Page 35 of Unrivaled
The thought of Darrius giving Raider’s Ban horseflesh to the La’Angi stables was an alien one.If Bliksem hadn’t been a gelding, I’d never have kept him.
“The Butcher decided he wanted Arabella and got rid of the competitors,” I offered, hoping it might save them the horror of this drawn-out story.I didn’t need details.“I know.I’m sorry, Kaelson.”In the flickering torchlight, in the close quarters, I could almost feel the way their bodies tensed at my dismissal.“I’m sorry,” I offered, gently.“I am.It’s history.”
“Wolfswail is history,” Thomas said, softly.“And yet they’re back there.”
“Not us, though.”Kaelson’s gaze swung to Thomas, his expression worried.“We got smart, Tom.”
“Most kids your age,” Tom told me, lifting his cup in my direction, “you grow up here, you know you keep your nose clean and your trap shut.”
“He didn’t grow up here,” Kaelson said patiently.“We gotta explain it.Walk him through it, like.”
Before I could tell them just how much I knew, down to the physical responses the woman I was sworn to protect had just to the memories of that man, Thomas leant forward.“Lady Arabella, she was smart.Everyone said so.She knew when things were coming.She could predict things.Always six steps ahead, she was.She sent Darrius off with her prize horse.Refused to have that damned horse here.”And mayhap it was the hitch in his voice, or that I could so easily imagine Audrey sending Storm off with Isolde, but I felt a knot tighten in my guts.
“Cayden stayed to help the mare with foal,” Kaelson said, his voice low and respectful.“The Duke wanted to train the foal, but Cayden didn’t appreciate his interference.The lady didn’t speak up, of course.If she had, it would’ve been even worse.”
I waited for the rest.But that was it.That was all that was said on the topic.They both lifted their cups grimly.
A man I’d never ever heard of, a mare and a foal.I shook my head.I knew he was a heartless bastard.Were I genuinely thinking about the Duke of La’Angi, I wouldn’t do monsters the disservice of lumping them in with the likes of him, nor provide him with the excuse for his deeds.
He was no monster.
He made choices every day.Sometimes he chose mercy.Often, he chose to abide by social rules.
Sometimes he committed atrocities.
“The lady, she was smart,” Kaelson said, and there was grief in his voice now.“She was quiet when he was around, never spoke out.She was the picture of the wife he wanted.She tried different things to help people.The city gardens she wanted to plant.Remember that?”
“I don’t,” Thomas said, frowning.“When’d she do that?”
“Right before the wedding,” Kaelson said, with a nod.He took a pull of the cider and let out a noise somewhere between relief and surrender as he swallowed it.“She never got out of the keep.Couldn’t be so far.Wasn’t seemly.”
“I wasn’t stationed close,” Thomas said, with a shrug.
“And the mid-winter dance?”Kaelson asked him.“You’d remember the winter festival.”
“I remember the winter festival,” Tom agreed, and dropped his eyes.
“We didn’t think aught of it,” Kaelson told me.“His first dance, the Duke doesn’t let anyone dance with the lady, but he’s new and it’s a common affair.You haven’t seen one.We had plague, and that shut down normal plans.But it’s for all of us, like.Not a ball, but a celebration for the city.It was nice of them to attend.”He waved a hand, as if nobility were a different breed who didn’t need to make sense.“She talked to people though.”He looked at me, the cup between his hands.“She talked to them, boy.That’s all.”
I didn’t have a hard time believing the Butcher had been cruel and controlling.I didn’t need a list.“How do we keep Audrey safe?”I asked them.
“D’you remember Sean?”Kaelson asked Thomas, frowning.
“Aaliyah’s Sean?”
I looked down at my cup again, grappling with my impatience.We were here, doing this.I considered making an excuse and walking out, but I knew I wouldn’t.
“No.No, Sean from Park and Twelfth.His wife moved to Ange’s Pass after the war.”Thomas just shook his head.“Shame.He was solid.Sean’s dad, he’ll be in the halls of Velkyn.If anyone got in, he did.Those days, industry ran the city and the bribes flowed.Sean’s papa, he’d have none of it.Got himself on the wrong side of the wrong people.I grew up with Sean.”
Was there a way to graciously exit their journey down memory back alley?I settled back in my chair and hoped the drinking drastically increased.I’d wish them well when they went to piss.
“Every now and then he’d say something that’d just stop me in my tracks.‘Nah, can’t buy from that butcher, they nearly killed us a few months ago selling my da poison tripe’ just casually in conversation.”
A smile flickered over Thomas’ face.“I heard him talked about, now you mention it.What was his pa’s name?Allen?”
“Something like that,” Kaelson agreed, snorting a bit.“Sean, he was solid.He was on his way home after wearing the tabard for less’n a moon with a couple older chaps.They made sure he got home safe.His family, they had enemies.”
“They would’ve,” Thomas agreed.
