Page 23 of Truth's Blade

“You locked her up tonight, held her against her will?” Draper asked. “And now you have assaulted her in front of witnesses in the Kassia and Cervantes barracks.”

Vinest was shaking his head. “I didn’t plan to keep her locked up. I just wanted her to cool down, to rethink her plans.”

“The law is clear,” Draper said. “Locking someone up against their will is a crime that is always prosecuted in Kassia and Cervantes. It has to do with the fate of the Cervantes themselves at the hands of the old Kassian queen, and the life experience of the new queen, locked up for years by her cousin. There is no leniency, no mitigation you can give that will lessen the consequences. You’re lucky the crime occurred in Grimwalt, or we would be delivering you to Public Security right now. Assault is also a crime here, though.” Draper glanced at Melodie. “Do you want to press charges?”

Melodie looked down at her feet, still reeling that Vinest would do this to her, and then slowly lifted her head. “Yes. But I don’t think I have time right now. Possibly when I return to Illoa, after my trip.”

“What trip?” Vinest was looking at her with wild eyes. “Where are you going? I need you, Melodie. I made some miscalculations in the way I handled you, and I’m prepared to put them right.”

“By locking her up and hurting her?” Theo’s voice was soft and low, and Melodie shivered at the menace in it.

“No, no. I shouldn’t have done that. I’ve made more bad decisions in the last ten hours than I have ever done before. Ask her! Ask her if I ever mistreated her before today.”

Everyone turned to her, and she was suddenly sick of it. “He exploited me, he’s been treating me like an indentured servant since I came to live with him, but this is the first time he’s hurt me or tried to lock me up.”

“Because this was the first time you wanted to walk away,” Draper said.

“Yes,” she answered.

“We have a place for you to sleep here tonight,” Draper said. “Corporal Bindle will take you.” She motioned with her hand, and Melodie saw four other soldiers had appeared in the room.

She shuffled forward, wishing she had simply left a note under the door earlier, and saved herself this mortification, and then, as she glanced at Vinest, at his pathetic face, she straightened.

She wasn’t the one who should feel mortified, and if Vinest didn’t, that was just more reason to keep far away from him.

“Thank you, Corporal,” she said, as the soldier led her through into the back.

“All kinds of excitement today,” the corporal said, with a quick grin. “And it’s Jacinta.” She was slender and muscular, dark hair braided down her back and dressed in sleeping clothes like the ones Theo had been wearing.

It looked like Melodie had gotten everyone out of bed.

Jacinta Bindle took her to a small room with two narrow beds set against each wall. “Sleep tight,” she said. “I’ll be part of the team traveling tomorrow, and I gather you’re going with us.” She paused. “I don’t suppose you know what the big mystery is, do you?”

Melodie looked at her in surprise, and realized Theo hadn’t told them. Or hadn’t told the junior soldiers. Draper would most likely know.

“Ah. You do know but you can’t say. Interesting.” She left Melodie with a flick of her braid, and Melodie set down her bags and looked thoughtfully at the door.

She didn’t know why she had thought she and Theo would be going alone, but now she wondered how she had come to that conclusion. Of course he would assemble a team.

They were going after Cervantes children who’d been abducted, who were being kept against their will.

As Draper had just explained, to these people, there was no greater crime.

CHAPTER 10

They set off after dawn,allowing both her and Theo at least six hours of sleep.

There were four soldiers with them, all who shot quick, curious glances at her. She had been introduced to them when they had saddled up at the stables behind the barracks, but all that had been exchanged were their names.

She knew they were trying to work out why she was included in their party.

She was riding one of the loveliest mounts she’d had the pleasure to saddle up in many years. Her father had restricted their lives more and more toward the end, making them poorer and poorer, and she hadn’t had access to a mount of this calibre in so long, she struggled to remember the last time she’d even ridden.

She stroked the horse’s neck with affection and while she was probably going to be stiff by tonight, she was pleased she got back in the saddle as if she had never been out of it.

They were all equipped with tents and bed rolls, food and water. It was efficient and professional, and she could see why no one had dared lift a hand against Kassia and Cervantes since the Jatan had foolishly tried, just after the Rising Wave hadtaken the Kassian throne and installed their own queen in the castle.

She would have been around five years old then, and she didn’t think anyone had tried again since.

---