The Bounty Hunter

Chapter Forty Five

Chapter Forty Five

The palace squatted on top of the city, a gleaming monolith which watched everything that went on below, constantly pulling the gaze of its people. Safita sighed as they drove slowly through the city, advancing slowly from level to level and drawing ever nearer to the sky. The carriage pushed its way through the people, freeing itself more and more from the dust which coated the lower levels as they moved onwards. Not even squeezing her eyes shut could remove the image of the palace which had been imprinted on her mind and she felt her stomach twist more and more as they neared her brother’s home.

When they reached Nell’s house she left the carriage silently, letting no noise other than her knock on the door betray her presence. It swung open and she hurried inside quickly, as if the summer sun had already begun to burn her; the hall was cool and gloomy, sheltered as it was from the heat which lowered outside, and her footsteps resounded hundreds of times over as she headed to her room.

Hours later, when the sun had already sunk beneath the horizon, Nell arrived home. Nothing in his house would have alerted him to her presence if not for the servants and he lingered outside her room for a few minutes as he wondered whether she wanted to see him. Finally he lifted his hand to the wood tentatively and knocked, receiving a muffled reply from inside. “Am I to assume that Rhynlli didn’t agree with you?” he asked as he stuck his head round the door and peered into the darkness.

“Rhynlli was too small,” she replied, “and too boring.” Nell laughed and Safita continued, “I supposed I liked it though… I wouldn’t have left if it weren’t for your letter.”

“It’s a terrible business,” he said as he stepped inside. “Murdering a princess… this country isn’t as law-abiding as we like to believe.”

“They’ll pin it all on an outsider,” she said. “That’s all that Ultuc is to them - proof that they were right to separate criminals from other citizens.”

“That’s not why you went after him though.” Ned wasn’t asking a question and his eyes searched for his sister’s in the gloom.

“No,” she replied as she shifted from where she had been lying on the end of her bed, “it wasn’t. I went after him because my curiosity was piqued and because I wanted to see him fall.”

“He’s that bad, is he?”

“No worse than the others I suppose,” she admitted. “He sounded suspicious and I didn’t want him to escape; I helped myself in the end although the Palace did benefit too. Perhaps… I’m just as bad, if not worse, than a lot of them.” She chuckled and said, “Though I never said I wasn’t. I betrayed Fin- Thannaerus too. So Varenna…”

“Is dead, yes,” Nell sighed. “Thannaerus doesn’t know what to do; her parents are pressing him into decisions he probably wouldn’t make otherwise. They want somebody to be punished-“

“Which is fair enough I suppose. Did they find Ultuc on that boat?”

“Yes, I heard there was a bit of a struggle but apparently he’s now in the palace dungeons. How useful he’ll be to them I don’t know. They already executed the priest.”

She sat up and shrugged. “I wish I’d let the maids light the candles in here,” she said as she noticed just how dark it was for the first time. “They’ll find a use for him; it won’t be difficult. I presume they’ll either execute him as a bounty hunter or as a part of the plan to murder Varenna. Apparently justice can’t function without scapegoats. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s killed somebody; it’s probably time that his actions started catching up to him.”

“What will you do?”

She examined him and frowned. “Stay here; see what happens. Help if they ask me to though I doubt they will.”