Shadow Runners Read online

  Sonja looked away. “There are men who don’t misuse women,” she said quietly.

  Tanya snorted. “I would like to see that!”

  “Would you? If you found a man who would treat you well, would you consider devoting yourself to him and having his babes?”

  “If we are talking dreams here …. I suppose I could grow accustomed to being cherished,” Tanya said with a chuckle.

  “Even if it meant living a humble life?”

  “Of squalor? There are worse things than a little dirt. This gilded cage does not compensate for the misery of living inside it.” She considered it. “And truthfully, it is not terribly clean either. I should say honest dirt is not as repugnant as the filth of the courts poorly masked by far too much perfume. Tell me what has put you in this very strange mood. I am nearly beside myself with curiosity!”

  Sonja sighed. It was strange that seeing Jarek had depressed her so. Until she’d spied him in the market she’d looked forward to amusing her sister with the tales of her adventure. “I think that I have ruined it,” she muttered as Tanya helped her to dress in borrowed finery.

  “How so?”

  She shrugged, but she held nothing back when she told Tanya about Jarek and his pack.

  Tanya shivered, but it was hard to say whether it was with delight or horror. “It is no wonder you were so late in arriving! And you are sorry that you left them?” she asked neutrally.

  “Not for that! It didn’t cross my mind even once to fail you! It is only that I fear they will feel that I betrayed them in some way and, of course, they could not forgive that.”

  “I do not see why they should! We have done nothing that would bring harm to them or the Shadow Lands! It is possible, I suppose, that Socorro’s plan to march his army through Shadowmere could cost them a great deal, but it is his plan not ours. They cannot believe that you had anything to do with that and, if we succeed, it will not come to pass at all.

  “I think that you are making much a do about nothing. We will finish what we have set out to do and collect our money and then you can go back to your beast men if that is what you want to do. And I am certain that you will find them willing to forgive you for rushing off—for that is all that you have done.”

  Sonja grimaced as Tanya tightened her laces and gave them an extra tug to cinch her waist in to fit the gown she’d brought with her, listening intently while Tanya gave her directions to the king’s apartment and outlined the escape route once she’d finished. After repeating it to make sure she’d memorized it, she picked up their previous conversation. “They will have heard the rumors by now and they will think exactly that—that I am part of the plot to invade their home land! They suspected all along that I was up to something. They will think it is confirmation. Jarek is here and if he is, then the others will be with him. You almost stumbled upon him in the market. I thought I would faint when I saw him!”

  Tanya chuckled when she’d turned Sonja around to check her toilet critically. “Faint with joy and excitement?” she teased. “Or fear?”

  Sonja shivered. “Tease if you like, but he is not the sort of man anyone would want to be on the bad side of!” she retorted.

  “He sounds delicious!”

  Sonja grinned at her reluctantly. “Behave yourself!” She thought it over and frowned. “You should watch yourself tonight at the ball. I would not be the least surprised if he thought of a way to take part in it!”

  “If I see anyone who looks as you described I will certainly go the other way. Be easy. I will watch myself. I always do,” Tanya assured her. “You should take that warning to heart. You will be in far more danger than I. You have the poison?”

  Sonja dragged in a ragged breath, trying to steady her nerves. “I do.”

  “Are we going to go through with it, or not?”

  Sonja shrugged off her doubts. “Yes. I believe that I am ready to retire from this life, but this last one we will do else Socorro will certainly invade the Shadow Lands and many, many men will die. The beast men will not stand idly by while he takes his army through to attack Doral, whatever the fool thinks. Once we are paid we will find a nice little cottage far away and put all of this behind us.”

  “Mayhap a cottage in the Shadow Lands?” Tanya asked.

  Sonja smiled wanly. “Mayhap.”

  She thought it doubtful, but she saw no point in dwelling on it, particularly not when she needed to keep her wits about her.

