The Rogue Guardian

Chapter 59: The Death of a Captain

So this was how freedom happened. With a knock on the door that set his nerves reeling, Tobias appearing with a pale face and furious eyes.

Joshua's heart stuttered as he stared at the late-night intrusion, but his deadly calm did not fail him now, this close to the end. "My lord, what brings--"

"We caught a spy," Tobias interrupted tersely. "The spymaster is--" He caught himself before he could admit that their fortress had been shaken in more ways than one. Caer was not here to deal with this. "We are short staffed."

"I am needed?" He asked, excess adrenaline humming in his veins.

"Yes. The spy, he is one of yours, a low-level guard. He's been in the pay of Englescroft."

That was a shock. Honest surprise flickered on his face, the only honest emotion he'd shown Tobias in years. A mental list of each guard he had trained and commanded flicked past, but no names or faces stood out. He had not been on the lookout for Englian spies-- and then there was the spark of understanding.

Iso. Joshua had realized something was going on with the ambassador, but he hadn't considered that the crafty man might try planting a spy. He had been deluded, distracted. Those small favors Iso had paid him for... they were meant to make him think that they were the ambassador's only tricks, that he already knew Iso's game and could relax.

On his way to win the war, he had lost a battle without even realizing it.

"We don't know how long it's been," Tobias said. His face was drawn with sleeplessness.

"Two months," Joshua said grimly. "I would bet on it." And he saw that Tobias understood that he held Iso responsible. It was astonishing how he had come to be able to communicate so silently and seamlessly with a man he hated with every ember still burning in him.

The Sage nodded. "Come to the dungeons."

Joshua's stomach dropped out at those words even as his face stayed cold and impassive. There would be no mercy for high treason-- the torturing sessions would be brutal, and with Caer gone, the Sage would likely have him stay the entire time for extra hands.

But refusing wasn't an option, and it wasn't in the image he had created. So he nodded curtly and stepped out into the warm night, pausing for just a moment on the threshold. There was a letter lying on the windowsill, where reports and such were left if he wasn't in his office to receive them.

His glance wasn't quite quick enough.

"What's that?" Tobias asked.

"Lazy new guards," Joshua answered easily, tone smooth and condescending. "Always leaving reports where anyone could pick them up." He scooped it up, sparing only enough time to confirm that Roman's crest was traced on it lighter than a shadow before he slipped it in his pocket. "Who is the spy?"

"Mikoren."

He registered his own surprise that average, forgettable Alan Mikoren had turned traitor before making the appropriate sound of disgust. "I should go to the barracks, see if his friends are looking anxious. Do you suspect collaborators?"

"We suspect everything," Tobias said darkly, and waved him off.

Joshua gave a sharp nod and branched off toward the barracks. He had no intention of checking in on Alan's fellow guards. He stopped outside a building and used its shadow as camouflage to stop and open the letter. Roman's handwriting sprawled down the page, familiar and barely legible.

A congratulations-- and one last plan, one last request.

He was getting out. He was going home. Joshua stared down at each carefully outlined step and felt his heart clang painfully against his chest. After all these years, hope was the hardest thing to feel.