Insurgency (Tales of the Empire Book 4) by S.J.A. Turney

Author:S.J.A. Turney [Turney, S.J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910859810
Publisher: Canelo
Published: 2016-08-14T18:00:00+00:00

Part Three

The West

‘Sometimes it is not the destination that counts, but the journey.’

Ancient saying

Chapter XVI

Of Betrayals and Consequences

Jala Parishid Augusta, Empress of Velutio and Princess of Pelasia, slapped at the rough hand that shoved her urgently up the step and into the carriage. The hard northerner cursed her, but she had survived worse than curses, and she would survive this too. Her former handmaiden Nisha sat in the rear of the wagon already, her face turned from the doorway to hide her hideousness.

Nisha would survive this, too.

Clambering into the seat, Jala cast a sympathetic look across at her companion as the same rough-handed villain threw her cases in, bruising her leg in the process.

‘Keep that desert bitch voice down until we’re safe. Boss says you’ve got to have all your limbs when we get there, but he never mentioned your tongue.’

Jala swept her gaze back across to the unpleasant soldier and fixed him with a look of implacable, imperious revulsion. ‘I am quite aware of how to deport myself in any situation, thank you. A talent sadly lacking, apparently, in many of my subjects.’

The man frowned as though trying to work out whether he had been insulted, and the dawning of realization across his face was like the progress of a glacier. Finally, at the end of the slow dawn, he raised an angry fist, only to have a slender, pale hand with perfectly manicured nails wrap around it in a vice-like grip. The ghost, who seemed to be in command of the party of kidnappers, shook his head at the thug, tutting.

‘Use that brain, Corris. If you administer casual beatings all the time, then when we have real cause to punish, we will have to escalate just to make the point. Take your poor addled brain back to the house and use it to make sure we’ve left nothing.’

Halfdan – the awful ghost’s name was Halfdan – leaned into the carriage doorway as his hireling left, muttering.

‘I do apologize for the quality of my men. They are the best of a poor lot, but then I did not select them for their manners and knowledge of etiquette.’

Jala wrinkled her nose. ‘Where are we going?’

‘My dear princess, you ask me the same questions every day. Have I ever given you cause to believe I will answer them? No. The same holds true today. Within an hour we will be safe and far from Calacon, and then you may scream and rail and holler, should you wish. Until then, I would take it as a favour if you hold your tongue, as my colleague demanded. Shouting will not affect the end result, but it will likely cause a scuffle and these carriage walls are hardly crossbow resistant. Any unpleasantness will endanger you as much as it will us. Do we have an understanding?’

Jala was about to nod when she spotted the shape of Zari, her other maid, lurking in the darkness just behind the strange, white figure.

‘Only if you do not saddle me with that creature once again.

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