The Last Stand (The Eleven Years War: Book One)
Chapter Twenty-Nine

Eza sat in her usual corner table ofthe tavern, a mug of ale in hand. Silas had arranged for them to meet at thetavern later that night, after the ball; there was a certain letter that theyneeded to discuss. She’d left for the tavern the second the last guest had leftfor the night, snatching her table before anyone could take it (not that anyonewould, unless they wanted their ass kicked) but Olrick and Silas were runningfashionably late. It seemed that they hadn’t managed to sneak out of the castleunseen, like she did, or Marion had decided that she wanted to stay up tillmidnight.

Notthat Eza cared; she’d earned nearly five hundred silver drams in fight earningssince she got there, and the worst injury she’d gotten was a throbbing bump onher chin.

Finally,after she’d fought in her fifth bout and won another hundred silver drams,Silas and Olrick showed up. Like her, they’d changed out of their stiff, formaluniforms and into their normal, ratty clothes, with their cloaks tied overtheir shoulders.

“Isee that you two are fashionably late,” Eza said as they sat down in front ofher. Gods, did Olrick look tired; he seemed like he was just barely managing tokeep his eyes open. “Are you going to fall asleep on us, Olrick? You look likehell frozen over.”

“Thanksfor your concern,” he muttered as he scratched the back of his head. He yawned.“I’ll be fine; just exhausted, is all.”

Ezanodded as she pulled out the copied letter from her pocket. “Before Olrickfalls asleep on us, we have some things we need to discuss.” She set the letterdown for everyone to see. “This is what Elise was able to get us. She found aletter on his desk and copied it down word for word.”

Silassmirked, then elbowed Olrick in the arm. “Your girl seems to know what she’sdoing, kid; be sure to give her a kiss next time you see her.”

“Forthe last time,” Olrick said through clenched teeth. “Elise isn’t mygirlfriend!” Silas began to laugh as a barmaid came with a tankard of ale forhim and Olrick. Both of them paid her a few copper drams for it.

“Whatdoes it say?” Silas asked as the bar maid walked away.

Ezabegan to quickly skim over the letter. Though Silas and Olrick both had arudimentary knowledge of Gisken, neither of them were very near fluent; as faras she knew, she was the only commander in the Caithian army who was fluent inthe enemy language.

“Itsays that reinforcements for the northern invasion force have arrived,” Ezasaid. “They’ll be marching for Jastan in a few days.”

Silasfrowned, confused. “Northern invasion force? I haven’t heard a damned thingabout that.”

“Me,neither,” Olrick said. He was starting to look sick to his stomach. “The northhas been an intelligence dead zone for the past few months. I’m not even surehow many times I’ve tried to talk to them, but nobody’s answered any of myletters.”

“Whatare the odds that this is why we haven’t heard a thing from them?” Eza asked,holding the letter up in the air. Olrick’s eyes got really wide, while Silasjust cursed.

“Thatwould mean that the invasion started a few monthsago,” Silas said. “There’s no way in hell that we’re that far behind in ourintelligence!”

“Anintelligence lag isn’t our main problem, here,” Eza said. “We need to verifythis report, but there’s no way Polain will let us if we don’t tell him who oursource is.”

Silasleaned back in his chair and took a swig of ale. “We don’t tell him we havethis, that’s how. I’ve learned that sometimes, it’s much easier to ask forforgiveness than it is permission with him.”

“Andwho are we going to send?” Olrick asked. “We’d have to send one of us; I don’twant to have to pull someone else in if we don’t have to.” Silas began toscratch at his newly forming beard.

“Eza,I think you ought to go,” Silas said. “Out of all of us, I think you’re thefastest rider.”

Shenodded. “When should I set out?”

“Assoon as we’re done here,” Silas said. “Take one of the horses at headquarters,and do your best to not lose it; those horses aren’t the best, but I’d preferit if we didn’t lose any of them to the Giskens.”

