Broken Souls and Bones (Broken Souls and Bones #1)

Chapter 15

15

Roark

Emi sat with her back to me, her pale hair free and loose down her back. She was a woman who appeared harmless, dainty even. I knew better and stiffened when she caught sight of me in her mirror.

“Roark. Always lurking in the doorway.” She spun around on the stool, the sharp blue of her eyes narrowed into icy slits. “Afraid to come closer?”

I waved my hand. Always . Did you see the melder to her chamber?

“I did, along with the other crafters to theirs.”

Good. I hesitated . I apologize for Skalfirth.

A shadow crossed Emi’s face. “You mean when you commanded me to break a man I knew? Even though you know why I vowed never to do such things with my craft again?”

Gods, I was a piece of shit. What was there to say? Emi was the only piece of my home clan I cared to keep. We had trust, yes, but in a way I’d broken a piece of it.

I will never ask it again. We needed the craft to take hold.

“I know, Roark. But next time find a way to leave me out of it.”

Did it hurt you ?

“Physically?” She stretched her neck and rolled her shoulders. “A little. My heart? Yes, it shattered. I actually like Darkwin. He was one of the few decent recruits who did not think I was only meant for his bed.”

I offered a small nod of understanding. Will you think I am an absolute ass if I ask another favor of you?

“Oh, likely, but I do love having debts between us.” She strode across the room, pausing a step away.

I held up the twine-wrapped sheets of parchment Prince Thane and I had been writing on since the first winter I was found at the gates.

Emi flipped through some. “What am I to do with these?”

For the melder .

“Oh, really.” A bit of pink stained her cheeks.

Don’t . You’re doing it again .

“I didn’t say anything.”

She ought to know what I am saying. It means nothing more .

Emi clicked her tongue and propped her chin onto the heel of her hand. “Strange, but you cared little if Melder Fadey understood you.”

I frowned. Fadey was an ass .

“I don’t disagree.” Emi’s face grew somber. “Are you ever going to tell me what happened with the fara wolf?”

Doubtful .

“Roark, be careful how you go. With Lyra now in Stonegate, it’s only a matter of time before the clan finds out. Lust for vengeance never dwindled, I told you this.”

I know . My shoulders stiffened.

Emi tugged on the end of a lock of her hair. “Then be wary of getting close to the melder when—”

One wave of my hand cut her off. I jabbed a finger at her and spoke with my other hand. Enough. I know my duty, and I will see it through . I stepped back into the corridor. Now , will you deliver the ledger? I need to meet with the king .

“Gods, I said I would and I will.” Emi hugged the sheets of parchment to her chest, still offering up the aggravating grin she’d mastered so well. “But I’m just saying you’ve never wanted to have anyone speak to you and—”

I’d already started down the hallway.

“There is no shame in it, Roark Ashwood! I support it, in fact,” she shouted, unbothered if anyone in nearby chambers heard. “You could do with a strong woman to give you something to smile about!”

I offered a rude gesture over my shoulder before I rounded the corner, ignoring the snicker of laughter that followed.

King Damir faced the arching window, watching the bloody shadows of fading sunlight paint his empire in red and gold. Prince Thane was already in the study, seated next to a roaring fire, polishing a snake-hilt dagger.

Baldur was there, murmuring salacious words at the maiden delivering the king’s mead.

I paused in the doorway and stomped one foot gently, signaling my arrival.

Baldur stilled his rakish hands, Thane stopped polishing the steel, but the king hardly turned his head away from the bubbled glass.

“Ah, Sentry Ashwood. Enter.”

Thane stood and leaned against the wall between me and his father, like a shield. Most folk defended the king, but in the case of Thane, I was certain he was trying to protect me.

“Captain Baldur informed me that your uncanny senses for finding craft have come through for us. I do enjoy that side of a Draven. Always able to sense craft in the soul.”

King Damir squared his shoulders to me. It was a simple statement, but there was a veiled threat beneath it all. Like the king believed I was keeping a skill hidden. I was no great hunter of crafters. There was a distinct pull to the magic of craft. It spoke to the soul; one merely needed to be willing to listen.

But the pull had been fiercer than before when I drew close to Lyra. I knew her from the first plum she’d tossed at my head.

Damir was suspicious and trusting of me all at once. I was a dark blade in his palace, a true warrior, but I was Draven. And that, to the Jorvan king, was always a risk.

The king had a youthful face beneath his long beard, but age had grayed some of his golden hair above the ears. “You’ve uncovered the lost melder?”

I dipped my chin in a simple response.

The king hummed in the back of his throat. “Finally. I assume the Stav Guard will be pleased to know they will once again move up in their rank with new bones to meld.”

“Word is already spreading, sire,” Baldur said. “They are thrilled.”

Thane shot me a look of warning. My face must’ve twisted in a glimmer of disgust.

King Damir spun on me. “Tell me about her. How did she slip away during the raids?”

She does not recall . I flexed my fingers once, twice, then slowly, stoically responded. She was raised in a youth house, then went to work in the jarl’s household. The woman can read, but she knows nothing about her craft. I believe she fears it .

