Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
BASTIAN
My wife wanted to have a chat with my former fiancée. What could possibly go wrong?
If I thought she’d physically hurt Eleanor, I wouldn’t have let them go. Yet Sigrid was far too clever and manipulative not to do some kind of harm. Not to mention the harm Eleanor might do…
Eleanor’s look of betrayal flashed in my mind, and I winced.
We’d been promised to each other as children, and she’d always taken the duty seriously.
Even when she was just a girl, four years younger than me, she’d scrunch her pretty face into a solemn expression anytime I was near, and then she’d inquire how she could serve me.
She’d only ever wanted to be a dutiful wife, and I hadn’t been able to give her the love she craved in return.
I’d seen her as a nuisance when I was a boy, then an unwanted burden when I was a young man.
For the first time, I saw her as an actual person, which only made my betrayal harder to stomach.
It wasn’t like I’d chosen to come back and parade a new bride in front of her, but that didn’t change the outcome.
My actions had led to this, and somehow I’d make it right.
I’d see her married to a man who deserved her devotion.
Eleanor was angry at Sigrid for other reasons too, and she had every right to be. We’d been so young when Eleanor’s brother was killed. I hadn’t known Sigrid had a hand in it.
But Sigrid was roughly the same age as me. How old had she been when her father began to use her powers against his enemies?
The Saxon court would never accept her…which brought me back to the questions I hadn’t had time to properly consider in the chaotic days leading up to the wedding.
Why had my father forced me to marry her? Why had her father sent her here to the Saxon court when she was his heir? In her case, it was perhaps simply to punish her for being disobedient, but there were other ways the Viking king could’ve accomplished that.
I didn’t believe for a moment either of them had done it to achieve peace. Yet I knew so little of what had been happening here in recent years that I couldn’t piece together the full picture.
“Tell me about the Shrikes,” I said to Arnulf as we made our way to the training grounds.
Arnulf quickly glanced around like he was trying to decide how much he could say. “They started as nothing more than rumors years ago. There have always been bandits in the pass who attacked unprotected travelers, no matter how much we try to patrol there.”
I remembered being sent on patrol as a teen, lying awake at night while listening for the sounds of an ambush. “The wooded mountainous terrain makes it nearly impossible to hunt them all down.”
He nodded. “But they grew bolder than any bandits in the past, attacking wagon trains protected by royal guards and mounting their corpses along the road like the shrike birds do with their prey. They’re exiles from other kingdoms, people who have nothing to lose.”
I frowned. “And they grew in strength as their reputation grew?”
“Other exiles joined them, criminals and outlaws. They use their knowledge of the terrain to their benefit. There’s no way to get through the pass without paying his toll now. And those who refuse to pay it are mounted on pikes as a warning to others.”
To allow such defiance to go unchecked was unlike my father. How could he have let it get this bad?
To ask such a question aloud would be treason, but it lingered in the silence between us.
“Had your father been sent to make the pass safe for travel again?” I asked, wondering how a warrior such as Wulfstan could’ve been slaughtered by mere bandits.
Arnulf turned shifty once more, looking around guiltily.
“No, my lord. Not on the king’s orders. He asked to take a company of men, but the king refused.
My father couldn’t stand idly by and allow the common people to suffer because the only major trade route was impassable.
He took a company of volunteers, and my mother went with them to make it believable that they were simply going to visit relatives in Mercia.
” The agony of grief passed over his features.
“They forbid me to go with them, knowing I might be charged with treason for it.”
I stopped and put a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll make it right, Arnulf.”
He nodded solemnly, then looked at my side quizzically. “Did you lose a knife, my lord?” Arnulf asked, nodding to the double sheath that usually held my traditional Saxon daggers. “I thought I’d given them both back to you.”
I reached to grasp the single handle where I should’ve felt a pair.
Sigrid.
She’d taken a knife and gone off with Eleanor. The two facts weren’t necessarily related. Sigrid most likely only wanted a knife because she was unaccustomed to wandering around completely unarmed.
Most likely.
