“I feel like I’ve been hit on the back of the head with a candlestick holder,” Riann groaned, trying to push himself up into a sitting position. Tariel helped him up, propping him against the wall. “Whathappened?”
“My sister knocked you out, and yes, with a candlestick holder,” Wellion said dryly, leaning against the opposite wall. “I’m surprised you are awake already. That was a hardhit.”
“My bond with Tariel gives me…abilities,” Riann said. He passed a hand over his face, which was pinched with pain. “Do you think you can heal me, Tariel? It will likely be a few hours before I am back tonormal.”
Tariel lifted a hand. To Wellion’s surprise, a few sparks of magic skipped along the backs of her fingers. “Your friend here did something to my magic,” she said. “It is starting to come back, but it might be a little while before I have enough to heal you.” She glared atWellion.
Wellion held up his hands. “Perhaps if you hadn’t been trying to hurt me, I wouldn’t have doused you with the powder.” He frowned at Riann. “Do you think you can stand? We need to move now if we want to get out ofhere.”
“Did you mean what you said?” Tariel asked. “That you want to leave with us, and take the hostages withyou?”
“Yes,” Wellion said. “So long as you promise to let me travel with you, and do not give me away to the authorities, should we run intothem.”
“Fair enough.” Tariel placed a hand against Riann’s head and closed her eyes. A few more sparks bloomed from her hand and sank into his skin. “Is that anybetter?”
Riann nodded, some of the tension leaving his face. “I think I can stand now,” he said, pushing himself to hisfeet.
“Good.” Tariel helped Riann up and turned to face Wellion again. “You may travel with us, so long as you understand you are a traveling companion, and nothingmore.”
“Of course,” Wellion said, blinking in confusion. Riann seemed relieved, and he placed a possessive arm around Tariel’s waist. Why would either of them think that Tariel would want more from him? He certainly wouldn’t say no if she invited him to share her bed, but it seemed clear to him that she and Riann were deeply inlove.
“Let’s go free the prisoners,” Riann said. “I assume you know a way to sneak us all out ofhere?”
“I do,” Wellionconfirmed.
Wellion quickly packed a few things from his chambers, then strapped on his sword and left his rooms for the last time. They went to his father’s chambers first, to get the concubine. He found them exactly as he left them, sleeping on the bed, except his father’s eyes were wide open, bulging out of his skull. Wellion rushed to his side to find him dead, his face a sickly bluish color, while the skin around his nose and mouth were white. A pillow was left next to his head, stained with traces of blood andsaliva.
“Oh gods.” Tariel recoiled, her features twisting with disgust and horror as she beheld the dead body. “Someone must have come in and suffocatedhim.”
“It was Sallara,” Wellion said, clenching his fists. He had held no love in his heart for the man, not anymore, and yet he still felt anger that Sallara had killed him. There had been so many things he wished he could have said to his father’s face…and yet, did it really matter? Wellion would not have gotten to say them eitherway.
“Sallara?” Riann echoed as he lifted the unconscious woman from the bed. “Why would she kill her ownfather?”
“He was going to betray us,” Wellion said as he pulled back the rug and pried up the loose floorboard beneath. “Marry a wealthy heiress and rejoin society, while we continue to run his criminal empire forhim.”
“Here, let me try to wake her,” Tariel said hurriedly, rushing over to Riann. She instructed him to put the woman in a chair, then pressed her fingers on either side of her temple. She summoned a few more sparks of magic, and the woman’s eyes flew open, wide withterror.
“Who are you?” she cried, lashing out with herhands.
“Calm down,” Tariel soothed, grabbing the woman’s wrists before she could hurt her. “We are here to help you. Let’s go to the dungeons and get yourhusband.”
“You…you are?” Tears sprang to the woman’s eyes. “But LordTraize…”
She tried to glance toward the bed, but Riann blocked her view with his big body. “Lord Traize is dead. He cannot harm younow.”
Wellion pulled a large sack of gold from beneath the floorboard, hefting its weight. He briefly considered taking all of it, but even through his anger, he would not cheat his sister. He found an empty purse in one of his father’s drawers, then poured half the gold in before returning the rest to thefloorboards.
“We need to go,” Wellion said, toeing the rug back into place. “There is no telling what Sallara might beplanning.”
They hurried down the stairs, taking the quieter passages to avoid being spotted by the others. Tariel, whose magic seemed to be rapidly recovering, used her abilities to silence their footfalls, and twice when they pressed themselves into alcoves to hide from passing guards, the shadows seemed to fold around them, cloaking them fromview.
Just how powerful was this witch? Wellion hadn’t believed it at first when Maril had told his father that a woman and three men had defeated an entire troop of bandits on their own, but now, Wellion wasn’t so sure. His sister had magic, but she had never wielded hers as easily, or fluidly, as Tariel. What exactly was she capableof?
They managed to make it to the dungeons without incident, and Riann used the hilt of his sword to knock out the lone guard standing at the door. Natha, the woman they’d rescued from his father’s chambers, raced down the hall ahead of them, skidding to a stop in front of her husband’scell.
“Ralith,” she cried, gripping thebars.
“Natha?” the man gasped, sitting up. His eyes were wide in the dark as he beheld his wife for the first time in months. “What are you doing here?” he asked, lunging at the bars to meether.
