Bronwyn's Bane by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

Author:Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-11-29T09:05:21+00:00

Chapter IX

"So good of you to come," Docho Droughtsea said as the three new captives were indelicately unloaded into the cavern beneath Prince Loefric's private bathtub. "I suppose you're wondering why I've asked you all here—"

"Spare us the rhetoric, please, Milord," Rusty said. She sat, apparently unhurt, with her back against a dripping river wall.

"I was wondering, Your Grace," Jack said sincerely. He always wondered about things like being attacked in the middle of the night by monsters in supposedly monster-proof castles.

"I thought you would be. I've had you brought here to offer you a unique business opportunity." He clasped his hands behind his back and tried to pace the water-slick floor of the cavern. A pair of torches wedged in cracks in the glitter-speckled rock walls showed a narrow spring bubbling along the length of one wall. It was fed by the waterfalls, ranging from rivulet to stream-size, which wandered down the walls like stragglers late to a meeting, Droughtsea looked appropriately sinister, his face lengthened and shadowed by the upslanting light, so that the outthrusting shelf of his brow veiled his eyes, except for an occasional flash of reflected light. The monsters huddled well away from the torches, and muttered and snarled among themselves as Docho talked. They seemed to be afraid of him.

"Business opportunity? Is that a new euphemism for being unlawfully imprisoned, Your Grace?" Kilgilles asked. His sword had been taken from him, but Jack noticed the shield was propped against his knee, its device too deep in shadow to be read.

"Always leaping to conclusions, you Suleskerians," the Duke chided. "I wasn't going to discuss this with you until afterwards. It was your decision to leave your rooms and go wandering despite the deterrent spell I had cast on the corridors to and from the bedrooms to prevent just such interruptions. How did you get past my spell anyway?"

Carole carefully avoided looking at the shield, which Jack saw that she too had noticed. "I broke the enchantment with a spell of my own. We heard noises—"

"Hmm. I'll remember next time to bring a pall of silence with me. Thank you, young lady. You're already proving my instinct to keep you intact was a wise one, despite Dame Belburga's protests to the contrary."

"Mother!" Rusty spat. "So she's behind all this!"

"No, no, Milady. Far from it. Oh, not that she doesn't think she's behind it, but what she thinks is of little consequence. In reality, she is a small part of the plan, as you are and as is Prince Loefrig. You see, after a long and fruitful career as a soldier in the employ of various magnates, I have decided that I am wasting my talent working for others. I have decided to branch out, to use my many talents to go into business for myself. I am, after all, the grandson of a Miragenian djinn, and I trust I do not flatter myself to think that I have inherited the Miragenian genius for administration and the intricacies of commerce.

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