Chapter 45 Keris #2
They all nodded approvingly, but then the first man said, “We all heard the horror of the sacking of Vencia, Your Highness. Nasty work, that was.”
Visions of his home in rubble flashed through Keris’s mind, and he didn’t fight the remembered panic as he dug through the ruins of the inner sanctum, certain that he’d find his half sister Sara’s body.
The bodies of all his family. Sarhina had kept them all safe and evacuated the city, but so many refused to go.
And lost their lives for it. “The sad truth is that when asked to abandon everything to evacuate, many chose to stay. To fight to protect their homes and livelihoods, and they lost their lives to Petra’s vendetta.
If I am fortunate enough to live to be an old man, I will still remember the smell and the sound of carrion birds.
Still see the splashes of blood and the bodies of the very old and very young lined up in graves.
Sarhina was and is a leader without equal, but she made the mistake of believing the greatest threat lay outside Vencia’s walls when the real danger stood at her back.
” He folded his hand and stood. “I’m out, lads, but I’ll buy another round before I go. ”
It was the third time he’d had a variation of this conversation.
He always allowed the civilians to bring up the topic and never overtly said a word against Lestara.
There was no need to, because all knew what she had done.
Joining William at the bar, he dutifully drank the cup of shitty whiskey pushed in front of him.
“If I win any more off your people, they’ll riot. Time to move on.”
William hiccuped, then grinned. “All right.”
Arm slung around a courtier by the name of Archie Bennett, William staggered out the door. Keris followed, but the moment he was outside, Cavendish slammed a palm into his chest, drawing him up short. “That conversation looked serious for a game of cards with low stakes.”
“It wasn’t low stakes for them.” Keris took a step back, then moved to go around, but Cavendish blocked his path again.
“What were you discussing?”
“If you must know, they asked why Virginia had not returned to court. I lied and told them I didn’t know, but apparently a lady by the name of Elizabeth has complained to her servants that she’s banished from court.”
Cavendish’s face soured at mention of Elizabeth. “Stay out of it, Veliant. You know damned well why they aren’t in Verwyrd. Once tempers cool, Ginny and her ladies will return.”
“I’m sure it’s only a matter of months until Lestara forgets being led around by a collar and made to piss in the corner while Virginia and her ladies laughed.”
Keris pushed past Cavendish and trotted to catch up to a singing William, noting that the soldiers forming the king’s bodyguard all had expressions of disgust on their faces.
His behavior was not kingly in any circumstances, but with Harendell teetering toward war, his blatant carousing would be rubbing many the wrong way.
Which of course meant that Keris intended to encourage it.
He slung an arm around William’s shoulder, then said, “Join me for a game, Majesty? I grow weary of playing for coppers.”
“I’ve already lost enough coin to you at the races,” William replied, veering sideways and into an alehouse.
It fell entirely silent as they entered, all eyes turning to them, and Keris had to fight back a cold smile as he recognized men from earlier establishments.
“Well, this is a dour crowd,” William muttered. “Perhaps we try another?”
He turned, then someone shouted, “The witch let you out to play, Your Grace?”
William stiffened, then whirled, staggering into Keris before righting himself. “Who said that?”
No one answered.
“Who the fuck said that?”
Silence.
“Let’s leave, Your Grace,” Cavendish muttered. “It’s just drunks speaking out of turn.”
William looked ready to argue, but then allowed the other man to pull him back. But as he turned, someone shouted, “Queen of Carrion!” and another followed up with, “Butcher of Babies!”
“Silence!” William shrieked. “Bring forward those who dare to speak such slander!”
No one so much as twitched.
“I will have your tongues!” William shook with rage. “Who dares to speak against my queen?”
“Where is Miss Ginny?” It was one of the barmaids who spoke, a broad woman who looked as though she took no nonsense from patrons. “Where is the princess? Your sister, Your Grace? Why is she not at court?”
William stared at her, his alcohol-addled mind not putting together the connection. “Grieving, you fool!”
“Ain’t got anything to do with her treating the Good Queen as she deserves, do it?”
Next to him, William purpled with anger. “Guards!” he shouted. “Arrest her!”
“She ain’t saying anything we aren’t all thinking!
” The man who spoke abruptly stood, banging into his table as he did.
His cheeks were ruddy with drink. “The witch betrayed Maridrina to Empress Petra to get rid of this useless tit”—he jerked his chin at Keris—“and the whole damned city burned. We all know the truth of it.”
“That’s lies!” Spittle flew from William’s lips. “Petra was the villain. She manipulated Lestara. Tricked her!”
“Harendell don’t want a queen who can be manipulated or tricked any more than we want a murderess!” the man roared. “Cast the witch back to Cardiff! Bring home Miss Ginny!”
“Cast back the witch! Bring home Miss Ginny!” The crowd filling the common room erupted into a chant.
William released a howl of rage. “Arrest them! Arrest every last one of them and throw them in the stocks for slander!”
“You’re under her spell, William,” the barmaid screamed. “Cast out the Carrion Queen!”
This was going better than he might have hoped, but as Keris fought back an expression of delight that the populace had risen so quickly, William withdrew his sword. In a flash, the tip was digging between Keris’s ribs, right above his heart.
