Page 49 of Lies Within the Darkest Tower

The other four groups consisted of humans of a variety of ages — although none of them looked to be as young as Sawyer — and, from the quality of their clothes, all walks of life as well. There were twenty — so twenty-one human sacrifices if I included myself — and five of them looked just as dangerous and skilled as the nine fae. They must have been the humans Lord Quill had mentioned, the ones who saw joining the Guard as an honor and a duty and prepared for it.

They all had numerous weapons strapped to their bodies and all looked at the rest of us as if we were lesser than they were. And in truth we probably were. They were already warriors. We weren’t.

Three of them sat together in their own small group, and talked quietly amongst themself and I got the impression they knew each other, while the other two sat in different groups. The rest of the groups were a mix of possibly skilled and possibly hopeless men. A few of them had weapons but mostly didn’t.

Two of the humans — a man who looked to be a little older than the real me, and a boy probably a year or two younger — were too plump to have been in a physical profession before their names had been drawn and were likely going to struggle with whatever initial training we were going to get. While another man who looked to be older than everyone else, probably twenty-six, sat at the edge of one of the groups, his expression desolate. He’d probably thought he’d made it, probably had a life before his name had been drawn. There were probably children who were going to be without a father now.

The Lord Commander, along with Talon and Lord Quill, marched through the same doorway the Lord Commander had come through at the morning meal. They were breathtaking, the most achingly beautiful men in the room and something soft shivered through me.

What was it with the fae men?

No, not all fae. My pulse didn’t stutter when Kit or Payne looked at me.

There was something about Lord Quill and Talon — and Lord Rider if I was being honest with myself — that made it hard to look away.

I tried to not stare at them, but just like the last few times I’d run into them, I couldn’t seem to help myself. There was something about them, something compelling, and it wasn’t just Talon with his magic. All three of them tugged at something within me.

They stopped at the closest — and empty — table and swept their gazes over the room.

“I don’t want to yell,” The Lord Commander said, pointing to the empty table in front of him even though I was sure he was perfectly capable of yelling.

Everyone got up and moved and the Lord Commander watched us, his gaze appraising, assessing us by how we hurried or didn’t hurry to our new seats. And when his gaze fell on me, I could tell by the way his eyes narrowed, that he’d already made up his mind about me and that I was lacking.

CHAPTER 31

Sage

We all saton the bench, the nine fae sticking together at the end of our group, their gazes sliding over the humans, assessing us the same way the Lord Commander had and, of course, narrowing when they got to me. I didn’t know if they knew what I’d done, but even if they didn’t, I was the smallest of the group and looked about as much of a warrior as the two heavyset guys.

The three humans who looked like they knew how to fight sat at the other end of the table, and I took a spot between two men who didn’t have weapons but might possibly be able to wield them and behind one of the larger guys, hoping that if the Lord Commander couldn’t really see me, he’d stop glaring at me. That and hopefully I’d be able to stop staring at him, Talon, and Lord Quill.

“I’m Lord Commander Rider,” he said, shifting so he could look at me. Swell. “You can call me Commander Rider, Lord Rider, or Lord Commander. This is Lord Talon, Captain of the Gold Tower, and Lord Quill, Captain of the White Tower.”

“Only call me Lord when we’re in the Gold Tower,” Lord— or ratherjustTalon said. “I get enough stuffy nobleman talk there. I’d rather not have it here.”

The men around me all nodded and some of the tension eased from the group. They still didn’t know what to expect, but Talon asking them to be informal with him set a more relaxed tone, and I supposed if you were trying to build a brotherhood with strangers who had no choice being there, being less formal was an immediate way to start building trust. Talon taking away his title also took away a wall between him and the sacrifices and made him seem more approachable.

Lord Rider cleared his throat, drawing our attention back to him. “From this moment forward you’re novices in the Black Guard. Who you were before you came to the Gray doesn’t matter. Peasant or noble, human or fae, it doesn’t matter. If you work hard, you’ll be rewarded with better assignments, more lieu time, and extra bits. Slack off or screw up—” His gaze landed on me and his eyes narrowed “—and you’ll lose lieu time, get extra duties, and be docked pay.”

“We get paid?” The older of the two heavy-set men asked.

“Yes,” Lord Talon said. “Ten bits a rotation which can be spent on clothing for your lieu time, things for your room, treats we don’t make in the kitchen?—”

“Or women,” one of the clearly skilled sacrifices said with a big grin, making the nine fae bristle. “My cousin said we take lieu time in Lehyrst and there’s a brothel just for us.”

“You’re correct,” Talon said, then he went on to explain how the Black Guard worked.

There were three shifts — which was why the bells came in sets of three. An early shift, where the first two bells were meals and get to work, and a late shift were the second two bells were meal and then get to work. Those shifts consisted of morning and afternoon duties with the evening off, while the third shift was at night where the meal breaks weren’t scheduled like they were in the day. You were assigned a shift for a rotation, which consisted of eight to ten days of duties and anywhere from oneto three lieu days and then your shift — and hence your duties — changed.

Because we were novices we were on a special shift where we were going to be turned into warriors. Of course, that didn’t mean we’d been excluded from chores. Everyone, with the exception of the elite units, was given a chore, from washing clothes, to mending them, to working in the kitchen or cleaning the floors or the stables or the bathhouse.

“You fuck up, you end up mucking stalls or doing laundry,” Rider growled, glaring at me, the look not going unnoticed by the other fae and the three skilled humans, “and you’ll make a few senior guardsmen really happy because you’ll be taking their shift.”

“So do they get the time off?” one of the younger sacrifices asked.

“That or they get a less strenuous duty, like working for the cook, the quartermaster, the seneschal, or the healers,” Talon replied.

Lord Rider then went on to explain how everyone had to have a weapon and had to wear it at all times. “The Guard is always ready to defend the Gates against the shadows. If the spell sealing the Shadow Gate ever fails, we may not get a warning and we must always be prepared. Even if you never become a great swordsman and end up mostly in a support role, you must be prepared to fight.”

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