“Carr has to let Rangar out of the dungeon to take him to the gallows, doesn’t he?”
Bryn rested her hands on her hips. “There’s a slight problem with that plan.”
Valenden waved his hand dismissively in the air. “Rangar will hang? Yes, and yet your sister told us in the forest outside of Othwall how she evaded the gallows. There’s no reason we can’t do the same for Rangar.”
“Elysander was able to fake her death only with the help of loyal soldiers. We don’t have them anymore.”
“There are other ways to fake a death.”
Bryn didn’t like the glimmer of mischief in Valenden’s eyes. She had a feeling that Rangar’s fate might not be any safer in Valenden’s hands than in Captain Carr’s.
“What other ways?” she asked cautiously.
Chapter
Thirty-Four
SILK AND LACE . . . the death slumber . . . whispers of witches . . . an empty castle . . . an unwanted kiss
With a smirk on his lips, Valenden stepped close enough to Bryn that she flashed him a warning look. Despite the weeks they’d posed as newlyweds, there had never been anything romantic between them, but Bryn also knew Valenden delighted in teasing her.
He said, “How close can you get to Rangar at the hanging?”
“A few feet, I’d wager,” she answered cautiously. “I’m certain I can convince Captain Carr to let me stand on the dais with him and the hangman.”
“Excellent.” Valenden loosened his shirt from his trousers and started to tug it up over the sleek muscles of his abdomen.
Bryn gasped and tugged his shirt back down. “What in the Saints’ names are you doing?”
She looked over her shoulder at Mam Nelle, who was pretending to be riveted by a basket of buttons. Valenden’s smirk grew as he wrestled back control of his shirt and tuggedit over his head. His collection of hex marks scarred his sinewy bare chest.
“Relax, princess,” he purred. “If I intended to seduce you, I’d do it without the seamstress present.”
Mam Nelle snorted while busying herself with the buttons.
Valenden tapped a spiral-shaped hex mark on his left pectoral muscle. “This is the death slumber hex. It’s normally used to put soldiers in a comatose state if they’ve been badly wounded in battle; it gives their bodies a chance to heal. It also has the effect of making a person look an awful lot like a cadaver.”
Bryn traced the spiraling scarred mark with her eyes. “You could put Rangar in a death slumber?”
“No,” Valenden countered, “Ican’t. There’s no way I could get close enough to him to cast the spell; it requires tactile contact. The caster must mark the subject with ash. But if you can get on the hangman’s dais, you might be able to. The spell suppresses the body’s activities so that breath is not required but every ten minutes or so. As long as the noose doesn’t snap Rangar’s neck when he hangs, it won’t matter if the rope suffocates his breathing as long as he’s cut down within a few minutes.”
It sounded like an extremely dangerous plan to Bryn—but nothing they’d done had been without risk.
“I’d have to get the hex,” she said. “Is it within my skill?”
Valenden wavered. “It’s an advanced spell, but with some practice, I believe you could master it. You learned quite a bit on our trek together.”
Every time Bryn thought of doing magic, a thrill sizzled through her. The type of hex Valenden spoke of wasn’t just inducing nausea or sparking a flame—this was major magic. If she cast the spell wrong, it had the potential to kill Rangar instead of rendering him comatose.
She folded her arms. “Put your shirt back on.”
Valenden smirked as he drew the fabric back over his neck. “Too distracting, eh?”
She didn’t even bother to roll her eyes. “Did Mage Marna come with you? She’s the only one I’d trust to carve a hex that dangerous into my skin.”
As he tucked his shirt back in, he said, “Only Calista could come. My father is ill, and my aunt and Ren had to stay with him in Barendur Hold.”
Bryn found this news troubling on more than one front. If word got out that King Aleth was ill, their enemies could see it as an opportunity to attack the Baersladen, especially with Valenden, Saraj, and so many of their soldiers currently in the Mirien.
