Page 14 of Untempered
“Victor. She doesn’t know what’s being planned,” he explained quickly, passing me a short glass I didn’t want and hadn’t asked for, and carrying the second to Kadan, who took it in silence. “But she has an inkling of what he’s like.” Aninkling?Luca’s earnest statement made me swing my gaze to him in shock. Did he think she was living the coddled life of a Duchess-to-be?
She was thedaughterof theButcher.
Glancing down, I saw my own fist, white-knuckled on the poker, and forced my grip to ease. I set down the delicate glass of clear liquid.
“But I came anyway, last year.”
“I recall hearing word of it,” Kadan acknowledged, when Luca’s pause extended even longer, and he picked up his own glass.
The way Luca took a mouthful of liquor as if it were a health tonic and then reached for the bottle again made raw memories rumble, so I turned back to the fire. “I brought her a chess set,” he told Kadan.
Chess. She was a strategist. I shifted a coal fractionally, feeling like someone had scooped out all my guts. She probably had to be, didn’t she?
“She likes chess?”
“I don’t know. But she’s got a good head for analysis.” The words, given so matter-of-factly, confirmed what I would’ve guessed myself. “I only got to play one game with her. Victor came. He found me in her rooms, and he—” he broke off, his mouth twisted as if the rest of the sentence was too foul to touch his tongue.
There was ice in my chest. The poker weighed heavy in my hand. I knew how that sentence ended. I could feel it.
“I tried to take responsibility, of course—since it was my idea. There wasn’t much I could do with a dozen guardsmen throwing me out, though.”
I resisted the urge to glance up and look around the room. Were her chambers the size of this? As the heir to Raider’s Ban, Kadan got the second-best of just about everything…still, even if her rooms were significantly larger, I doubted a dozen guardsmen would be able to get in, much less swing a sword in those quarters. And anyway, you held the door, not the center of the room.
She’d know that. She, and her Matri’sion maid. So if they hadn’t defended…why?
“My sources tell me she wasn’t seen for weeks,” he finished, the words both furious and desperate.
I straightened and returned the poker where it belonged. What did she benefit, staying here?
Kadan took a deep breath. “Well, it doesn’t really change what we’re doing, does it?” I trusted Kadan on that front and stretched out my hips. Was she unable to make it to the tribes with her maid? Was the maid unable to return? Was her heart so tangled up in her hopes and beliefs that she couldn’t see the stars in the sky spelling her destined doom?
“What does she think you should do?” Kadan asked, leaning forward intently, hands clasped lightly between his knees. He was the picture of a concerned friend.
I stilled and turned my attention to Luca. He opened his mouth, paused, closed it again, and frowned as if puzzled.
He hasn’t asked her.The hot ball of fury took me off guard.
Nope. Butcher’s daughter.I struggled to rein myself in.
“I haven’t asked her. She doesn’t understand the situation.”
I was committing treason for this man.
No, you’re committing treason so Kadan doesn’t end up where Luca’s sitting. Kadan wasn’t going to be forced into marriage, and he wasn’t going to pick up a crown. Because he didn’t want what his stars spelled out. He didn’t want thecostof that destiny.
With that reminder, it was easier to hate the Butcher and the small group of advisors who manipulated the child-King, allowing others’ bodies to form the bridge to Velkyn so they might sit beside the One himself. Luca was just an ignorant man I’d always been friendly with and never considered a friend. But I still had to stop my hand from forming a fist.
“You just said she was good at analysis,” Kadan pointed out, his tone holding polite interest. Wild horses, I admired that man. Where he found his patience, I would never know. He didn’t follow the statement up with anything, just letting the quiet sit, waiting for comment.
I struggled with my own temper, reminding myself of the complexities of the situation. People had to do things, sometimes, to survive. Dark and horrible things. I sat with that rage and shame, letting it ebb. Thereweresituations where people couldn’t be trusted with everything. But still, you trusted them with as much as you could, and you damned well thought about it first, so you knewwhyyou were making your choices.
Or you were like Luca—as useful as tits on a stallion.
“I…She doesn’t know court,” he said, scrambling to justify himself. “She doesn’t understand the powers at play. The lady’s wonderful, don’t get me wrong, and I’m confident given time she’ll be an amazing asset, but she’s young, yet, and inexperienced.” I stared into the fire. He just kept on charging, didn’t he? “Frosts, Kadan, she almost broke her neck this afternoon—and she’d slipped her guards! If Victor knew she rode unaccompanied,he’dbreak it!”
My heart ached for the woman whose whiskey eyes burned, then dropped to the ground as she shrank.
“Strikes me that a person old enough to reproduce ought to be trusted to have a say in actions taken to protect her life,” Kadan drawled, and my admiration for his patience only grew. “She’s the expert after all, isn’t she?” Before Luca could respond, he grinned and said, “So, she rides without a guard, hey? She’d do well in our lands.”
