Chapter XXXI Rule #2
“I thought breakfasts at the keep were served at the table, not in bedrooms,” I tease, remembering Khay’s words from what feels like ages ago.
He laughs under his breath, his eyes gleaming. “But that was before we had such a beautiful queen everyone wants to pamper.”
I smile back, keeping my eyes on his face even though I have an urge to look away. Again and again, they call me beautiful, and so many other things. I think I’m getting used to it, and I don’t know why, but it makes me uneasy.
“Speaking of our queen—double guard still in power?” Khay asks Magnar.
He shakes his head. “I want one guard on Caliane at all times, best when she’s with me, too. Don’t get separated under any pretext. You go where she goes, even if it’s the bathroom—unless it’s this one.”
I laugh under my breath when a funny thought hits me. When they all turn to me, I shake my head.
“Oh, nothing. I just thought, well, I would have really appreciated this sort of guard back home. Being locked up in the cellar with one of you would have been a lot of fun.”
“Right,” Magnar says, his eyes narrowed. “Change of plans. You can come with me only after you give our knights the list of people who locked you up, insulted you, hurt you physically or verbally. Did I cover everything?”
My gasp of outrage is ignored as Raduna’s face hardens with contempt. “Add anyone who criticized her intellect or appearance. We’ll take care of them when we get to Farneer.”
I throw my hands. “But that would be everyone!” I shout in exasperation. “It’s the teachers’ prerogative to criticize their students, is it not?”
Magnar claps, pleased. “Excellent! Everyone we’ve locked up in the dungeons is on the list, then. Care to accompany me, darling?”
I bury my face in my hands. “What will you do to them?”
“A spot of torture, a trial for show since I’m king and must act accordingly, and then a public execution.
Alternatively, they can be sentenced to work in one of Zanvar’s mines.
It’s a precious tradition from the Eleven we‘ve borrowed. The prisoners who aren’t worth hanging work in the mines, and we profit off their labor. Quite an ingenious scheme.”
My mouth falls open in outrage. Magnar grins, and I remember with a jolt he’s dangerous—the Tyrant, the man who had countless human women raped, a bloody conqueror.
I don’t know how I could forget it.
“I take it you weren’t privy to that ugly part of the Eleven’s justice system. Well, you are now. It’s actually one of the things I want to ask the other kings about. Namely, what do they do with their prisoners now that I hold Zanvar and all those mines? Maybe they’ll give me more ideas.”
“I don’t want anyone executed or enslaved on my behalf,” I grit out through clenched teeth.
Magnar barks out a sharp, unpleasant laugh. “That’s not for you to decide. They hurt you, so they are mine to punish. No one gets to hurt my queen. Do you understand?”
“Shouldn’t I be the one to decide what to do with them?”
He shoots me a dismissive look. “You don’t believe you’re worthy enough to have people punished on your behalf. Hence, no. Well, are we going to write that letter, or would you like to tackle the ministers first?”
“How do you expect me to rule by your side if you won’t let me make decisions regarding my own former staff?”
We stand, since I’m too agitated to stay seated. Oh, how I wish I were taller. When he looks down on me from his height advantage, I feel crushed already. It shocks me when I realize I hate Magnar right now. I could scratch his face and feel no remorse.
If I could reach it easily, that is, and if he weren’t faster than a snake.
“It’s not that I don’t trust you, dear,” he says, sharp teeth flashing in a wide grin. He enjoys himself, the dastard. “But it’s the husband’s duty to protect his wife. I vowed it twice, during our first and second wedding. Why does it make you so angry?”
“Because once you’re done, everyone I knew before we married will be dead!” I scream, surprising even myself.
His smile vanishes, and he frowns, taken aback. “I didn’t consider that. I’m not trying to wipe out everyone from your former life, Caliane. Or maybe I am? Raduna, what’s your opinion?”
We both turn to the oldest knight, and he raises his hands defensively when our eyes meet. I’m still furious.
“I believe you have noble reasons, my king.”
“Noble,” I scoff. “It’s not noble to enslave people for the sin of criticizing a silly girl!”
“And there it is,” Arvi cuts in. “You think they were right to call you names. That’s why you don’t want them punished. You’re blindsided, and that’s why you shouldn’t decide.”
“But you can say that about anything,” I hiss furiously.
“If you don’t like my decision on any other matter, you can just say, ‘oh, Caliane is blindsided, we shouldn’t listen to her’!
It’s all just pretend, isn’t it? I won’t rule over anything.
You’re feeding me this delusion to, I don’t know, keep me happy.
Because the stupid human will believe anything! ”
I watch Magnar belligerently, and he shoots Raduna a look that seems a bit panicked.
“What, you want him to lie for you?” I ask, stepping closer to my husband.
I am just short enough to notice in my periphery how his trousers fill out with desire. I shake my head with disgust, my wrath boiling over.
“I can’t help it!” he grunts, retreating away from me.
“You’re hot when you’re angry! And I don’t want Raduna to lie, I just need him to explain what’s happening, all right?
What are you angry about? Slaughtering those who hurt my woman is our best courting tradition! An Agnidari woman would never—”
He breaks off with an angry hiss, and I deflate, suddenly blinking away tears. Truth be told, I don’t know what I’m angry about. I don’t know what’s happening to me.
“I apologize. I’ve never acted this way before,” I say quietly, swallowing tears so he doesn’t see how that unfinished sentence hurt me.
Frankly, I expected something like this ever since Khay said any Agnidari woman would weep for joy if Magnar chose her for his wife. I’ll never be as good as a woman of his race, I know. He can’t even mate me properly, put it all the way in. No wonder he regrets marrying me.
“Don’t apologize,” Magnar says through clenched teeth. “You have a right to be angry! Just… I want to understand you, Caliane. Do you really hate it so much? It’s the highest sign of respect a man can offer his wife—to avenge her.”
I take a deep breath to control the shaking of my hands. I’m exhausted, and I don’t even know what I want.
“I thought you simply enjoy slaughtering people.”
Magnar clears his throat. “That, too. But I… We had an abrupt wedding. Not to mention what happened after. I hoped to redeem myself, and avenging you felt like the perfect way to show you my feelings. But if that’s not… I could dance for you.”
“Dance?”
He nods, his posture rigid from keeping his emotions in check. “Yes. We perform courting dances for our betrothed. I would like to perform for you. Maybe that will be better than, well, the heads of your former teachers stuck on spikes next to your father’s.”
He looks away, his mouth twisting in a grimace. I bury my face in my hands. I think I vaguely remember Arvi telling me about the courting dances, though I’m not sure. My head is pounding.
“I think I’d like to sleep,” I mumble, my voice growing colorless from exhaustion. “I’m sorry.”
“Of course,” Magnar says, tight and controlled. “Khay, stay with Caliane. We’ll come back in the evening.”
I don’t even undo my bodice before I crawl between the clean sheets. Khay sits down on one of the ottomans, and I turn my back to him, swallowing sobs. Only yesterday, I was the happiest woman in the world.
Now everything’s falling apart.