  “Alright then,” Tanya said briskly. “The king’s apartments should be empty now. The servants will already have been in to clean and his men-in-waiting will not have arrived yet to help him dress for the banquet. He has told his men that he will wear the blue tonight, but he is a vain man and a royal pain in the ass about his appearance. He is liable to change his mind a dozen times before he settles on what to wear. The only thing that can be counted upon is that he will adorn himself with his jewels. You must be certain to anoint them all with the poison for there is no telling what he will chose to wear and it is critical that this be done tonight. They will march on the morrow and he will have his jewels locked away until his return.” Tanya produced a pair of leather gloves. “Be quick about it. He will be suspicious if it has not had time to dry and there is not a great deal of time.”

  Sonja nodded, but doubtfully. “This loses potency very rapidly. I didn’t want to chance anyone else ingesting it and it will be slow to be absorbed if it is completely dry. It would be far better if it was applied to his clothing. His sweat would activate it so that he could absorb it.”

  “He sweats like a pig when he eats—in fact, he eats like a pig. Focus on the rings. Likely he will suck them!” Tanya dragged in a calming breath. “This is where it gets ticklish.”

  “I know. You must be seen to avoid suspicion and if I am caught in his chambers we will both be undone.”

  Tanya embraced her. Sonja hugged her back. “Take care!”

  “May the gods favor us!”

  “Or the devil wait to collect his due!”

  * * * *

  Jarek was certain he would not have been more uncomfortable if he had been tied to a table for torture. There did not seem to be any part of the absurd clothing he’d donned that did not bind or pinch. He decided as he surveyed himself in the long mirror, however, that the clothing at least didn’t look as hideous on him as it felt.

  “It looks damned uncomfortable,” Thorne commented. “Where have you put your balls?”

  “They are in the vise of my left pant leg,” Jarek growled.

  “Ah!” Rafe said as if the mystery was solved. “Then that must be your dick in the other. I was wondering what that was. Mayhap we should have found a larger man?”

  Jarek surveyed the unconscious man in the corner of the room. “He looked to be about the right size. How was I to guess the fool padded his clothing?”

  “Can you move?” Byron asked doubtfully.

  Jarek experimented. The moment he crossed his arms, however, both sleeves and the back of the jacket split. “Fuck!” he snarled. “Now I will have to try again! At this rate they will be finished with the gods damned banquet before I can get downstairs!”

  “That might be for the best,” Arman suggested. “If you cannot stand in the clothing, attempting to sit might be disastrous. I imagine it would not be considered at all polite if your balls fell out at dinner.”

  “Good point! I am damned hungry, though! I thought I might as well eat since I must be there,” Jarek muttered irritably as he strode to the chest at the foot of the bed to search for another jacket. The moment he squatted down to look, however, the breeches he was wearing split from the front waistband to the back.

  “Stand,” Arman advised him, eyeing his dangling genitalia.

  Jarek looked down at the split in breeches in disgust. “Poor workmanship,” he muttered, searching for another pair of breeches to match the jacket he’d found.

  The tight boots were hellish to get off but his efforts combined with Byron’s
finally dislodged them and he shucked the remains of his breeches. “I do not see how they can bear to wear these damned things, let alone change a half a dozen times a day!” Jarek snarled angrily.

  “Mayhap we should just discard this part of the plan? I’m not at all convinced that Sonja won’t begin to screech the moment she sets eyes on you.”

  Jarek sent Thorne a hooded look. “She will not dare expose us when it would be risking exposure for herself and someone must escort her from the ballroom. She will not come to us. Of that I am certain!”

  “Mayhap Byron, then? He is not as big as you are. The clothing would probably fit him better.”

  Byron’s eyes widened. He paled. “I’m not certain that would work at all. In fact, I am certain it would not. I would say or do something unacceptable and they would know at once that I was no gentleman! Jarek has been to court before. He will know how to behave.”

