Page 20 of Lies Within the Darkest Tower

I forced myself to straighten and meet his gaze. “How should I address you?”

“Grefin.”

“Just Grefin?” I asked, as we drew closer to the enormous building.

“Don’t let it break your feeble mind, noble. The only things you learned in your old life that are useful are how well you swing your sword, how to shoot a bow, and how to fight from horseback,” he said. “The Lord Commander doesn’t care how well you can dance, which fork you’re supposed to use, or if you know how to properly address a duke, a baron, or a princess.”

We reached a wide set of steps leading up to a pair of massive doors that most likely opened to the great hall. The building was made of enormous stone blocks and towered four-stories highwith thick crenellations at the top barely visible through the mist.

To my right was a squat building that didn’t appear attached to the main building made of a strange semi-opaque material that could only be something made by the fae. It glowed a soft white, blending in with the mist around us, and I could see hints of strange shadows inside that thankfully didn’t move.

Grefin headed left, away from the glowing building and the wide steps. He marched me to a part of the building that looked like it had sections jutting out from it — although it was hard to tell since there was less torchlight on this side of the structure. Light glowed between the cracks of dozens of shutters at random intervals. There were a few in a row, then nothing, then one or two more, but it suggested that all three stories were covered in windows.

“The quartermaster has already retired for the day and I’m not going to bother him just for you. You can get your gear after the midday meal with the rest of the novices.”

“Yes, m—” I bit the inside of my cheek.

Grefin snorted. “You must have been last in line to show such deference to just about anyone.”

Or I was a woman and was required to show deference toeveryone.

He opened a door partially hidden in an alcove. Inside, illuminated by a lantern that glowed yellow like a flame but didn’t flicker like one, was a narrow staircase curling up all three floors and down into a cellar, and another door leading into the rest of the building. “Well good news for you. Your birth order doesn’t matter here. Prove your skill and even you can be given an elite assignment.”

“Elite assignment?” I asked as he led us up the stairs.

“They didn’t tell you anything. Or you didn’t bother to learn.” He stopped at the door at the top of the stairs and glared atme. “Lord Rider doesn’t like lazy. Everyone pulls his own weight here, one way or another.”

And that one way or another probably involved being given the worst assignments, like mucking out the stalls.

I opened my mouth to argue with him, but snapped it shut. If they wanted to think I was lazy, I’d prove them wrong. If they wanted to think I was stupid, so be it. The whole point of being here was to go unnoticed until Sawyer was safe, and the more time that passed, the safer he’d be.

Grefin’s eyes narrowed again, staring me down as if daring me to argue with him.

I fought to maintain eye contact, but it made my pulse race. Women didn’t stare men down. They lowered their gaze and complied with whatever they were told.

“Definitely bottom of the pack,” Grefin huffed, and he opened the door.

CHAPTER 13

Sage

Inside were moreof the strange lanterns, their light dimmer than the light in the stairwell, and narrow wooden doors. Lots of doors. There was a door every few paces and they went all the way to the end of the hall on both sides.

Grefin strode down the hall to another one that bisected the first where a group of five human men who looked to be older than me but younger than Grefin and all in identical black leather armor lounged in a small seating area. The area consisted of a couch, four chairs, and small table, and their conversation fell silent as every eye landed on me and their gazes turned appraising.

I fought not to hunch my shoulders at their attention. They were all bigger than me, taller and broader. Two of them weren’t wearing vambraces and had their shirtsleeves rolled up, revealing strong forearms that suggested the rest of them was muscular and well-developed from the rigors of being in the Black Guard.

No wonder the Lord Commander thought I was a child. Compared to these men, I was.

Grefin gave them a tight nod but kept walking. He turned left at the intersection, followed that hall to the end, took anotherleft then finally stopped at a door beside a set of stairs that didn’t have a door blocking it off.

“The first bell rings the morning meal. Easiest way to explain how to get there: follow everyone else.” He opened the door, revealing a small room with a shuttered window at the back, a narrow cot along the wall with a trunk at the cot’s foot, and a washbasin on a small stand with a strange metal handle close to the door so you could kneel on the trunk and use the basin. “This is your room.”

“I have my own room?”

“Yeah.” Grefin rolled his eyes at me.

Oh, thank the Great Father.Relief flooded me. I wasn’t going to have to keep my secret while bunking with dozens of men in one room. It had been too late to change my mind once I’d taken Sawyer’s binding spell, but I was terrified at the idea of being so vulnerable and knew I’d always be on my guard.

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