Rangers of Linwood (The Five Kingdoms Book 1) (6 page)

“Maybe it’s Tesni.”

Arya snorted at that as she began setting out food from their packs. It was a warm night, with no need for a fire that would only give them away, anyway. “Will you listen to yourself?” she asked. “Tesni Redleaf is the last child in all the five kingdoms that I would ever suspect of being some secret princess.”

“Didn’t Knives say he found her wandering the streets at age four, with no clue who her parents were?” Ryder asked.

“Orphaned at four does not a secret princess make,” Arya said. “At any rate, I’m sure someone would have noticed if Rhiannon was pregnant, and
someone
would have been needed to help care for the child, someone would have been needed to help cover up the pregnancy, and servants to help her give birth and prepare a safe place for the child to be hidden away. With that many people entrusted to a secret, some of them would have talked.”

“You’re probably right,” Ryder said. “There’s no secret prince or princess, but that just begs the question. Why hasn’t Agrona come to simply claim the orb?”

“Because she killed her brother and sister-in-law,” Arya said. “Why else would she have fled after they were found murdered?” She bit her lower lip in thought. “Unless she believes the rumors, as well? She could be waiting to see if this kid shows up to see who the orb lights up for.”

“But you don’t believe.” It was a statement, not a question.

“I believe there’s something keeping her from showing up. Maybe she knows that being a murderer makes her unable to claim the throne, and she’s hoping to make it glow through sorcery? Who knows?”



The next morning, bright and early, Arya and Ryder broke camp. They ate a quick breakfast of some nuts and berries and got back to tracking Tesni. The girl had left an easy trail for them, which pleased Arya. She was beginning to think that, when they got back to camp, she would need to change her bet.
And maybe Ryder is right,
she thought.
I am starting to feel like a mother to her.

The trail led right to the ruins, and there it seemed to stop. “Maybe they’re just not awake yet?” Ryder suggested, hope in his voice.

“Perhaps,” Arya murmured. “Tesni
does
like to sleep late when she can.”

Suddenly, Arya and Ryder found themselves surrounded by six nasty looking guards. “Six against two,” Ryder said. “I like those odds.”

“It really isn’t fair to them, though,” Arya agreed.

Both Rangers drew out their dual battle blades and started hacking away at opponents armed only with spears. When only one was left, Arya jumped off her horse, knocked his spear from his hand with one blade and held the other to his neck. “So, where did the lot of you come from?”

“We’re…we’re guards…for Her Majesty…”

“Her Majesty?” Arya asked.

“Queen Agrona… Or at least…she will be queen…when she gets the orb,” the guard said, eyeing Arya’s blade carefully.

So
that
was why Arya and Ryder had such an uneasy feeling about the woman. It was Agrona. That didn’t explain why Tesni felt so uneasy. Perhaps Agrona just put out a general aura. Perhaps Tesni was just picking up on Arya and Ryder’s tenseness. The girl was good at that, a regular empath if ever there was one.

“We have reason to believe she has someone very dear to us held captive,” Arya said. “A girl with blond hair and blue eyes is who we’re looking for. She might also have a man with black hair and green eyes.”

“The thieves. You speak of the thieves,” the guard said. “Yes, the man is in the dungeon. He’s been tortured. But the girl was smart. She agreed to join Agrona and spent last night in a soft bed, surrounded by luxury.”

Arya felt her heart break. Could Tesni really have abandoned everything she had taught her so quickly? Even Knives, she knew, had tried to teach the girl some honor. Angrily, she slit the guard’s throat.

Ryder arched an eyebrow. “Arya…”

”What?” she snapped.

He winced. “I know you’re upset, Arya, but think about things from Tesni’s point of view. Imagined, for a moment, that you are a scared eight-year-old who has just figured out that you were absolutely right to distrust this woman claiming to be your mother, a woman you probably haven’t seen in four years, and you have no memory of what your mother looks like because you have no memories of your past at all. You have been offered the choice between a cold dungeon and regular beatings until you either submit or die, and submitting immediately and living in luxury, guaranteeing to keep you alive long enough to be rescued. Which do you choose?”

