The afternoon had become early evening when a carriage appeared on the road from the city. The Duke was resting in his tent and Soren’s hands went instinctively to the hilts of his blades. He watched the carriage make its way toward the camp until finally it arrived. He was a little touchy about security, only having four men of the New Guard, a few dozen soldiers and the men of the Duke’s retinue, who were of no fighting value with him. The arrival of the carriage concerned him.
When Alessandra stepped out of it, he could not help but feel that this was a complication that he did not need. His mind bubbled with reasons for her being there, one of the aristocratic officers having hired her services being toward the top of the list. She caught his gaze, took a deep breath and approached him.
‘I need to talk with you,’ she said uncomfortably.
‘What could you possibly need to say to me, now of all times?’
‘The war is what makes it all the more pressing. I had to speak with you before the fighting starts. I received this letter yesterday evening and set out at first light. I didn’t expect to happen upon you so soon to be honest,’ she said. She held up a letter with a broken red wax seal. He was torn between not wanting to talk to her and desperately wanting to talk to her. He allowed his curiosity over the letter to sway his decision.
‘I don’t know what it is you need to say. I’ll listen, but be quick, I have duties to attend to,’ he said. He gestured for her to walk alongside him.
‘This letter. It’s from our patron, Lord Amero.’ She placed a bitter emphasis on the words ‘our patron’.
‘What did he have to say?’ Soren asked.
‘He told me the truth, for once. He told me why you disappeared that summer, why you had to go. He apologised for what he did,’ she said.
Soren let out a sarcastic laugh. ‘Finally it seems he’s discovered a conscience.’ It gave him pause for thought. It just didn’t seem likely.
‘I felt that I had to come to set things between us to rights, before the fighting started, in case… I couldn’t leave this unsaid. After you disappeared I went to him to find out where you were. He said that you’d just gone. That he had no idea where. I was upset, and he was kind. He said that he felt bad for what had happened and that if I ever needed help I had but to ask. A few weeks later, the Don’s thugs came around. My uncle hadn’t been paying his protection money. They killed him and my aunt and burned the tavern to the ground. I managed to get away. I was so afraid and confused. I had nowhere to go and no one to help me. I remembered what he said, so I went to see him. I thought he might find me a job as a maid or something. Well, you know how that ended up.’ She smiled bitterly. ‘I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. I really didn’t. But I never stopped loving you.’
Soren’s brain was racing furiously to answer an amorphous question that was floating around in his mind. In Soren’s time of knowing him, Amero had never done anything positive for another person unless it was a consequence of his own selfish plans. What had changed? Soren looked at Alessandra, studying her closely. She seemed confused by his scrutiny. What was her role in this? Was she part of something that she wasn’t aware of also? What did Amero have to gain by playing with his head like this?
The impact of her words was like a kick to the stomach and he was finding it hard to think clearly. His love for her was so intense that resisting it made it feel as though his heart was being crushed in his chest. He did not doubt the sincerity of her words. He could hear the heartfelt honesty in her voice. He wanted to believe her more than anything in the world, and he did. But something was amiss, and he could not shake that feeling off. Why had Amero waited until now to send the letter? He was being played again and he could not allow it to happen.
Soren began walking quickly toward the Duke’s tent, breaking into a run as he went and leaving Alessandra standing where she was in confusion. He pulled the door flaps apart and looked in, his heart dropping.
‘Alarm!’ He shouted at the top of his voice. Two guards rushed to him, while others made for their arms around the small camp. Soren turned to one of them, whose face had paled at the sight. ‘Get word to Lord Dragonet. The Duke is assassinated.’
The guard nodded and left, leaving Soren to look back on the scene before him. The far panel of the tent had been cut, allowing a blade of light into the otherwise dull tent. Two attendants lay dead on the ground; there was no sign of a struggle, indicating the speed with which they had been killed. The Duke sat on a chair beside his morning table, his head lolling back with his throat open to his backbone. An assassin who had killed three men in such silence was a skilled professional who would be long gone. Or he could be one of the men in the camp, disguised and unidentifiable.
The tent had the tangy metallic stink of blood. Soren turned and stepped away from the tent. His eyes met Alessandra’s. Her face was pale and shocked. Her role in the assassination had been unknown to her; looking at her he was sure of that. He gestured with his head to her carriage.
‘Go now. Quickly. Get what you need, leave the city and don’t come back. You are part of this now, knowingly or not and you’ll pay for it with your life if you stay,’ he said, his voice flattened by complete and utter defeat.
‘What about you? Come with me, we can escape together,’ she said hopefully. ‘Please.’
‘This lies at my feet. I have to stay. I’ll come and find you if I can. Now go, quickly!’ he said. She nodded solemnly, tears welling in her eyes, but she did as he said and walked to the carriage. As she stepped up into it and shut the door behind her, Soren rushed forward. He reached through the window and took her face in both hands. He kissed her. He could feel her tears on his cheek. He pulled back.
‘Drive on!’ he shouted to the carriage driver. As it jolted to a start he let go of her and stepped back off the running board. As he did, he spoke to here one last time.
‘I love you.’