Page 21 of Untempered
“Mikus is in fine form,” Isolde noted, as the knight pumped his sword in the air and another poor bastard was carried off. “There’s a reason ’Ban bannermen don’t usually compete.” She remarked on it the way she’d notice a vaguely interesting cloud pattern in the sky.
My eyes went to Chay, the only ’Ban bannerman in question.
He was going to end up fighting Mikus. I wondered if they’d skew it so it would happen, even if he didn’t earn it, just so Mikus could break him, too.
It wasn’t a comfortable idea. I thought again of his loose shield and may as well have been able to see the future—dead or deeply injured ’Ban bannerman, smug Mikus.
He’d tried to help me yesterday. Even if he’d done it all wrong.
And mayhap Kadan would be upset if he was injured, which was a risk to me. Certainly, I wouldn’t mind the opportunity to stick it to Mikus. It wasn’t sensible to stop and drive a knife into his gut myself before I left, and I probably couldn’t, anyway. But I would take pleasure from seeing him beaten on the tourney field.
And by a Raider’s Ban bannerman? I chewed on my lip and thought of how infuriating that would be, trying not to laugh at the thought.
I needed to get that knight to tighten up his sloppy shield work, though. Since I could’ve cut his throat yesterday and had opted not to, there was a chance he’d put some stock in my advice if I could just make him aware of his simple mistake.
All I had to do was get him to pledge his victory to me so I could get close enough and tell him what he needed to do. Decided on my course of action, I waited with impatience simmering under my skin, and the fights slipped by in much the same way as time went on. Knights jostled for my favor more aggressively as the field narrowed, but I barely saw them. In the sixth round, my target walked to a ring right beneath me. But he didn’t look at me for approval. Not even once.
He was the one damned person who didn’t want my attention.
I couldn’t help it. No—no, I could’ve, but I didn’t want to. I leaned forward and called, “Sir Chay of West Grenvele, I am in need of a champion.” He looked up, and I couldn’t read his expression, though I was close enough to see he had shaved away the stubble on his jaw. That didn’t matter. I just wanted him for his swordsmanship.
Like wind through the leaves, the whispers around me grew and caught the attention of the crowd. I crushed the rush of dread in my veins and ignored the way Isolde’s hands flexed in her lap.
“Will you win this for me, sir?”
He offered me a deep bow. “No, my lady,” he called up with a friendly smile. “I fight for my own honor.”
Fury burned deep in my chest. I was trying to help him, and he just threw it back in my face. Worse, that he was claiming the thing I’d wanted myself for so long.
How many of us ever got to fight for ourselves?
CHAPTERSIX
CHAY
“Cornered dogs bite.” ~ La’Angi saying
My lungs burned from the fight I’d just won when Mikus strode up to the edge of the stands. The crowd was still screaming for him, and the Duke looked on with quiet approval from above. But Audrey just continued to look through him, utterly unaffected as he did everything except demand her favor.
Why had she offered it to me?
The way she’d danced with Kadan like she was hewn from granite yesterday made me doubt she wanted the attention of a man just to upset her father, and while I knew she’d been watching me, it wasn’t with warmth.
I rolled my shoulders and didn’t stare at the spectacle Mikus was making or look at what Kadan was up to, instead heading toward the boy with the water and drinking ladles. Callum and the crew had Kadan for today. And if they didn’t, that flimsy railing wouldn’t keep me from him.
“Apologies, Your Grace,” I heard Mikus call up past my whiskey-eyed onlooker with her bored expression. “My momentum carried me through. Trust I’ll make amends with…” he paused for a moment, “…the knight’s family.”
I’d heard the poor bastard’s knee shatter from across the field. That was the strength of a charging bull, sure, but it was being inflicted against specific targets with surgical precision.
I doubted he was truly so callous to have shattered the knee of a knight he didn’t know. He was aware of whose life he was forever changing. He just made itlooklike he was a mindless beast.
I’d tried to talk myself out of competing. We were here for Luca—and I for Kadan. I shouldn’t have entered. I knew I shouldn’t. Luca had told me. Callum had told me. Even Kadan had looked surprised.
But, curse it, I’d always dreamt of taking out the La’Angi sword, or mayhap even the melee. There was no higher honor…and I didn’t have so much I could leave an opportunity like that behind. Not since my grandfather had anyone in my family been worth anything. I’d grown up hearing the stories about him and staring up at the medal he’d won.
It had sat above the mantle in our hall for years, beside his cloven shield and broken helm. And I remembered when my pa had tossed that medal at a debt collector to pay for the lifestyle he couldn’t afford.
I assumed the helm and shield were still there. Even melted down, they wouldn’t be worth much.