Arya bit her lower lip. “You’re absolutely right, Ryder,” she said at last. “Tesni is clever. She would have weighed out the options, thought about which one would give her the best chance of escape, and taken it.”

“Aye, but Agrona would have taken care to reduce her chances of escape in case that was what Tesni was thinking,” Ryder added.

Arya eyed the ruins carefully. She could now see that they were not, in fact, ruins, but an intact castle. “So she would have put Tesni up in that tower, probably at the top, with guards,” she said at last.

“Right, and Knives is probably down in the dungeons. We know what to expect out of dungeon guards, so let’s go down and rescue him, first. Then we can go up and get Tesni with all three of us able to fight.”

“If he’s able to fight,” Arya muttered as they snuck into the castle, leaving their horses outside. Carefully, they stayed in the shadows, their eyes and ears open. They moved down the stairs and into the dungeon, silently slitting the throats of the guards they found.

“Alastar? You in here?” Arya called out.

“That you, Arrows?” Knives responded.

Arya moved over to the cell that the sound was coming from. She knelt down, pulling out her lock picks. “Oh, Alastar…” she whispered, seeing the condition he was in.

“Don’t go worryin’ ‘bout me, Arrows. I’m alright. It’s Wits I’m worried ‘bout. She begged Agrona for a night to think about it, earned ‘erself a night in the life Agrona was promisin’ ‘er in th’ process. I think she was gettin’ as much time as she could for th’ two of ye to get ‘ere ‘fore she ‘ad to give the old witch an answer.”

Arya smiled. “She certainly did earn her nickname, didn’t she, Alastar?”

“Aye, she did,” Knives said.

“Come on, then,” Arya said, finally popping the lock. “I’ve got Ryder with me. Let’s go rescue Tesni.”

Knives walked out of the cell, stretching as he did so. “I think the inn in town is better. This place has got cramped quarters, a bad tempered hostess, and naught but cold gruel to serve th’ guests.”

Arya barely contained a laugh at the bad joke. “Ryder and I think Tesni is being kept at the top of the tower,” she said.

“Aye, wouldn’t surprise me none,” Knives agreed. “Y’know, I always wondered what ‘ad become of ye, Arrows. Then when Tesni came home and told me she’d run into yeh, and then ye came and found me, I thought I was dreamin’.”

Arya frowned. “Alastar, don’t start this. It’s not like you and the lads ever came for me the day Ryder caught me trying to pick-pocket him.”

“Aye, lass, we came for ye, but we didn’t know yeh were with the Rangers. We thought ye ‘ad been taken to th’ prison, and then we saw ye weren’t in a cell with sunlight. We thought ye were dead for sure. I’d ‘ave always come for ye, Arrows.”

“Alastar… Now’s not the time to reminisce. We’ve got to rescue Tesni.” With that, Arya turned and walked off, stopping only long enough to make sure Knives was following her.

Together the three of them left the dungeon, using Ranger signals that Arya had taught Knives.

Up the stairs they raced, and when they were nearly to the top, that was when they saw the guards. There were ten of them. “Not much worse odds than the first bunch,” Ryder quipped.

“Aye, but now there’s three of us,” Arya said, “and ten of them. We each got three earlier. Now we each get three and a third.”

“Still not fair for ‘em, eh, lass?” Knives asked.

“Not quite,” Arya agreed.



Tesni woke, as was her new custom, with the sun. After a trip to the garderobe, she dashed over to the window that she knew would face the camp.
Home
, she told herself. The Rangers’ camp was home.

She bit her lower lip, wondering when Agrona was going to come for her answer. There was a note on the bedside table that told her everything that she wanted to know.

Tesni-

I expect you’ll be happy to sleep late, for once. When you are awake and dressed, ring the bell and breakfast will be brought to you by a servant, giving you an even better idea of the luxury you can expect by working with me instead of against me.

