He hurried down toward the House of the Unclaimed, hoping that he was right, and that he would have the chance to see Sophia once more before his regiment demanded his presence for the wars that seemed to be growing ever closer. Sebastian had heard about the New Army sweeping through the continent, brushing aside Disestablishers and Free State men alike, absorbing mercenary companies and local forces even as it destroyed them. Sebastian felt a spark of fear at having to go to fight that, but it was nothing compared to the worry he felt for Sophia right then.
That worry only grew as he saw the area around the House of the Unclaimed. This was where Sophia had been brought up? These streets full of filth and violence had been the ones she had known as a child? It was bad enough that anyone had to live in such poverty, let alone that Sophia should.
“Please don’t let her have been in there,” Sebastian said when he finally saw the state of the orphanage. His horse whickered in response. The thought that Sophia might have been inside the place felt as though it was about to tear a hole in him. He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if she was gone.
Even from the outside, he could see how much of it had been damaged by the fire, and there were watchmen milling around the entrance, obviously trying to make sense of it as they pulled bodies from the building. Some brought buckets, dousing the last embers of the fire, while others stood and asked questions of anyone who strayed close to them.
“What happened here?” Sebastian asked, riding up to one of the men and dismounting.
The watchman turned with the expression of someone who had been asked that question too many times already today.
“Why don’t you run along before I… wait, you’re Prince Sebastian.”
The change in the man’s demeanor would have been comical in its suddenness if it hadn’t been in such a terrible situation. As it was, Sebastian didn’t care about anything except whether Sophia was all right.
“What happened here?” Sebastian repeated, putting whatever authority he could muster into it. In truth, his brother Rupert was better at that kind of thing, but then, Rupert enjoyed the power that came with being royalty.
“Nothing to worry about, your highness,” the man said.
Sebastian shook his head. “I’ll be the judge of that. Or do you want me to tell my mother that I couldn’t find out what she wanted to know?”
It was a lie, but probably a useful one, given his mother’s reputation for wanting to know all the workings of the city. Sebastian saw the man swallow.
“The Dowager wants to know?” he said. “Oh, goddess… sorry, your highness. I just meant that this is a terrible business. We’re still getting the details from the survivors. It seems that an escaped girl was recaptured last night and punished for it.”
“Punished?” Sebastian said. He knew they had to be talking about Sophia. If they’d hurt her… no, they had hurt her, and the anger of that flamed through him, barely under control. If he hadn’t been standing in front of the ruins of the orphanage, he might have stormed in there himself.
“She was whipped and her debt was sold on,” the man said as if it were nothing, “but then the girl’s sister came and… well, that’s the part that doesn’t make much sense.”
“Tell me,” Sebastian said, forcing himself just to listen, not to react to what he knew was news of the woman he loved being tortured and sold into slavery. It was harder than he could have believed. He could feel himself physically shaking with the effort.
“Well, they say that the girl’s sister walked in, set light to the orphanage, and single-handedly killed half the nuns and priests there. It just doesn’t sound likely. The nuns are used to subduing unruly children.”
“With whips, apparently,” Sebastian said, unable to keep the sharpness out of his voice. Was he the only one there who saw something wrong with that? Who saw the cruelty in whipping young people whose only crime was to have no home? Looking at the bodies being dragged from the orphanage, he saw that all of them were adults. Again, he could feel conflict rising, because on the one hand there was the horror that came from seeing this kind of cold-blooded carnage. On the other, if these people had played any kind of role in harming Sophia, Sebastian would have gladly killed them himself.
“What about…” He wanted to say Sophia, but stopped himself. “What about the girl they recaptured? Is there any sign of her?”
“No, your highness,” the watchman said, in a careful tone of voice probably reserved for explaining things to his betters. “This wasn’t that girl. This was her sister. They call her Kate.”
Sebastian took it slowly. “And I’m assuming that she acted as she did because she couldn’t find her sister. So what happened to the first girl? If I wanted to find her, where would I do it?”
“Probably halfway to one of Karg’s brothels by now,” another man said.
Sebastian whirled, his fist closing ready to throw a punch. Only the kind of control that came from long years around his brother stopped him. “What did you just say?”
“I was just asking the nuns,” the second watchman explained. “That was who bought the sister’s debt, a slaver named Karg.” The watchman spat, seemed to realize who he was talking to, and paused. “I figured that the girl who did this might go after him, but they’ll be on the high road out of the city by now and—”
Sebastian was already remounting his horse and had it in motion before the other men were finished staring at him in surprise. They didn’t matter. Only Sophia mattered.
He thundered toward the high road, hoping that he wouldn’t be too late, steering his horse around the carts and the wagons there, heading out of the city in a blur of passing buildings and shouted insults as he rode too fast. He rode out into the scattered outskirts of Ashton, where there was more room to give his horse its head.
Even so, Sebastian held back. There was only so far he could go. His regiment would be waiting for him, and if he didn’t arrive by the time it was ready to embark, he would be deserting it. For someone who wasn’t a prince, that would mean the noose, but even for him it would mean disgrace.
