Page 19 of The Spy's Solstice
A small table had been set up along one wall, with a crystal decanter of what looked like whiskey, two glasses, and a white linen cloth on top. There were also two rough, wooden chairs, one of them occupied by the very last person I wanted to be alone with. In this country, at least.
General Vilkurn held a book with a cracked leather cover, and wore a curious, malevolent smile on his lips that dropped as he motioned me forward.I’d never seen him smile. I never wanted to again.
“Well, well, Pict. I never saw this coming.” He waved a finger at the guards, who retreated quietly. My eyes never leaving him, I moved slowly to the chair opposite his, and sat.
“Never saw me in your dungeon?”
He smirked. “No. I fully assumed you’d end up here. But I never thought I’d be serving you a drink.” He put down the book and poured two glasses of whiskey, then handed me one. I drank after he did, uncertain if the precaution would make any difference. A Master Spy would have built up a tolerance for many common poisons.
His dark eyes bored into me for a long moment before he pushed the book toward me. I glanced down, reading the title,and was glad I was sitting, as the blood rushed to my head. “Where did you?—”
“Where did I get one of your order’s holy texts?” He traced a finger along the handwritten title,Servants of the Fire. It was written in Pict, but he spoke the title in his own language.
Oh, fuck.I felt the blood drain from my face. “My order? What do you?—”
“Don’t insult me, boy. You live because you saved my son, then warned my daughter of the poison on the blade. You stay alive if you can promise me that you intend no harm to any of my family.” I opened my mouth to answer, but he went on. “Or to my protégée, Rada.”
Rada.He knew her name. Of course he did. What else did he know?
“You cannot think I would allow you inside my home without learning everything I could about you?” One eyebrow crooked upward. “The first time I saw you, years ago at court, I began digging. Lost more than one of my men finding out what I needed to know, in case you ever found your way back here.
“And when I saw that you recognized the daughter of my heart all those years ago, I knew you would return.” He sipped his drink. “Of course, I’ve had eyes on your border since I first met my young apprentice, ten years ago. I knew when you returned to Mirren. I just wasn’t certain why you did, until you showed back up in my court.” He hummed darkly. “I didn’t know if I’d let you get this close. General Axe argued to be allowed to behead you a dozen times, when he learned you were returning to court.”
I shivered unconsciously. The consort he spoke of was the royal executioner, a massive, mute warrior who wore an aura of power along with his well-used ax.
Vilkurn leaned forward. “I almost had an archer loose a stray arrow in your direction as you rode through Turino three months back.”
I didn’t speak. I couldn’t. I was forbidden by my order, and knew better than to pretend in front of this man. Lying wouldn’t save me.
“There is an old saying about keeping your enemies close. But the true enemy is ignorance. I dug into your past, learned everything about you. One month ago, I planned every detail of your death and disappearance. I was only waiting for the moment when Ratter took matters into her own hands.” He almost smiled again. I shivered. “Impetuous brat.”
I swallowed, wondering where he was going with this.
“But when I learned it was you who killed the Mirrenese idiots who dared to insult her, I became intrigued.” His eyes narrowed. “What reason would one of the servants of the Lord of Fire have to protect the girl he was sent to kill?”
I tried not to react, but his attention was fixed on me, and I knew I’d betrayed myself somehow.Shit.My nostrils had flared.
He hissed. “No. Not sent to kill. To retrieve?” I allowed my muscles to release, and he nodded, thinking he’d guessed correctly. “But you did not retrieve her. In fact, you allowed her to poison you, then protected her from the shadows. You know I am sending her away.”
“You cannot hide her from her god.” I didn’t bother telling him that was exactly what I was trying to do.
“I can delay the inevitable meeting,” he said, and stood. “And I can kill you if I must. But instead, I will take your vow.” His lip twitched. “I hear your kind are keen on blood oaths.”He held out a hand that I would have sworn was empty, but now held a narrow, almost needle-thin dagger. The next words he spoke in my language, and though his accent was atrocious, his grammar was perfect. “Swear on the Lord of Fire that you will not try totake Rada back to His seat. Back to… the maw, or the island that holds it. Back to the Alldyns Vug. If you do this, I will not lift a hand to you, nor share any of my knowledge of you.”
“Not even with her.” I swayed on my feet as I stood, whispering, “You cannot tell a soul in this world.” When he began to nod, I shook my head. “Not her, not the king. Not your Omega. You cannot even speak it aloud to yourself, not by the light of even one…” I couldn’t say any more, and swallowed reflexively.
“Of even one candle,” he finished for me, and I realized that he somehow knew one of my order’s deepest secrets. “There is no flame here.” He cut the palm of his hand, the red welling up along the blade. “I understand, and do so swear.”
I held out my hand and made the oath he’d required.
I felt no guilt when he allowed me to go. None at leaving the merchant to his grisly fate, and none that the oath he’d required had not been the one he should have asked for.
And not a single speck of remorse when I snuck into the crown prince’s room later on to take the dagger back.
RATTER
Since I met my mom and dads, our family’s Solstice celebrations had been some of the happiest days of my life. Sure, I’d celebrated with the crew for a few years before then, but we’d been street rats together. It hadn’t ever been like the sumptuous Solstice feasts Haven threw, with gifts for everyone, fires with Solstice branches burning alongside the great logs, and individual cakes with all our names in icing and tiny trinkets baked inside two of them, a tiara and a crown. This year, Toby got the crown and Peony the tiara, and between the two of them, they had the rest of us hopping to do their bidding all night.
It was wonderful, except for the crying. And it wasn’t a baby for a change.
