Page 19 of The King has Fallen
“Yilan,” she said after a moment, as if he’d shocked her.
“Yee-lawn? What a beautiful name.”
She shrugged. “It’s a family name.” But she smiled.
“Lovely… well, look, Yilan,I know Melek storms around like cat that got thrown in the bath, but the truth is, he’s notalwaysstupid. And sometimes he can even be quite kind and insightfulif you don’t taunt too much.The trick is to watch for the vein on the side of his forehead. When that starts pulsing, it’s best to ease off.”
Yilan rolled her lips together as if she were stopping herself from speaking, but she was smiling brightly and her eyes twinkled like Jann’s when he was enjoying a joke. She leaned towards him as much as the bonds would allow. “What does it mean when he grunts? Is he trying not to laugh, or is he truly angered?”
“Oh, that’s just gas,” Jann said.
“Enough,” I growled as Yilangiggled.“Both of you,” I added with a glare at my comrade. “You aren’t the only one who would like to sleep before dawn, Jann. Stop falling for her tactics. She’s only deflecting and delaying. Keep your mouthshut—”I said quickly when he opened his mouth to answer. “No one is going to speak now, but our… guest. Who will speak of the ways to both approachandpass through the swamps safely, or I will slit her throat so that I can return to the front.”
She looked sullen, but reluctantly turned to look at the maps again, sighing and leaning forward. “Can you free me so that I can show you points on the terrain? It will speed this up a great deal.”
Jann stepped forward, but I didn’t trust her. I put a hand up to stop him approaching her, then started unbuckling the leather that bound one of her arms.
She sighed with relief when that hand was free, rolling her wrist and hissing as the blood flowed back into the hand.
Then I picked up the chair and shoved it back around and right up to the end of the bed, until her knees knocked the footboard.
“Start talking,” I muttered.
“My other hand—”
“Start. Talking,” I repeated through my teeth.
She sighed, but leaned forward as much as her bound arm would allow, her eyes darting left and right over the maps, her lips pursed.
“If you’ve taken Noctharrow, then my guess is you’re riding the line between Tuskarria and Zaryndar—which would have been a great strategy for their caution if they weren’t already working together,” she muttered.
Then she turned and looked at me, scanning me from my bare feet to my crown, her face thoughtful as if she were measuring me.
“Myguessis that the Tuskarrians are giving you the physical fight, and the Zaryndar are using their magik to slow you… and so far, your enemies have been far more united in their defense than your men are in their attack. Your progress across the flatlands lulled your ranks into a false sense of security, and now they’re ill-disciplined and responding slowly… arrogant and unwilling to admit they’ve been bested. You’re scrambling—”
“We are not scrambling,” I ground out. “But… our progress has stayed… for now.”
She tipped her head at me. “So, you can be humble when it’s needed. Well done, General. Perhaps you do have a soul after all.”
I rolled my eyes, but she turned back to the maps, chewing the inside of her cheek. “You need not tell me where it happened, but I need to know: How many times have you attempted to take the gain? How many times have they turned you back?”
Suspicious of a trap, though I couldn’t see it, I looked a question at Jann. Should we tell her? Was there a way she could take more from that simple piece of information than I could see?
He shrugged and tipped his head towards her.
I sighed. “Three times,” I admitted, though it made my skin crawl. “Only the first was a route. The second and third did not make usscramble, but we have not gained ground.”
She nodded as if I’d only affirmed what she believed.
Then, her eyes still darting across the maps, she reached out to point at a place right on the borderlands of Tuskarria and Zaryndar. “The ravine,” she said.
Rage swelled my chest. “What a fucking waste of time this has been,” I muttered, turning from her, pissed at myself for believing she’d take this seriously. I turned to Jann, ready to instruct him to rebindandgag her, when she spoke again.
“They will never expect it.”
“Of course they won’t expect it, because it is a death-trap, and I am not stupid!” I roared at her.
She merely raised an eyebrow and shook her head slowly.
