Page 137 of The Turncoat King

Ava had told him she’d seen her in Bartolo, and that Massi would look for her there, but Massi hadn’t found her.

She probably ran for Fernwell the moment she heard the Rising Wave was about to crash on Bartolo.

And now she’d trapped herself.

Luc smiled slowly and walked over to her.

Her head rose, and her gaze swung left to right, looking for something.

“Looking for me?” Luc asked her from behind, and touched his knife to her neck.

“The Commander himself, all dressed up in Princess Ava’s workings.” Haslia tried to sound bored, but Luc could hear the jump of nerves in her voice.

“That’s right. So tell me, Haslia, who were you working for?”

“Were? How do you know I’m not still working for them?”

“Because you’re using your gifts to swindle money from the wealthy on the street, which tells me you’re not being sponsored by anyone. So tell me. Might as well.”

“Do you remember General Daikin?”

“There have been so many generals,” Luc said. “No, I don’t.”

“He’s the one who I helped to ambush you using poor little Derek nearly three months ago now.” Haslia drew something from her pocket and held it up, but Luc felt no compunction to take it from her and with a sigh of disappointment, she put it back.

“So it was you behind that betrayal. I thought so after you tried to kill Revek. Was it you who managed to get Derek the knife and tell him to kill himself, too?”

“Well, you do know a lot.” Haslia relaxed.

“Was the general working under the instruction of the Queen’s Herald?”

Haslia chuckled. “No. He’d seen how Herron abused his poor cousin, locking her away, forcing her mother with terrible threats and then letting her die so carelessly. Daikin knew if the Queen’s Herald ever found out about me, he would take me away. And the general didn’t like that idea. He’d stumbled upon me a few years ago, taken me prisoner, and we’d eventually negotiated a deal. I would help him, he would give me a long leash.”

“So what was his plan?” Luc wondered what the general had been trying to do.

“Firstly, he was simply trying to get ahead. Capturing you was a coup for him, he was sure to get promoted with proof he had captured the Turncoat King. But then, it all went wrong. You and Ava escaped, and then she humiliated him. I don’t think he’s quite recovered from it.”

“Humiliated him by escaping?” Luc frowned.

“No, the way she forced them to stay in their tents and not follow after you when you got away from them the second time.”

Luc thought back to that. “I was badly injured, I don’t know what she did.”

Haslia trilled out a laugh. “She hasn’t shared the delicious details with you? I can’t believe it. She managed a working that made them too scared to come out of their tents. They were only able to crawl out when they were so dehydrated they had to find water to stay alive.” Haslia snorted. “I gather it was over a day. And they took a while to recover.” She sounded so gleeful, Luc guessed she was quite happy with what had happened to her former captor.

“I never knew that.”

“Well, the general did not like that. Not one bit.” Haslia tilted her head to glance at him sidelong. “So he got me to keep up my spy routine, sending information to the scouts that went to main headquarters, but he also wanted me to make life hard for you and Ava. Make people hate her, or suspicious of her. Make your friends try to kill her or make you choose between her and them.” She shrugged. “It was harder to do than I thought, and when it started to fall apart, I had to run.”

“Why did you try to kill Revek?” Luc asked.

“Spoke too freely. It got lonely being a spy in the Rising Wave.” She shrugged. “It’s possible he’ll never remember, but no use taking a chance.”

“But you’re not working for Daikin anymore.”

Haslia shrugged. “I thought I was at the time. I made it to Bartolo and went to the person the general told me to find if we ever got that far. He’s a spell caster, too.”

Something in her voice told Luc she had not liked discovering she wasn’t the general’s only acquisition.

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