Page 1 of Unrivaled
CHAPTERONE
ISOLDE
The only peace worth protecting is ours.
—Matri’sion proverb
12thDay of Winter’s Wife Moon,
Age of the Locways, Year 271
La’Angi City
The icy winter wind carried with it the stink of the pyres that burned in the orchard, and the reek of a city on the edge of collapse.There was something feral in the night beyond the keep walls.The city was so empty now after the deaths of the plague.And, with the skeleton staff mostly working the keep, the people here were relying on their wits.
I’d never felt quite so at home in La’Angi.
The looters had cut the rope walkways to their nest.They were trapped.Which would’ve been useful if we could’ve safely shot a burning arrow in there, but La’Angi didn’t have the staff to put out a major city fire right now.We also didn’t have the staff to worry about the Lyle family wealth, and here I was anyway.I kept the option of fire in the back of my mind.The Lyle family’s wealth didn’t concern me.The Lyle family’s wrath, as it was tied to Sullivan, who was a Blackguard of Audrey’s father, the Duke of La’Angi…
A smart woman paid attention to men whose expression didn’t change at all between when he stood guard, sipped beer, or broke the spine of his best friend.And bringing the Duke back from the war before we got out of La’Angi would be a greater bother than a quick trip to the old Three Leaves smithy.After all, I’d already scouted the area years ago, when a young girl came seeking to flee her uncle and cousin who’d run the Three Leaves.
Ahead of me a door opened and I stilled.Torchlight spilled over the cobbles and lit up bits of twisted iron that littered the ground around the looters’ headquarters.As traps went, this wasn’t going to help them.Audrey could’ve shown them a thing or two about snares.
The air was cold enough that it burned as I drew it deep into my lungs.The person ahead of me walked around, taking the same path as the one before, and the one before him.A single person doing predictable patrols, twice on the hour.Simple enough to kill them, but there was no benefit unless I needed to use their clothing to disguise myself.
The long-healed broken bone in my left arm ached from the cold, as did the bones in my feet.I spared a moment to marvel at that.There’d been plenty of moments I wouldn’t have thought I’d live long enough to get old bones.
I wiggled my fingers to keep them supple, easing further around the building.I’d circled it three times so far, making sure it was as I recalled.I’d been too late to help that girl so many years ago.But I knew the area.
And I knew where a few bodies were buried.
I should return and try again in the light of day.Kaelson’s scout sure hadn’t been here in the darkness.Those boys weren’t comfortable in the shadows.They did their crimes in the light.
We’d make a plan together, or…mayhap I’d listen to them make their plan.The idea filled me with a pleasant but uncomfortably intense sensation of pride.Audrey and her bloodsworn knight had single-handedly turned back a major ambush while I’d focused on not dying from the plague.I’d only learned about it today, and theystillhadn’t confirmed it.They didn’t really need to.No one else in La’Angi could use a bow the way Audrey could—except me, of course.Kaelson’s comments about a master bowman, and thelackof response and interaction between Audrey and Chay, told me everything.
I tucked my hands under my arms and watched for movement.It was too early for them to be abed, but too cold for them to be in view.The thought of returning with so little information didn’t thrill me.But at least I’d get to see Audrey at work.Mayhap I’d even suggest she take her weapons along.The thought brought me pleasure.Take your city.Take it every single way it can be taken.Claim it so thoroughly that they’ll never forget your name.I could picture her now, war-belt on her hips and axe over one strong shoulder, standing over a looter moaning for her mercy.
I hoped when the time came, she’d be confident in her knowledge of when to stay the axe, and when to bring it down.
A sliver of light appeared on the wall a half-length ahead of me and I paused, a battle-energy rushing through my limbs.
The light vanished.With my gaze I tracked it to the area where it should’ve come from, but all I could see was wall.My mind filled in the forgotten pieces of information I hadn’t needed earlier: the high, narrow windows on each side of the building had always been boarded up.Those boards weren’t really part of the structure.
Then there was the dimmest flicker of light.
An opening.It was covered, and twice my height up the wall, but it was there.
I considered my options.I didn’t have much to show for this jaunt yet.And what if I returned before Audrey was done burning off extra energy with her knight?
Settling my belt more firmly, I lifted my hands to my mouth to warm my fingertips and crossed quietly to the building’s wall.It was made of big, solid, regular slabs of stone.Easy climbing, really.
My toes ached as I dug my boots into the scant cracks left by weather and time.If I could get in tonight, well, there’d be other nests for us to smash together, other opportunities for these men to cry out for Audrey’s mercy.I tried to picture what I knew of the building as I climbed, comparing the distance I’d walked to where I knew the main entrance was on the far side.That was the location of the biggest room.They’d treat that as their feast hall, surely.It was late enough, and cold enough, that they could be settling in to sleep.This wall would just have a few rooms sectioned off with regular pillars or juts to create enclosed spaces.I’d only glanced inside in the past, but that’s what I’d seen in other such buildings.It made sense.
It had been so long since I’d been on the hunt.
The stone beneath my fingertips was bitingly cold, but I didn’t hesitate, pulling myself up, finding ways forward.The flicker of light came again, and now I heard quiet conversation—not well enough to make out the words, just the rise and fall of voices.They sounded sleepy.Sleepy, and happy.Two things I wished for Audrey.
The narrow window ledge was deep and wider than an arrow slit, but not easy to climb through.I suspected no one knew the original use of such openings in the whitesmith furnace, not since Barloc had conquered the city.Just another piece of information lost to time.