  Jarek rolled his eyes. “I am as certain as I can be that there is not one court in the Shadow Lands that is anything like the courts of the naturals,” he said dryly. “But I am certain that I can handle it. I do not intend to be there longer than it will take to find her and get her to the nearest exit.”

  Bryon looked both relieved and uncomfortable.

  “Well, I am glad you have chosen the worst for yourself,” Thorne said. “These uniforms are confining enough. Let us hope that you do not find yourself in a position where you must fight for this is nigh as bad as being bound.”

  “It is being bound,” Jarek said irritably as he struggled to shrug his shoulders into the jacket he’d found. “It is just not ropes or chains.”

  * * * *

  Jarek discovered that he needn’t have been concerned that he would miss the entire banquet while he struggled with his wardrobe. The banquet was in progress when he arrived but, despite the army of servants carrying trays like ants, the great hall was so packed with people that those at the high table with the King had already progressed to the second course while fully two thirds of those assembled had not even gotten their first course.

  He had no trouble spotting Sonja. She was surrounded by men vying so loudly for her attention that, as noisy as the dinners were they still stood apart.

  Fury swept over him as he stood watching the men paw her and stare down the front of her gown, but he managed to keep a firm grip on his beast. There was not only no way to remove her with any subtlty, there was no way even to find a spot nearby without dragging someone from the bench and taking their place.

  Uneasy at being surrounded by so many naturals since he was entirely aware of what their reaction would be if they discovered a beast man among them, he finally decided to remain where he was and simply wait for an opportunity to approach her.

  At least, he thought grimly, he could keep an eye on Sonja and make certain that she didn’t get herself into trouble!

  Chapter Twelve

  Sonja paused when she reached the door to the king’s suite, pressing her ear to the panel to listen carefully before she depressed the latch. The panel popped open, revealing a sliver of a view of the rooms beyond. Holding her breath, she listened intently for several moments more and then stepped quietly inside. The secret passage, as Tanya had said, opened directly into the king’s bedchamber. He had a fancy chest that had been made to hold his unmentionables, also according to Tanya, and the lowermost drawer had a false bottom, which was where he kept is personal jewels—the crown jewels were kept in the treasury, naturally.

  Spying the chest Tanya had described after one sweep of the room, she rushed over to it, grasped the lowest drawer and removed it completely. When she’d set it on the floor, she quickly removed the stacks of linens from the drawer and then felt around until she’d found the latch that released his ‘secret’ drawer.

  It was the height of absurdity, of course. Almost every castle she and her sister had ever been in had secret passages and secret rooms and secret drawers and there was always someone who knew about them—the workers who’d designed and built them, the men servants of the king, their most trusted friends or advisors. It was almost more of a surprise to find a place that had no secrets than one that did, and the more evil the ruler, the more secrets he had because he had more enemies.

  The king certainly didn’t take care of the upkeep and cleaning of his jewelry himself. He wouldn’t even fetch it from its hiding place for himself.

  A ridiculous sham, she thought, quickly pulling on the gloves Tanya had given her and removing the vial of poison from her skirt pocket. It comforted her in a way to discover Socorro was so partial to secret compartments and had such an elaborate honeycomb of secret passages—not merely one that led from his mistress’ apartment to his own. It was confirmation of what Tanya had said. The world would be a better place without a man who collected so many enemies that his castle was a rabbit warren of escape routes.

  She would be using one of them herself once she’d done the dastardly deed she’d come to perform. It would be Tanya’s unhappy duty to stay and see that it was done.

  It wasn’t a pleasant sight, or a pleasant ending and yet she couldn’t say that it began to be as gruesome as some of the public executions she’d had the misfortune to witness. Socorro, she’d heard, was fond of drawing and quartering. There were very few more horrible ways to die, in her opinion.

  She hoped that it wasn’t something she was destined to experience first hand.

