27 #2

Isolde could cut his artery before the guards reached the door. She had practiced the movement thousands of times. A small turn, a step back, the way out through the conduit.

She saw the coffin in the square.

She saw Leth raise the continuity order over Darian’s body.

The blue guards would close the doors. The families would become witnesses to a murder.

Aelyn would have to choose between condemning her and losing the Council.

Varek would inherit the routes through the same file they were trying to expose.

She also saw Cendral: Varek’s dagger beneath her ribs, Darian’s hand gripping her burned wrist, his boot blocking the two steps of solid ground. The support gave way, and he kept watching her.

Fire rose through her palm. Darian felt it and stopped breathing for an instant.

“There was room beside you,” Isolde said.

He looked at the knife.

“Yes.”

“You pushed me away from it.”

“Yes.”

For years, she had argued with answers he had yet to give. That word stopped them all. Isolde had to unclench her jaw to go on.

“In the square, you promised to listen to me even when it was difficult. What was left of that when you returned to Caleryon?”

Darian brushed one finger over the mark on the table beside the lock. Isolde waited. She wanted to watch him search for an answer all the way to the end.

“I kept the ring,” he said.

“I saw it on your chain before I fell. What did you expect to keep?”

Darian raised his eyes.

“The person who gave it to me.”

Isolde felt the pressure of the band on her finger, though she had not worn it for years. She remembered the pond against her legs and the joy of offering him her hand. She had chosen that betrothal on conditions he had heard one by one.

“That person wanted to live,” she said. “She asked you to open the way.”

Darian’s hand closed on the wood.

“I thought that if you came back, your father’s supporters would rise and we’d lose the kingdom. Varek offered me command. I chose it.”

“You also chose what would happen to me.”

“I saw you on the stone. I gave the order before you fell.”

The room seemed too small for the air Isolde needed. Keeping the knife steady was harder than when she had entered.

“And afterward, you kept signing.”

“Varek had his own men in the granaries, on the routes, beside my father. Every time I tried to scale back an order, he presented another emergency.”

Isolde looked at the closed book.

“You could have asked for names. You could have opened these pages.”

Darian nodded slowly.

“I was also afraid of what I’d find beneath my signature.”

That gave her an answer. The pain stayed where it was.

“Did you love me?” she asked.

Darian closed his eyes. Isolde almost took back the question. She was ashamed of still needing it there, with the families waiting on the other side of the wall.

“Yes. I loved you when I prepared those vows. I loved you beside the pond. At Cendral, I still wanted to come back with you.”

“You came back alone.”

“I chose the place Varek offered me.”

She looked at the drop that had reached his shirt collar. She could remember Darian’s mouth with a precision that hurt and hold the knife against his throat at the same time. She had wanted one of those things to erase the other so the choice would be simple.

She let one breath pass.

“My life will still include what I wanted with you,” she said. “What you do now will have to stand before the people waiting outside.”

Darian opened his eyes.

Isolde kept the blade in place.

A blow struck the outer door.

“My lord,” the guard called. “Captain Leth demands access.”

Darian turned his head toward the door.

“Ten minutes.”

“He has invoked preventive continuity.”

“That provision has no force while I can respond.”

“He asks you to respond before witnesses.”

Isolde heard footsteps in the corridor. Leth was using his absence to declare incapacity.

Darian indicated the box with his eyes.

“The third lock opens with the plate.”

“Cevran has it.”

“Neral made an impression before Varek put away the box. It’s beneath the scale.”

Isolde kept the knife against his neck while searching with her other hand. She found a thin plate of hardened clay marked with the nine circles.

“You prepared this for me?”

“I prepared it to open the book without Cevran.”

“You knew I would come.”

“I knew someone would follow the routes.”

Isolde fitted the impression into the third slot.

The lock opened.

The register contained strips of routes, transport seals, and names written in narrow margins. Oren had described the central mark: a red line beneath Cendral, followed by the active entrance.

Isolde found it.

Distributor C-0. Access through Halver, Three Needles branch. Next synchronization: twenty days.

Below it were eleven convoys.

“Did you know about this?” she asked.

Darian read the line.

“The access was listed as a supply route.”

“Eleven convoys are carrying people.”

“I see the names.”

“They were always there.”

“The books I received used codes.”

“You could have asked for the names.”

Darian held her gaze.

“Yes.”

The door shook under another blow.

Leth spoke from the corridor.

