Page 44 of Untempered
Except he didn’t give a cuss about the known world or uniting the tribes. He’d figured out pretty quickly the cost of unification was life, and the cost of peace was individuality. He’d opted out.
That didn’t stop the assassins, though. And neither could I, from here.
“He’s not interested,” I said. It was no secret. He’d ensured it. “He says there are enough jokers in power.”
Amusement sparked in Audrey’s eyes. “And you believe him?”
I didn’t laugh with her. “Why wouldn’t I?” The humor in her gaze died a brutal death.Good.She wasn’t allowed to laugh at him. And with that thought, I looked deliberately at Isolde. “You’d know he rode north five years ago, and came home without claiming any of the gifts or fealty offered. This isn’t about Kadan. You’ve secrets,” I acknowledged. “I sure won’t be telling the Butcher.” The repercussions on the woman I was forever linked to would probably kill me…or her father would. “So, what’s the rest?”
“Victor is a monster,” Audrey said, the words cautious, as if this was some dire secret we didn’t all know. “Personally, and as General for Arcanloc.”
I waited for her to go on. She looked at me from those golden eyes, her face unreadable. “And?”
She glanced at Isolde for guidance.
Audrey had no idea. She was just doing what she was told. And, for a moment, I saw myself again, as a boy, looking to my mother.
I made a noise of disgust before I could stop myself, turning away. “Let me know what I’m actually doing once you figure it out.”
“Don’t speak to her like that,” Isolde said icily.
I shook my head more aggressively than I should’ve. “Before you threaten someone,” I told her, going to polish my boots like the good puppy I was, “you need a way to hurt them. And I’ve got nothing left, my lady.”
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
CHAY
“It was a fallacy that Wolfswail was invulnerable. It had not been overrun in many generations, but Southerners have less lore than us, so they still whispered about the death of a mythical magic-wielder. The General, in his wisdom, heard these whispers, and used them.” ~ The Fall of Wolfswail
The unfamiliar man stripped off his black tabard, laying it crisply across a bunk in preparation for our return, and stared at me as if I were shit on his shoe. As first meetings with mentors went, I’d probably had worse.
I set my teeth and followed.
Thomas watched us go, his face impassive. I heard him drop the bar over the door behind us.
“When the Duke leaves, it’ll be the three of us,” the man told me, leading me into the belly of the keep without hesitation.
The long look he shot me made me wonder if I was about to be ambushed. I resisted the urge to loosen my sword in its scabbard, mostly because the quarters were too tight for it.
“Eat during your breaks. If you’re on overnight.” He shot me another of those veiled looks, and I knew damned well I was going to be drawing the worst shifts for some time. “Well, make sure you’re prepared to be awake.”
That didn’t make sense to me. I could nap in the side rooms that winged out from that entry chamber, and no one need know. There was a giantbaron the giantdoor.
He hadn’t told me why he was my mentor, or how long he’d be here for. I didn’t even know his name. There was nothing unique about him. He had the same short hair, clean jaw, and shiny boots as the rest of them.
I guess that was the world I lived in now.
“Shame you didn’t get to compete in the melee,” he said, turning down a wider, busier corridor, then grabbing my arm and yanking me to the side before a delicately built woman fell before me.
We both bowed as she swept by, lost in her conversation and not even realizing the close call.
The other guard sneered at me. “You need a lot of training, Horse Fucker.”
I remembered Audrey’s ribbon around my arm, biting into the fabric and reminding me to tighten my shield up, and my stomach writhed.
“We could’ve started yesterday,” he said threateningly.
I resisted the urge to respond to the guard’s transparent attempts to draw me in. I knew something had happened in the melee. I’d heard the whispers cut off when I came near and saw the looks I was thrown. No one spoke to me about it, though. Clearly, this lump knew what had happened, and he was keen to use it as a weapon.
