Part 11 (1/2)
”No. But I can take a guess. He's b.l.o.o.d.y stupid enough to go after Kresimir alone. That's the only way he would have been captured, after all. And he probably went to Mihali for advice.”
”And he would have left immediately for the Kez camp?”
”Search me.” Bo shrugged. ”Why?”
”It must be nothing.” Nila flipped the page, reading through the requisitions and dates, but there were no more requisitions reported by Taniel. She felt her breath quickening suddenly. ”Bo...”
”What is it?” he asked, shaking his head peevishly as if his thoughts had been interrupted.
”Do you remember me telling you what Colonel Etan had told me? About the two companies of soldiers Hilanska had sent to the mountains?”
”Yes, yes. Get on with it.”
She handed Bo the report. ”Look at this requisition made by Taniel, about halfway down the page.”
”I see it.” He ran his eyes over it several times before saying, ”This doesn't make any sense. Why the b.l.o.o.d.y pit would Taniel requisition three hundred air rifles?”
Nila leaned forward. ”Back when I was Tamas's laundress, I overheard him say that all the air rifles in Adro had been locked up in an armory in Adopest with strict orders that only a powder mage could order them. Look at the time!” She thrust her finger onto the page. ”This was four o'clock in the morning. It had to have been after Taniel was captured. The requisition was falsified in his name!”
”Oh, b.l.o.o.d.y pit,” Bo said. He pounded on the roof. ”Stop the carriage! Stop it now!”
”What are you doing?” Lady Winceslav asked as the coach came to a halt.
”I need two horses,” Bo said.
”Done. What's going on?”
Bo leapt out of the carriage. ”A traitor would know Taniel had been captured and that they could falsify the report.”
”To what end?”
”If he thought that Tamas might return, perhaps. It doesn't matter. Hilanska has sent his men, armed with air rifles, to hunt down Taniel.”
”How do you know?” Nila asked.
”Three hundred air rifles are enough to outfit two companies of Adran soldiers. Two companies sent into the mountains on Hilanska's orders. If that's a coincidence, I'll eat my hat. I have to go.”
”I'm coming with you,” Nila said.
”No. Stay with the Lady. No one must slow me down. I'm going to rain fire and earth down on those two companies, and anyone near me will be torn apart.”
”Then why two horses?”
Bo tugged on his Privileged gloves. ”So that when one drops dead beneath me, I can keep riding.”
CHAPTER.
11.
Adamat waited with Brigadier Abrax as General Ket went over the doc.u.ments he had brought.
They were in Ket's personal tent. The guards outside had been dismissed. Ket slowly leafed through the doc.u.ments, first reading the arrest warrant issued by Ricard Tumblar and the two judges in Adopest and then looking through the list of charges and evidence presented to the court in the case against her and her sister.
It must have been thirty minutes before she finally shuffled the papers together cleanly and set them on the table in front of her, leaning back. She looked from Adamat to Abrax and then back again.
”Do you deny these charges?” Adamat asked, glad to finally break the silence.
”I do not.”
That was a surprise. ”I was sent here to arrest you,” Adamat said.
”You understand the current situation?” Ket asked.
Beside Adamat, Abrax nodded. ”Yes.”
”You expect me to recuse myself,” Ket said, ”hand over command of my men to Hilanska, and go with you to Adopest?” Before Adamat could answer, she continued, ”I won't do that. Hilanska is a traitor. He intends on selling us all out to the Kez. Whatever it is that I'm guilty of, treachery is not one of those things.”
She had told them as much about Hilanska when they arrived, but had been unable to present evidence. She claimed that her own witness had been poisoned by one of Hilanska's men.
”Actually,” Adamat said, ”that's not what we had in mind.”
Ket c.o.c.ked an eyebrow, her first change of expression since they arrived. ”Oh?”
”I've spoken to Lady Winceslav on your behalf,” Adamat said. ”She agreed that whatever petty crimes you and your sister are guilty of are secondary to the safety of Adro. As a member of Tamas's council, she has given me the authority to offer you an out.”
”And what could that possibly be?”
”You will immediately step down from command. Your sister will step down from command as well. You will be escorted to your estate in northern Adro, where you will have one week to put your affairs in order before you and your households will be exiled. You will be allowed a onetime stipend of one million krana, and your property will be confiscated by the state.”
Ket's nostrils flared. ”That is not an out. That's a sentence.”
”One million is a lot of money,” Abrax said sternly. ”Do you think Tamas will be so kind when he returns?”
”Tamas is dead.”
”He is not.” Abrax removed a letter from her pocket and handed it to Ket. ”We received this communication just this morning. Tamas has crossed the Charwood Pile with the Seventh and the Ninth and sixty thousand Deliv infantry. He will be here in two weeks.”
Adamat felt his jaw drop. Tamas was alive? For certain? Why had Lady Winceslav not mentioned this? It changed everything!