“Regent, the commission is assuming temporary custody.”

The two royal guards argued with him. More men stood behind them.

Darian picked up the seal box and threw it at the window. The glass broke. The square came into view.

“What are you doing?” Isolde asked.

“Responding before witnesses.”

He went to the opening.

“Captain Leth!” he shouted. “I remain conscious and have opened the register. All preventive orders are annulled.”

The families heard him.

The scribes raised their heads. Leth was caught between the protocol and the square.

Darian turned back to Isolde.

“You have one minute.”

“I can take the strip.”

“Varek will say you fabricated it. Take the book.”

“It suits you to have it disappear.”

“It suits me to have it appear somewhere he has no control.”

Isolde lowered the knife.

The drop of blood had reached his shirt collar.

“You’re alive because of what would happen afterward,” she said.

“I understand.”

“That reason can change.”

“I understand that too.”

Isolde took the register.

Darian caught her wrist before she could move away.

Fire answered beneath his fingers. Isolde set the book on the table and looked at the hand closed around her.

“Let go of me.”

Darian opened his fingers. The pressure had left a red mark around Isolde’s wrist.

“Aelyn has a copy of the file. Varek knows it exists.”

Isolde picked up the register with both hands.

“Then remove the guards from her door and let her decide how to send it.”

“The commission…”

“You know which orders bear your seal.”

The door shook again. Darian stepped out of her path to the window.

The door began to open.

Isolde struck Darian with the hilt.

He fell against the table. The wound at his eyebrow looked sufficient. Isolde overturned the scale, stuffed the register into a grain sack, and jumped through the broken window.

The square saw her fall.

Isolde landed on the scribes’ awning. The cloth tore. She fell between two tables with the sack against her chest.

Leth came out of the weighing room.

“Stop her!”

The commission observers blocked the northern exit. The royal guards remained inside the building, tending to Darian.

The families formed a wall to the west.

Isolde ran toward the transport yard.

A soldier threw a net. She leaped onto a table. The lead weights struck the lists of names and dragged them into the mud. Sil Dorna picked up a page before it could be trampled.

“Here they are!” she shouted. “The names are here!”

Other people bent down. Each hand lifted a sheet.

The soldiers hesitated before the crowd.

Leth drew his sword.

“That figure is carrying military material!”

“The register was opened by royal order!” the archives councilor answered.

“She stole the central volume!”

Isolde reached the yard.

Three wagons waited beside the stables. Two held empty cages. The third had six people inside. The inspection order had delayed its departure for a few hours.

A guard was closing the door.

Isolde struck his wrist with the sack. The key fell. A woman inside the wagon picked it up through the bars.

“Open it,” Isolde said.

“They’ll shoot us.”

“The southern exit is behind the corrals.”

The woman turned the key.

All six climbed down. Two families from the square recognized them. The yard filled with cries.

Leth arrived with four men.

“Authorized to fire!”

The soldiers raised their crossbows.

Darian appeared in the broken window with blood over one eyebrow.

“Lower your weapons!”

“The register is compromised!” Leth shouted.

“There are civilians in the line of fire.”

“Continuity permits lethal force.”

“I still rule.”

The royal guards entered the square. They stood in front of the commission’s crossbows.

The division opened a corridor.

Isolde led the six detainees toward the corrals. Sil walked behind them with a handful of sheets. Other residents joined them. The commission could pursue her or contain the square.

Leth chose pursuit.

Two men followed him down the southern alley.

Isolde vaulted a fence and reached the sluice channel. Rain had swollen the river. Beren waited beneath the bridge in a flat-bottomed boat.

“The book!” he shouted.

Isolde threw the sack.

Beren caught it. Oren opened the covering and stowed the register.

“Go!” Isolde ordered.

“You’re not aboard yet.”

“I’ll follow over the upper bridge.”

Beren cut the mooring. The current carried the boat toward the mill tunnel.

Leth appeared behind Isolde.

“End of the road.”

His sword was raised. The two soldiers blocked the sides of the channel.

Isolde drew her knife.

“Your regent ordered you to lower your weapons.”

“Lord Varek governs threats.”

“Tell Darian that.”

“His incapacity will be documented today.”

Leth attacked.

Isolde deflected the blade and moved beneath his arm. She struck the blue brooch with her palm. Its fastening drove into his neck. Leth stepped back.

The soldiers advanced together.

Isolde threw fire into the channel.