The Invisible Ring

all I could do was keep enough of the link so that I wouldn’t be discovered.”
    Hold it back , Jared told himself. Leash it. Save this rage for the fight ahead . “You brought them to Ranon’s Wood. You brought these carrion-eaters from Hayll down on my people.”
    “If she’d been captured at the ambush like she was supposed to, we wouldn’t have come to your precious village at all. If anyone brought them here, it was you .”
    “Get out of here,” Jared said too quietly. “Get away from my people. You belong with those Hayllian bastards.”
    Brock pouted. “If I’d known she was going to give us real freedom, it would have been different.”
    “Get out.”
    The pout twisted back to nastiness. “You’re going to die, Jared. All of you are going to die, and all the words in the Realm aren’t going to change that.” Brock bared his teeth in a smile. “Maybe once the High Priestess is done playing with Lia, they’ll let me have her for a while. I’d like to take a long, hard ride between her thighs.”
    Jared clenched his fists and his teeth.
    Hold it back. Keep it leashed. Striking out now would bring the Hayllians in faster, and Thera and Lia needed as much time as they could get to prepare this Queen’s gamble.
    Looking a little disappointed at getting no reaction from Jared, Brock raised his hand in a mocking salute. Then he flinched and put a hand to his head.
    “Have to answer,” he mumbled. “Have to ... summoned.” He turned and continued down the road to the landing place at a fast walk.
    By the time Jared got back to the tavern, Thayne had taken the children away—but Garth had returned.
    Blaed and Talon held Randolf back while the guard snarled threats and obscenities at the large man standing on one side of the room.
    “Damn you. Jared,” Randolf shouted. “Tell them to let me go. Let me get rid of the bastard before he does any more harm.”
    “He’s already gone.” Jared said fiercely. “It was Brock, Randolf. All the time, it was Brock. His Queen sold him into slavery. He sold himself to Hayll.” Weary, Jared rubbed his hands over his face. “You had the wrong man, but you were also right—Hayll’s pet is tainted.”
    Looking past Jared, Randolf studied Garth as if seeing him for the first time. ‘“He was a guard.”
    A fierce intelligence filled Garth’s pale blue eyes. A huge fist thumped the large chest. “Mmmaster.”
    “He was a Master of the Guard.” Jared said.
    Randolf swore, but there was pain, not violence, in the words. “To do that to a Master . . .” he said softly.
    “Let’s not waste time,” Jared said. “We’ve got to help Lia and Thera plan a defense against—”
    “Jared—” Talon warned.
    Before Jared could turn, Garth’s hand landed on his shoulder hard enough to make his knees buckle.
    “Lllisten to Queen,” Garth said, giving Jared a little shake. “Queen sssmart. Confuses mmmales.”
    “Confusing us is helpful?” Talon asked dryly.
    Garth waved his other hand. Blaed prudently ducked.
    “Hayll. All mmmales out there. Confuse mmmales here. Confuse mmmales there.” Garth gave them all a deadly smile. “Confuse Brock always. Sssmart Queen. You lllisten.”
    Giving Jared a friendly whump on the back that tumbled him into Talon and Randolf, Garth left the room.
    “Well,” Talon said after a moment, “he’s got a point.
    It’s damn hard to block someone’s moves if you can’t figure out how she thinks.“
    “Yes,” Jared replied thoughtfully. Something Brock had said about links and psychic scents and Jewels kept teasing him, but its significance stayed just out of reach. “Let’s find out a little more about this Queen’s gamble our Ladies are planning.”
    “Even if it confuses us?” Blaed said with a hint of a smile.
    Something. Something. “Especially if it confuses us.”

    Chapter Thirty

    Krelis leaned back against the table, crossed his feet at the ankles, and studied the surly man before him. “You disappointed me, Brock. You didn’t live up to your side of the bargain.”
    “I did,” Brock replied belligerently. “I did what I agreed to do. Wasn’t my fault there were problems that even you didn’t anticipate.”
    Krelis crossed his arms to keep his hand away from his knife. “What kind of problems?”
    When Brock took a step toward Krelis, two Opal-Jeweled Hayllian guards grabbed his arms and hauled him back.
    Brock struggled uselessly for a moment.
    Krelis caught a whiff of fear and found himself aroused by it. “What kind of problems?”
    “A broken Black Widow who wasn’t broken,” Brock