When you have finished your breakfast, you may find me in the library. Ask any guard to bring you. I will be there until noon, and I shall give you lessons until then if you have chosen wisely, and we shall resume after lunch.

-Agrona

The woman was clearly desperate to get back onto her good side, Tesni realized. She went over to the wardrobe and looked inside at all of the dresses. She chose the plainest one she could, a silk dress the color of the sky with fitted, pointed sleeves and intricate embroidery around the collar.

She pulled the bell, and ten minutes later, a maid showed up with a tray loaded with fresh fruit, sticky buns, and fresh milk. While Tesni ate, the maid brushed and braided her hair, tying it with a ribbon to match the dress, and dug out a matching pair of shoes.

“You don’t have to do all of this,” Tesni said. “I could have braided my own hair, and found the shoes myself.”

“Oh but I do,” the maid said. “The mistress said I’m to make sure you have everything you could want. Is your breakfast adequate, miss?”

“It’s more than I normally eat,” Tesni admitted. “Would you like some? There’s more than enough here to share.”

“Oh, no, miss, I don’t dare. I could get in big trouble for acting above my station and sitting to eat with you.”

Tesni just smiled. “Well, you and I are still the same station for now. I haven’t given Agrona my answer, yet, and I won’t until after breakfast. She won’t expect me for at least another hour. The note she left said she expected me to sleep late. So we can sit and talk. My name is Tesni, by the way.”

“My name is Fiona, Miss Tesni.”

“No, Fiona, you don’t have to call me miss. Just call me Tesni, please. And please, sit and eat with me.”

“Alright, Miss…Tesni,” Fiona said, correcting herself.

The two sat and ate, talking about anything and everything. Tesni learned a great deal about Fiona. She was sixteen, and until four years ago, she had worked in the main palace for the king and queen, along with her mother, who had been killed in the same brutal attack as their rulers. “Agrona took me in, and I’ve been serving her ever since, but I never really liked her. She’s not very nice to us servants, not like the king and queen were, and if we do something wrong, she beats us.”

Tesni frowned. “Well, I won’t beat you, Fiona, ever, even if I do end up telling Agrona yes.”

They heard a commotion coming from down the stairs, then, and Tesni went over, poking her head out of the door. “Oh, don’t go out there, Tesni,” Fiona said. “It sounds like something awful is happening.”

“Come on, Fiona, we won’t know for sure unless we go downstairs. Don’t be scared.” Tesni didn’t say it. She didn’t even want to think it, but in her heart, something told her that Arya and Ryder had finally come for her, and that’s what the fighting was about.

“Yes, but do you really want to know?” Fiona asked.

“I think I already do,” Tesni whispered. A few moments later, the fighting stopped, and Tesni grasped Fiona’s hand. “Come on. Let’s go see what happened.”

“Oh, alright, I suppose, but then, if there’s nobody there, I’m to escort you to the library,” Fiona said. “Oh, if we get kidnapped for this…”

“We won’t get kidnapped,” Tesni said. “We may be about to be rescued.”

The two girls were halfway down to the next level when they ran into Arya, Ryder, and Knives. Tesni threw her arms around Arya. “You guys came for me!” she squealed.

“You know them, Tesni?” Fiona asked.

“Oh yes,” Tesni said. “Arya and Ryder are Rangers, and Knives is head of the Thieves Guild. He practically raised me until I met Arya and she took me back to camp with her, and Ryder and Arya are the ones who gave me my first horseback riding lesson yesterday morning.”

“We will always come for you, Tesni,” Arya said. “Now come, let’s move, quickly. We don’t know where Agrona is so that we can avoid her.”

“We know where she is,” Fiona said. “My mistress is in the library, where she is waiting for Tesni. She thinks Tesni is going to accept her offer.”

“But she’s wrong,” Tesni said.

“I knew it,” Knives crowed. “Haven’t I always said ye was a clever one, Wits? Ye bought yerself some time, and now yer bein’ rescued.”

“You, too, Knives,” Tesni said. “Can we rescue Fiona, too? She doesn’t really want to work here.”