Pain in my thigh. My vision failing. So much pain. I grab a fallen shield and drag it over my head, protecting myself just in time from the barrage of arrows. They’re shooting arrows at me. I lie helpless on the ground.
Death all around me. Terror filling my lungs. My heart ready to explode.
They are shooting arrows at me.
Get up, Bethany, I tell myself. Get up before you die. But all my strength is keeping me from passing out. Passing out means death. Must stay alive.
Edmund Greyfeather’s glassy eyes stare back at me. No! No, he didn’t die. This is wrong. He never died. He lived.
An axe slams down on my back and vibrations seize my body. I grip the blood-slick handholds harder. A beat later and another swing. The world blackens and then numbing nothingness spreads across my body.
Arrago’s bloody, mangled face. No, this is a dream. A horrible, horrible nightmare.
Arrago’s eyes open. “I loved you and you let me die.”
No! I didn’t let him die because he never died!
My legs don’t work. I can’t move my fucking legs. I can’t run away. Why won’t I wake up? Why? Why? Apexia, if you love me, you will make this stop!
My grip loosens on the shield. I’m not strong enough anymore. I’m so weak. I cannot protect anyone. I can’t even protect myself now. Someone’s kicking the shield away. The end is coming. There’s ringing in my ears. They’re going to kick me to death. Bash in my head until my brains splatter the ground. Then, my friends, the few I haven’t failed, will find me and my failure will be complete.
Bethany bolted upright, gasping for air. She blinked her eyes, processing the fact that this was now reality and she had been dreaming. She was in her office, lying on her ratty sofa.
She looked up to see Erem, firelight flickering across his skin. “You all right?”
Bethany forced herself to focus on his concerned expression. Her heart pounded. She shivered from the cold sweat that soaked her clothes.
“Minute,” she managed to force out. “Just wait.”
She reminded herself she was safe and that her friends were still alive. She was alive. There was no fight, no immediate danger. She just needed to breathe. Deep breaths. Breathe.
“I’m okay,” she said after a few moments. “Sorry.”
“Shit, Bethany. Why aren’t you sleeping in your bed?”
“Long story.” She noticed the roaring fire close to her and soaked in its comforting embrace. “Just give me a minute to wake up.”
Erem pulled a chair out from her desk and sat down. “How do you get your fire lit so early? Mine doesn’t get done for a couple more hours.”
“I don’t know,” Bethany said. She forced the words out, trying to get her hands to stop shaking. “What are you doing here?”
“Scouts came back in the middle of the night. There’s a group of Magi in the hills, half a day’s ride. Jovan is assigning…me…to lead the team.” Erem gulped. “He wanted you to come, to help. He said you wanted some fresh air.” He looked at her, concerned. “If you’re up for it.”
“Of course I’m up for it,” Bethany snapped. She swung her legs off the chaise and stood. Her vision blurred for a moment, so she stayed still until the sensation faded. Glee lifted her steps as she pushed her sofa back into place against the wall. She’d not been on a scouting trip since they dug in for the winter, either because she was too busy, considered too invaluable, or because Allric wouldn’t let her. “Jovan said I could go?”
“Allric said you could go, actually. I just came from his linen closet.”
Bethany snorted. “You’ll be okay with me training you?”
“Well…” Erem said, drawing out the word, “as long as all that paper-pushing hasn’t made you soft.”
“Don’t make me hurt you,” Bethany said cheerfully. She poured water from the full kettle near her fireplace into her favourite mug that sat on the hearth. She drank from it, smiling yet again to find the tea leaves floating on the top of the water and the bittersweet taste waking up her senses. “Huh.”
“What?”
“For the last week, someone’s been lighting my fire early, putting my favourite tea in my mug, and making sure there’s plenty of hot water.” She gave him a sidelong glance. “I think Lendra isn’t the only one with a secret admirer.”
Erem’s eyes went comically wide. “I thought that had stopped.”
“It did.” Bethany mused. “She was so very disappointed.”
“Oh,” Erem said. “About the flowers, or about them stopping?”
