding my teeth. No offense against the man, though. I have wasted enough years stewing in my regrets. Well, what’s done is past. The Fountain’s will is inexorable. Fighting against it only leads to suffering.” He sighed. “When it whispered to Genette to leap from a window to save my life, it only did so to ensure she would suffer an even greater fall.”
Ankarette shuddered at the thought. “The falls at Kingfountain?” she said.
Alensson nodded. “So imagine this,” he said, spreading his hands. “I’ve arrived at the sanctuary as Genette bade me do. She told me to look for a boy and I discovered him quickly. He escorted me to my cell, asking nothing, saying nothing. But I felt myself seething inside, like a kettle in the kitchen under too many coals. I started to speak to him in low tones, asking if he believed in the Fountain. He nodded, saying nothing. Then I asked him . . . I asked him if he believed in the Maid of Donremy. He jumped so fast and high, you’d have thought I had stuck him with a needle. He stared at me, frightened.”
“Did he know who you were?” Ankarette probed.
Alensson shook his head. “No, I never told him. I took him aside and put my hands on his shoulders. I knelt down and looked him in the eye, face-to-face. You can tell a lot about someone if you look closely. I asked him again if he believed in the Maid. Tears came to his eyes, lass. He was shaking with fear and I knew why. The girl was a hero in his mind. Everyone around him said all sorts of horrible things about her. But he knew the truth and felt as if he was the only one who did.”
She stared at him keenly. “Did he tell you?”
The duke smiled. “He did. He was shaking like a leaf, but he started gushing words after that. He told me the Fountain had whispered to him that a man was coming with a sword. He had seen the sword and the raven scabbard in a vision. He was afraid of me, because I was a stranger to him, but he knew from the Fountain he could trust me. I told him that the Fountain had sent me to help the Maid. That she had told me about him, had even described him to me. You should have seen his face, Ankarette. The Maid knew about him. He would have done anything to help her. And he did. I asked if he could get me into the palace, but he said no. I asked if he could get into the palace, and he said he often ran messages from the deconeus to the king’s men. He knew the palace very well. He even knew some of the secret places within its walls.” Alensson closed his eyes and massaged his forehead. “I told him that he needed to bring the scabbard into the palace and give it to the Maid when she arrived. No one ever thinks a young boy is a threat. He could pass unnoticed through the halls. He was scared to death of being caught, but he was also courageous and determined. And so the boy Tunmore promised to fetch me another scabbard to trade for the one I held. He showed me to my cell and said he would come for me later.” He paused, parting the curtain of the wagon to look outside.
Ankarette heard it shortly after. The sound of riders coming up from behind the wagon.
“I think we may shortly have some visitors,” he said warily, glancing back. “They’re wearing the Spider King’s badge.”
The poisoner frowned with displeasure. Getting Alensson back into the secret compartment of the double chests would be difficult and noisy. She glanced out the window on her side of the carriage and spied eight riders, their stallions lathered and obviously trying to keep a punishing pace. She had to decide quickly.
“What shall we do, lass?” he asked her with his wry smile.
“Fight them,” she answered confidently. “There are only eight, and then we won’t need to get horses at Ranz.”
His smile turned into a grin. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Trial of Innocence
The news of the Maid’s arrival at Kingfountain days later spread through the sanctuary like wildfire. A crowd was already starting to gather by the time Alensson rushed to the gates. Within the hour, the courtyard within the gate and the street without it had swollen into a crushing river of human bodies, all jostling with one another for a better position. Some of the city urchins had even climbed atop the gates and dangled their legs from above. Every window from every shop was open, and the streets were jammed with those eager to catch a glimpse of Deford’s prisoner. Alensson was uncomfortable in the crushing throng, but he simply kept one hand on his sword hilt and the other gripping the bar of the gate. The commotion of talking and gossip nearly overwhelmed the noise of the falls rushing past on both sides of the sanctuary island. The prodding of strangers and jostling of the crowd disturbed him, while the sickly reek of unwashed bodies choked his senses.