Page 47 of Hollow Court

Anna started to tidy the room while I went to open the door. I was expecting Gallagher’s crimson hair and easy smile, or perhaps the unfamiliar features of a guard.

Instead, it was Prince Oliver.

EIGHTEEN

Davin

The last fewhours of the night were a whirlwind of calling the magistrate and the healer while we kept Gwyn’s presence a secret and tried not to let on to our men that two of their own were dead.

We had found the guards stashed in a linen closet, their throats slashed, with no defensive wounds. The assassin couldn’t have gotten them both that quickly. He could have had help from one of the villagers, but the men on guard were well-trained enough that they should have been on alert for anyone who wasn’t one of their own.

So at least one of the men left standing was a traitor.

I brought a carafe of coffee and a tray of food to my room, where Gwyn was still hiding out. The healer had just left the room next door, having no insights on the poison except that it had come from a false tooth implanted in place of the assassin’s molar.

“You knew this would happen,” Gwyn said when I shut the door.

She didn’t move as I set the tray on the table in front of her, just stared at the wall like she could see straight through it to the other side, to where the magistrate stood a silent vigil over the three bodies that were cooling on the bare wood floor. The assassin and our men.

Men who had died because we hadn’t warned them when we set this plan in motion. I had hoped that they had been the traitors, that they had run. It would have been better than finding their corpses and knowing we may as well have wielded the knives ourselves.

I sank into the chair across from Gwyn, pouring us both a cup of coffee.

“You knew, too,” I said, sliding hers across the table.

There was no more heat to my tone than there had been to hers.

We were both too tired for that. Tired from a lack of sleep, tired of having to make decisions that meant good men died for the sake of rooting out the bad.

“Yeah,” she said softly, taking a sip. “I suppose I did. I just wanted you to be wrong.”

“I wanted that, too, Gwynnie.” Running a hand through my hair, I got to my feet. “You should stay here and eat. I need to go tell the men.”

She didn’t bother offering to come with me. We both knew she couldn’t lie well enough for what I was about to do.

I went downstairs to where the men were all eating breakfast. Bess shifted guiltily as soon as she saw me, the first test to my resolve.

I would deal with her after.

First, I needed to make sure whoever was responsible for last night didn’t get spooked and alert anyone who might be back at Lithlinglau. It had already taken everything I had not to take off straight away without handling any of this, just to make sure Galina and Gallagher were safe.

I had responsibilities, though, so I gathered the men outside to talk to them.

I started with the truth, that we had gotten a tip about a traitor.

The words hung in the air, long enough for me to catalog reactions. The blood drained from more than one face, but it made sense for them to be afraid. It wasn’t incriminating, yet.

Next, I spun a tale of an assassin who attacked, only in my story, he was very chatty after we caught him, calling out the traitors by name. This was the worst part, impugning the honor of the men who died for their loyalty.

We would make it right, when this was over, but it still churned my gut to say the words aloud. Even more so to watch the oh-so-subtle signs of relief overtake more than one of my men.

Because they were guilty? Or because they believed we caught the men who were?

Finally, I lit the final match to the powder keg, telling them that I had switched out Gwyn for Galina and apologizing for the necessary subterfuge. There died any hope that I was wrong about the traitors.

There were a few mouths drawn in disappointment, others twisted in anger.

But only two men exchanged a look filled with the barest hints of panic. Whether they were concerned they had almost gotten Gwyn killed or that they had passed along faulty information to their precious Uprising, either was all but an admission of guilt.