Graceling (Graceling Realm #1)(28)
Author: Kristin Cashore

“I never said he was.”

“Leck is blameless. You waste your energies searching Monsea, when your grandfather is in Wester.”

Po yawned again. He shifted his weight against the table and crossed his arms. He looked back at the man blandly.

“We don’t go to Monsea in search of my grandfather,” he said. “It is a social visit. My father’s sister is the Queen of Monsea. She’s been most distressed by the kidnapping. We mean to cal on her. Perhaps we can bring the comfort of your news to the Monsean court.”

One of the merchants in the background cleared his throat. “A lot of sickness there,” he said from his corner. “At the Monsean court.”

Po’s eyes moved to the man calmly. “Is that so?”

The man grunted. “I’ve family in Leck’s service, distant family. Two little girls who worked in his shelter, cousins of some kind – well, they died a few months back.”

“What do you mean, in his shelter?”

“Leck’s animal shelter. He rescues animals, Lord Prince, you’l know that.”

“Yes, of course,” Po said. “But I didn’t know about the shelter.”

The man seemed to enjoy being the center of Po’s attention. He glanced at his companions and lifted his chin. “Wel , Lord Prince, he’s got hundreds of them, dogs, squirrels, rabbits, bleeding from slashes on their backs and bel ies.”

Po narrowed his eyes. “Slashes on their backs and bel ies,” he repeated carefully.

“You know. As if they’d run into something sharp,” the man said.

Po stared at him for a moment. “Of course. And any broken bones? Any sickness?”

The man considered. “I’ve never heard tell of any of that, Lord Prince. Just lots of cuts and slashes that take a wondrous long time to heal. He’s got a staff of children who help him nurse the little creatures to recovery. They say he’s very dedicated to his animals.”

Po pursed his lips. He glanced at Katsa. “I see,” he said. “And do you know what sickness the girls died of?”

The man shrugged. “Children are not very strong.”

“We’ve moved to a different topic now,” the biggest merchant said, interrupting. “We agreed to give you information about the kidnapping, not about this. We’l be wanting more money to compensate.”

“And anyway, I’m suddenly dying of a sickness cal ed boredom,” his partner said.

“Oh,” said the first, “perhaps you have a more amusing diversion in mind?”

“With different company,” said the man in the corner.

They were laughing now, the six of them chuckling over a private joke Katsa had a feeling she understood. “Alas for protective fathers and locked bedroom doors,” the partner said, very low to his friends, but not too low for Katsa’s sensitive ears. She surged toward the men before the burst of laughter had even begun.

Po blocked her so fast that she knew he must have started imperceptibly first. “Stop,” he said to her softly. “Think.

Breathe.”

The wave of impulsive anger swept over her, and she all owed his body to block her path to the merchant, to the two of them, to all six of them, for these men were all the same to her.

“You’re the only man in seven kingdoms who can keep that wildcat on a leash,” said one of the two men. She wasn’t sure which one, for she was distracted by the effect the words had on Po’s face.

“It’s fortunate for us she has such a sensible keeper,” the man continued. “And you’re a lucky fel ow yourself The wild ones are the most fun, if you can control them.”

Po looked at her, but he didn’t see her. His eyes snapped, silver ice and gold fire. The arm that blocked her stiffened, and his hand tightened into a fist. He inhaled, endlessly it seemed. He was furious; she saw this, and she thought he was going to strike the man who had spoken; and for a panicky moment she didn’t know whether to stop him or help him.

Stop him. She would stop him, for he wasn’t thinking. She took his forearms, and gripped them tightly. She thought his name into his head. Po.

Stop. Think, she thought into his mind, just as he had said to her. Think. He began to breathe out, as slowly as he’d breathed in. His eyes refocused and he saw her.

He turned around and stood beside her. He faced the two men; it didn’t even matter which of them had spoken.

“Get out.” His voice was very quiet.

“We would have our payment – ”

Po took a step toward the men, and they stepped back. He held his arms at his sides with a casual calmness that didn’t fool anyone in the room. “Have you the slightest notion to whom you’re speaking?” he asked.”Do you imagine you’l receive a coin of my money, when you’ve spoken this way? You’re lucky I let you go without knocking your teeth from your mouths.”

“Are you sure we shouldn’t?” Katsa said, looking into the eyes of each man, one after the other. “I’d like to do something to discourage them from touching the innkeeper’s daughter.”

“We won’t,” one of them gasped. “We won’t touch anyone, I swear it.”

