The Apogian War

Chapter 99

“Find him!” Darkovan snapped.

Before he could say anything more, young Kennard-Cyan Hardias stumbled through the door, closely escorted by two grim-faced Guardsmen. Darkovan did not know Kennard-Cyan well, although Dani did; the lad was Mikhail’s friend, as well as Heir to Hardias. Word had it that his mother, Lady Marilla, was educating him in the Terran manner. Annoyance vied with concern on the youth’s face, both fading into confusion as he recognized Darkovan.

“Lord Darkov, we found this one coming up the back staircase,” said one of the Guardsmen.

br /> “I’ll have you know I am—” and here, Kennard-Cyan rattled off a string of names and titles. He pulled his arms free. “Dom Darkovan, what is going on? I came to meet Mikhail, not to be mauled by—” He broke off, glaring at the Guards.

“That’s all right, I’ll handle it,” Darkovan said. At his nod, the Guardsmen retreated. “You and Mikhail had agreed to meet? Here, at this hour?”

The youth flushed slightly. “We were to go . . . um . . . hawking.”

“Hawking? At night? Is that what they’re calling it now?” Could it be a coincidence that the Hardias youth had come looking for Mikhail at this hour? Darkovan eyed Kennard-Cyan’s shamefaced countenance. Whom would he suspect next?

Wetting his lips, Kennard-Cyan glanced around the room. “Sir, please . . . is something wrong?”

Darkovan hesitated, for a moment tempted to enlist Kennard-Cyan’s help. Just then, Gabiru stormed into the sitting room. From his expression, he had already heard news of the k********g. His glance took in the scene.

Darkovan laid one hand on Kennard-Cyan’s shoulder and propelled him toward the door. “There is no time to explain, and in any event, it will all come out soon enough. I require your word of honor that you will say nothing to anyone, not even your mother, until I myself or Commander Lanart-Darkov make an announcement.”

Kennard-Cyan straightened his shoulders. “The word of an Hardias may not carry the same legendary weight as that of a Darkov, but to me it is as precious.”

Darkovan bade the youth return to his own apartments, then turned to Gabiru. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but it’s probably true. Mikhail’s been kidn*pped, by whom or for what purpose, I have no idea. I heard a scream—the servant girl had been knocked unconscious by the time I got here. I picked up the laran residue of the assault.”

He did not add that his mind was already open, sensitized by Dani’s anguished mental cry.

“You’re sure no one has entered or left?” Gabiru’s voice was rough with barely masked emotion. “Good.”

“There’s more.” Darkovan found his legs suddenly unsteady. He lowered himself to the nearest chair. “Dani has been taken as well . . . and maybe vodemort, I’m not sure. There’s no trace of him, but he’s only been gone a few hours. Dani went in search of him. To a tavern on Music Street—The Starry Plough.”

“I’ll dispatch my best men there at once.”

Saying the words aloud, hearing them in his own voice, gave them a terrible reality. Dimly, Darkovan realized he needed to eat, that use of laran exhausted physical as well as mental energies. Cold shivered through his gut. He swayed in his chair.

Gabiru bent to steady him. “You’ve had a shock. Let me get you some wine.”

Darkovan shook his head, trying to remember what was needed. What had Linnea said? Not wine. “Food, I think. Something sweet.”

Darkovan slumped forward, head in his hands. What a weakling he was and what a fool! Silently he cursed his traitor body for collapsing just when the people he loved most needed him.

He heard voices, people moving through the room, the door opening and closing. Someone shoved a plate into his hands. It smelled of honeyed pastry. With shaking fingers, he broke off a morsel and chewed it. The sweetness melted over his tongue. Moments later, the trembling eased. He was able to sit up, to focus.

“. . . to see Lord Darkov . . . should we . . .” One of the Guardsmen who had captured Kennard-Cyan stood talking to Gabiru just outside the door.

“Yes,” Gabiru said. “Send her in at once.”

Darkovan got to his feet. “Send who in?”

A clatter of feet at the top of the stairway drew his attention. The next moment, Linnea came running down the strip of carpet toward him. Her green traveling cloak and the leafy pattern underfoot made her look like a wild creature of the forest. Her hood had fallen back, revealing flushed cheeks.

Darkovan! Her mind touched his, that light, supple contact he remembered so well.

Linnea, here? Of all the people he could have wished for—

Incredulity melted into relief. Disregarding all propriety, forgetting the audience of Guardsmen and servants, Darkovan caught her in his arms and buried his face in the auburn tangle of her hair.

16

“How could you come so quickly?” Darkovan murmured. “How did you know?”

They were sitting together in his private parlor, their chairs drawn up so that her slim fingers could easily rest in his. Within moments of Linnea’s arrival, Darkovan had ordered the tightest security and the best guest quarters for her party. He had wanted Gabiru himself to stand guard over Kierestelli, but Linnea had insisted on keeping the girl with her. Darkovan had forgotten or not allowed himself to remember the shimmering beauty of the child, the quickness of her mind, the calm, almost inhuman serenity of those silvery-gray eyes. Kierestelli sat on the carpet beside her mother, long legs tucked with unselfconscious grace beneath her, one hand resting on Linnea’s knee.

