Page 13 of The Empty Throne

Setting the sword on the credenza, shereturned the vault key to the hidden safe before finally sittingbehind her desk again.

Pulling out paper, she made out her many todo lists, drinking two cups of tea before she was finished.

When that was done, she started on the firsttask: writing proper letters to her siblings, to be delivered bythe messengers who would carry the news of their mother's passing.Probably for the best they were away at school, though they wouldnot think so, and she couldn't blame them.

Once that heartbreaking duty was attended,she moved on to the next task, steadily working through her lists,until a servant came to announce dinner was ready.

Five

A successful escape was going to requireseveral things: food, supplies, proper clothing, weapons, and mostcrucial, enough time to actually make the escape. Each one of thosethings was more impossible than the last.

The first step was complacency. The lesstrouble Cohea was, the more bored the guards became. This place wascold and dreary, and there was nothing for them to do but gossip,drink, play cards, and watch him. If he made that last oneunbearably boring, they'd do more of the other three, and that washalf his battle won.

Unfortunately, he still needed to work on theother components.

Food he sort of had, hoarding anything thatwould keep for several days: smoked meats and cheese, mostly, andalso bread, as the damn tower was cold enough to keep it basicallyfrozen if he kept it near some of the draftier holes. The onlytrick there was making sure the guards never noticed it, but aslong as he remained boring, they wouldn't bother to give his cellmore than a cursory look whenever they came to empty hispisspot.

That left proper clothing, supplies, andweapons. The only way he'd get any of that was to take them offguards on his way out. There was also the matter of transportation,but if he had to go on foot, he would.

So Cohea watched, staring out the window,doing his level best to look bored out of his mind. The guards wereminimal; this keep wasn't one Fazekas used often. Another smallthing in his favor.

The other was that none of the guards wantedto be out in the cold, and Fazekas didn't pay them enough to dotheir job well. So they did minimal patrols every hour, sometimesevery two if they knew Fazekas was asleep or away. So leaving inthe dead of night, when Fazekas was asleep and the guards wereslacking was his best bet.

So all he needed to do was break out of hisroom, capture a guard and relieve him of everything, and run awaywithout anyone noticing and hopefully giving himself at least a onehour window, ideally two.

He'd overcome worse, but the matter was stillfairly bleak.

Meals came in the morning and night, roughlyaround prayer times and in the midst of rounds, but they werehardly punctual. Eat his last meal, wait for everyone to go tosleep or slack off, and go.

Next challenge: getting the door open. Hecould use a ploy to get someone to open the door, or jump them whenthey came to inspect and change out his pisspot, but that ran therisk of them calling for reinforcements. No, he'd have to pick thelock somehow, or break it and hope the noise didn't alarm anyone,which was more of a gamble than he wanted to take.

The only thing he had working in his favor onthat point was that the keep was old and the locks less thanimpressive. Still, he couldn't break it until he had something tobreak itwith.

One problem at a time.

At least he didn't have to worry about anyonefinding his Bonded. Cohea looked at his ring, then balled his handinto a fist and let it drop. On the surface, the matter was sosimple: break free, get back home, reveal the heir.

In reality, the task was monumental, and hedidn't even want to think about how many people were going to tryto find the heir on their own. Only one person stood a chance offiguring it out via Cohea, but there were other means.

He drew a deep breath and let it outslowly.

At least he could count on his friends tostay put. Kite was serving as regent, and Sobeki would never leavehis side. Oskia would never leave them unprotected, especiallySobeki.

Thinking of his oldest friends made himsmile, and then all he felt was lonely and tired. It would be niceto focus on something other than the problems of the kingdom. Theproblems would always be there, but he wouldn't mind if someoneelse stepped up to see to most of them and let him have some of hislife back.

That was, unfortunately, something hecouldn't address until this latest mess was fixed. Which hecouldn't do until he got free, putting him right back where he'dstarted.

Cohea sighed and went to the window again,pulling back the blanket he'd turned into an improvisedtapestry—and drew up short to see the courtyard was filled withwhat seemed almost every soldier in the keep. At their center wasFazekas, movements jerky, angry, but sadly the wind wasn't workingto Cohea's favor, so what he was angry about remained amystery.

When he'd finished yelling at everyone,Fazekas swung up into the saddle of his overly enormous caribou,which seemed more a matter of show than practicality. Well, it washis neck. Hopefully, he broke it.

Fazekas and at least thirty soldiers rodeout, leaving roughly half the force behind—assuming, of course,that Cohea's rough estimates of their numbers were correct.Interesting, interesting. What would provoke Fazekas to leave soabruptly and angrily? Something had gone very, very wrong. Itchafed that Cohea had no idea what, and therefore no idea how touse it to his favor.

He could certainly use Fazekas's absence,though. When the domineering asshole master was away, the guardsrelaxed from the lack of stress.When the cat's away, asultry memory purred in his voice,the mice will play.

The fox will play, Cohea hadreplied.

Then play.

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