Page 28 of Untempered
The ball and banquet happened without us. We talked about what we needed to do. When we needed to do it. Next steps. Survive the archery tomorrow. Keep our heads down. Minimal presence at the feasting and dancing, and avoid Raider’s Ban riders at all costs. Tell Luca we didn’t want company. That was all we needed to do tomorrow. We could do that.
I fell asleep curled up in my bed with Isolde stroking my hair. Safe. Loved.
CHAPTERNINE
ISOLDE
“And then Hruudwulf looked upon the moon with new eyes,
at once ensorcelled and free.” ~ Southern lore
Power flooded my limbs, and I was upright and moving before my brain clearly identified the sounds of combat. Thumps, grunts, ripping clothes, rapid breathing, something falling with a pretty twinkling sound.Audrey’s accessories.
It took me one heartbeat to be in her room. The glow of the fire showed a writhing pile of limbs, but I couldn’t make out enough to safely intervene. The next heartbeat, I was ripping the shutters open and letting moonlight flood the room. The crack of a breaking bone made my teeth ache, and I saw Audrey, then, beneath her spindly assailant, their arm stretched out and now bending the wrong way.
The attacker was still struggling, but I had a clear shot and I took it, kicking out.
Their head snapped to the side, and they went slack in her arms.
I found a fallen knife and scooped it up, assessing the damage to my charge as best I could in the low light.
Fast breath, pale cheeks, eyes puffy from crying. Whole.
But how close had we come?Twice in one day.That was two times too many that I’d almost lost her.
I swallowed down the rage born of fear and looked closer at Audrey as she straightened. There was blood on her, but it wasn’t the mess that a mortal wound would’ve left. Still… “That isn’t a scratch you’ve got there.”
She looked down at herself, the movement making her unconscious assailant slide further onto the rug and out of the grip of her legs. “It’s fine,” she said dismissively.
Ungently, I yanked the blanket they’d been tangled up in from beneath the assailant, making their head bounce against the rug. Their face turned to a better angle for me to see the silver loops in their eyebrow, connected to a silver chain that went to their ear.Worg.
A chill went up my spine as I gave the blanket a stiff flick, then folded it neatly. “Keep pressure on,” I told Audrey. We needed light.
Twice,I’d almost failed her.
I needed to figure out what we were going to do.
“It’s fine,” Audrey protested again, but she sat up and pressed the blanket to her wound. “I don’t know what woke me.”
I didn’t either, but I’d bet that chest wound would’ve been a throat wound if she’d been in a deeper slumber.
“I kicked the blanket at them.” Audrey looked down at the scrawny form at her feet, her breathing still quick. “They were surprised.”
I was surprised, too. I’d tucked it in firmly.
“You did well,” I said, lighting a few candles. I didn’t need to inspect the knife in my hand to know it’d be Southern make. I could already feel the excellent balance. Long, wide, double-edged, straight. This weapon was designed to cut people, not dinner. It wasn’t curved like I favored, and it was longer than what was used locally, and wider. The steel was good. Excellent, in fact.
There was only one place I knew you’d get better steel than La’Angi. And that was at the source, in the hands of the people used to strip those resources from below the mountains.
I turned the knife over in my hand, trying to calm my too-quick heart. Audrey was fine. She was staring down at the slumped would-be assassin, her expression blank.
She was as fine as she’d be while we existed in this glorified torture room.
The attacker was Southern. There were no markings on the knife to identify them further, and I wasn’t keen to explore their silver too closely. I could’ve woken them up and made them talk, but I didn’t need to. I knew why they were here.
Luca had talked plenty.
Judging by the dull look settling over Audrey’s face, though, she wouldn’t have put two and two together yet. But she needed to be involved in deciding what we did next, so I needed her to know the context. Anything less was unjust.
