Page 158 of Unrivaled
If I died, Audrey wouldabsolutelyinvestigate the pack at my feet.
Her tower was too far.The kitchens, with Bernadette, were closer.The barracks were closer again.Kaelson.He was a lot of things, but he knew good advice when he heard it.
If I’d guessed right, and I’d taken the antidote in time, I’d do better to stay still and let the poison burn out of my system.
If I guessed wrong, or guessed too slow…
Leaving the pack, I gathered up my basket in fingers that barely worked and ignored the agony in my head that made my vision blurry.My nose kept on running.The path was well maintained.I didn’t need a light, or even much thought, which was fortunate.
Before I’d got within shouting distance of the barracks someone spotted me.“Mistress Isolde!”they said, running to me.“Who did this to you?”
You’ll never believe it.I grabbed the gambeson-clad arm of the guardsman.“Get me to Kael,” I managed.
He caught me.I was picked up like a child.They were hustling with me.They’d better do as I said.Anything else would mean Audrey was summoned.If Audrey was summoned, she’d do as I had, and explore that deadly, and doubtless incriminating, pack.
Green Serpent and Fen Breath.It shouldn’t have been possible.Had I acted quickly enough to live?Horror wove through me.Luca was with her, right now.I was being rescued by the La’Angi guard.There was perhaps no greater irony to be had than all of that.
The next thing I noticed was a wet cloth on my face.I was on my side on something simultaneously hard and lumpy.“Mistress Isolde,” Kaelson was saying.“Can you hear me?”
He’d probably said that a few times.I opened my mouth and felt blood or spit run out.Odds were high it was blood.I spat.The headache was agony, but…it wasn’t getting worse.Laughter bubbled in my chest.Got it in time.
“Yeah,” I managed.Fuck you, Luca.Your guts are garters now, boy.He was going to regret not killing me.
“She dropped her basket,” said whatever packhorse I’d encountered.“Maybe that’ll have a clue?”
“Go fetch it,” Kaelson told him.“Don’t touch anything in it, in case it’s evidence.”
“Yes, Captain.”
Wise choice, Kael.The cloth came again and I forced my eyes open.They’d laid me on his desk.There was a bowl beneath me catching blood.I could hear the slow drop of my nose.I became aware of something uncomfortable poking my spine.A stack of missives?There was something sharp beneath my hip.They hadn’t even had the grace to shove it all on the floor.
“You with me?”Kaelson asked.The cloth ran red as he wrung it into a basin of water, his gaze intent.“What’s happened?”
“Poison,” I managed.“Trap.”
His expression hardened.“Where?”
I closed my eyes again.“Luca.His pack.”
“Confirming that you broke into Luca of Raa’shi’s rooms and were going through his pack when you were poisoned.”His voice was formal, calm, and entirely neutral.
“Yes.”I let out a breath.Kaelson had been the right call.
Rather than flap and worry, he asked, briskly, “You’ve taken something to counter it?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”The cloth was back.“Immediate threats?”
“No.”
He nodded and dipped the cloth into water.I closed my eyes and let him wash some more blood away from my mouth.The room was quiet except for the drips of my blood and the rustle of Kaelson’s clothing.
I tracked the return of the guardsman I’d run into by his steps.“Found it,” he said, bringing it in.
The pack.“My pack,” I said, trying to gather my thoughts.“In the garden.I dropped some saddlebags when…”When I got clear of his rooms and realized I’d underestimated him.Well, no fear of that now.
“I’ll get it,” offered the packhorse.
