Page 87 of Untempered
I remembered, fleetingly, fighting beside her before I’d been forced into her service, when it was just she and I against Mikus and his buddy.
“Don’t run, Winn,” Audrey said, and the guard’s eyes widened. He dropped the basket and bowed.
The woman curtsied, the basket bobbing in her hand. “No, my lady,” Winn said. “Jillian was just sharing a bite with me. She promised she would, you see.”
La’Angi was painfully shorthanded and spilling blood over a few loaves of bread seemed like a bad stampede to get moving, but Audrey was already inserting herself between them. “No, she isn’t. She’s leaving now.” And she gave Jillian a hard look that made the other woman shake her head sharply.
I felt sick, imagining the repercussions.
“It’s as he says, my lady,” she said, and the words didn’t shake at all.
The man opened his mouth, and Audrey lifted a hand, demanding silence. Winn didn’t seem to take note, continuing, “My lady, I’m not sure what you think is happening, but as Jillian’s told you?—”
“No, you don’t speak,” she said, the words clear as glass and just as sharp. “That’s what it means when I hold up a hand like this.”
He cleared his throat and stood a little straighter. “Of course, my lady. Only I’ve got the Watch in a half-hour.”
I saw her close her eyes and draw in a breath. “Hey, buddy,” I said over her shoulder. His eyes flicked up to me. I jerked my hand across my neck in acut it outmotion.
Audrey turned to the woman. “If I let him go, he takes this out on you.”
Her mouth opened, then closed.
I held in a breath rather than tell my illustrious liege lady what a fool she was.
“If I send him away, he spreads the poison.”
I let the breath out. Well, she was considering her options. I didn’t like the one that was left.
“If I execute him publicly for harassment and stealing?—”
“I haven’t stolen anything!” he objected. “My lady, this is unfair!”
“Oh so youdidharass someone,willtake it out on her, andwillspread the poison, then? Noted.”
He made a noise of frustration. “That isn’t what I said. I’m a good solider.”
“If you were a good solider, you’d be dying at my father’s whim,” she said, and I liked the way that barb of hers made him flinch. To make sure he knew it, I grinned behind her.
The look he shot me was pure venom, but I was immune. My grin widened.
“If I execute him publicly, it’ll force the guard to hide how they’re terrorizing civilians,” she went on. “Sir Chay, you’ve gotallthe answers tonight. I only have one option, don’t I?”
“You’re shorthanded,” I reminded her. Winn retreated a step, unconsciously mimicking the way his quarry had stumbled back earlier. I had longer legs.
“You’re right,” she agreed. “It feels like the price I’m willing to pay.”
Mayhap I’d been in La’Angi too long, but I understood my cue. He went to argue, and I reached for my sword.
A split second later, he did, too.
She was in motion already, and his knee was cracking sickeningly. The noise of pain he made between his teeth as he fell caught me off guard, and she followed up the blow to his joint by grabbing him by his precisely shorn hair and driving her knee into his face.
I stepped back, disoriented by the flurry of violence.
She let go of him and turned to Jillian. “Go home,” she said, the words a little breathless. “Sleep well. You never saw him, and you never will.”
This time, her curtsey shook.
