A Brother's Price

jerking him backward, out of reach of the locks. It felt like his scalp would rip from his skull. He screamed in pain, and spun. The woman wasn’t expecting him to fight, and went down to his punch.
    The others, however, took him like a flood.
     
    Ren had dithered.
    It would shame her to the end of her days, that the man she loved had sent for her, and she hadn’t hurried to him, almost ignored his message completely.
    Ren found the palace in chaos, the guard bristling with weapons, charging across the grounds. Barnes hurried out to meet her as she dismounted, pain filling the old woman’s face.
    “Your Highness, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. We tried. We could hear him calling for help, but we couldn’t get through the door. I’m sorry.”
    Ren stared at her in horror, trying to understand, but it was like hearing a foreign language; the words wouldn’t take meaning. “What?”
    “We broke the door down, but by then—” Barnes spread her hands helplessly. “We were too late.”
    “No.” Nothing could have happened to Jerin. She just saw him this morning. She was coming to talk to him. “No.”
    Then her legs started to run, taking her racing through the palace before she even knew where she was headed. She was calling his name.
    The door to the husband quarters lay on the floor, the doorframe in splinters where the hinges had been pulled out. She paused in the doorway, suddenly fearful of what she’d find. The room was tomb silent. An overturned divan was the only sign of violence.
    Footsteps ran up behind her. “Your Highness.”
    “Where is he?” she whispered.
    “They took him.” Barnes’s voice cracked, and she worried her hands together. “They must have come in through the bolt-hole, caught him, and taken him out. I delivered a letter from his sisters around ten. A few minutes later he sent for you. The messenger had no more than ridden off when he started to cry for help. The guard heard other voices in with him. We broke down the doors—but it was too late.”
    “He’s not dead!” She clutched at that. It was nearly one now—he had been gone for less than three hours.
    “They’ve gotten clean away. We’ve sent messengers to the Queens Justice. We’re starting a citywide search.”
    Ren dashed to Jerin’s bedroom and the dressing room beyond. “The gardens. The bolt-hole comes out in the gardens.”
    “We’ve searched the grounds.” Barnes stayed at the door out of habit. “There were eight or nine in all. They split up. Half went over the back wall with him. The rest decoyed the guard away. We were able to kill one. River trash! Common river trash!”
    The bolt-hole door stood open. Ren stopped at the sight of it. Surely the guards already checked the passage. Black handprints surrounded the door, as if someone with soot-covered hands had struggled to keep the door closed. Jerin? But why the soot? She looked carefully at the marks. Among the many handprints, the word “Kij” had been hastily written, sooty fingerprints dotting the i and j .
    Kij? Kij had taken Jerin? The Destiny had steamed out of Mayfair yesterday, and the palace guards knew her former sisters-in-law on sight.
    The consort has something urgent to tell you.
    “Barnes?”
    “Yes, Your Highness?”
    “You said a letter came from his sisters?”
    “Yes. I handed it to him personally.”
    “And a few minutes later, he sent for me?”
    “Yes.”
    In the fire pit, she found the remains of the letter; a single piece of curled blackened paper remained intact. Very little remained legible… fathered by a Tibler… pushing to find this lover, then the Porters must act. Tell this information to your wives in private. Warn them to be careful. The Porters have proved to be extremely dangerous… Remember your aunts are as close as Annaboro .
    Kij? With sickening clarity, she knew then. The Porters had lured the princesses into marriage, and then used Keifer to deal them death. He poisoned her father. He had been the one who demanded they go to a theater filled with explosives. He had been the one who delayed their arrival, preventing any search for danger. The royal family never suspected the Porters—too many of them had died that night too. Thinking back, now knowing Kij’s ruthlessness, Ren realized that only the feeblest of the Porter mothers had been at the box. Had Keifer known that he had been walking into a death trap? Or had Kij kept him ignorant of it all?
    No, Ren couldn’t believe Keifer was