Shadowdance 01 - A Dance of Cloaks

hovels, and you tell me which is easier to hide? They are like worms. We cut off a head only to have two worms grow from the parts.”
    “They don’t fear you,” Alyssa said. “None of you. Spineless men, you will lose everything but what you hold in your hands, hands that shrink with each passing day. Do you know how many of your own mercenaries give a portion of their coin to the guilds?”
    “I know more than you could possibly dream,” Maynard snapped. He leaned back in his chair. His shoulders felt heavy and his arms made of stone. So many times he had heard this same argument from reckless fools. It saddened him to realize his daughter was now one of them. Still … if Alyssa had such thoughts, he doubted they were originally her own. She had been out of the city for far too long to be so aware. Who was feeding her this information? Who was twisting his daughter for their own gain?
    “Tell me, O wise daughter of mine,” Maynard said, “tell me how
you
know all these little details?”
    “How I know doesn’t matter,” Alyssa said a bit too quickly.
    “It is all that matters,” Maynard said. He rose from his chair and clapped for his servants. “Yoren Kull has been whispering in your ear, hasn’t he? I forbade Lord Gandrem from allowing him contact with you, but where there’s walls there’s rats, isn’t that right?”
    “He’s not a rat.” Her voice was losing a bit of its certainty. She did fine when on the offensive. Now that his eye was on her, she faltered. “And what does it matter? I stayed with Lord Kull during the winter months. His castle is closer to the ocean where it’s warm.”
    “
Lord
Kull?” Maynard laughed, reminding himself to reprimand Lord Gandrem for such a lapse in judgment. “He and his father collect taxes from Riverrun. My servants live in a better home. Tell me, did he seduce you with whispers of power and a glass of wine?”
    “You’re avoiding my…”
    “No,” Maynard said, his voice growing stern. “You’ve been tainted with lies. We are still feared, but the guilds are feared even more. They are desperate. However long you felt those five years drag, I assure you, they’ve moved at far more brutal pace here. These thugs, these vermin, they kill with abandon. Worse, someone whispers in the ear of King Vaelor, always blaming us for the violence. The crown refuses to help us, as do his soldiers. The nobles who do publicly side with us gag on their food or have their children vanish from their bedchambers.”
    He slammed his palms against the table, holding himself up with quivering arms.
    “We may have all our wealth,” he said, his soft voice penetrating the sudden quiet. “But they have Thren Felhorn. And right now, our wealth means nothing compared to that.”
    He clapped again. Servants crowded around them. Alyssa felt uncomfortable in their presence, and then the guards arrived.
    “Take her,” Maynard said.
    “You can’t!” she shouted as rough hands grabbed her arms and pulled her flailing from the table.
    Maynard forced himself to watch as they dragged her away. He said nothing. There was too much chance he’d reveal his pain.
    “What do you want us to do with her?” asked his keeper of the guard, a simpleminded man made useful by his muscles and sheer devotion to his work.
    “Put her in one of the cells,” Maynard said as he sat at the table and picked up a fork.
    “The gentle touchers would make her talk sooner,” said the guard. Maynard looked up, appalled.
    “Never,” he said. “She is my daughter. Give her time to cool underneath the stone. Once she’s ready to open her eyes to how things truly are, I can show her just how bloody this war has gotten. It was my fault to leave her away too long. No idea, the stupid girl, she has no idea how terrible things have been. She says she is a woman grown, and of that I have no doubt. Let us hope her cunning surpasses even my own, and she sees Yoren for the liar he is. I will not have my wealth stolen from me by the pathetic son of a
tax collector
.”

CHAPTER
4
    S everal hours passed. If Kayla had had any doubt as to the boy’s importance, the tenacity of the soldiers’ search erased it. Carefully she pushed the blond hair off his face and looked at his soft features. He was cute for his age, just barely entering the transition into manhood. With his baby blue eyes, he’d no doubt break a few hearts … and with his skill, a few bones as well. But who was he? She rarely forgot