“I’lldo my best,” Eza said. She swigged down the rest of her ale, then grabbed thecopied letter. “Make sure you tip the bar maid the next time she comes around.”She set a few bronze pieces down on the table and walked out, making sure theletter ended up as kindling for the fireplace.

Despitehow terrifying the ball had been for her, Elise found that she didn’t have muchtrouble falling to sleep that night after the festivities. It seemed that herhead had just touched her pillow when morning sunlight began to drift into herbedroom window; she didn’t even wake up during the night, like she usually did.

Aftershe’d gotten out of bed and had started dressing, she noticed that there wassomething sticking out from under her door. From where she was, it looked to bea piece of paper.

Curious,she finished getting dressed, picked it up, and unfolded it.

Lord’s alcove after breakfast, the notesaid in sloppy handwriting. Need to talkabout last night – Silas.

Lastnight. When she woke up that morning, she was really hoping that she would getto pretend that what happened didn’t happen; looked like that hope was going tobe dashed.

Elisewas nervous the rest of the morning after replaceing the note. All throughbreakfast, she couldn’t help but think about what General Raul had mentionedlast night, when she gave him his wine. He new something about the servant’spassage, best case scenario; worst case, he knew that she’d come into his roomlast night through it without so much as making the bed; if the latter weretrue, he’d probably figured out what she’d done, by then, and it was only amatter of time before the Giskens came to arrest her. Either way, Silaswouldn’t be pleased about it. By the time she’d finished breakfast and hadstarted heading for the lord’s alcove, she had to clench her fists to keep fromshaking.

WhenElise got to the lord’s alcove, she was surprised to see that Eza wasn’t there;it was just Silas and Olrick in there, waiting for her.

“Where’sEza?” Elise asked as she shut the door behind her.

Silasstood up from his seat on a plush couch and shoved his hands into his trouserpockets. “She’s off to verify what your letter said. Let’s just say that youpicked the right letter to copy down.” He leaned against the wall of thealcove.

“Seeingas you haven’t been arrested, I’m going to assume that everything went prettywell,” he said.

Elisebegan to rub her arm and looked to the side. “Well, not exactly.” Silas foldedhis arms and raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything, waiting for her tocontinue.

Shelooked back up at Silas and Olrick. “I-I think that Raul knows about theservant’s passage.”

Silascursed as he ran a hand through his hair, while Olrick began to rub the back ofhis neck.

“Areyou sure?” Olrick asked.

Elisenodded. “Polain had me bring him wine last night. He asked if there were anysecret passages in the castle.”

“I’mnot sure that he knows about the servant’s passage, but he probably suspectsthat there’s some sort of assassin’s hole in his room,” Olrick said. “It’sprobably fine, but take some extra precautions, just in case.”

Elisefrowned, confused. “An assassin’s hole?”

Silasnodded. “A lot of castles have secret rooms off the guest rooms, where someonecan watch the occupant without being seen, or assassinate them, hence the name.Raul’s probably just paranoid about it, since Castle Lügenburg is filled withthem.”

“Isthat the only thing that went wrong last night?” Olrick asked. Elise nodded.

“Ididn’t even have to hear you speak to know that you’re lying,” Silas said. “Whatelse happened?”

Eliselooked down at her feet. “General Raul walked in on me.”

Onceagain, Silas cursed.

“Didhe see you?” Olrick asked. Elise shook her head.

“I-Idon’t think so,” she said. “He walked in just as I was closing the door to theservant’s passage.”

Silasbegan to scratch at the scruffy beard that was starting to form on his chin.“Well, now we know where his paranoia’s coming from; he probably heard the doorshutting.”

“Whatshould I do?” Elise asked. “If I go anywhere near him, now, he’ll kill me.”

“Yousaid that Raul didn’t see you,” Olrick said. “If that’s true, then youshouldn’t have anything to worry about.” Silas nodded in agreement.

“Justtry to avoid going over there for the next few weeks,” he said. “Especiallydon’t go in there and spy again, not until Eza gets back; we want to make surethat the intelligence we got last night was worth the risk before we send youback in.”