Bethany turned away so that she wouldn’t laugh in Erem’s face. Oh, he was definitely the puppy who’d sent those flowers to Lendra. “Who knows with children, right?”
“Lendra’s not a child, Bethany,” he snapped. He coughed and said, “I mean, you have to stop acting like she’s a little girl. She’s an adult and capable of making her own decisions.”
Bethany wiped the grin off her face and turned to give Erem the harshest glare she could muster. She didn’t speak; if she had, she’d start laughing. Oh, she remembered her first brush with love. Apexia have mercy, may no one else remember how pathetic Bethany had been back then.
Bethany sipped at her tea and smiled. “Fucking Arrago.”
“Huh?”
“I said fucking Arrago.”
“What’d he do now?”
“I mentioned in a meeting that I bribed Edmund to smuggle me some of this tea out of the kitchen. I said it was the only thing that helped my nerves in the morning when I’ve had a bad sleep. From cold, I’d said.” She looked at the fire. “Now I find my fire blazing and my mug filled with tea leaves every single morning.”
“Leave him be, Bethany.”
“I’m not going to say anything to him. He’s been through enough.” She sipped at her drink. This really was her absolute favourite hot beverage from the North. Impossible to get down South. “I really do like this stuff. It turns the water pink, you know?”
Erem snorted. “Has anyone told you that you’re a big softie underneath all that armour?”
“Has anyone told you how much it hurts to have your intestines pulled out through your nostrils?”
“Ah, good, you’re awake. Come on. Let’s go kill some shit.”
“Sounds good to me. I’m bringing the mug, though.”
****
Kiner watched the chambermaid stack wood next to his fireplace. She made several trips out to the corridor. He’d given up telling her to have the footmen come in with the wood to make her job easier; they never listened. When she was done, he thanked her and she hurried off to continue the endless job of delivering wood to the fireplaces of the castle.
It amazed Kiner how much wood was consumed. There were a couple of new coal fireplaces that also needed coal, but wood was the primary fuel of the castle. His room back in the temple hadn’t even had a fireplace—why would it? It was normally blazing hot. Chilly in the winters, by his standards, but he just put on extra layers. If he was really cold, he would go to Bethany’s room and warm up. She’d had running hot water.
Kiner shook off the thoughts. He’d been up most of the night, working, unable to sleep. He’d finally settled down when the scouts came back with word about the Magi. There was no resting after that news, so he decided to stay up and finish as much work as possible.
He heard laughter in the hallway beyond his door and soon heard Bethany teasing someone. A knock came, and in walked Bethany with Erem at her side.
Erem was red-faced and looked ready to either bolt or throttle Bethany; he was only taking time to ponder which action to take first. Even first thing in the morning, Erem always looked well-rested…and handsome. Kiner grimaced and pulled his thoughts away from that forbidden place.
Erem rolled his eyes. “Lord Kiner, how have you remained friends with Bethany all of these years and not killed her?”
“Practice,” Kiner said with a steady smile. Myra had told him that his eyes softened whenever he look
ed at Erem, so he was working hard to keep his expressions guarded. Perhaps it came across as coldness, but there were things a man needed to protect himself against. This was one of those things.
“I’m simply saying that when I find whoever was giving my little sister flowers, I’m going to kill them,” Bethany said in a very reasonable tone. The dark circles that existed permanently under her eyes were more pronounced than ever. He knew what that was like, and he knew the laughter was her way to push down the pain until an appropriate time to let it bubble back to the surface. When this war was over, he would retire to an isolated monastery for a decade or two, and do nothing but tend potatoes and pray for Apexia’s grace to soothe his wounds. Perhaps she would even forgive him for all of his transgressions.
“I’ve told you, it’s Arrago who sent the flowers,” Kiner said. He knew Erem sent them, but he wasn’t sure how Bethany would react to Erem and Lendra flirting.
Bethany waved him off. “It’s not Arrago. I asked. Though I think he’s in on the conspiracy because the flowers were coming from his hothouse.”
“I’ve seen lilies at the market, too,” Erem said. “Maybe they’re coming from more than one place. Like, maybe Arrago was sending them, and maybe, I don’t know, a maid picked some up at market. Or something. I don’t know.”
