Chapter 5 #2
“What happens to them?” I asked, certain I didn’t want to know the answer.
The merchant’s expression darkened. “The men become slaves in his mine or conscripts in his army. The women…” He paused, as if the words were unfit for maidenly ears. “Let’s just say he drinks from a new woman every night.”
“Fates,” Marcel whispered.
My fingers tightened around my wine glass. A blood tithe.
Before Cassius took the throne, the immortals in the Bloodvale could drink from whomever they wanted—but a new woman every night?
I pushed my glass aside. “How does the king keep the beasts at bay?”
Erasmus scowled and leaned back in his chair. “The beasts bow before him. He’s their master.”
“You can’t be serious,” Marcel said.
“The beast might bow, but it’s his dragon that keeps them away from us,” the barmaid said as she came up to the table. Not much older than me, she had thick cascading curls, and she wore a heavy gold bracelet worth more than a barmaid’s wages could afford.
“A dragon? You must be joking.” Marcel looked from one to the other and forced out a laugh.
“Believe what you want.” The woman replaced the empty wine bottle with a fresh one and locked eyes with me. “But he’s called the dragon king for a reason.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rose. The downed trees. The claw marks.
She turned, gesturing to the room. “Ask anyone here. We’ve all seen it in the skies. Scales as red as blood and as black as night. The tavern’s called the Dragon’s Teeth, for Fates’ sake.”
My gaze followed hers. The posts supporting the roof beams were carved with dragons, and a banner with a dragon and a white rose hung above the hearth. I’d been so focused on the occupants when I’d entered, I’d barely given the place a look.
What kind of monster could command dragons and beasts alike?
Erasmus leaned in, and it was as if the shadows followed him. “Make no mistake: our king is the heart of evil. He’s the source of the curse over this place.”
“That’s a rumor,” the woman said, rolling her eyes. “And a dangerous one at that.”
“It’s true,” Erasmus insisted, waving her away.
The source of the curse.
“How do we find him?” I asked, my mouth suddenly dry despite the wine.
Erasmus chuckled darkly as the woman returned to the bar. “You don’t. Not a girl as pretty as yourself with your whole life ahead of you. You take the main road back to your kingdom—or Eradessa, for that matter. Just get as far from these woods as you can.”
I started to object, but Marcel placed his hand on my arm. “Perhaps he’s right. We came for trade and profit. Not trouble.”
“This is exactly what I came for—this is more than a way to stop the beasts. This is their master, the source of the curse. Think of what Ella could do with that knowledge. Think what Cassius could do. They’d find a way to end it.”
“Keep your voices down,” Erasmus hissed. “You’re speaking treason, and the king has eyes and ears everywhere.”
I glanced toward the man in back, but his chair was empty, his mug of ale still full. Was he one of the king’s spies?
Erasmus pushed his chair back and rose, eyeing us darkly. “Whatever you’re about, I want no part of it.”
I dug a pair of silvers from my pouch and placed them on the table before him. “Please, just give us directions to his castle. It can’t be a crime to tell us that much. Everyone must know where it is.”
The man scowled, then his fingers closed around the coins. “Do you have a map?”
I looked at Marcel. He frowned but pulled his map from his satchel and unrolled it.
I bent close. There was no sign of another kingdom in the north.
The merchant placed his finger on the symbol of a town well within the borders of the cursed woods.
“This is where we are. Harrowick.” He dragged his finger northwest along the road, then tapped a cluster of ruins beneath a line of craggy peaks deep within the woods. “Castle Fellspire is here.”
“That’s a ruin,” Marcel said.
“No,” Erasmus said, as he turned his back on us and headed for the door. “It’s his lair.”
That night, our party huddled around the wagons, discussing what to do.
After the merchant left, I’d spoken to half a dozen villagers in the inn, bribing them with coin or drink.
Rather than illuminate what lay ahead, each added new rumors to the fire: the king fed the young women to his dragon; he turned the men into beasts; he was old and hideous; he was young and ravishing; he was one of the beasts himself.
“I think we need to heed the merchant’s warning,” Marcel said. “We shouldn’t go anywhere near that castle.”
I shook my head. “We must do something. There’s an entire kingdom north of our border that Cassius knows nothing about, with a king that has some kind of control over the beasts—the same beasts that have started raiding our homes.
Do you think that’s just a coincidence?” I looked to Silas.
“What if this king is planning an invasion? Isn’t it our duty to find out what’s happening? ”
“My duty is keeping you safe,” he said bitterly. “That means keeping you away from beasts and bloodthirsty tyrants alike.”
“This is bigger than me. Our families are in danger. The entire Bloodvale is in danger. The beasts are growing bolder every day. How long will it be until someone you care about pays the price?”
Gregoire and Marcel avoided my eyes, but Silas showed nothing.
I rubbed my temples. “I know we’re here to sell wool and ice wine, but I can’t just continue on to Eradessa and ignore what the merchant told us. We have a duty to the king and queen.”
“We do.” Marcel sighed. “Even I agree with you there.”
Two weeks of failure weighed as heavily on me as the merchant’s warning.
“We only have two options,” I said, drawing myself up. “Run back to Cassius with the handful of rumors we’ve collected, or carry on to the castle and learn what’s really going on. Which is it going to be?”