“Tell them!” William screamed the words, but tears were flooding down his cheeks. “Tell them the truth, Veliant! Tell them what happened in Vencia was your fault, not Lestara’s! Tell them, or I’ll skewer your heart, empress be damned!”
The blade cut through his clothes. Keris tried to step back, but his shoulders struck the door.
“Your Grace, stop!” Cavendish reached for William, but the king swung wildly with his free hand, clipping Cavendish’s jaw even as soldiers poured in. All around was chaos as the civilians fought to flee, even as William screamed, “Arrest them! Arrest them!” his blade digging ever deeper.
Blood ran down Keris’s chest, and his options spiraled through his head.
If he drew a weapon on the king, he’d be arrested, but if he stood his ground, William would kill him.
There was a third option, and that was to absolve Lestara, but then the one method he had of destroying the alliance with Cardiff would be spent and wasted.
“Tell them!” William wiped at his tears, face crimson with distress. “Tell them she’s not guilty!”
Despite the situation, Keris felt a flood of empathy for this child of a man.
It was not witchery that Lestara had used to control him, but a simple manipulation of his weakness.
Of his desperation for validation. He refused to see the truth of what Lestara was, because doing so would erase all that she had done to bolster William’s opinion of himself.
“Queen of Carrion! Widowmaker! Butcher of Babies!” The shouts echoed through the alehouse as soldiers slammed patrons to the ground, manacles clinking as men and women were arrested. “Cast her back! Cast her back!”
“Tell them!” William screamed. “Make them believe she’s innocent!”
He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. Not with dozens of eyes on him, even those pinned to the ground watching to see what he would do. Keris clenched his teeth—
Only for Cavendish to tackle William to the ground. “Think clearly, man! If you kill him, you martyr him. Martyrs only tell truths!”
Cavendish hauled William to his feet, then pulled him out of the alehouse. More soldiers fell in around their king, and they started back to the spiral, leaving Keris standing bleeding in the doorway while soldiers arrested every patron to the man.
Saam and the others leaned against a stone wall, their arms crossed. “You’re fucking insane,” his friend snapped. “You should just fall on your own sword and be done with it.”
Blood dripped down his chest, soaking his shirt. Keris leaned against the same wall, watching as soldiers dragged out civilian after civilian, loading them into a waiting prison cart.
“You’ve been bad, haven’t you, Your Highness?”
He turned his head to find a pretty woman approaching.
“I like that in a man.”
Keris rolled his eyes, pressing his hand to the wound. “Not interested, love. Move along.”
“Not peddling that sort of ware,” she replied. “The name is Elsie, and my grandfather once wrestled a bear. You can see it in the sky when the moon wanes.”
Cardiffian.
“You’re playing with fire, Your Highness,” Elsie said, leaning against the wall next to him.
“Your desire to dethrone the woman who betrayed you and Maridrina won’t just cost her—it will cost all of Cardiff.
You fuel accusations of witchery, but she won’t be the only witch to burn, you understand? Yours is not the path to longevity.”
“I’ve never sensed that old age was in the cards. Or the stars.” He watched the soldiers fighting with a big drunk, it taking three of them to get the man in a cart. “Are you here to threaten me into leaving Lestara alone?”
“No. I’m here to discover if you’ve heard anything of James’s fate.”
There was something in her tone that suggested she cared more about the prince than a simple spy should.
“Hope that he lives is fading. He was separated from his men and pursued Ahnna on his own, and there is the added complication of the Beast being dispatched in pursuit. But I’m sure you know all that. ”
“Yet another death to add to the tally.” Elsie closed her eyes, pressing a hand to her chest as though it hurt. “Ronan will grieve.”
Keris gave her a moment, then asked, “You have Ronan’s ear?”
“He hears all. You have something to whisper?”
“Something to shout. Alexandra aims to take the bridge, and once she has it, she’ll have no need for Lestara or Cardiff. What she will have is wealth beyond measure, which means the strength to spread her son’s empire.”
“To the Lowlands. To Riomar itself, and Cardiff will have its vengeance on the Crimson Widow,” Elsie said. “Siobhan, Cormac, and James will be able to rest easy once their murderer is put to the sword.”
Her words echoed Petra’s, and Keris could not help but think of all the ruin the dead empress had left in a similar pursuit.
“And what then?” He met Elsie’s golden-brown eyes.
“Is vengeance worth creating an empire so vast and powerful that no one can stand against it? Or does Ronan’s quest for blood just blind him to the truth that power so vast cares nothing for friends or allies, only conquest?
I understand the desire to hate Katarina for what she has done, but her efforts to curb Harendell’s rise serve all of us. Amarid is not the threat.”
Fury flashed in the woman’s eyes, her lips pulling back as she spat, “You think me a fool, Veliant? All that you do here is to serve your own interests in Ithicana. You care nothing for Cardiff. Care nothing for the harm that has been done to us by the Crimson Widow.”
Keris pushed away from the wall, feeling dizzy though he wasn’t certain if it was from loss of blood or too much wine.
Nodding at Saam, he started down the street, but looked over his shoulder.
“Scream of the threat of Harendell in Ronan’s ear, Elsie.
Scream and scream until he hears, because the flames are licking at Cardiff’s heels, and the fire has been set by Alexandra Ashford. ”