Bright Thrones: A Court of Fives Novella by Elliott Kate

Author:Elliott, Kate [Elliott, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2017-06-26T16:00:00+00:00

7

Lord Gargaron, ignorant of all that was transpiring, asked Agalar to accompany him on his journey south across the desert to the coast. Agalar’s entire reason for being on the mission was to ingratiate himself with the Saroese lords who controlled the gold. Now he was to ride south with the very gold shipment their crew had been hired to steal. He felt for the first time that he and his sister might escape the chain that bound them to Lord Agalar of Nerash, who had been their master for so long and whose death mastered them still.

If he could survive the desert crossing and retrieve his sister from her hiding place, then perhaps beyond all expectation and hope they could rescue their mother and younger brother.…

But no. Don’t reach ahead. Take each part of the operation as it comes.

He had no chance to be involved in the final act of the companions’ rescue because the Fives-running sister convinced some of the locals to convey Bettany’s companions to the tomb valley as if they were corpses. From there they would be smuggled away to freedom.

For the first stage of the journey Lord Gargaron also visited the tomb valley in order to pay his respects to his deceased uncle’s tomb. As Gargaron’s guest, Agalar was required to take a meal with him and the highborn priests in the inner temple. The sumptuous feast dragged on and on as he fretted because he could figure out no good excuse to go looking for Bettany that wouldn’t be suspicious. What if she took the opportunity to escape with her companions, the people she knew and trusted? He would never see her again.

Finally the smothering heat of midafternoon broke up the party as the men retired to take a nap. Agalar padded back to the servants’ quarters. The barracks and courtyard to which the Shipwrights had been assigned was as silent as the grave, everyone asleep. He wasn’t sure where she would be napping, and regardless any intrusion to her bedside would be invasive. For years he had watched his mother accept demeaning treatment in exchange for food and shelter for her children and he refused to be like those men.

Maybe Beauty was already gone. A sick dizziness rushed through him.

Then, within the quiet, his ears caught the sound of rustling papyrus.

He found Pearl in the shade of an arbor, going through his scribe’s box. She’d found the transfer of ownership where he’d hidden it beneath the lower drawer.

“Were you going to tell me about this?” She held it up as if it were a mark of shame.

“There wasn’t time. We left so abruptly.”

“What makes you think you’re doing her a favor? If you think a few words written on a piece of paper mean anything to a girl with no family or protector in a violent world, then you fool yourself.”

“I don’t think that!” he cried, ashamed because of course he had thought that.

“Don’t you understand she must now feel obligated to you?

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