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

heard the locked gate at the dungeon entrance screech open again.  The new footsteps were much lighter and softer, only one of the three sounding like boots, the others soft like ladies’ slippers.

Egg moved about outside as, apparently, he too heard the approaching steps.

“Open it,” a very familiar voice said.

“Your Highness, I was told he was not to have visitors,” Egg said in a whining tone.

“If I have to have Salis put you on the ground and open it myself, you won’t like the outcome,” Brona said, her own tone icy.  “And I just passed my father on the stairs.  He only laughed as I walked past.”

The next thing I heard was the lock disengaging and then the big door creaked open, the steel grating still in place from mere minutes ago.

Brona’s no-nonsense bodyguard moved Egg away with a sharp blade against his groin, pressing him right up against the wall with her other arm against his throat, while my princess moved right up to the grating, her eyes locked on mine.  Behind her, Rose stood watching, her own eyes a little wide, perhaps at seeing me locked up.

“Why are you wet?” Brona asked, not waiting for an answer before turning to Egg. “Why is he soaking wet?”

Egg stammered and coughed, his eyes not meeting hers.  Brona glanced down and saw the empty buckets against the wall, two more full ones next to them.  When she looked back up at the jailer, he froze at whatever he saw in her eyes, his whole body going still.

Without releasing him from her gaze, she reached up and untied her cloak, swinging it off and stuffing it through the grate.  “Take this, Savid,” she said, turning back to me.  Her face was a clear mask of anger—deadly anger.  I pulled the still-warm wool to me, my nose instantly filled with the scent of her perfume.

“I still don’t know what’s happened while I was gone,” I said, putting the small, light blue princess cloak around my shoulders. Instantly I felt warmer.

“Slinch convinced Father to give him Ash.  Ash didn’t hang around and they lost three people trying to stop him.”

“Your father said he wasn’t even there?”

“My father seems to believe whatever lies Slinch tells him,” she said, still extraordinarily angry. “As you know, your brother turned out to be the shaper.  Father told you he was injured during capture.  The truth is that he was almost killed.  He was slashed in the throat by one of Slinch’s agents.  He’s in a coma from blood loss, but even if he wakes up, his vocal cords are likely too damaged to talk.”

I let that flow through me.  “Seems like the whole government has had its feathers ruffled,” I suggested, mindful of Egg’s open ears.

“Exactly right.  Some require plucking,” she said softly enough that I’m not sure the jailer could even hear her.  She looked around, saw something out of my view, and stepped to one side of the door.  When she stepped back, she held a water dipper, which she proceeded to fill from the closest full bucket.  Then she put her arm through the grating and handed it to me. I drank it down, the icy cold making my teeth hurt, but the water too good to not swallow.

“The king did not seem himself,” I said.  “Has he been ill?”

“You noticed?  Doctor Eltienne has approached him but he denies feeling unwell.”

“During my time on the coast, it was pointed out how many delicious types of seafood there are: lobster, scallops, oysters, clams, mussels, tuna, cod, hellfish, devil’s squid, hard scale haddock.  Hell, did you know some people even eat scorpion sand strikers?  Despite the really, really toxic nature of their venom.”

Her left brow shot up and her head tilted to one side.  “Really?  I had no idea.  I’ve always heard how venomous they were,” she said.

“Yes, but if you are very careful, you can make things much, much safer.  Still some risk, but just a tiny bit. Miniscule, really,” I said. “Considered to be such a delicacy that you could lose your mind over it.”

“That’s an interesting observation, one I will have to think about before I approach the chef.  Speaking of food, Rose has some bread and cheese for you.”

Taking her cue, Rose moved right up and passed me a loaf of bread and a block of cheese through the grate.

“Your Highness…” Egg started to protest but shut right up when Brona snapped around to look at him.

“You will still feed him, Jailer.  That food is for whenever he thinks he needs it.  Should you mistreat him, I will have Salis gut you and let you die trying to hold your own intestines in.  Are we clear?”

He could only nod, his mouth clenched tight with fear.

My loaf of fresh bread was still warm, but it seemed a touch too heavy.  The cheese was a good local cheddar.

“I must go now.  Things are afoot,” Brona said, frowning at me.  She reached her slim hand through the steel and I held it with my own.  “Eat that wisely.  You may not need it at all,” she said, nodding at the loaf of bread I held in my other hand. “You’ll know if you do.”

“I will?”

“Earth-shaking hunger should be a strong clue for all my Shadows,” she said with a smirk.

“Thank you, Princess,” I said.  Her reminder that the Shadows were hers was not lost on me.  I might have built, recruited, trained, and run them, but the Shadows ultimately reported to the crown princess, and she never forgot that.

“Hmm, my blue looks good on you,” she said, eyeing my naked chest, one brow twitching up when the others couldn’t see her face.

She turned and moved away, glancing back at me once, as did Rose.  Salis waited for three seconds before stepping back from Egg and then following her princess.  The squat jailer stood where he was, hyperventilating for a few moments before he got himself under control.  He grimaced at me and slammed my oak door