Page 47 of Untempered
With the women behind me and the men before me, I stepped to the side and let them all figure out the situation, no conversation needed.Keep it simple, sweetheart,Rose would’ve said approvingly. My heart ached.
I missed her. I hadn’t realized how much day there’d been until I thought of her, at home, alone. But there had been so many new adjustments and small things to follow up. There was nofirst day of Blackguardtraining the way there’d been with the Watch, when we’d all been taken on in a group and run through what we needed to know, but Mortemon had done his best. Chay still looked scruffy, but considering he’d been sworn in only hours ago, I hoped the Duke would give him some grace.
I fell in behind the ladies as Mortemon took the lead, which would’ve pleased him plenty. As the Blackguard went, he was the runt of the litter and had been treated as such. It’d made him mean, and judging from the tension between he and Chay, they’d already had a run in. Chay hadn’t cleaned his boots yet, but his tabard was neat beneath his belt, and his mouth was blessedly closed. Whatever had happened, they were keeping it between them.
Given how little my young shieldman knew, he did well to escort the lady to her seat at the table. I made sure my feet were in the right spot, and my shield was forward, then focused on breathing as the hall filled before us, people moving willy-nilly. My own girls would have already eaten and be helping Mary with the cleanup. Someone would be with my Rose. Whatever had happened, she was okay. They would’ve given her some honey water and clean linens. If she could stand, she’d’ve bathed. If she couldn’t, they’d help her soon enough. I hadn’t been there, but she knew she was in my heart, and I in hers. And she’d left that offering, too. Those little things, they made you feel stronger. If she’d wavered, she’d recall them. It would’ve kept her going until the mage arrived.
Sandra’s birth had terrified me, but I’d been a much younger man, then. I’d never managed to feel confident in the process, but I knew how much a body could take, and I had faith in the mage knowing he’d only get paid if he did the work to save the patient.
Mayhap, with my new role, I’d be able to pay him and still keep all our bellies full.
The Duke swept in, deep in conversation with two men who I recognized but couldn’t name. One of them usually held a chalkboard, as the dust on his sleeves bore testament.
Everything settled into place as the Duke moved forward. I didn’t have to like his methods to respect his results. The lady served him calmly, unruffled by the long day she’d put in. People turned back to their meals, and talk leveled out. Everything was how it should’ve been, with the Duke paying no attention to my unkempt young counterpart.
I’d never once stood so close to the Duke. Even when he’d ridden past me that day in Wolfswail, he’d been on his horse and felt like he was on the other side of the country.
Servants laid out the meal, and I watched in silence as they ate. None of us met each other’s eyes, or the eyes of those we served. I didn’t dare shift throughout the entire meal. I could see the floor was dry. I listened to the folks walking across it. But I could feel the blood in my boots. My bones ached, but if I moved, my feet would squelch, and then the Duke’d look at me.
I was a dead man breathing, but I had babes at home who needed me to keep on bringing in the coins.
The rewards for the tourney were given out—the medallions, not the purses. The Duke wouldn’t be so crass.
Escorting the lady back to her room was physically painful, but I fought not to limp. I just had to get home to Rose. It wasn’t so far, now.
Mortemon didn’t come into the tower with us, and I was relieved to close the heavy wooden barrier between his watchful eyes and the outside world.
The lady was already gone from the defensive chamber into the inner room, and Chay had wasted no time dropping the iron bar over the door that kept her locked safely inside. I assumed her handmaid would do the same from the other way.
“I know I’m on now,” Chay said, looking up at me, one hand on his side like he was injured. His eyes shone overbright, but I doubted it was from the wound. “But I need you to cover for me.”
I thought of the creases in Joseph’s brow.Rose.“I need to get home.”
“You don’t know me,” Chay said quietly, his voice shaking just a little in a way that unsettled me. “You’ll learn I don’t ask for much, but my friends are leaving tonight, Thomas. I may never see them again.”
He didn’t have a family, or mayhap those peoplewerehis family.
They’d sent for a mage. Rose would be fine. If she wasn’t…if a mage couldn’t hold her, nothing could. But the mage wouldn’t take on hopeless work. I’d be naming another little girl tonight.
I had a family.
His blue eyes glistened. He didn’t hide it.
“I’ll cover for you for a half-hour.” I hadn’t been ready with a name. The babe wasn’t due until winter, and we’d not yet agreed on anything. I could think on the name now. It wasn’t wasted time. Really, ’twas sensible. The lad would focus on his role better.
He was gone before I could finish my warning about staying out of sight, and I sighed, closing the door behind him.
If he was caught by the Duke, I’d be on duty all night and for a lot more besides. Because he’d be dead.
CHAPTERSEVENTEEN
CHAY
“Skinny dogs gotta make fast friends.” ~ La’Angi saying
My hand was shaking, but it didn’t stop me hammering on his door. With every flutter of my heart in my chest I expected to see a black-clad member of the Butcher’s guard spot me and drag me back. But the door gave way, and Callum’s ashen face made my heart sink.
I was grabbed in a fierce hug and pulled inside. “We didn’t know if you’d make it,” he said in the hushed tones of a sickroom. The stink of magework—burned metal and incense—hung in the air. “The One, Chay,” he whispered, still clinging. “I wish you’d been there.”
