Free The Fugitive Prince (Bell Mountain) by Lee Duigon Page B

Nor did he go back behind his desk until she was seated.
     
    “I want to ask you to do something,” she said. “It’s for the good of the kingdom; but for the time being, no one else must know about it.”
     
    “I try always to act for the good of the kingdom,” Gallgoid said. Gurun knew he’d once committed treason, but that was in the past and it couldn’t concern her now.
     
    “I want you to arrest a man named Vallach Vair and all his household,” Gurun said. “He has been plotting against the king.”
     
    Gallgoid nodded. “I’ve heard this,” he said.
     
    “There is a slave woman in his house named Dakl. She must not be harmed in any way, but brought to me instead—secretly, if possible.”
     
    “I think it would be best if she were taken with the rest of the household and separated later,” Gallgoid said. “Also, Vallach Vair has a wife, a son who is a young man but still lives in his father’s house, and a daughter who is still a child. There are eight slaves in the household, including Dakl.”
     
    “You do know something about this!” said Gurun.
     
    “It’s my business to know. You know something, too; but I won’t ask you how you came to know it. I’ll arrest them all this evening, when they’re home for supper.”
     
    “I don’t like the idea of arresting the man’s children.”
     
    “I won’t hurt them,” Gallgoid said.
     
    “The chiefs complain that you know everything before they know it,” Gurun said.
     
    “That’s my penance,” Gallgoid said.
     

     
    Vallach Vair was having jellied eels for supper. He liked rich foods, and it showed. But this was a supper that was never finished.
     
    With no forewarning from his doorkeeper, eight men armed with short swords burst into his dining room. He very nearly choked.
     
    “What’s this!” he growled. The intruders wore no uniforms, no badges, and he took them right away for strong-arm robbers. “You’re making a big mistake, whoever you are!” But he fell silent when he found a sword’s point at his throat.
     
    “Come with us, Vallach Vair. All of you, come. Don’t struggle or try to escape, or you’ll get hurt.”
     
    They forced him up from his seat. He had only time to see them doing the same to his wife and children before someone pulled a felt hood down over his head and tightened it around his neck; and then he could see nothing at all.
     
    Gallgoid only entered the room after all the family had hoods over their faces and their wrists fettered.
     
    “Those two in the first coach,” he said, “the son and daughter in the second. Don’t question them until I say so.”
     
    Outside on the street, a cart was already pulling away with Vallach’s slaves huddled in it, cowed by two unsmiling men with swords. Fnaa’s mother, Dakl, was in that cart.
     
    Gallgoid had the family taken off in closed coaches, then made his own way back to the palace. His agents had heard things about Vallach Vair, but he wondered how Gurun could have heard them. He deemed it best, for the time being, to pretend he’d acted on his own initiative. He would keep Gurun out of it, if he could. It would be safer for her. Having served as an assassin for Lord Reesh, and his confederate in treason, Gallgoid understood the subtleties of such a situation.
     
    When he got back to the palace, a surprise was waiting for him.
     
    “They’re dead, sir—both of them, man and wife,” one of his agents told him. “They were dead when we opened the coach to take them out. They must have had poison hidden on their persons.”
     
    “I didn’t expect that.” Gallgoid shook his head, blaming himself. “Don’t tell the son and daughter, or the slaves. Find a maid to keep the little girl company. I’ll question the son myself.
     
    “I want the slaves separated for now. They’ll be questioned later. Don’t hurt them or scare them any worse than they’re scared already. But the woman named Dakl, bring her to my office and