And So It Begins by R.G. Green

Author:R.G. Green [Green, R.G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press

Chapter 9

“THAT’S not likely to happen,” Derek mused quietly. “Even if you were to capture a northerner, there’s no one in Gravlorn who can speak to him.”

“So we need someone who can,” Kherin said, not wanting to give up the thought. His steps were measured as he paced the expanse of the room, likely annoying any who occupied the room below. He knew finding someone to translate would be another problem in itself, but that could be dealt with once they had the northerner at hand. Derek said nothing as his steps continued to echo in the attic room.

For the third time that day, Derek had been summoned back to the hospice to calm the youngest prince, but that hadn’t been possible as the blood and sweat was cleaned yet again. It had taken Derek forcing the prince from the sickroom to bring him out of it this time, and long moments of holding the prince in his arms as the sounds from the healer and the shadows from the candles swept around him to convince Kherin to leave the hospice and the horrific scene he had found there. The attic room of the Harper’s Den had been as far as Derek had taken him, and a pitcher of the inn’s stoutest ale had been purchased instead of food before Derek led Kherin up the stairs.

Exhaustion and illness were also absent for this visit, and Kherin stalked the room instead of collapsing wearily on the bed. And Derek let him. The trader leaned calmly against the stout wooden wall near the single low window, his head only a hand’s breadth below the seam where the wall met the slanted ceiling. He merely watched as the prince turned at the far end of the room and started back.

“Why would this northerner translate for us, even if we were to find him?” Derek pressed at last as Kherin neared.

Kherin scowled. It was the one thing he didn’t have an answer to. Exactly why would a northerner translate for them? The northerner wouldn’t, plain and simple.

“We’re not likely to force him to,” he admitted reluctantly. “And even if they did, we couldn’t believe what they said. They would lie, and we wouldn’t know the difference.”

Derek nodded as Kherin paced closer.

“That’s assuming we could even capture him alive,” the prince went on, his scowl deepening. “Or capture him at all, which we won’t do if we have to rely on Gresham and his Defenders.”

Derek laughed softly. “Don’t be too hard on them, my prince. You are among their ranks, after all.”

“We would be better off being ourselves and pretending we have turned,” Kherin went on disgustedly, ignoring the trader’s words, “if we can even figure out how to contact them and make them believe us.” He huffed out a breath as he tried to force his thoughts into a decisive course of action, stopping without seeming to realize it and staring distantly at a spot on the floor as various scenarios played out in his mind.

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