He smiled again, “You’re very clever, Delganor. Really, extremely clever.”
“Your Majesty is too kind,” the Prince demurred, though with little sense of satisfaction. Of course he was clever. He was so clever that the former royal heir had died “accidentally,” and this old fool thought it really had been an accident. When this old fool found himself dying earlier than expected, as the Prince planned he should, he’d probably think that an accident as well. Delganor liked making such plans, which he found juicy and savorsome in anticipation. So far, all his advancements had been covert. Covert they would continue to be until he himself was Lord Paramount.
“Will the Marshal confide to you about his daughter running off?” wondered the Lord Paramount in the same innocent tone. “Full of blustering apology?”
“He’d be a fool to put himself in the wrong,” murmured the Prince. “Though his naivete continues to surprise me. Even though he was orphaned at an early age and had no father or uncle to enlighten him, you’d think a man his age would have taken notice by now, would have asked a few questions, would have attended a few Tribunal meetings and started looking about for a candidate of his own. Instead he blunders about like an ape in an apiary, infuriating the inhabitants and missing all the sweetness! Well, if he takes good counsel, he’ll not say a word. And later, when we get righteously angry at him, he’ll be all surprised innocence, or do his best to act so.”
“Ah,” said the Lord Paramount, with every show of disappointment. “I had hoped we might have a bit of excitement out of it.”
“Not soon,” The Prince smiled grimly. “Eventually, yes, if Your Majesty would like to take part in the final act of our drama.”
“Thank you, no,” murmured the Lord Paramount, leaning his head on his hand and smiling a secretive, bland smile. “Not at my time of life. Thank you. No.”
The Prince missed the secretive smile. The Aresian guards, who missed nothing that happened in that room, did not.
12: A Short Trip to an Unexpected Destination
The duchess had planned Genevieve’s escape as well as she was able. Garth Sentith was as appropriate an escort as could have been found even with longer notice, but however thoughtful and sensible the plan, it lacked the necessary redundancies to cope with disaster, and disaster struck before they were well gone from High Haven.
When they had come only a few miles outside Havenor, Genevieve’s horse slipped on an icy rock and lamed the right front leg. Garth Sentith put Genevieve on his own horse, put the horse’s pack and light saddle on his own back, and turned the lame horse back toward the city, letting it find its own way home, which it would in good time, lame or not. He would, he said, hire another horse at the next post.
The post was a considerable distance off. Their night’s travel on foot brought them only partway to the border between High Haven and the Tail of Merdune, and they were both weary by the time light oozed up over the eastern hills. As soon as it was light enough to see by, Garth began looking for a place to hide Genevieve during the daylight hours.
“Do you think someone will be coming after me?” Genevieve asked.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “But if they do, we want to be prepared for it. The horse is the problem. It isn’t easy to hide a horse, so I’ll look for a place where I can be more or less out in the open with the horse and you can be well hid. That way, the horse is explained innocently enough, and since there’s no connection between you and me, they’re unlikely to suspect anything.”
Genevieve agreed that this sounded sensible, and when they came across a wooded area at the foot of an east-facing cliff with a good many cavelets in it—though most of them were mere bubbles—they set up camp as Garth had suggested. The area was obviously often used by travelers, for there were circles of blackened rock, dried saplings laid across lower branches to provide framework for shelters, and even a small stack of firewood ready collected under the lee of a large boulder. Genevieve selected a small cave hidden behind some boulders about twenty yards away, where she put her own saddle and pack.