Page 48 of Kingdom of Embers and Ruin

“We believe a watervitkislew him,but our healers are still analyzing the body.”

“No ordinaryvitkicould’ve done that,” the General scoffed.

“One of the soldiers that escaped reported that the captain had recognized him as the Heir to the Kingdom of Rivers, Hakon Kolbeck, Your Highness,” Bryn continued.

She hadn’t believed him when she had interrogated him after the discovery of the captain's body in the streets but had included it in her report, knowing her father would ask for all the details.

“Impossible. Where is this soldier? I would speak with him,” King Helvig ordered as he sat in his velvet-lined chair that had been studded with rubies.

Such disgusting displays of wealth were littered throughout this palace. The decorations in each room were gaudy, dripping with overindulgence. Her rooms had used to be trimmed in gold paint on every surface to accent the red and orange fabrics that adorned every soft cushion and her bed.

She had burned through all her belongings except for some precious memories she hid beneath the stone floor when her mother had died, refusing to look upon any color that resembled her deep red hair. Now,her room was painted gray as her soul, with simple bedding and minimal decor.

“Unfortunately, Your Majesty, the General had the soldier executed shortly after I spoke with him on the grounds of desertion,” Bryn finished, knowing her father was one comment short of his head blowing steam out of his ears.

She allowed herself a small smirk that she shot in her uncle's direction.

“Is this true, Ulf?” King Helvig asked between his teeth.

“The soldier was a coward and was punished as one,” General Ulf waved a lazy hand as he raised the cup to his lips once more, seemingly unaware of the King's shortening temper.

Before he could tip the wine back into his gullet, he choked, spilling the wine on the floor as the goblet crashed to the ground. Her uncle was clawing at his throat, face turning purple when Bryn realized that her father had not acknowledged the General’s comment, but had decided to rip the air from his lungs instead.

In a flat voice, the King said, “Do not think that I would not end your miserable existence on a whim,General.” His words carried through the still room as her uncle turned a startling shade of blue. “I am the authority in this kingdom. I decide who lives and dies. Forget your place again, and you will find yourself buried next to our kin.”

The King released his fisted hand and allowed the air to swell back into General Ulf’s lungs just as he passed out. He looked over to Bryn once more.

“Once the General wakes, tell him I want him to send his best soldiers to make the journey to the Lamenting Woods with orders to capture the Heir when she shows her face again. When he fails, I want you to do what you do best, Lieutenant General, and find me that girl.”

Bryn, with her mask securely in place, gave the King a wicked smile. “With pleasure, Your Majesty.”

The King nodded once before turning his attention back to the room.

“This meeting is over. Return to your duties.”

King Helvig flicked his fingers toward the roaring fire in the fireplace, picking it up and floating it to his open palm. He then slammed the doors open to the hallway on a phantom wind and blew the flame in his palm out, splitting the flame into twelve smaller flames that lit the torches in the empty hallway. Bryn bowed again with the rest of the room and waited for her father to leave first, flanked by the six guards he always had surrounding him.

She waited until the entire room had emptied and two stewards had hauled her uncle’s unconscious form to his chambers before she slumped against the wall and leaned her head back. The tight braids that ran on either side of her head blended into her heavy, copper-colored curls that she had wrapped into a tight knot on top of her head for this meeting fell loose as she ripped the tie from it.

With the pressure relieved from her scalp, Bryn was able to think about what she had heard about Maude and her orders to track her down.

She had been keeping track of her sister these last six years since she had taken up the Lieutenant General position in preparation for her promotion to General. The resentment and feelings that filled Bryn’s heart when she thought of her sister hadn’t been enough to stop her from still trying to protect Maude.

She had worked to keep the Flame Soldiers off her trail in Logi and had the patrols conveniently steer clear of wherever she had been staying. Their father thought he had control over the manipulation of where his Heir was hiding, thinking he could bring her in whenever he grew tired of his games, but Bryn had worked for years to undermine him at every turn.

What the King saw was Bryn controlling her sister's movements— that she was excellent at it.

The reality was that she only controlled the external forces trying to corner Maude by setting them on another course while Maude carved a life out for herself.

The only direct interference Bryn had committed was pointing Maude in the direction of Sigurd, the earthvitkiwho helped othervitkitrain and hide in plain sight. She had looked the other way when she heard what he had been doing with the fighting pits, but she was grateful that he had given Maude a productive, if not circuitous, way to channel the unrelenting anger that burned in her.

When her uncle had caught on to her last week and found out about the fighting pits, he had ordered a raid. Bryn could do nothing to stop it as she couldn’t afford to give herself away, so she watched the innocentvitkieither be slaughtered or arrested for her uncle to play with. When Bryn had heard that a woman with Maude’s description had been arrested, she sequestered her so she could find a way to free her from the jail before the King or General found out.

Before Bryn could act, however, some rebels had blown through the walls with an exorbitant amount of finely ground wheat, and Maude had disappeared entirely from Bryn’s monitoring.

If the King and the General found out Bryn had been secretly sabotaging them since she rose into her role, they would have her killed; she had been playing a dangerous game for some time now in this palace. Bryn had gotten close enough to her father that he had begun trusting her through the war meetings, discussing his grand plans, thinking that she was on his side, ever the loyal daughter and Lieutenant General.

As the second born in the royal family, Bryn was never formally announced to the public, which was typical in their kingdom, as she was tobe groomed to lead the armies for her sister one day. Maude had run away before she had ever been announced, so rather than face the embarrassment of admitting she had left her family, the King pretended she never existed. He claimed that his wife had never produced an Heir for him before her untimely death.

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