Page 54 of Untempered
The Duke of La’Angi came around for nothing and no one.
I looked up, finding Isolde’s familiar face cut in lines of disapproval as she considered Chay’s loyalty to his previous liege lord. Unbidden, the memory of the Raider’s Ban heir pausing on the edge of the dancing and letting me just stand like a lump while I tried not to fall apart came to mind.
He’d told me he was my friend.
I still didn’t believe it, but I did believe he was Chay’s. And if someone had nearly killed Isolde, then their child asked me for a favor, I’d be less than receptive, too.
She nudged my cup at me. “Drink. You’ve sweated enough you need to replenish the moisture.” I drank obediently. “His horse survived,” Isolde told me, the words emotionless. “I understand they saved his leg, but that may be temporary. Still, he’s rich as the Son. He’ll be fine.”
My heart broke. “Were there fatalities?”
“Not to my knowledge.” She shrugged. “Chay’s angry, but he’ll learn you’re not your father’s daughter.”
Mayhap he would. Mayhap he wouldn’t. But I was glad, in that moment, I hadn’t forced him to yield again.
CHAPTERTWENTY
CHAY
“A horse cannot be forced to trust.”
~ How to Tame Your Brumby: A Collection of Raider’s Ban Wisdom
Iwoke to my first morning as a La’Angi knight feeling like I’d just ridden halfway across the Steppes and been dragged the other half—gritty, aching, and tired. I dragged myself up and straightened the covers on the bed. It wasn’t as narrow as some I’d seen. I couldn’t remember if it was comfortable.
A quiet knock made me rise to admit one of the servants whose name I couldn’t remember. Her eyes stuck on my bare chest and color rose in her cheeks.
As I stepped back, I wondered what joy she found in this keep, run by the Butcher. I remembered my sister picking flowers, wishing upon them, and tossing them into the wind that carried the reek of the failing sewage system. She’d laughed like it was the most fun she’d ever had. The flowers hadn’t even flown well.
I couldn’t recall if I was supposed to follow the servant. I stood inside the inner door, and she didn’t seem to notice me as she readied a large, cold breakfast on a low table, laying out cutlery carefully. While I watched, she checked the water beneath a posy of flowers and moved to open the shutters, her movements slow and cautious.
I withdrew to the long, narrow room that made the bunkhouse for this tomb. There was a huge single door that was more solid than the main gate of plenty of fiefs I’d seen. A small entryway made a bottleneck, with my bunkhouse on one side and our repurposed sitting room on the other side. A large, solid stone wall between the entryway and the start of Audrey’s chambers made the whole thing feel very secure.
I lived in a tiny little space between the Butcher and his captive.
I was the air between Audrey and the mud.
The bunk wasn’t comfortable for me to lie in and wait for time to pass, but I didn’t have a lot of options, so it was where I went. But it wasn’t the wood above me that I saw. It was Kadan’s face as Darrius outlined their plan with merciful precision, including the coup they’d been prepared to stage if the Butcher had merely beeninjuredby the assassins. That hadn’t happened, so we were regrouping for another charge.
That happened to be where Raider’s Ban cavalry shone. Anyone with a pony and a stick could charge. Few could regroup well. Fewer still could do it time and again, with ruthless precision, the way we could. And while he wasn’t talking cavalry charges, Darrius brought that competency into everything he did. According to him, there were four courses of action from here that their Council would choose from.
Have someone else marry Audrey, take La’Angi, swear it to Luca.
Have Luca marry Audrey against the Duke’s orders, and hope it was viewed as binding in the eyes of the One…and the Council.
Have me hide Audrey away while they razed La’Angi to the ground.
Ignore La’Angi and the west, and instead, try the same strategy they’d attempted with La’Angi’s mirror province in the east. Marry into the family at Black Borough, kill the Duke, and take the eastern arm of the military stationed at Black Borough.
None of the options included forcing Kadan to step into a role he was so sure would crush him. It was the best I could say of their plans.
Mayhap we hadn’t given the Butcher enough credit. He’d known how to shut down Luca’s plans and had already done so, neatly severing any chance of our rebellion rallying behind him. And he’d known Kadan wouldn’t be so easily thwarted.
He’d gone for Kadan’s throat, and I hadn’t been there to defend it. I’d been carrying chests and smashing unwanted furniture.
I wasn’t arrogant enough to think I could have single-handedly saved Kadan. But I’d’ve damned well tried.
I got up and let myself into Audrey’s chambers. Whitehoof take their rules. I didn’t care for Victor’s dictatorship or living in two tiny rooms on either side of a chokepoint for the rest of my life.
