Free A Darkness at Sethanon by Raymond E. Feist Page B

It’s a poison ring such as the others wore.’
    The guards released the real Arutha who said, ‘Did he use it?’
    Gardan inspected the ring. ‘No, he passed out from his wound.’
    Roald said, ‘The likeness is unbelievable. Jimmy, how’d you know?’
    â€˜I saw him in the sewers.’
    â€˜But how did you know he was the impostor?’ asked Gardan.
    â€˜The boots. They’re covered in muck.’
    Gardan looked at Arutha’s polished black boots and the impostor’s mud-encrusted pair. Arutha said, ‘It’s a good thing I didn’t take a walk through Anita’s newly planted garden today. You’d have had me in my own dungeon.’
    Jimmy studied the fallen impostor and the real Prince. Both men wore the same cut and colour of clothing. Jimmy said to Arutha, ‘When we came through the door, were you with us or already in the room?’
    â€˜I entered with you. He must have come into the palace with the late celebrants and simply walked into my quarters.’
    Jimmy agreed. ‘He hoped to catch you here, kill you, dump your body in one of the secret passages or down the sewer, and take your place. I don’t think he could have maintained the charade long, but if only for a few days he could have bollixed things up around here to a fare-thee-well.’
    â€˜You’ve done well one more time, Jimmy.’ He asked Roald, ‘Will he live?’
    Roald examined him. ‘I don’t know. These lads have a bothersome habit of dying when they shouldn’t, then not staying dead when they should.’
    â€˜Get Nathan and the others. Take him to the east tower. Gardan, you know what to do.’
    Jimmy watched while Father Nathan, a priest of Sung the White and one of Arutha’s advisers, examined the assassin. Each person who was admitted to the tower selected to house the prisoner was astonished at the likeness. Captain Valdis, a broad-shouldered man who had been Gardan’s chief lieutenant and had succeeded him as head of Arutha’s guard, shook his head. ‘No wonder the lads did nothing but salute when he walked in the palace, Highness. He’s your exact double.’
    The wounded man lay tied to the bedposts. As before when a Nighthawk had been captured, he had been stripped of his poison ring and any other possible means of committing suicide. Nathan stood away from the prisoner’s side. The stocky priest said, ‘He’s lost blood and his breathing’s shallow. It would be touch and go under normal circumstances.’
    The royal chirurgeon nodded agreement. ‘I’d say he’d make it. Highness, if I hadn’t seen their willingness to die before.’ He looked out the window of the room as the morning light began to pour through. They had worked for hours repairing the damage done by Jimmy’s dirk.
    Arutha considered. The last attempt at interrogating a Nighthawk had produced only an animated corpse who had killed several guards and had almost murdered the High Priestess of Lims-Kragma and the Prince himself. He said to Nathan, ‘If he regains consciousness, use what arts you can to discover what he knows. If he dies, burn the body at once.’ To Gardan, Jimmy, and Roald he said, ‘Come with me,’ and to Valdis, ‘Captain, double the guards at once, quietly.’
    Leaving the heavily guarded room, he led his companions toward his own quarters. ‘With Anita and the babies safely on their way to her mother’s, I need only worry about rooting out these assassins before they find another way to reach me.’
    Gardan said, ‘But Her Highness hasn’t left yet.’
    Arutha spun. ‘What? She bade me goodbye at first light an hour ago.’
    â€˜Perhaps, Sire, but it seems a thousand details are still left. Her baggage was only loaded a little while ago. The guards have been ready for two hours, but I don’t think the carriages have left