She knows more than she reveals, Darkovan thought with a pang. He too had been forced to set aside his childhood far too early.

Linnea caught his glance. “Would you have her face this world ignorant and unprepared?”

Did she mean a world in which children—and Mikhail was barely more than a boy, although adult in council eyes—were abducted from their own homes? A world in which others could be set aside, consigned without their consent to lives of privation and servitude? A world in which a boy like Felix Lawton, immensely Gifted, could be brought near death by the superstition of a parent?

“I did not know,” Linnea said, returning to his question, “not when I set out from High Windward. I was on my way, almost at the city gates, when your telepathic sending reached me.”

“Then you know what happened?”

“I know that your mind was linked to Dani’s when he was assaulted. I did not know about Mikhail until I reached the Castle.” She stroked his wrist with a featherlight touch, a Keeper’s touch. “I am so sorry about Dani. This must be dreadful for you. I will help in any way I can. And with Mikhail’s disappearance as well.”

As she spoke, she lowered her laran shields, opening her mind, inviting his presence. The simplicity and trust of the gesture was more than Darkovan could bear. The contact of skin on skin intensified his feelings. He pulled his hand away, but gently, so as not to affront her.

“What is to be done?” he asked, heaving himself to his feet. “They have taken everyone in Thendara dear to me. If you had been here—”

“Could I have prevented it?” she said. “Sensed it coming, used my Keeper’s sensitivity to give warning?”

He saw that she had misunderstood his meaning. If you had been here, they would have kidn*pped you as well. You and Stelli.

Linnea’s gray eyes widened. Darkovan sensed her horror, her outrage, and then her dawning recognition. She was one of those most dear to him. In a distracted, emotional moment, he had been able to communicate what he had never been able to say aloud. Her face softened, her heart opening like a rosalys in the sun. From Kierestelli, at her side, came a mental starburst of joy.

It was too much, too intense, all a tangle in his mind. He had to think clearly, to plan, to act decisively. He forced himself to sit down again.

“From the beginning, then. If you did not come to Thendara because of this night’s events—and how could you travel all the way from High Windward in a night?—then what brings you here?”

“It seems foolish to think of personal concerns now,” she said, lowering her gaze for an instant. “I came to set things right between us. We parted so bitterly, I could not let matters rest. Especially when—when I had had a time to consider things other than my own vanity and temper.”

“You are not the only one with a temper,” Darkovan said.

For a moment, she regarded him with that cool, direct Keeper’s gaze. “No, but I am responsible for what I say and do when I am in the grip of mine. I rejected you so cruelly and sent you on your way without a shred of hope. I acted selfishly as well as rashly.”

Darkovan thought she was the least selfish person he had ever met, but his tongue had gone inert. He could only hope his admiration for her showed in his eyes. Mentally cursing his clumsiness, he said, “I did you no honor in the manner of my address.”

“That does not excuse my behavior,” she responded. “I thought about—I considered what I was throwing away because, like a spoiled child, I wanted everything. And so I lost much of value, too much. Here in Thendara, I can be both mother and leronis. At home, as you know, my choices are limited. And—and you want to know your children and be a good father to them. How could I deprive them of your care? I decided that I would rather have a life with as much love you can give me than a life without you in it.”

Her voice wavered. She glanced away, blinked hard, then met his gaze again.

I will never ask you to choose. I will only ask you to love me as much as you can.

Carya . . . His fingertips brushed her lips, soft and firm.

Her next words jarred him back to the present moment. “Now Dani has been seized, dragged away—as prisoner, as hostage? Has a message come? And Mikhail is gone as well.”

“And my brother,” Darkovan added grimly.

“Your brother?”

He had never seen her so astonished. “My older brother, my father’s son but not my mother’s.” Quickly he told her of his grandfather’s deathbed confession, of the search and discovery, and of the journey to Nevarsin.

“A Darkov cristoforo? This is very strange,” she murmured. “Are you sure he is missing?”

“I think it certain by now. It may be that these three abductions were carried out by different people and for various reasons, but I do not believe it. Not on the same night.”

“Why would anyone want so many hostages?”

Darkovan glanced down at Kierestelli, who had been following the discussion. How much more could he reveal in front of the child?

“She stays,” Linnea said. “For the moment, anyway. She may have need of this knowledge.”

“Dani. Mikhail, my heir. vodemort, my brother,” Darkovan ticked off the names on his fingers. “Abductions, not murders. Obviously, whoever is behind this wants them alive. That can mean only that he—or they—aim to force me into some action.”

Linnea’s expression

darkened. “You have never lacked enemies, a hazard of being who and what you are. Is there anyone you suspect? Surely they will contact you with their demands.”