Chapter 1 #4
“And the fact that she’s been sent to protect the beast you’re here to slay.”
He arched a brow at that. “Pardon?”
“That was her final thought before she went to sleep. You’re her archenemy, X.”
That was nothing new. He seemed to be most people’s archenemy. “And?”
Masakage put away his things, then stretched out on his pallet. “Indeed.”
He shook his head at his brother’s weird one-word comment.
But this news was definitely something to ponder as he considered how Gisela would react to their conflicted goals.
Xaydin used his own powers to pull the blanket up around her so that she wouldn’t get cold. She was a creature of great beauty, and he was trying to reconcile how she’d come to serve the centaur bitch queen.
Probably a hostage like they’d been. Only he’d never seen her while they’d been held.
Which meant nothing. There had been dozens of hostages, and they hadn’t all been kept in the same place.
Meara had taken a great deal of pleasure in turning her prisoners against everyone and everything. Had he not had the Outlaws as his brethren, there was no telling how he’d have ended up, especially after he’d been told about his father’s death.
He was grateful every day of his life for the stroke of luck he’d had in finding his fellow Outlaws. They alone had kept him safe and relatively sane.
“Should we kill her?”
Xaydin was shocked by that question. “When did you become so bloodthirsty?” Normally, those kinds of thoughts were his domain.
“Life…as well as my older brother…has taught me that sometimes it’s best to strike first.”
I am an asshole.
He should have taught his brother more productive things. Like crochet or pottery.
“What about Inshū?” Xaydin reminded him.
“The gods will understand.”
Wow. Masakage was in a foul mood tonight. “She’s after the ataswere. Let her waste her time chasing it.”
Masakage took her cup and held it out toward Xaydin. “Can you read the leaves?”
“Not my talent.” But he took the cup anyway and looked into it. All he saw were grinds in the bottom.
“There’s more to her journey than just Oath Island.”
Xaydin wondered how Masakage could know that based on nothing more than some grinds swirled in the bottom of a clay cup. It made no sense to him. “What else do you see?”
“Whatever you do, don’t tell her you serve Dash.”
That was easy enough. “I don’t serve him.”
Masakage rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.”
He did, but something in his soul loved to antagonize his brother. “Why?”
“She’s been ordered to execute any Outlaw she finds.” He took the cup back from Xaydin, rinsed it with water, then put it into his pack with his other dishes. “That means you.”
“Then perhaps we should execute her.”
“Not based on what I see.”
Xaydin didn’t like that tone of voice. “Tell me why you’ve changed your mind. You were so willing to just a few seconds ago.”
Masakage didn’t answer. “Rest. You’ll need it.”
That made his stomach cramp. “I hate your ability to see the future, especially when you don’t share that knowledge.”
“You’re not the only one. I find it most annoying myself.”
That was something Masakage had never admitted to before. Interesting. “Is there any way to control it?”
He shook his head. “Believe me, I’ve tried.”
Damn. He didn’t envy him, then. While others might want to know the future, he didn’t. Here and now was all that interested him. The future would come regardless, and he had no plans for it.
“Has your vision ever been wrong?”
Masakage shook his head. “As much as I hate the ability to see the future, I hate it even more when it doesn’t show me anything and I’m blindsided.”
“That’s so fucked up.”
“Yes, it is.” Sighing, he rolled over to face the door. “Get a good night’s sleep, X. We need to rest while we can.”
“Is that a warning?”
Masakage rolled back over to offer him his bag of coins.
Normally, he’d refuse.
Tonight, however, he was curious, so he reached in and pulled one out. It held the image of an oni on one side and something that looked like swords on the other.
He handed it off to Masakage who scowled at it. “Six swords.”
“What’s that mean?”
“Your journey is tied to hers.”
“Is that from my brother or from the alley rat?”
“Alley demon,” Masakage corrected.
Xaydin wrinkled his nose. “The Masakage I know was an alley rat like the rest of us.”
He scoffed. “Don’t live in the past, X. Wallowing in tragedy isn’t good for anyone and especially not trolls.”
Maybe, but as much as he did his best to move on, he had a hard time letting go. Losing his father had gutted him in a way nothing else had. What they’d endured in Meara’s court was even harder. “How do you manage?”
“One breath at a time, brother. One breath at a time.” And with that, he rolled over again to sleep.
Xaydin listened to the quiet. Living above a very active tavern, silence wasn’t something he heard often. As a child in Meara’s court, it’d been the sounds of agonized screams and those begging for mercy that had lulled him to sleep.
Sounds that still rang in his ears. Which was why he lived above a tavern. Silence, to him, was disturbing and he did his best to avoid it.
All his life, he’d tried to right wrongs. It was a burden his father had tasked him with.
You’re stronger than your older brother. Smarter. It’s why you must go and why I need to keep Zagrun at home. He’d never survive on his own.
Zagrun…
His other half-brother whom he hated with every breath he drew. If only his father had held Masakage’s sight, then he’d have known he was signing his own death warrant by keeping his full-blooded troll at home with him while he sent Xaydin off to suffer.
Zagrun had been stupid and easily led astray by their father’s enemies, and especially their uncle.
At least you don’t have his fate.
True. He’d only been enslaved for a short time as a child. Zagrun would never again know freedom so long as their uncle lived. It was why he didn’t kill him. He wasn’t about to spare his brother one single day of misery given the nightmare their father had endured.
It was also why the other trolls respected him and why the current king didn’t dare come after him even though everyone knew Xaydin was the rightful king of Vaskalia.
To try and come for him would be the last mistake King Gregun would make. If he ever came for him or sent an assassin, Xaydin would take the crown from his head and choke him with it.
Uncle or not.
Forcing his thoughts away from that topic, he glanced over to the woman in his bed.
And here I am on the floor…
His father was wrong. He was the idiot, not Zagrun.
Now he had something else on his mind, and a body that was rife with unsated pain.
Bloody figures. Who else would he lust for other than a woman with orders to kill him? One whose raison d’être was diametrically opposed to his.
Protect an ataswere. What a laughable thought. Oath Keepers didn’t need a bodyguard.
Except for when they were being pursued by him.
Oh, the irony.
Poor Gisela. There was no telling what Meara would do to her once she failed her mission. And sadly, she would fail. He’d promised Dash the head of the ataswere who bore their contract, and that was exactly what he intended to deliver to him.
Pretty temptations be damned.
He owed his sanity to Dash, and he owed the death of all ataswere for what they’d done to his father.
No one would stop him from this.