powerful when he had absolute power over everything else in our lives.”
“And Alastair’s mother was the duke’s first wife,” Dasid stated. “The aunt of Duke Ewart of Fallad.”
Startled, Kane looked at Dasid. “Two of the four bloodlines of the heir to the throne of Wolde,” he said. Brenna did not look surprised. “How long have you known this?” he asked her.
“Since I found the passage about the Brotherhood in the library,” she said. “That was just a few days after I was caught in the priests’ room.”
“By the old gods,” Kane swore. “You’ve known all this time and never said anything? Do you know anything about your maternal grandmother or grandfather? They must be related to the Duchess of Aruntun and King Mattias,”
“I don’t know much about them, truly.” Brenna had sunk even lower in her chair and Kane had to sit up straighter to see her face. “Just that my grandmother was a traveling healer. She was from Aruntun, but that doesn’t mean she was related to the Duchess.”
“Do you know her name?” Kane asked. “We found records for a healer named Madelay.”
“Yes, that was her name,” Brenna said quietly.
“You said was, past tense,” Dasid interrupted. “Do you know for sure is she’s dead?”
“My mother didn’t live long,” Brenna said and Kane heard the bitterness in her voice. “There’s no reason to think my grandmother fared any better. She’d be well past fifty, an almost impossible age for an indentured servant in Comack to reach.”
Kane nodded. He was dismayed by just how twisted the laws of Soule were in Comack. Thorold’s father must have started it and when Thorold’s son Beldyn succeeded the king, the whole country could suffer the same fate. Brenna needed to accept her destiny, and soon.
“We know how you came into the world,” Kane said. “How did you leave the duke’s estate?”
Brenna sat up a bit and took a deep breath. “When I was fifteen,” she said. “My mother became obsessive about my studies and made me study poisons. I had to be able to recognize even the most obscure poisons by sight and smell, as well as by the symptoms of those who had ingested them.” Brenna splayed a hand on the desk in front of her. “And I had to know the cures and antidotes even more thoroughly. For six months of my life that’s all I learned. And she made me recite the Call and the prayer to hide my eyes constantly.” Brenna shook her head sadly. “Looking back I wonder if it was because she had resolved something in her own life and was already planning to make sure I would escape.”
“So then you are about to turn sixteen,” Kane prompted and Brenna’s face darkened in anger.
“Yes, then I was about to turn sixteen,” she said. “Most children, on the eve of their sixteenth nameday, have a celebration. For me it was a goodbye. Duke Thorold was sending me to one of his minor nobles, no doubt as some payment or other. My mother had known for some time. I think she knew that since I was headstrong and opinionated things would go hard on me.” Brenna smiled tightly. “She begged me to run away but I couldn’t. I knew Thorold would blame her and probably kill her. And then Duke Thorold came to fetch me. He threatened to hurt me and then he killed my mother. At that point, I ran.”
“He killed her himself?” Kane asked.
“Yes,” Brenna said. “He’ll claim it was self defense but I was there, I saw. He slit her throat with her own knife.” Brenna leaned forward and tugged at something on her back. Suddenly, on the desk in front of him was a worn leather pack.
“Where did that come from?” Kane asked. He hadn’t noticed it before she pulled it out.
“Sorry,” Brenna said “I got so used to the feel of it that I forgot it was there.”
“You were wearing that the whole time?” She hadn’t been searched thoroughly enough to catch this?
“Yep. I should have thanked Tobias for that.” She looked up and grinned. “And magic – I think the prayer my mother taught is actually a spell.” She reached into the pack. “Ah, here it is.”
The knife she pulled out was one of the simplest old steel knives Kane had seen. It had a short blade with straight steel guards and a black leather-wrapped handle. The sheath itself was old and worn but the plain black leather, though cracked, was newer than the knife itself. Kane reached a hand out and Brenna placed the knife into it. He gripped it, but his fingers overlapped the pommel. This was a knife for someone with smaller hands than him. When he passed it back to her their hands touched and he felt a shock run up his arm.
“That knife seems to have quite a bit of power,” Kane said.
“It’s old steel.” Brenna looked uneasy. “It was my mother’s knife.”
