A Flight of Ravens by John Conroe (thriller books to read TXT) 📗

a bit of a twit, annoying and condescending.  He had received training with weapons as we all had but had no natural talent for it nor the will to work hard at it.  Sarcastic and smarmy, he was nonetheless always the least threatening of my two brothers.  In order for him to be a shaper agent, he would have had to be infected by the Paul’s priests.

“What has he said, Sire?  Has he explained why and how?” I asked.

King Helat was staring through me, clearly looking for some reaction on my part.  Instead of answering my questions, he turned and looked off to my left side.  A man stepped forward, out of the gloom.  I recognized him after a moment.  Carter Toothaker, the king’s rook.  He was never seen in public, and very seldom visible even in the castle.  Toothaker was King Helat’s attack dog, his personal weapon in the night.  Remover of dissidents, investigator, fixer, assassin, and rumored potential eslling.  In all my years with the royal family, I’ve seen Toothaker exactly twice, both times in the halls of the castle, both times coming from the king’s chambers.  Even Brona had only met the man a handful of times.  He was perhaps even more shadowy than my Shadows.

Tall and whipcord thin, he had straw-colored hair, cut very short, and eyes so light blue that they appeared to be almost like glacial ice. He looked to be of the same age as my father, yet he was clearly a much more dangerous man than dear old chubby dad. Both times I had seen him, he had been expressionless, his cold eyes empty of humanity, like the gaze of a death rattler.  Now, as then, he wore a completely blank mask as he looked from me to King Helat.  I almost missed his pronouncement, almost turned my head to look back at the king.  Something made me stop my glance away and, in that moment, I saw the smallest shake of his head, so minute a movement that I was still trying to decide if it was real when the king spoke.

“You were blasé about your family before you left.  You appear surprised now,” the king commented.

“Tallen has never, to my knowledge, shown the slightest ambition, the sightest dissatis…” I trailed off, remembering his words at Ircian’s Naming.

“Turns out that he was not, in fact, content with his lot in life,” King Helat said, ignoring my pause.  “It would seem that playing third to your father and oldest brother is, according to him, a form of unrelenting torture.”

“But, Sire, to join the Paul?” I asked.  “I could possibly see him assassinate Gracid and maybe even my father, but betray the kingdom?”

“You may be shocked to hear this, Savid, but most citizens do not share your degree of patriotism,” the king said.

I looked at the two squads of guards surrounding me, then glanced at where Toothaker stood in the shadows.  “You thought I might be in on it?  Your Majesty,” I added hastily.

“You were not the only person surprised by this revelation, Savid.  It has been suggested that if Tallen was a traitor, why not his younger brother?”

“But there is almost no one in the kingdom the Paul hates more than myself, Sire,” I said.

“With the exception of myself and Brona, that would seem to be true.  But what a cover it would make, right?”

He never looked at Slinch, but by his stiffness, I knew Neil was the one planting those thoughts in the king’s ear.

“I cost the Paul thousands of woldlings,” I said.

“He cares nothing about cost, either in coin or lives, Savid,” Helat said.  “You know this.”

“May I see him?” I asked.

“I think not,” the king said.  “Not so much out of a concern for your behavior, Savid, but it seems your brother harbors almost as much ill will for you as he does Rucian and Gracid.  Had you enjoyed an unremarkable military career and retired into an obscure life running an inn, it might have been different.  Instead, you outshone the rest of your family and live an exciting life outside the constraints of your father.  He is, to say the least, extremely jealous of you.  He was injured during his capture and Doctor Eltienne wants him kept quiet in between the rigors of his questioning.”

I nodded at his words, then took another glance around me.  None of the soldiers had relaxed even a little.

“There is, perhaps, more, Sire?” I asked.

He smiled a cold smile and glanced at Slinch as if to say, See, he’s not stupid.

“Yes.  You’ve been careless with the property of the crown, Savid.  I can’t abide that,” the king said.

“I have, Your Majesty?”

“The woldling prisoner has escaped.  You failed to properly secure him.”

“Ash?” I asked stupidly.

“In your absence, upon the recommendation of Neil’s observer, I commanded that the woldling be turned over to the Ravens for debriefing.  Yet he was missing when agent Fontina arrived at your facility to secure him.”

Fontina must have had some way of backtracking to our cells, a Finder’s stone or similar object she was able to leave behind.  Ash would have sensed them coming for him, upstairs in the safehouse above the holding cells.

“And this happened recently, Sire?”

“The day after you left.  I’m told there was no sign that the creature had ever been returned to his cell.  I am extremely disappointed in you, Savid.  Carelessness with my property is unforgivable.”

I had to throttle down all of my reactions.  To claim a damaged soldier as his personal property was in my mind even more unforgiveable, yet he was waiting for a reaction, an outburst, clearly prepared with an overwhelming number of soldiers as well as his pet assassin waiting in the wings.

“Did you want me to attempt to retrieve Ash, Your Majesty, or am I bound for the executioner’s block?”

He frowned, his face going a little red.  Beside him, Brona had gone as white as a sheet, her eyes imploring me to shut my mouth.

“You are bound for a cell,