  When she’d carefully and methodically dipped each piece and set it back just as it had been before, she pushed the cork back into the neck of the vial, shoved it into her pocket and replaced the false bottom. She was carefully restacking the linens in the drawer when she heard a noise from the other room and then voices.

  A jolt of fear went through her. Ignoring the terror clawing at her and the instinct to leap to her feet and run, she lifted the drawer and very slowly and carefully pushed it back into place. It hung, briefly, because her hands were shaking with nerves and she’d inadvertently pushed one side further than the other. Sweat beaded on her brow and ran down into her eyes as jerked at it and finally straightened it.

  The footsteps were muted by the carpet, but the servants were talking to each other and she knew they were virtually upon her even as she straightened and looked in horror at the secret panel that she’d left slightly ajar. She didn’t have time to reach it.

  Rushing to the king’s bed, she dropped to the floor and scurried under it just as the servants entered the room.

  “Did his Highest wish a bath?”

  Draw a bath! Draw a bath! Sonja thought frantically.

  “He bathed only a few days ago. You should heat water to shave him, however.”

  Ugh! Poor Tanya! No wonder she’d said he was a pig!

  Dismissing the images that kept trying to form in her mind of her sister lying with the disgusting old bastard, she listened as one servant left the room and the other crossed to the chest of linens. Holding her breath, she prayed to every god she could think of that neither of them would notice the secret panel she’d left ajar.

  The servant opened first one drawer and then another, removing stockings, cravat, and trewes. She watched his feet as he moved from the chest to the bed and back again to carefully lay out each, fighting the urge to scream.

  A jolt through her when she heard the rattle of the jewelry in the drawer but, to her relief, the servant didn’t touch it. Instead, he emptied the drawer as she had and set the case on the bed—she supposed so that the king could choose what to wear.

  He turned after that and headed into the other room. She exhaled a sigh of relief and inched toward the side of the bed closest to the secret door, peering from beneath the bed for any sign of the servants. She was poised to roll out and make a rush for the door when she heard the outer door of the king’s apartment open again and the king, trailed by what sounded like a half a dozen men, entered the other room.

  Gods! This was getting more and more nightmarish! Tanya had told her she should hurry b
ut, by the gods—the bastard had enough jewelry to open a shop! It wasn’t something that could be rushed! It had to dry on the jewelry to be effective. It would do them no good at all if the poison was absorbed into the wood of the drawer!

  As she lay trying to listen above her pounding heart to see if she could tell what was going on beyond a discussion of the upcoming campaign, she realized that she could hear the tinkling of water. Deciding he’d settled for a shave, she inched to the edge of the bed and tried to peer through the open door.

  She could see the backs of several men, as if they’d gathered around the seated monarch for their discussion. After glancing at the secret panel several times, she threw one last glance toward the other room and began to crawl as fast as she could on her belly toward the panel and safety. She’d just glanced back to see if she was beyond the view of the door when she heard footsteps headed in her direction. Leaping to her feet, she darted the last few yards to the panel, slipped through the opening, and pulled it closed behind her.

  She was afraid to move for several moments. Her urge was to keep going and put as much distance as she could between herself and the king’s apartments, but she was afraid the servant would hear her movements—or worse, that he’d spied her before she’d disappeared inside the passage.

  She couldn’t hear anything that seemed to indicate she’d been spotted, however, and after a few moments she began to inch slowly and carefully away from the panel. For what seemed an agonizing eternity, she inched further, paused to listen, and inched again. The passage seemed to stretch away into infinity. Finally, she realized that she’d moved far enough that she could hear many voices and the movements of people walking. Relief made her weak. She stayed where she was until she’d recovered enough her legs had ceased to feel as if they would buckle with every step and then she began to work her way along the passage, trying to recall Tanya’s instructions for finding her way out of the castle.

  There was no surge of excitement, no adrenaline rush of triumph, only relief that she hadn’t forfeited her life and Tanya’s because she’d come so close to making a deadly mistake.