Page 130 of Untempered
A cart stood in the middle of the road. It had been a body cart, clearly, complete with the heavy cloth cover they tossed over and the horrific lumps beneath. But it was left utterly abandoned. A few bodies had been dragged to lay near it. One was wrapped, flowers atop the stained blanket and black feet poking out one end. One looked like someone had done their level best to get the corpse close to the cart but hadn’t the strength, and in the end, their friend or family member was left half on the cloth they’d been dragged upon, arm outflung and covered in mud.
“I’ll report it,” I told Audrey before she could climb down to deal with it herself.
At my voice, a rat popped out from under the cart and peered at us, its muzzle dark.
My stomach rolled.
Audrey turned her head and urged Storm to continue on.
I didn’t breathe easily until the castle was out of sight behind us. The apple trees that surrounded La’Angi were naked of leaves. They softened the horses’ footfalls and muffled the sound of our passing. Once again, we traced the path Ylva had guided us along.
“It seems the rats can’t get it,” Audrey said eventually. “I heard the last Ltonan war, the rats got so full they’d pick out the livers of the fallen. Sometimes the eyes, or the brain, but mostly just the livers.”
Perhaps I didn’t need all of the unusual things she’d learned. I took a deep breath and said, “I bet there were a lot of drunk rats running around.” The wind sank talons into my chest, my hips, my legs. The agony of the cold was something I couldn’t comprehend. I looked at her, and she was shrunken down in the saddle but seemed undeterred. Faith? Desperation? Or a keen sense of survival tempered by her father’s ruthless determination?
She glanced over, taken aback. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
I didn’t know if it was true or not, but before she could start mulling over it, I asked, “What’s your plan?”
“I have to get to the stone and activate it.”
I shook my head, then had to resettle my cloak to maximize its coverage. The road was utterly deserted behind us, the orchard eerily silent around us. I felt safe to ask, “No. I mean with your father. What’s the grand plan?”
Now she sent me a sharp, wary look, but whatever she saw must’ve reassured her. Deep in the orchard, beneath the naked branches of the apple trees and with the city just a threat on the horizon, she said to me, matter-of-factly, “I’m going to kill him.”
There was none of the rage that would’ve fit that sort of statement and not a shred of the passion that had gripped her this morning. This was the cold woman focused on solving a problem who I’d watched choke a man unconscious and then throw him over the sea wall, and cut the Captain of the guard’s throat in front of a hungry crowd. I studied the seriousness of her expression but could see so little of her.
She had one hand braced in the mud, and was doing her best to claw her way back to her feet.
I’d known that, really. I’d seen evidence of it. Over and over again, she’d told me with her actions what was important to her. Finding a way to make things right—trying to protect people, even grumpy road apples like me.
My heart ached for her. For the child she’d never been. I hoped she knew that girl, now, the way I’d gotten to know the boy inside of me.
“It won’t undo what he’s done,” I warned her, in case no one else had.
“No,” she agreed, turning her eyes forward again. “It’ll put a stop to what he can do. It’ll show that there are consequences for everyone’s actions, no matter how wealthy and powerful they are. And as I’ll be doing it publicly,” she continued, as if discussing the weather, “it ought to ensure that the King doesn’t try to marry me off to his second-best General, because La’Angi is mine, and I intend to care for it.”
There were layers to the plan that I hadn’t predicted, a lack of feeling when she spoke of him I couldn’t relate to. It made me uneasy. And could a place ever belong to a person?
It would thwart Darrius’ plans. If the people followed Audrey, they wouldn’t follow Luca or anyone else chosen to climb into her bed.
At that thought, rage rippled under my skin, and I let it out in a hard breath.
“What makes you think you’ll make a good Duchess?” I asked her, because I wanted an answer. Because I wanted to defend that hard-won kernel of respect for her.
She glanced over at me again, and I regretted the anger that had crept into my voice. But she asked, “You think I can do it? Kill him?”
That was what she’d heard. That I believed in her. That was how hungry for any spark of hope she was.
“Many things can happen,” I said. “That doesn’t mean they should.”
She looked taken aback by this. “I—well, I don’t know why I’d be good,” she admitted. “I’ve the advantage of knowing the city, and I’ve been lucky enough to be educated. I’ve got good friends. I try to look at the big picture, and I want to learn. I have half a chance, and that’s half a chance more than almost everybody else.” She fidgeted with her saddle horn, the first show of unease since she’d started to discuss this treasonous plan. “To be honest, I don’t know what else to do but hope that’s enough.”
Her answer was not the one I’d half-feared she’d utter, but was it a good one? I thought of Kadan, a born leader with his charming, low-pressure way of getting things done. I’d never had to ask if he’d be a good leader. I’d seen him lead. I knew how he worked. But if I’d asked…I suspect he’d have said something similar.
“So.” I watched as she ducked under a branch, then avoided the same hazard. “What’s the plan, then? An arrow in his heart during a big event?”
“Trial by combat.” She didn’t look at me as she said it.
