Chapter 22 #2
With Troye by her side, she had the might and courage to face the outlaws before they were able to escape. The loyal hound was ferocious of growl, sharp of fang, and fiercely protective. The two of them could keep the thieves cornered until help could be summoned.
At the first rattle of the lock, Troye started growling.
The door swung open.
The hound immediately snapped and lunged at the two men—Peris and the prior.
The prior cursed.
Peris yelped in panic.
Carenza hauled back with all her might to keep the hound from charging.
The thieves would have exited back the way they came, but suddenly an immense figure filled the doorway. Hew stood glowering at the entrance, brandishing his axe before him.
Unfortunately, Carenza was caught in the backlash.
Peris, more threatened by Troye than a Viking, started kicking at the hound.
The hound caught the physician’s calf between his teeth and began thrashing.
Screaming in pain, the physician wrenched a sconce from the wall and bashed it against the hound’s jaw.
Troye went down with a whimper and was silent.
Carenza cried out. But before she could rush to the poor hound’s side, the prior grabbed her arm and flung her against the wall. The impact sent stars exploding across her vision. Then she felt the cold, hard steel of a blade against her throat.
“Let me go,” the prior said, “or I’ll slit her throat.”
“She’s done nothing,” Hew said tightly. “Your battle is with me.”
“My battle is with anythin’ and anyone who stands in my way,” he corrected, prodding her hard enough with the point of his dagger to draw blood.
She’d just felt the prick when Hew hauled Peris forward by his leine and set the edge of his axe at the physician’s throat.
“A hostage for a hostage,” he bit out.
The physician squealed, rolling his eyes in fear.
But the prior was too concerned for his own survival to care about his accomplice.
“Go on,” he growled. “Kill him.”
Hew was afraid of that. There was no leverage against a rabid animal that was cornered and desperate.
His heart thundered. His breath froze in his chest. The single crimson drop of Carenza’s blood rolling down the blade made him shudder with rage.
But in the end, there was only one thing to do.
Even though it went against his every instinct as a warrior, he couldn’t let harm come to the woman he loved. The woman he intended to wed. The woman who meant the world to him.
He tossed his axe away and released the prior, who sank onto the floor.
“Let her go,” he croaked. “I won’t follow. I give you my word.”
“Nay,” Carenza sobbed in protest.
Hew understood how she felt. It was hard to surrender. To accept injustice. To fight for what was right and still fail.
But some things were more important than winning. Sometimes you had to pick your battles. Amor vincit omnia was more than just the Rivenloch creed. It was a truth. Love was the most powerful force of all.
For one awful instant, Hew feared the prior wasn’t going to let her go after all. He hesitated. His eyes darted around the room. His hand tightened on the grip of his dagger.
Somehow Hew managed to keep his voice steady as he rasped out, “You don’t want her blood on your hands. If you leave now, we’ll remain here until dawn.”
As further proof of his surrender, Hew raised his arms up and sat in the corner on one of the chairs.
It seemed an eternity before the prior finally decided he could make a clean escape. He shoved Carenza away from him so that she fell at Hew’s feet. Hew curled his arm around her, less to protect her and more to keep her from lunging toward the prior to scratch his eyes out.
Still wielding his dagger, the prior slowly backed out of the room.
But he forgot about the physician, his accomplice, his partner in crime, that only a moment ago he would have happily allowed to be killed.
Peris was understandably bitter about that. And he was in no mood to forgive the prior. He seized Hew’s axe where it lay on the ground and turned the blade upwards. Then he tripped the prior so that he fell backwards onto the edge.
The blow didn’t kill him at once. Hew covered Carenza’s face so she wouldn’t see the prior’s thrashing or hear his piteous screams. But within moments, the physician opened a double locket from around his neck and poured the contents—a white powder—into the prior’s mouth.
It must have been fast-acting poison. Foam spilled from between the prior’s lips, and then he went still.
Hew wondered if this was the sort of mercy killing Peris had been doing at Kildunan in order to steal the nobles’ jewels. It might be quick, but it was still murder. The physician would likely be tried and executed.
Looking into Peris’s eyes, he saw the man’s dark fate written there as well. Execution was not what the physician intended. Before Hew could prevent him, Peris opened the second side of the locket and ingested the rest of the powder.
Hew held Carenza close while Peris suffered the thankfully brief paroxysms of agony. The physician might have been a thief and a murderer, deserving of death. But at one time he’d cared for her mother. This was something Carenza didn’t need to see.