Page 4 of The Poison of the Earth
It’s a command and thus my natural instinct is to refuse, but I’m starving.
“Thank you,“ I murmur, picking up my wine and drinking deep before digging into some wild fowl with a mushroom sauce.
I sense their eyes on me but I keep my gaze at my plate as I eat.
Eventually, they begin to speak amongst themselves. I listen closely but the very little that might be useful they seem to use code words. I sneak glances up. General Kai is younger than he first appeared, perhaps not much older than I. He’s broad and tall, but he seems muscular in the useful manner, not the pretty muscles that some males seem proud of.
The earth Fae I’ve learned is named Lilac is speaking. “Well, if we could—”
The door swings open and my eyes turn. That raven shifter Captain who ‘found’ me. His eyes land on me and I look down.
“Ah, glad to see you haven’t killed her, Lonan,” he says in a congenial tone as a servant sweeps in to set a place for him. He tugs off his jacket, revealing his muscular arms. His skin is a rich topaz color.
He continues, “But why is she at our dinner table? She smells.”
I slowly turn my face to him and glare. He grins at me, but there is absolutely no fire in his eyes.
Before I can think, my mouth has gotten away from me, “I wouldn’t smell if I hadn’t been left to rot for a week.”
Commander Lonan chuckles. “There’s some spark,” he says, tone pleased, before his face shutters and he turns away.
General Kai clears his throat as he glares at me. “What’s your name, child?”
“Allie Landsend. And I imagine we’re nearly of an age, so it seems odd that you insist on calling me a child.”
The Commander chuckles again and glances at Kai. He turns his attention back to me. I struggle not to squirm under his now hard gaze. “And what do you have to tell me that was important enough for Caspian to beg for your life?”
“Beg is a strong word,” Caspain drawls, drinking deep of his wine.
I ignore him; I don’t break Lonan’s gaze. “I worked as a maid for one of the King’s consorts. I know all manner of useful things.”
Masculine chuckles erupt around me.
Commander Lonan retorts, “And exactly why would pillow talk from that shitestain interest me? Hmm? Dirty linens and who’s knocked up with a bastard?” He leans back and grabs his goblet.
I raise my chin, refusing to be cowed by these idiots. “Are you so dense that you do not know that women run everything? I can tell you when he’s in whose rooms, when he’s dead drunk or prick-deep, what mornings he has meetings with his counselors, when he rides out because his one consort enjoys horseback riding more than riding him. I know which cook hates him for breaking her daughter’s heart, which guardsman has gambling debt, which is most like to call in sick, which the King is fucking on the sly, since he’s been tasked with creating an heir.”
The three men at the table blink, all frozen in surprise. Lilac chuckles, “She seems useful.”
A look crosses Commander Lonan’s face. He stares at me for a moment and I glare back at him. He smoothly stands, crossing the distance around the table to me swiftly.
Quite suddenly his hand is wrapped in my cloak and he has me pressed to the wall, a dagger to my neck. He’s glaring down at me, inexplicably angry.
I don’t break eye contact, though I probably should. I should weep, but I cannot find it within myself, so I settle for at least keeping my fool mouth shut and my magic locked.
I hear three chairs scrape back.
“Lonan,” a single, soft word of concern from General Kai.
But it’s Caspian’s voice that is upset. “Release her, Lo. Godsbelow, did you not see what was done to her?”
Our gazes are still locked, and I see something, concern perhaps, flicker in his dark eyes.
He keeps the dagger to my throat and eyes on mine, but leans away and grabs my skirts roughly in one hand.
I glower at him but do not flinch. I feel the cool air on my exposed legs as he gathers my skirts higher and higher.
I hear Lilac and General Kai make noises of outrage, yet I still do not drop Commander Lonan’s gaze.