Next to finding Sophia, did disgrace really matter?
So he kept riding. He rode until he saw the cart, abandoned by the side of the road. He rode around until he found the bodies, and Sebastian could guess what had happened. Sophia was gone, escaped with the help of her sister. Joy and disappointment hit him at the same time. Joy, because it meant Sophia was free. Disappointment because there was no chance of him finding her now.
He didn’t spare the slaver a thought. If anyone had deserved death, it was this man. He traded in cruelty. What did it say that his mother’s kingdom allowed it at all?
He felt… empty as he rode back in the direction of the city. Deadened by the loss. He didn’t push his horse now, because he’d already done that too much today. Instead, he let it walk at its own pace, while he tried to sort out some of what he felt. Sebastian suspected would take more than one journey to do, because there were simply too many emotions to deal with. He’d lost Sophia again, and now she could be anywhere.
Sebastian turned off the main road, taking one of the smaller paths that would lead to the training grounds. His regiment would be waiting, and he had no more time.
He almost didn’t see the girl walking along the road until it was too late. If it hadn’t been for her flame red hair, Sebastian might not have noticed her at all. That caught his attention, though, because it was the same shade as Sophia’s, and there was something about her features that was almost the same, even if this girl was shorter, and dressed more like a boy.
When she saw Sebastian, she stepped back from the road and all but disappeared in the nearest bushes. If Sebastian hadn’t seen her there on the road, he wouldn’t have believed that there was anyone there at all.
“Hello?” he called, drawing his horse to a halt. “Is someone there? You don’t need to be afraid. I’m not going to hurt you.”
The girl stepped out. There was a sword in her
hand that looked wickedly sharp, leveled at Sebastian’s heart.
“No,” she said. “You aren’t.”
“Are you Kate?” Sebastian asked. The guess felt so natural, so obvious, that he couldn’t help but make it. She looked so similar to Sophia that it seemed impossible that she could be anyone else.
“Yes,” the girl answered. “And you’re Sebastian, the scum who cast out my sister for the masked nuns to take.”
Shock hit him at being spoken to like that. More importantly, how had she guessed that? Maybe she’d seen his face on a portrait somewhere.
“It wasn’t like that,” Sebastian said.
“No?” Kate didn’t look convinced. “You told Sophia that she wasn’t good enough for you, and the next thing any of us know, she’s being snatched by the House of the Unclaimed. Are you telling me I shouldn’t cut your heart out?”
She took a step forward with a determination that suggested she meant it. Again, Sebastian was more than a little surprised at being spoken to like that. Normally, people were polite to him, even obsequious.
“It feels as though someone already did,” Sebastian replied. As if they’d taken it out and stamped on it, leaving nothing but pain behind. “Is Sophia safe, at least? I swear I had nothing to do with her being taken.”
Kate looked at him for several seconds. “No, you didn’t, did you? Except for the part where you threw her out. I should still kill you for that.”
Sebastian wondered if she could actually do it. He was a long way from helpless, even if he didn’t take the kind of joy in battle that Rupert and some of the other nobles did.
“Draw your sword if you want to try,” Kate said.
Sebastian shook his head. “I saw what you did at the House of the Unclaimed. I saw what you did to the slaver’s men.”
He heard Kate snort. “Those weren’t men, and at the orphanage… they deserved it.”
“For what they did to Sophia? They did,” Sebastian said. He could agree with that much, at least.
“For what they did to all of us,” Kate said, her tone still combative. “Does this mean that you’re not planning to drag me off to justice, your highness?”
She somehow managed to turn even that into an insult.
“Look,” Sebastian said. “I know that you hate me for what happened with your sister, but I was just trying to do my duty. I loved her. I love her. Can you… can you tell her that, if you see her?”
“Maybe,” Kate said with a shrug. “You could go and tell her yourself.”
She sheathed her sword. It seemed that she wasn’t going to kill him today. Sebastian didn’t know whether to feel relieved or robbed.
Sebastian shook his head. “There’s no more time. I have to get to my regiment.”
On impulse, he took the ring from his pocket. He tossed it to Kate, and she snatched it out of the air with the speed of a striking snake.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“It was her engagement ring,” Sebastian said. “I want her to have it. I want her to know that I love her even if… even if who I am makes it impossible to be with her. She can keep it, or sell it if she needs the money, or… just make sure that she gets it?”
To his surprise, Kate nodded without arguing. She took a chain from around her neck, on which a locket sat, adding the ring to it.
“When I see her, I’ll give it to her,” she said.
“Thank you,” Sebastian replied.
“I’m not doing it for you,” Kate said. “I’d gut you if I weren’t certain that it would break her heart. And I could, whatever you think.”
Perhaps she could. Given what was coming, maybe that was a talent Sebastian should have been trying to make use of.
“Have you considered joining one of the regiments?” he asked. “I know they don’t usually let in women, but mine will, if I—”
“Do you think I have any interest in taking orders from you?” Kate asked.