“Your mother owned an old steel knife?” Dasid asked. He stared at Brenna and then jotted something down on the parchment. “Another link to the prophecy.”
“It was her mother’s before her, that’s what she told me,” Brenna said. “I remember it from growing up.” She turned the knife in her hand and caressed the leather grip. “She used to oil the leather to keep it soft.”
“And?” Kane prompted.
“And when I felt this knife, my mother’s knife, I knew old steel was tied to the blood of the family it belonged to,” Brenna said. “Thorold had it hidden. I sensed it one night while I was exploring.”
Kane raised his eyebrows. “You could sense it from a great distance?” he asked and when she refused to meet his gaze he felt his anger mount. “You sensed it while inside Duke Thorold’s estate.” He ran a hand through his hair. “So you only knew it was there after you were on Thorold’s property. How many times had you put yourself in such danger?”
Brenna lifted her eyes and they glared at each other. “That’s none of your concern,” she said.
“By the gods it is,” he said. He was angry, really angry now. “Dasid and I are trying to figure out how to keep the king from locking you up or handing you over to Thorold.” Brenna’s eyes dropped away and Kane settled in his chair. “Tell me, why did you go to Thorold’s estate in the first place?”
“Ever since I ran away from him,” Brenna said. “I’ve been trying to make Thorold pay for what he did to my mother. That’s the reason I developed my network – to collect information on him. And anything that was headed his way, I would steal. My own small attempts to wound him,” she said bitterly. “Not that it could hurt as much as losing my mother, but in a small way it made her death have a little more meaning. I had some power over Duke Thorold by stealing things he wanted. Then I tried to steal the knife from the priest. You know what happened then.”
“The prophesy,” Dasid said.
“No,” Brenna said. “I got caught. Then the prophesy. Don’t you see? I finally had a good chance to really hurt Thorold. With Feiren feeding and housing me and the both of you teaching me how to use weapons I was better prepared than ever before. So I tried to take advantage of it.”
“So you used us,” Kane said softly. He was only a little disappointed, and not at all surprised. Besides, she’d been spending her time searching for ways to harm Duke Thorold, the Brotherhood’s enemy.
“Yes, I used you. And I’m not sorry.” Her head came up and she met his eyes. “I only wish I’d been smarter.”
“In what way?”
“I spent days, weeks, pouring over the plans to Thorold’s estate trying to figure a way in, trying to figure out what to look for that I could use to hurt him. And then there were the hours roaming around in disguise in order to get his guards used to seeing a young student. All this time you had a spy on the inside. I could have asked you for help and you would have given it to me.” She laughed bitterly. “I can’t believe how hopeless it was for me to try to do this by myself.”
So that was what all the midnight wanderings were about. “And that’s how you sensed the knife?” he prodded.
“A few nights ago I went into Thorold’s house for the first time.” She glanced at him. “Once inside I checked for old steel.” The smile slid from her face. “That’s when I felt
the knife. It was like nothing I’d ever felt before. Kane, it was a tortured scream. It took me some time to get control of it but I knew immediately it was my mother’s knife. I don’t know how else to explain it, but the knife knew what it had done. And it recognized my mother’s blood in me. After that I had to go and retrieve it. The knife is mine.”
She looked at him almost defiantly. Kane simply nodded.
“Will that be helpful?” he asked Dasid.
“Aye,” Dasid said. “I see no reason to mention anything about how you got into the duke’s estate, Brenna. Ideally we won’t need to mention that at all, if we stick to the history.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you mean?”
“We’ll soon be called before King Mattias to answer to the duke’s charges,” Kane said. “If he’s foolish enough to claim you as a run away, we should be able to counter his argument effectively enough. As to the charges of trespassing, that’s a matter for the Kingsguard. But if he’s discovered the knife is gone, it may be a problem. For now, you’ll need to be our guest in jail. Dasid will take you.” Brenna stood and followed Dasid to the door.
“And Brenna,” Kane said. She paused and looked at him from the doorway. “what Duke Thorold wants is power. We can stop him from getting it. That is the prophecy. But you need to trust me. You need to trust the Brotherhood.”
fifteen
Brenna slumped down on the