The Unbroken by C. Clark (ebook reader .txt) 📕

“Why would the rebels frame you for murdering a Balladairan soldier?”

Touraine looked at the princess’s boots for a long moment before finally shrugging helplessly. “I don’t know. I wasn’t cooperative? To move suspicion somewhere else? To make a rift between the Sands and the blackcoats? They might not have been trying to frame me at all.”

The princess’s face was solemn. “General, other than the baton, is there evidence to prove this soldier is lying?”

The princess cocked her head at the general like an owl. Cantic bounced the gaze to Rogan, whose lips tightened.

“I have no more questions.” The princess sat back down.

The silence of the room weighed on Touraine’s shoulders. She kept her eyes on Cantic, who stared her down.

“We’ll have a brief recess to discuss sentencing—”

“Hang her and let’s be done with it,” Colonel Taurvide said, already standing up. “We’ve all got more important things to do.”

“We’ll discuss sentencing.” Cantic glared at Taurvide until he sat down again. Then she nodded to the waiting sergeants. “Take her back.”

“Guilty!” The colonel called Taurvide yelled so adamantly that his saliva splashed Luca’s face. She pulled out her handkerchief and dabbed it away.

Luca had been focused on the soldier’s retreating broad, straight back, even after the door had closed. The other woman was frightened—that much was clear—but she was also bold in a rather intriguing way. It took a certain kind of strength to fight for your life when everyone around you had already decided you should die.

“I know you trained half of those sand fleas, but even you can’t be thinking of keeping her in with the others. That talk will spread, and soon we’ll have a whole other revolt on our hands, this time from the inside.” Taurvide tried to loom over Cantic and, by all accounts, should have done a good job at it. He was a slab of muscle who hadn’t formed the same administrative paunch as the other high officers had. He was bluster and heat, but she was the chill stone of a mountain face.

Other officers protested on top of each other.

“You can’t possibly think she deserves anything but the noose. She’s no better than a common criminal.”

“The screws first, so we can get the truth out of her. Then shoot her and clean our hands of the whole business.”

With separate looks, the general bade each of the officers to speak their piece on the verdict and sentencing, while she said nothing. It was a strange place for the general to have a tender spot, if Luca read the drag at the corners of Cantic’s eyes correctly.

After the officers had spoken, Cantic turned weary eyes on Luca. Perhaps Luca only imagined the pleading in her expression. “You don’t owe the girl anything, Your Highness.”

Perhaps Luca didn’t owe her. Perhaps Lanquette and Guérin would have caught the would-be assassin in time, even without the lieutenant’s alert. But Luca had given her word. She wanted to be the kind of queen whose word meant something.

As if he knew what Luca was weighing, Colonel Taurvide crossed his arms over his broad chest. “You can’t be worried about keeping your word to a Sand. They’re like children. Promise them sweets to make them happy, then put them off until they forget.” He waved a hand carelessly. “She can’t come back for a sweet bun when she’s dead, can she?”

He grinned at his compatriots, and all but Cantic joined him, chuckling.

The young captain Rogan was smug but had been reserved thus far. He clenched his fist in restrained triumph, and something about that felt wrong, too.

Luca had been careless with her words to the soldier at Cheminade’s dinner. Her offer had been flippant; she had only expected to give the woman some money or some other royal bauble. The lieutenant had tried to save Luca’s life, though, and that was worth something.

And, perversely, the more Colonel Taurvide and the young captain wanted Lieutenant Touraine dead, the more Luca wanted her to live.

Those were not the only reasons she wanted Touraine alive.

“To the contrary. I owe that woman my life as much as I owe my guards,” Luca said from her chair. Flanked by Lanquette and Guérin, she felt more force behind her words. Still, she was in hostile territory. The military didn’t look kindly on conceding military decisions to politicians. “It’s one of the highest levels of loyalty. As for her crimes, the evidence is not conclusive. Even if she were guilty, we can’t deny that she could be useful. She has a history of loyalty to General Cantic. She’s Qazāli. She’s met the rebels.”

The soldier sounded educated enough, even if she wasn’t a scholar. Her comportment at Cheminade’s dinner was more than impressive. And she had combat skills. With Nasir gone…

“Let’s send her back to the rebels. As my assistant, my negotiator.”

The line in Cantic’s forehead deepened as she frowned. “We’re not negotiating with rebels against the empire, Your Highness.”

Luca folded her hands over her cane in front of her. Slowing down is the key to control. A rhetorician’s guide. She let herself take a breath, instead of rushing to justify herself and prove to Cantic why they should be negotiating instead of fighting. The present company would never accept it.

“General, you said yourself that you struggle to get spies into the rebels’ ranks. We can try again. Let her play the origin-searching sympathizer. Even if the rebels never fully trust her, we can get trickles of information. At worst, they’ll kill a soldier who’s already condemned.”

“If they don’t trust her, why would they give her information?” It was a woman colonel, almost as solidly thick as Taurvide. The one who wanted the thumbscrews before execution.

“What makes you think torturing the soldier will get you good information?” Luca cocked her head and gave a condescending shrug. The colonel shrank back. “She’ll earn their trust by feeding them fabricated leads. If they think we’re willing to make concessions, they’ll warm like wax. If they feed us false information,