Sebastian guessed that she wouldn’t. She wasn’t the same as her sister, no matter how much the two of them looked the same.
“You could be an asset in the war, Kate,” he said.
He saw her shrug.
“Maybe,” she said. “But right now, there’s only one regiment I’m interested in.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Kate was thankful she wasn’t going in the same direction as Sebastian. She could see that he loved Sophia, but that still didn’t make things around him any simpler. If she’d had to follow him all the way to the training grounds, it would have been difficult, deciding what to do next.
As it was, Sebastian soon turned off the path, heading for whatever royal regiment he was serving with. The truly rich didn’t serve with the free companies. They served with the historic regiments, or they owned their own companies. It made things simpler in a lot of ways. Kate doubted that Sophia would be happy if Sebastian got caught up in her revenge.
“An interesting young man.”
Kate jumped at the sound of Siobhan’s voice, then stepped back in shock as the woman of the forest stepped out from behind a tree by the road.
“How did you do that?” Kate asked.
Siobhan smiled in response. “Maybe I didn’t. Maybe this is all an illusion. Or maybe I can reach out to touch any forest. Maybe there are ways to walk, if you know them.”
“Are there?” Kate said. The idea of paths that could go anywhere was an impressive one.
“That is not the path you chose,” Siobhan reminded her. “You chose to become a thing of violence. I was just wondering how that felt. How did it feel when you killed the ones who had tormented you?”
Kate wasn’t sure how to answer that. It had felt good at the time. It had felt like exactly the thing she needed to do, and she still felt good about the children she’d freed from the place’s cruelty. Even so, there was something frightening about the speed with which she’d killed so many people.
“Are you having second thoughts?” Siobhan asked.
“Would it make any difference if I were?” Kate countered. “I drank from the fountain. I owe you a favor. Is that what this is? Are you here to ask for it?”
She saw the other woman shake her head.
“Not yet,” Siobhan said. “I’m merely checking on you, my apprentice. Ensuring that you’re happy with the choice you made. Checking that you want the destiny it leads to. If you aren’t… well, perhaps we could find another path for you. I’ve told you some of the other things you could learn.”
She had, and some of them were impressive. More than impressive, they seemed like the stuff of dreams. It was just that they weren’t her dreams. She couldn’t imagine herself as the kind of witch Siobhan was, even if they’d been the same kind of thing to start with. No, the training Siobhan had given her felt like the right thing, even if the path it led on was a bloody one.
Maybe especially then.
“This could be your last chance,” Siobhan said.
“This is the thing I want to do,” Kate replied.
Siobhan smiled at that. “Then go do it. Become all you must be.”
She stepped back behind her tree, and when Kate followed to look for her, she was gone, as surely as if she’d never been there.
At least talking to Siobhan had clarified things. She wanted this. She wanted revenge on the company that had humiliated her. She couldn’t let this lie.
Kate set off again, walking onto the training ground.
There were plenty of men there, training with blades and bows, working with the bulky iron of cannon and beating dents out of armor. Men sat and diced or drank, but it seemed to Kate that there were fewer of them than there had been the last time she’d been there. There was a sharper edge to things now. They were getting ready for war.
Kate could feel the eyes on her as she walked through it all. She wondered how many of those there recognized her. Probably most of them, because the pain of her humiliation certainly burned through her with every glance. Kate could feel the expectatio
n in their thoughts, waiting for more entertainment from the girl who wanted to be one of them.
She would entertain them, all right.
Kate made her way to the training ring where they’d had a boy beat her senseless before, and she could hear the sound of clashing blades there. That was good. She wanted someone to fight.
When she got there, though, what she saw made emotion bubble up in her.
Will stood in the center of the ring, a blunted practice steel in his hand. Two others faced off against him, moving around him like sharks waiting to strike. Every time he turned to one of them, the other jumped forward to strike, battering Will about the legs and ribs.
If this had been a friendly bout, any one of those blows would have stopped it and forced them to reset. Even training with Siobhan, there had been a break every time an insubstantial weapon had plunged through her. It had been designed to be a lesson, even if it was a cruel one.
This was just a punishment.
Kate had no doubt that it was for bringing her there, because she couldn’t imagine Will breaking some other aspect of the discipline there. The blows that rained onto his body, overseen by the same soldier who’d put her in the ring with the bigger boy, were just a way of inflicting pain.
Kate couldn’t allow it.
She charged forward, stepping in behind one of the two there and tripping him so that he fell face down in the dirt. She snatched his blade away and threw it at the second with stunning accuracy, catching him on the temple so that he stumbled and fell.
She reached out for Will, and he took her hand, standing.
“Kate?” he said. He sounded both happy to see her and worried. Worried that this would make things worse, for both of them. “What are you doing here? It isn’t safe.”
“I don’t care about safe,” Kate said. “I do care about you.”
She drew her wooden blade for the moment, but that wasn’t kindness, just the desire to hurt them with the same tool that they’d used to hurt her.