The Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark

Author:Anna Smith Spark
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008204174
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2017-05-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-One

God’s knives.

The Emperor turned paler than ever, a choking sound coming from his mouth. Gasps of horrified astonishment from several of the men present.

God’s knives.

‘This … This …’ Orhan struggled to regain control of his mind. ‘This goes far deeper than I had … had feared. I knew … I knew Lord Rhyl intended harm to the Emperor, but I did not suspect … I did not suspect … I …’ Great Tanis. God’s knives. Questioning Tam would be worse even than he had thought, if he had this to worm out of the man too. Still a halfway decent man, are you, Orhan? a voice whispered in his heart.

God’s knives.

And so more orders were drawn up, disposition organized, Amdelle men sent to the Temple, Aviced men sent to take charge of Tam’s house and household, soldiers called out and sent to patrol the streets. March Verneth to worry about. Most people were keeping indoors but armed men were out searching for invaders and looters were emerging; a fight breaking out near the Temple; fighting in the streets near the House of the Sun in Shadow between Tam’s men and his own.

God’s knives. God’s knives.

It had been a long night. Going to be a long day ahead too.

‘You should get some sleep,’ Darath said gently. ‘There’s nothing more anyone can do tonight.’

Orhan shook his head. He knew exactly what would happen if he released his control on things. And if Tam woke when he was sleeping … ‘Later,’ he said dimly. ‘You sleep, Darath. You need to heal.’

Darath nodded. ‘I’ll leave Elis here with you.’

Wonderful. The man seemed to have come straight from a brothel. Hadn’t even managed to get his shirt done up properly. What use he’d be, Orhan couldn’t imagine.

Darath drew him into a corner, away from the guards and the sleeping Emperor on his couch. ‘Then maybe you can explain to me what exactly you’ve done at the Temple, when I wake up again. Unless you still don’t trust me to know.’

Oh for Great Tanis’ sake … ‘What did you think we were going to do,’ Orhan replied tetchily, ‘bribe the High Priestess to identify the right baby? It was the only way.’ He almost laughed. ‘And I never told you, or anyone, because you might try to stop it. Even most of the men we hired didn’t know about it, the man Skie was bound to strict secrecy, too.’ Rumours that Lord Emmereth was responsible for an attempt on the Emperor would be one thing. The slightest hint he or Darath had been involved in an attack on the Temple, however … If he was to be damned, he’d be damned in private, without Darath being dragged into it. ‘And so Tam never knew to stop it. And so we now have this absurd situation to resolve, on top of everything else.’ The sheer cost of arranging for the red lot to be drawn had been crippling, and for little apparent purpose if the woman was simply missing and then turned up again.

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