Thane translated my gestures. Unlike the prince, who’d practically invented my hand speak, Damir could not be bothered to learn it.

“And what of this Darkwin? He had plans to join the Stav, but lied about a melder. My son seems to think you and Baldur told the girl he would live if she came willingly.”

I doubted Lyra would see her arrival at Stonegate as willing.

Baldur cleared his throat. “My king, the woman had a knife to her throat to keep the man breathing. We had to say something. I, for one, care little if he lives. Stav do not keep secrets from their king.”

I made a grunting sound and turned my back to Baldur and his snobbery. He would kiss the king’s ass for any sort of advancement. No mistake, he’d suck Damir’s cock if asked.

Darkwin has been raised as her brother , I explained, Thane murmuring my responses as I went. In their eyes they are family. With her history, her craft left him fearing for her life .

“So you would have me forgive treachery because he means something to the girl?”

“Father,” Thane said, “I believe this man is loyal to you. He has been told lies like many regarding what happens to melders within these walls.”

Damir’s face fell. “Brutes. Ravagers. They robbed us of Fadey and now wish to rob us of our gods-given defenses.” The king spun back to the window, face flushed.

More importantly , I said even if the king was not looking at me, the woman will not be loyal if Darkwin does not live .

The king peered over his shoulder once Thane concluded the translation. “Manipulative little thing, is she?”

The sneer on the king’s face burned through my blood. I had no care for the life of Lyra Bien other than fulfilling my purpose here, so the jolt of heat wasn’t from anything protective. The cinch in my chest wasn’t for anything other than annoyance that I’d been brought into the middle of all this.

I had a duty, and I wanted to get back to it.

Still, only when Thane jabbed his knuckle against my ribs did I realize my fists had clenched at my sides.

I shook out my hands. She is frightened. Nothing more .

“Hmm. As she should be. Someone slaughtered her predecessor within my gates, and someone wants her kind dead.” Damir stroked the braids of his beard. “I want you to guard her, Ashwood.”

My fingers flicked, an instinct to state my refusal coming swiftly. It would be a horrid mistake to place me in charge of the melder.

I waited for a breath, then, My king, certainly I am needed elsewhere .

Thane glared at me when he recited my response. If I kept arguing, soon enough the prince would begin lying through his translations and insist I agreed with his father’s every word.

Damir’s eyes darkened. “Elsewhere? Is there anywhere else more important than protecting my strongest crafter?”

This would be a mistake. I did not need to know or see Lyra as anything other than a tool used by the forces of Stonegate. Melders worked in soul bones. To disrupt the resting place of the dead to collect their bones always left a mark of corruption.

It wouldn’t be long before her own magic turned her into a greedy, wicked creature. The same as Fadey.

“I’ll do it, sire,” Baldur said. “I’m as skilled as Ashwood with the blade, and there will be no confusion with the woman understanding what I say.”

His words were the slice of a blade. No, that wouldn’t do at all. Baldur would torment her and try to bed her. The melder was my find; if anyone were to ruin her, the right belonged to me.

The captain has units of Stav to oversee. I will guard the melder .

King Damir grinned. “As I thought. I’m told you already did. Had an encounter with a wolf, did you? Not that I’m surprised. Dravens like to send their little pets after us anytime a soul bone is used.”

The king was not wrong. When he used Lyra to fasten more bones to grow his twisted empire, more attacks would come.

Baldur slurped the last drops of ale from his drinking horn, then sloppily wiped his mouth with the back of his arm. “How’d it feel, Ashwood, killing one of your folk’s pups?”

I did not kill the wolf .

“Ah, did you flee like a little, frightened girl?”

“Watch yourself, Captain,” Thane snapped. “You speak recklessly toward my Sentry. Continue and I will enjoy taking out your tongue.”

It was not often the prince showed the darker edges of his soul, but when he did it captivated the whole of a room.

Baldur’s sun-roughened cheeks flushed. “Apologies, my prince. It is the drink and the long journey talking.”

He dipped his chin and stepped nearer to the inglenook, recoiling beneath Thane’s scrutiny.

Damir shook his head as though bored and looked back to me. “If the melder is harmed, remember, Sentry Ashwood, I will hold you responsible. I never want to see another death—not of craft or Stav—inside my walls again. Now go. Wash, rest. You look pitiful.”

Out in the corridor, Baldur knocked my shoulder as he stormed away.

Thane leaned against the wall and blew out a long breath. “What was all that?”

I furrowed my brow and shrugged.

“Don’t play the fool. You hated Fadey, though I don’t know why, and you returned from Skalfirth so twisted in your snarl I thought I might never unravel it. Not to mention, every time Baldur opened his damn mouth about her you looked ready to gut him.”

I waved him away and started my trek to my chambers.

“I mean it,” Thane said, quickening his step to catch up. “Who is this woman and what has she done to you?”

She is no one .

Thane chuckled, not believing a single word, but left me to storm away.