And that, right there, was why Kiner had never told Erem that he fancied him. Bethany and Jovan didn’t understand it. Bethany was a romantic at heart; she just hid it with plenty of threats and bluster. She wanted Erem to be into men because she wanted Kiner happy. It was adorably sweet how Bethany kept coming up with excuses to get Erem stuck working in Kiner’s office. And he did appreciate Erem’s presence, even if it made his heart ache.
But Bethany acted like Erem could just change his inclinations like a tunic; Kiner knew Erem liked women. Lendra and the flowers were evidence of that.
Jovan, of course, was far more practical. He argued Erem needed to be told because perhaps Erem enjoyed the company of both sides, and this Lendra business was just a young man’s desire to stick his bits somewhere warm.
While crude, Jovan did have a point. But Kiner knew. He knew Erem too well. So he smiled and encouraged Erem to keep sending the flowers, and headed off Bethany as much as he could. Even if Erem did have any leaning towards men, elven conduct rules were hard to overcome. Erem was raised in Wyllow by strict, devout parents. Tossing aside that conditioning was not an easy task. Kiner understood that; he was still struggling with it himself.
Kiner let out a long, loud sigh. “If the two of you are done with your pillow talk, I’d like to start this meeting before the Magi lay siege to this castle and put me out of my misery. Dear Apexia have mercy, let that happen.”
Bethany made a rude gesture and plunked down in the faded, padded chair near his desk. She sipped at her mug. “What are the details?”
Kiner motioned for Erem to take a seat. Kiner rolled out a tiny map no bigger than his hand. Bethany pulled her chair over to get a better look. She had such piss-poor eyesight.
He pointed at the X marked on it. “Scouts report there are twenty Magi here. They’re disguised as a group of farm hands looking for seasonal work, but they’ve not approached any of the estates along the way. There’s plenty of work out there on the farms, but they’re just making their slog here. Plus, my scouts report that they’ve found three bodies, all with ritual markings on them.”
“Any idea what they’re doing?” Bethany said. “Twenty isn’t enough to take on the army, Magic or not,” She sipped her drink.
“What in Apexia’s holy name are you drinking?” Kiner asked.
“Vanilla rose tea,” she boasted.
“Smells horrible. So, the scouts think they’re heading in this direction, perhaps to get hired in some form. Infiltrate, cause trouble, perhaps even assassinate. Let’s face it, if it was any of the nobles on the throne and not Arrago, they’d probably close their borders and let the Rygents die inside the barrier.”
Bethany nodded. “True enough. Should we increase security around Arrago?”
“Fuckin’ idiot won’t let me.”
Kiner looked up from the map to see his best friend of too many decades sauntering in, a mug in one hand and a bowl in the other. The bowl was filled with chucks of bread and what looked like grey cheese.
Jovan grinned and sat down. “I woke him up an hour ago and told him what was going on. He told me to go…Well, I won’t repeat what he told me to do.” He offered his bowl to them. “Want some?”
“No thanks,” Kiner said. “Already ate.”
“I really do like how Cook Rogers has food non-stop here,” Bethany said. “I adore him.”
“He’s the hand of Apexia,” Kiner said dryly.
“I’m starving,” Erem muttered and went to take one of the bread pieces. His nose wrinkled. “Apexia’s tits—kippers? It’s too early for fish.”
Bethany grabbed a piece of bread and spilled one of the kippers onto the desk. Kiner sighed, but Bethany scooped it up and shoved it into her mouth. “Sorry,” she said as she wiped the oily residue away with her sleeve.
“So, Arrago said no?” Kiner asked.
“He said a lot more than no, but basically, yeah, he said no.”
Bethany snorted. “Poor man.”
Jovan stared at her. “Seriously?”
She took another piece of bread from his bowl. “Arrago’s been struggling with the notion he’s the most important man in Taftlin. At least Celeste could help buffer him a bit. But now…between him mourning and him being stubborn…”
Kiner snorted. “You’re one to speak about stubborn.”
She gave him a dirty look. “He’s going to need someone to explain this to him. I’d recommend Edmund, but…Apexia’s might, he’s useless right now, too. What about Lord Stanley?”
