Page 70 of The Warrior Priest
It was late. Rhys wasn’t coming. I desperately needed to talk to him, however, and I resolved to get word to him in the morning.
But it was Rhys who got word to me. When I returned from my breakfast at the market, I found a note from him under the door, stating that he needed to see me away from prying eyes and that the secret room was no longer a safe place. He asked me to meet him at the ruined fort at noon then signed it with his signature of a bold, sharp R.
I quickly crossed to the balcony doors and stepped out. I peered down at the street below and watched as folk went about their business in the spring sunshine, not lingering in front of this rather ordinary building. If someone was watching it, they were well hidden.
The delightful smells of Mistress Blundle’s herbal concoctions filled my lungs as I breathed in deeply. With a wry smile and a glance in the direction of the temple of Merdu’s Guards, I made up my mind.
A little while later,I took the northern road out of Tilting. The old fort was some distance out of the city and it took time to reach it. Although built by the ancients to keep the Barbarian hordes out, the wild folk from the Margin had never ended up crossing the river into Glancia, so the fort had fallen into ruin hundreds of years ago. Only sections of the stone walls were still in place, the rest having disappeared over time. Long grass licked at the ruins’ foundations and yellow wildflowers swayed in the light breeze, their fragrance pungent after being recently crushed underfoot.
The high temple’s bell chimed in the distance as I arrived. I was right on time, but I wasn’t alone.
“Jac?” Giselle had been lazing on a large fallen stone worked into a smooth block when she suddenly sat up as I approached. Her horse grazed at the edge of the clearing, the reins loosely tethered to a tree stump. “What are you doing here?”
“I was summoned. Why are you here?”
“I received a note from Rhys asking to meet me.” She looked around and shrugged. “Why here?”
“Because it’s out of the way.” The fort was located on a disused track that had been abandoned along with the building many years ago. It was a good place for a rendezvous. Carriages couldn’t navigate the rough track and the fort couldn’t be seen from the busier northern road. No one would come here if they didn’t have to.
“Why does he want to meet us in an out-of-the-way place?” Giselle asked. “Jac, what’s going on?”
“Stop the games, Giselle. I know you wrote the note, not Rhys.”
She made a scoffing sound. “Me? That’s absurd. Why would I write myself a note? And you, for that matter?”
“You didn’t write yourself one, and you signed mine with Rhys’s signature.”
“Are you implying it wasn’t his signature? Was it forged?”
“It was forged, by you, and it was a very good forgery. I wouldn’t have guessed it was fake except for one thing.”
Curiosity got the better of her. She no longer denied having written the note. “What thing?”
“Whenever Rhys leaves me a note at our meeting place, he has never signed it. Not once. Why would he bother when no one else would leave me a note there? How did you know that’s where we met?”
Her gaze flicked to the track. “He’ll be on his way to rescue you.”
“I didn’t tell him or send for him,” I said. “Rhys is indisposed at the moment. This is between you and me, Giselle, and it ends here. I know you’re working for my uncle. I know you lured me here so you could capture me and take me to him. Did he offer you more money this time to get you to change your mind? Or did you in fact agree months ago after you received his letter in Upway?”
“Ah, Jac. Sweet, innocent girl. Rhys has turned your head and got you believing I’m your enemy. I’m not. I’m your friend, your mentor. I swear on everything I hold dear that your uncle didn’t hire me to capture you.”
“Bollocks! For one thing, you hold nothing dear. For another, I know you met my uncle this morning. Don’t deny it. I smelled your scent in his study.”
“I don’t have a scent. I stopped using the orange blossom a while ago. I told you that. I don’t use anything made with a scent anymore.”
“Because you don’t want me to detect you. I know. But you didn’t realize that everyone has a unique scent. In fact, in a rather ironic twist, by not using the orange blossom soap anymore, I was able to get to know your true odor. I’m quite familiar with it after living with you for a while.”
She scoffed. “That’s absurd. No one can smell a person’s unique scent unless they sweat, and then it’s all the same.”
“Most people can’t detect a difference, but I can.” I removed the book from the waistband at the back of my trousers and tossed it to her.
She caught it deftly. “You stole my book!”
“I stole my uncle’s copy. It’s rather amusing to think if he’d just read all of the books he owned, he would have realized a long time ago that the talisman isn’t my pendant. The stone doesn’t hold any power. I do. The talisman is me.”
She showed no surprise, and didn’t deny it. She’d given up on the ruse altogether. She watched me carefully, as if she expected me to draw a weapon at any moment.
“Thanks to you, I’m better trained at fighting,” I said. “Adding that to my good memory and heightened senses, I’ll make a good assassin. When did you realize I was the talisman? Before you hired me? Or in Upway?”