“You’l be sorry if you do,” she said. “Sorry for the rest of your short, wretched lives.”

“We won’t, My Lady. We won’t.” They backed to the door, their faces white, their smirks vanished now. “It was only a joke, My Lady, I swear it.”

“Get out,” Po said. “Your payment is that we won’t kill you for your insults.”

The men scrambled from the room. Po slammed the door behind them. Then he leaned his back against the door and slid down until he sat on the floor. He rubbed his face with his hands and heaved a deep sigh.

Katsa took a candle from the table and came to crouch before him. She tried to measure his tiredness and his anger, in the bend of his head and the hardness of his shoulders. He dropped his hands from his face and rested his head against the door. He watched her face for a moment.

“I truly thought I might hurt that man,” he said, “very badly.”

“I didn’t know you were capable of such temper.”

“Apparently I am.”

“Po,” Katsa said, as a thought occurred to her. “How did you know I intended to attack them? My intentions were toward them, not you.”

“Yes, but my sense of your energy heightened suddenly, and I know you well enough to guess when you’re likely to take a swing at someone.”

He half-smiled, tiredly. “No one could ever accuse you of being inconsistent.”

She snorted. She sat on the floor before him and crossed her legs. “And now will you tell me what you learned from them?”

“Yes.” He closed his eyes. “What I learned. To start with, other than that fel ow in the corner, they barely spoke a true word. It was a game. They wanted to trick us into paying them for false information. To get back at us, for the incident in the eating room.”

“They’re small -minded,” Katsa said.

“Very small -minded, but they’ve helped us, nonetheless. It’s Leck, Katsa, I’m sure of it. The man lied when he said Leck was not responsible.

And yet – and yet there was something else very strange that I could make no sense of” He shook his head and stared into his hands, thinking. “It’s so odd, Katsa. I felt this strange… defensiveness rise in them.”

“What do you mean, defensiveness?”

“As if they all truly believed Leck’s innocence and wished to defend him to me.”

“But you just said Leck is guilty.”

“He is guilty, and these men know it. But they also believe him innocent.”

“That makes utterly no sense.”

He shook his head again. “I know. But I’m sure of what I sensed. I tell you, Katsa, when the man said that Leck was not responsible for the kidnapping, he was lying. But when he said, a moment later, ‘Leck is blameless,’ he meant it. He believed himself to be tell ing the truth.” Po gazed up at the dark ceiling. “Are we supposed to conclude that Leck kidnapped my grandfather, but for some innocent reason? It simply cannot be.”

Katsa couldn’t comprehend the things Po had learned, any more than she could comprehend the manner in which he’d learned them. “None of this makes sense,” she said, weakly.

He came down out of his thoughts for a moment and focused on her. “Katsa. I’m sorry. This must be overwhelming to you. I’m capable of sensing quite a lot, you see, from people who want to fool me but don’t know to guard their thoughts and feelings.”

She couldn’t understand it. She gave up trying to make sense of the king who was both guilty and innocent. She watched Po as he became distracted by his thoughts again and stared again into his hands. The merchants hadn’t known to guard their thoughts and feelings. If it was a thing that could be done, then she, at least, wanted to learn how to do it.

She felt his eyes and realized he was watching her. “You do keep some things from me,” he said.

She started, then focused on blankness for a moment.

“Or you have,” he continued, “since you’ve learned of my Grace. I mean, I’ve felt you keeping things from me – you’re doing it now – and I can tell you it works, because my Grace shows me nothing. I’m always a bit relieved when it works, Katsa. Truly, I don’t wish to take your secrets from you.” He sat up straight, his face lit with an idea. “You know, you could always knock me unconscious. I wouldn’t stop you.”

Katsa laughed then. “I wouldn’t. I’ve promised you I won’t hit you, except in our practices.”

“But it’s self-defense, in this case.”

“It is not.”

“It is,” he insisted, and she laughed again at his earnestness.

“I’d rather strengthen my mind against you,” she said, “than knock you out every time I have a thought I don’t want you to know.”

“Yes, well, and I’d prefer that also, believe me. But I grant you permission to knock me out, if ever you need to.”

“I wish you wouldn’t. You know how impulsive I am.”

“I don’t care.”

“If you grant me permission, I’ll probably do it, Po. I’ll probably – ”

He held up his hand. “It’s an equalizer. When we fight, you hold your Grace back. I can’t hold my Grace back. So you must have the right to defend yourself.”

She didn’t like it. But she could not miss his point. And she could not miss his will ingness, his dear will ingness, to give over his Grace for her.