15. Damned to Drida #3
“The battleboxer. Screaming at Hize like that, fighting the guards. He didn’t seem broken at all.”
For a moment, the only sounds were the steady rumble of the wheels over the pitted road, the distant, incessant jangle of the horses’ tack, and the dull thundering that was either hoofbeats or Rerdas’s own heartbeat.
“Those were… unusually trying circumstances.” His voice was faint. “I assure you, he’s well in hand.”
“He openly defied everyone giving him orders, including you.” Umber kept tapping his finger along his own jaw. With each movement, a ruby in its band caught the light so that it flickered like a stubborn ember. “And you… you leapt into the battlebox. To defend him.”
His lungs turned to ice. Umber would hurt Imalroc if Rerdas didn’t rip this picture the duke was building into shreds.
After Widran, Umber had seemed to enjoy dangling Rerdas in front of Imalroc when the thought of any sort of attraction between them had seemed a ludicrous impossibility. The duke would be furious if he caught any hint of Rerdas’s real feelings. He needed to play this correctly.
He tried for quizzical, tilting his head at Umber and shaking it slowly.
“I don’t understand, Your Grace.” His mind raced through potential lines of attack.
He needed to convince Umber that he couldn’t even contemplate affection for a battleboxer.
His actions in the battlebox had to be for some other purpose.
“You and I both know that Imalroc deserved discipline after that. And yet, you did not allow it to happen.”
Rerdas sighed. “You’re right, of course.
” He gave Umber an embarrassed look. Easy enough to stop fighting the tide of a flush rising in his cheeks.
“The truth is, I just couldn’t stand to let Hize break another one of my things.
He snapped my father’s bow, you know, out of sheer temper, and he’s been foul every time I’ve seen him. I can’t stomach him having his way.”
Umber pursed his lips, an expression that looked remarkably like a child pouting. “So it was all about Hize?”
“What else could it be about?”
A dubious frown. He wasn’t quite convinced yet. “It looked… protective.”
The pretend-to-be-mystified tactic might be working. “Because the battleboxer is valuable? Yes, it crossed my mind that Hize might inflict lasting damage that—Wait.” Rerdas huffed out a laugh. “Are you suggesting I was protecting him out of some other instinct?”
“You saw him in Widran, Rerdas. He’s possessive of you. At Tamasyad, you looked equally possessive of him.”
Something hidden in him flinched. He hoped Imalroc hadn’t seen his actions that way.
Rerdas gathered himself and took an angle he was almost certain Umber couldn’t resist. “Why, in the name of all the gods, earthbound and Eternal, would I want to dally with a bloodthirsty killer when I can throw myself into the arms of a handsome duke instead?”
Umber’s eyes narrowed. But then his mouth curled gently, and he unfolded from his stiff seat, swaying across the coach to thump down beside Rerdas. “It is a kind of madness to consider it, I suppose,” he said.
“I’m wondering if I should be insulted that you ever found it plausible,” Rerdas said. Then he smiled, flicking a gaze up at the duke from under his lashes. Umber didn’t like hearing any sort of real irritation from him.
“Well, you must know how it looked.” Umber’s answering smile faded. He shifted into Rerdas’s space with a sober expression. “I understand the battleboxer is an important source of onyx. But you must admit that wasn’t the behavior of a well-broken, appropriately trained fighter.”
How to play this off? He couldn’t be too stubborn about it. “I’ve never seen him like that except in the presence of Melgreth Hize. He wouldn’t do that with”—Rerdas caught himself at the last moment—“us.”
“He’s trying to fool you into underestimating him. You must take greater care, Rerdas.”
Rerdas peered back at the trailing coach.
He was lucky Umber couldn’t fathom the thought of anyone in Inofar being more desirable than himself, but if the duke’s suspicions were raised again, he might not be so easily swayed.
“The battleboxer has been obedient. They wouldn’t have allowed him in Widran if he didn’t prove submissive in the right circumstances. ”
“Here’s an idea.” Umber snapped his fingers, the way one did to a hunting hound. “When we arrive in Drida, we’ll take him to see one of the respected handlers there. Their level of control is unmatched. No one breaks battleboxers like Drida.” He said it with reverence.
Rerdas jolted back from the window, swinging around to him. His pulse galloped again, and he blurted, “You’re coming with us to Drida?”
Umber smiled, misinterpreting the shock in his expression.
“I won’t abandon you, sweetheart. I’ll stay with you as long as I can.
” He rubbed a hand over Rerdas’s leg and leaned in to speak breathily into his ear.
“And I can think of more than a few things we can do to entertain ourselves on the way there.”
Rerdas pulled the curtain behind him closed, as if that made it any better.