Read Online A.L. Jambor by The Tower in the Mist - Free Book Online

safe.”
    “Are you crazy? You know how she is. She always disobeys.”
    “I was very careful.”
    “You were outdone by a child.”
    I stopped. He looked so guilty.
    “Let’s find her,” I said.
    “No, you stay. He’ll keep you, too.”
    “I don’t care. I’m going to get my child.”
    I walked past him. He was now following me.
    “Let me talk to him,” he said.
    “Why? Do you think I’m going to mess things up?”
    I was so mad.
    “No, I just think I might be able to reason with him.”
    Reason with Mace!
    “He has what he wants. He won’t be reasonable .”
    “We don’t even know he has her.”
    “He was there this morning. She saw him. She asked who he was.”
    “What did you say?”
    “I said he was the king.” I stopped walking and looked at him. “I didn’t tell her he was her father.”
    He looked hurt.
    “But I’m sure he will,” he said.
    “She loves you,” I said.
    “She’s a mind of her own.”
    “ And she loves you. ”
    We walked through town. It had been so long since I’d been there. The houses were now made of stone. The people looked well fed. They would love their king. They wouldn’t help us.
    The sun was behind us. I hadn’t given much thought to the solstice. The portal would close in an hour at sundown.
    The guards at the fortress stopped us from entering. They sent someone to talk to Mace. I couldn’t stand still. Geezer put his arm around my shoulders.
    “He will see you,” the guard said when the man returned.
    The fortress was cold. The windows in the hall weren’t covered in glass. I wrapped my cloak around me and held it.
    We were taken to a large room. Mace was sitting on a throne. It wasn’t a very big throne. This wasn’t London.
    He looked at us. I thought he looked triumphant. I wanted to smack his face.
    “Greetings,” he said. He didn’t sound happy to see us.
    “Did you take her?” Geezer said. He doesn’t waste words.
    “Geezer, old man, sit down. You, too, Margaret .”
    He said my name like a curse.
    “Please just tell us if you have her,” Geezer said.
    “Oh, damn you, Mace,” I said. “Did you take her?”
    He got up and walked toward us. He came close to me and I could see his eyes. They were cold.
    “We could have been a family,” he said. He still smelled of cinnamon. He’d been drinking mead.
    “I have a family,” I said. “I want her back.”
    “I can’t give her back,” he said.
    “She’s not yours ,” I said. “She’s ours. Mine and Geezer’s. She’s always been ours . You have no right.”
    He seemed to grow larger.
    “NO RIGHT!” he cried. “How dare you speak of rights. You lied to me. You kept her from me.”
    “You abandoned me.”
    “I never knew!”
    “He’s right,” Geezer said.
    I turned to look at him. I wanted to hurt him.
    “How can you take his side?”
    “I’m not taking his side. I just…it’s the truth.”
    “But you were there. You saw what he did!”
    “What did he do, Margaret?”
    “I can’t believe this,” I said. I looked at Geezer. “You saw him say he would come to me. You saw us together. You knew how I felt about him. He led me on. He knew he was marrying Neela and he slept with me.”
    Mace was enjoying the scene. He kept silent as we argued.
    “But that doesn’t change the fact that you could have written him. You could have told him.”
    I smacked him. “You said you didn’t want him to know. You told me he would take her.”
    “Perhaps I was wrong. It wasn’t…fair.”
    “Damn you and your fairness!”
    I backed away. I felt betrayed. I’d blamed Mace for abandoning me. But they were right – I could have written. I could have told him. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want him to know. I wanted to hurt him. That was the truth. But it was easier to blame Mace.
    “You can still come here, Margaret,” Mace said. “I still love you.”
    He didn’t look like he loved me. He looked like a snake about to devour its prey. I looked at Geezer. He was a