The Traitor's Game (The Traitor's Game 1) - Page 43

"What are you doing?"

I shot up so quickly that I banged my head on the panels propping up the mattress, loosening them with a clunking sound. Maybe the whole bed was about to collapse on me. It might be a blessing if it did. That was Gerald's voice.

"Come out and talk with me," he said. "I won't speak to the bottoms of your feet."

He sat on a stool beside my mother's vanity, waiting while I wormed my way out. Once I did, I sat cross-legged on the floor and waited for him to speak first. This wasn't polite, admittedly, but I had my reasons. The knife I'd taken was still in the back waistline of these trousers. I couldn't risk it being seen.

"I asked you a question." Gerald's patience was already wearing thin.

"You are my servant, and not the other way around." I hoped the force of my voice would intimidate him. "You have no right to question me."

"Do you wish your father to ask these questions?" He started to rise from his stool.

"I missed my mother, and wanted--"

"If you intend to lie, you can do better than that." At least he sat again.

I forced a smile. "If I could do better, I assure you, I would have."

He didn't enjoy the joke, and instead

clasped his hands and leaned forward. "I suggest a game, my lady. You reveal a secret to me, and I will reveal one to you."

"I won't play that game."

"You are playing it already! Making guesses of who to trust, and who trusts you. Who knows what? Who is hiding behind which mask? You are playing the traitor's game, and no matter how well one wins, even the winner loses in the end." He sat up straight again. "Now, you will answer my question, then I'll answer yours. Do you believe that Lord Endrick has magic, that he is immortal?"

Endrick was Endrean, and all Endreans had magic beyond my understanding. Endrick had the power to acquire the magic from whomever he killed, and he used that power to increase his abilities by extinguishing his own people. I'd been told he could ignite fires with a snap of his fingers, heal himself, and track his soldiers with his mind, allowing him to amass armies in half the time an enemy could. I didn't understand his magic, but I'd seen some of his powers for myself. No sane person would test themselves against him.

"Lord Endrick is not immortal," I whispered. "But his magic would make him seem that way. Do you know of anything inside Woodcourt that could change that?"

"You mean the Olden Blade, of course. I know Woodcourt has been searched thoroughly. Officially, Lord Endrick has now claimed there is no Olden Blade and never was." Gerald tilted his head, more blue than usual in the moonlight. "But we both know differently."

I weighed my response carefully. The consequences of telling him too much were disastrous. "Do you know where the Olden Blade is?"

"It's my question, my lady. If you found the Olden Blade, what would you do with it?"

My heart skipped a beat. Several beats, actually, leaving a deep pain in my chest. Tracing my finger along a crack in the floor, I said, "Whoever finds it must use it for good, to help Antora." Now I looked up at him, adding, "Is there any difference between loyalty to my father and loyalty to Antora?"

"An interesting question." He hesitated long enough to weigh his own answer. "If there is any difference, I love my country first."

"I don't believe you are loyal to the Dominion." My breath lodged in my throat. "You're one of the Banished ... I mean, the Halderians."

His eyes shifted for the briefest moment before they returned to me, a spark of worry in them now. "How do you know that?"

"When I was kidnapped, I overheard talk about a spy inside Woodcourt, a highly placed servant. I think it's you." Gerald lowered his head and nodded, acknowledging that I was right. But I wasn't finished. "Most of the Halderians wanted me dead, but not all. Whose side are you on?"

Now Gerald met my eyes. "I'm on Antora's side, my lady. I'm on Darrow's side. And if both of those describe you, then I'm on your side most of all. Who are these so-called servants you brought into Woodcourt?"

It was my turn to hesitate, longer than Gerald had. "Simon and Trina are ... not on the same side as me."

"They are not on the same side as each other, Kestra!"

This was something I'd already guessed, though hearing it from Gerald worried me. "Are you going to tell my father that I was here tonight?"

"What I report to Sir Henry Dallisor depends on why you're here."

I shrugged again. "When I was with the Halderians, they told me to search this room for the truth about myself. I never had the chance to do it before I was sent away. Darrow promised to help me search after we came home. I think he knew what I would find here ... or what I wouldn't. Can you help?"

Tags: Jennifer A. Nielsen The Traitor's Game Fantasy
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