Free The Jaguar Knights by Dave Duncan

describe the intruders as dark-skinned. Black or dark brown skin is found insouthern lands, where the sun is closer to the earth. Were these such men, or had they dyed themselves to be less visible at night?”
    Lynx tried to shrug and winced again. “I don’t know. They seemed about the color of ripe chestnuts, but the light was very poor.”
    “Describe the helmet your assailant was wearing.”
    This time his pause was longer. “I’m not sure now that it was a helmet. A sort of spotted mask covering his whole head…but it bit me…” He peered down at his ravaged shoulder.
    “You described the Baroness as wearing ‘rags and jewels.’ What did you mean by that?”
    “What I said,” Lynx retorted grumpily. “She had no decent clothes and if she hadn’t worn her jewelry all the time, it would have been stolen.”
    “By whom?”
    “The Baron.”
    “Who is her current lover?”
    “Mind your own business.” Lynx set his teeth. For all his amiability, he could be stubborn as moorland granite.
    But so could an inquisitor, and this one was very eager to prove her competence in an investigation of historic importance. “You are required by law to answer my question. Did she have a lover?”
    “Baroness Celeste is my ward and I will not—”
    “Wait!” Wolf was willing to keep Hogwood on a slack rein, but browbeating his invalid brother went too far. “Lynx, we’re trying to find her. You want her found, don’t you? We need your help. The only reason to kidnap Celeste is to free her from captivity and only a lover would care enough to risk this. Were you or Fell or Mandeville swiving Celeste?” Seeing another refusal coming, he tried to forestall it. “Specifically—within the last year, did you or Fell or Mandeville have carnal relations with Baroness Celeste?”
    Lynx glowered. “No. None of us.”
    “She had no lovers?”
    “If by lovers you mean admirers, then everyone who pees standing up. If you mean who slept with her, then nobody.”
    Knowing Celeste, Wolf found this statement as incredible as the assault itself. He sighed and returned the witness to Hogwood.
    “The Baron is a very old man,” she prompted.
    “And smelly.” Lynx bared his teeth. “Celeste would not have him in her chamber. She slept alone and we stood guard outside the door. Dupend loathes her. He has grandsons older than she is and she will inherit everything he has left, through dower rights. He wanted nothing more in the world than to catch her with a man so he could divorce her and spit in the King’s eye. That would be dangerous for her, and we made certain no other man got near her!” Anger had raised pink roses on his ashen pallor. His voice was as taut as a bowstring. “To the best of my knowledge, Celeste has balled no man or boy since the day she left Greymere. I don’t pretend she enjoyed chastity, but we weren’t bound to keep her happy, only safe, so we saw to it.”
    “Not easy?”
    Lynx conceded, “Like herding wasps!” with a shamefaced grin.
    Hogwood took off after another scent. She was literally steaming, standing there before the fire. “So you have no idea who might have plotted to rescue Celeste from her captivity?”
    “Not like that,” Lynx muttered.
    Flames! Wolf bit back another interruption. He was growing very uneasy.
    She pounced. “Like what?”
    “Not killing and violence.”
    “Who was plotting to free her, and how?”
    “Me.” Lynx spoke unhappily to his own toes. “Us. Least, we’d talked some about it. We worried about her sanity. Lately she’d taken to weeping and moaning for days on end. She’d stand on the high battlements, staring down at the surf, brooding. We stayed very close to her when she did that. We searched her room every day for knives or rope. That sort of thing.”
    “She was always a wonderful actress,” Wolf said, earning another brotherly glare.
    “A few months after Baroness Dupend was sent to Quondam,” Hogwood said, “she bore a