CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I swung the replica of Cardinal Jiang’s cane as I walked down the dungeon stairs. Ysabel met me at the bottom, this time wearing an elegant yellow dress. She winked at me. “Excellent acting today.”
“You carried it, really,” I mumbled.
Ysabel lifted up my chin. “Nonsense, you were fabulous. Bring more of that energy. We need to visit the representative from the Guild of Slavers before we talk to the nobles.”
“They’re calling it the Guild of Indentured Servitude now,” I snarled. “I think we should turn it into the Guild Out of Work.”
Ysabel grinned. “Yeah, that energy. I’m in a hurry to throw that bastard out of my city, but first we need to intimidate him badly enough that he’ll go back to the guild and tell them not to mess with us again. Ideally forever, but I’ll even settle for buying some time to rebuild the city.”
“I’m getting good at intimidation.” I swung the cane again. It bounced off the walls and hit my shins. “Ow.”
Ysabel rolled her eyes. “Let me do the talking. I’m the innocent Holy Maiden, and you’re the evil duchess threatening me. Just stand behind me looking wicked, and I’ll handle the rest. You know I’ve got your back, baby sis.”
“Of course.”
Opening the cell door, Ysabel strode in.
The room had stone walls. Arrand sat on a simple wooden chair next to a cot.
His head immediately shot up, and his eyes went to the cane I carried.
I could almost see him making the connection to my supposedly broken life-oaths. His nose twitched like a ferret’s.
Ysabel’s chest heaved. She wiped a tear from her eye. “I’m relieved the Blood Duchess hasn’t tortured you yet.”
“Holy Maiden,” Arrand said very coldly. He didn’t seem moved by her innocent act, and I could guess why. Ysabel had married Dark Lord Kaine, the guild’s greatest enemy. This particular audience didn’t have any sympathy for her.
Ysabel gripped the wall. “I was so terrified that the duchess had already carried through with her threat to rip out your hair and glue it to your ass.”
Hey, Yzzy, do you have to keep framing me for increasingly creative crimes? I stood straight and tried to look like someone who had the faintest idea what my sister was talking about.
Arrand sneered. “Did you manage to seduce this hideous beast to your will like the last dark lord?” He gestured at me with a contemptuous expression.
“How could you say such cruel words?” Ysabel dabbed at her eyes. “The Blood Duchess took me hostage to force my husband to aid her crimes. If you don’t give up on Arahasnor’s debt, then she’ll destroy the guild.”
“I’m sure Dark Lord Kaine needed a lot of convincing,” Arrand said sarcastically. “Did you have a threesome with your husband and the Blood Duchess, you slut?”
Anger rose within me hot and fast. No one called my sister a slut.
Standing behind Ysabel, I cleared my throat.
I made a gesture as if removing someone’s hair and ramming it up their ass.
It was a creative gesture, but Arrand got the meaning.
His face paled. “How terrible that the wicked duchess took a holy maiden hostage. Very evil.”
“Isn’t it?” Ysabel beamed, then remembered to wipe the smile off her face. “Fortunately, I persuaded Duchess Hedri to release you, under the condition that you sign a paper forfeiting any debt owed by Arahasnor to the Guild of Indentured Servitude.”
Arrand growled, “This is an outrage. A contract under duress would never be enforceable.”
Ysabel arched an eyebrow. “Then it seems to me that a great many of your guild’s contracts wouldn’t be enforceable. We’ll let the Conclave of Kings decide. Perhaps they’ll hear the case sometime in the next century. In the meantime, sign this.” She waved a paper.
Arrand looked over the document. “You’re not even going to offer us a single coin?”
“Arahasnor is broke.” Ysabel shrugged. “I could let you punch me instead.”
I wondered what Ysabel was doing, but then I remembered her request to be silent. I’d interfere if necessary—I’d never let anyone punch my pregnant sister in front of me.
Arrand growled, “Don’t tempt me, you little snake.”
Ysabel clasped her hands together. “I feel overcome with guilt to be assisting the vile Blood Duchess, even under duress. Yet the Sun God has illuminated my soul, teaching me that the answer to all sin is suffering. He has granted me a divine vision.” She raised her eyes to the ceiling as if staring straight up into the distant sun.
“Through the power of your sacred fist, I will be cleansed of sin.”
Arrand looked wild-eyed. “You have no idea how badly I want to do it, you crazy bitch.”
“Better yet, stab me! My blood will purify me!” Ysabel cried.