“Which one’s he?” Jovan asked.
Bethany shrugged. “The old one with the beard.”
Erem rolled his eyes. “They are all old with beards, Bethany.”
“Shut up, no one asked you,” Bethany snapped, though she was smiling. “Stanley is getting along with Arrago the best, from what I can tell. Maybe just ask around? Someone must know which of the old men is Stanley. They all look the same to me.”
Kiner let out an exasperated sigh. “Lord Stanley is the shorter man, tanned skin, white beard, long white hair tied with a black ribbon, always wears a black cloak with white fur trim.”
“Seriously?” Bethany asked.
“Your job, Lady Bethany,” Kiner said with great sarcasm, “is to hit things until they stop moving. Mine is to use my superior intellect to suss out identities, motives, and then find ways to use them to our advantage.”
She made a disgusted sound. “Talk to Stanley, then. Arrago has almost no personal guards. The old guards were loyal to Daniel and died on the field, or deserted at the beginning of the war. He needs the help.”
“Since when do you care what Arrago needs?” Jovan said.
“I’ve always cared about Arrago needs. I just don’t want him to know it,” Bethany said.
“I miss Celeste already. She would have fixed this. I mean, I like you, too, course, Bethany, but she was really something.”
“Thanks, asshole.”
Kiner sighed. Giving a briefing with Jovan and Bethany in the same room was impossible. Kiner waited while they insulted each other, trading physical and verbal jabs before Erem finally commented that maybe they should know what the mission was.
“Thank you, Erem,” Kiner said. “I’m glad that someone has the mission in mind. Tell me, why aren’t you Lady Champion again?”
“He’s got the legs for it,” Bethany said.
Jovan sized up Erem’s tall, lean frame. “Acceptable.”
Kiner made a point to keep his gaze on Erem’s bemused face and nowhere else. “Feel free to report them for harassment.”
“Tempting,” Erem said.
“Hit me with the details,” Bethany said between mouthfuls.
> “Let’s keep this mission simple. Attack, clean up the mess, come back and celebrate.”
“Prisoners?” Bethany asked.
“At this stage, the only Magi I want is a dead Magi.”
“Agreed,” Bethany said.
Erem nodded. “Same here.”
Jovan held up his disgusting bowl of fish and bread in agreement.
They went through the details. Jovan was sending fifteen knights and forty regulars from his troops. Jovan, obviously, was staying, since they couldn’t all go playing soldier in the fields. Kiner had been surprised that Allric had suggested taking Bethany.
In fact, it had really surprised Kiner when Allric said he was thinking of training up Erem to take over from Bethany, to let Bethany go back on the front lines. Setting aside how she was the daughter of Apexia and all the trouble killing her would bring down on Allric’s head, Bethany was an accomplished war leader. She was a general in every sense of the word.
There was more going on here than any of them knew, Kiner was certain. But he wasn’t paid to look after the daughter of Apexia. He was responsible for following orders and his orders were to send Bethany off into the wilderness to hunt some murderers.
He outlined the mission. They’d leave in two hours, spend half the day riding, and then make camp. Send out scouts posing as locals, travellers, migrants, or anything else that would help them fit in. They’d attack during the night, ideally, and then head back for a hot meal.
Rarely did anything go that simply, but Kiner liked to keep his plans simple whenever possible.
“Erem, any questions?” Bethany asked.
“I don’t think so.”
“What happens if we get separated?”
“Oh. Right,” Erem said. “Should we fall back here?”
Bethany shook her head. “Not here. Gree is surrounded by civilians.”
“Oh—the watchtowers. Isn’t there one here?” He pointed at the map. “What’s it called?”
“River Archibald Watchtower,” Kiner supplied. “They’re well fitted to fend off a few dozen Magi. Anything stronger than that, get your asses out of there and fast. Get word back here and Allric can send out a proper force against them. Remember, we’re under strict orders from the King to keep Magic users away from civilians whenever possible. Likewise, we’re supposed to protect the farmers and their fields.”
Fury (Tranquility Book 3) Page 10