“I’d do it in a heartbeat if I had a knife!”
“Here you go.” Ysabel handed Arrand a knife. Then she screamed, “Help! This man attacked me!”
Kaine burst through the door. “Ysabel!”
Alzira ran in close behind him, screaming, “Your Holiness!” Both of their eyes fell on Arrand. “How dare you, sinner!” Alzira shattered the knife to shards while it was still in his hand.
“But—” was all Arrand had time to say before Kaine and Alzira fell upon him.
Ysabel linked arms with me and strolled out of the cell, closing it behind her.
Strangled cries of pain came from inside.
As we headed down the chilly stone hallway, she said, “Don’t worry, I told them that he had to be in good enough shape to sign the paper afterward.
Now we have an excuse to deny the guild’s debt. They just attacked the Holy Maiden.”
I blinked. “Will that work?”
“It’s the type of legal case that only the Conclave of Kings could decide, and it takes the Conclave a long time to do anything.” Ysabel shrugged. “We could drag this out for years. Decades, even. Mainly I just wanted an excuse to hit the slaver a few times before we throw him out.”
I could understand that. “Are we talking to the local nobles next?”
“Yes, we ought to.” Ysabel frowned. “That situation will be harder to handle. Some of them know me perhaps a little too well to be fooled by my acting. Others might enjoy my suffering too much. It might be better if you intimidate them alone. Do you think you’re up for it?”
I swallowed. A childish part of me didn’t want to let my big sister down. “Uh … can you tell me what to say?”
Ysabel grinned. “I already prepared a script.”
Ysabel had arranged for the guards to herd all the nobles we’d wrongfully abducted into the prison yard outside for my speech.
Though it was a sunny day, the high stone walls cast long, dark shadows.
Snow buried the grass. As soon as I stepped out, everyone’s heads shot up.
Several immediately fastened their gazes on the replica of Jiang’s cane.
Baleful glares hit me from all directions.
I was close enough for them to attack me, if they had the nerve.
I shivered, not just from the cold. This lot did not look as intimidated or remorseful as I’d hoped.
I reminded myself that Kaine was lurking just inside, ready to come out if I shouted.
Standing in front of the prisoners, I cleared my throat. “Listen up, pigeon pluckers. I’ve come to dictate my terms.”
“You can’t dictate terms!” the lady in the yellow dress shouted. Countess Lealonie, if I remembered correctly. “You’re a duchess of Sherda, not even from our country.”
“Oh, so you remember that I’m the Blood Duchess?” I bared my teeth. “From the way you’ve been talking to me, I thought you had no idea.”
This won me a brief silence. “Since you refused to negotiate with me the first time, you’ve lost your chance. You’ll give me anything I ask for, or your lives and lands will be forfeit.”
The silence was promising, or so I thought. At least it meant everyone was too scared to shout the insults I could see hovering on their red faces.
Eventually, Countess Lealonie said, “As if you aren’t going to run my lands into the ground with your reckless spending anyway.”
Something about how she said it got to me. Not even angry, just bitterly resigned. At this point, I was supposed to threaten to hang them all upside down by their heels and extract all their blood. I glanced down at the script on my hand, where I was pretty sure I’d misspelled “exsanguination.”
Then I sighed, and said, “I don’t need more jewels and dresses. I need the money to pay off the former king’s debt. I have no qualms about kicking out the Guild of Indentured Servitude without paying them, but I need to at least pay all the workers who built the World Games stadium.”
Maybe I was making a huge mistake. I probably shouldn’t show any weakness in front of enemies. But I couldn’t help trying.
Countess Lealonie snorted. “The last time King Uctor said we needed to accept a tribute hike for the good of the nation, it turned out he had to offer up compensation because he’d groped a foreign queen.
Given that you seduced and abducted the dwarven ambassador’s secretary, it looks like you’re following in his footsteps. ”
By the Sun God, how had that rumor made it all the way to the dungeon already?
Guards could be such gossips. I winced. “I’m not giving the Dwarven Caves a single aracoin.
I booted them out after forcing them to renounce their claim on our kingdom.
You may not like me, but right now, you need me to save your country. ”
Countess Lealonie crossed her arms. “Arahasnor is going to hell. That’s why I need to keep every last coin in my own lands, to look after my own people.”
It was selfish but in an understandable way. Probably my extravagant and reckless behavior of late hadn’t inspired any trust. Heaving a huge sigh, I plopped down on the ground. The damn heels were killing me. “What would you want the crown to do with your money?”