But the animosity from Eleanor had been palpable. As I tried to convince myself to trust Sigrid and keep walking, all I could picture was Eleanor baiting her again, only to find out what my wife could do with a knife.
“I’ll meet you at the training ground,” I said as I was already turning back to the castle.
I just hoped I wasn’t too late.
The closer I got to our chambers, the faster I walked, just barely managing not to break into a run. When I burst through the door, Eleanor stood pointing my dagger at Sigrid’s throat. Terror squeezed my chest, even though I rationally knew Eleanor was in more danger than Sigrid.
“Shouldn’t you be training?” Sigrid said in a bored tone.
The sight of the dagger that close to the delicate skin of her throat made my stomach turn. “Noticed my knife was gone and assumed you’d taken it.”
She narrowed her eyes at Eleanor. “Never suspected your Saxon flower, did you? I think she even surprised herself.”
Eleanor lowered the blade until it pricked Sigrid’s chest. “You said you were going to kill him! I’ll kill you first.”
How had this gotten so completely out of hand? Eleanor had never raised her voice before, far less a lethal weapon. Sigrid had been goading her, like she wanted to see Eleanor snap.
“Eleanor, put it down. I don’t need you to defend me.” When she didn’t move, I raised a pleading hand. “Sigrid, don’t hurt her!”
Eleanor bristled. “She’s not going to hurt anyone ever again. I’m ending this!” Her hand trembled.
I kept my focus where it needed to be. “Sigrid, I’m begging you.”
I was willing to drop to my knees if it prevented bloodshed.
I’d seen the bleak, haunted look in Sigrid’s eyes when Eleanor had laid the blame for her brother’s death at Sigrid’s feet.
My wife wasn’t as immune to guilt as she wanted us to believe.
There was no scenario where she’d be able to convince herself that maiming Eleanor was justified.
Sigrid rolled her eyes. “I’m the one with a knife to my chest, and I’m still somehow the threatening one?”
I pinned her with a stare. She could’ve been tied up and blindfolded, and I still would’ve been confident in her ability to handle the situation. If she’d just stop pouring fuel on the fire, I could get Eleanor to see reason.
Sigrid gave a long-suffering sigh. “For fuck’s sake, they don’t even teach you to hold a blade correctly. Turn it over. If you hold it like that, all I have to do is apply some pressure and your wrist will give.”
She demonstrated by pushing lightly on the tip of the blade.
When Eleanor’s wrist buckled, Sigrid grasped it to rotate the angle Eleanor was holding the knife and pushed to demonstrate how much more stable it was.
“There—much better. Now, where were you planning to stab?” Eleanor placed the blade just below Sigrid’s breasts.
Sigrid’s brow creased. “The ribs? Absolutely not. Stabbing there takes experience and commitment you don’t have.
Go for something softer or somewhere that bleeds more.
The belly if you want it to hurt, but the throat if you want it to be fast.”
Eleanor moved her blade lower, to Sigrid’s stomach. I wanted to lunge between them, but it might spook Eleanor and cause the outcome I needed to prevent.
Sigrid gave her a delighted grin. “Want it to hurt, do you, girl?” Her eyes flicked to me. “I like this one.”
Eleanor looked between us with mounting confusion written plainly on her beautiful features.
Sigrid has that effect on people.
“Please put the weapon down, Eleanor. I promise she doesn’t really mean to kill me.”
Sigrid’s smile twisted into a snarl. “I made a vow and have every intention of fulfilling it.”
Eleanor’s grip on the knife tightened as she pressed it against Sigrid’s unprotected belly.
In a swift and relaxed movement, Sigrid knocked the dagger from Eleanor’s hand, flipped it in the air, and held the hilt before Eleanor had even registered the first part. “They really taught you nothing about wielding a weapon.”
Eleanor’s frustration began to show. “Women in our kingdom don’t run around stabbing people!”
Sigrid’s lowered the blade and handed it back to Eleanor. “One of the many things wrong with this place. You can leave us, Prince.”
It was my turn to look between them with dismay. “Not a chance. Lady Eleanor, I’ll walk you back to your quarters.”
Sigrid didn’t smile, but amusement flashed in her eyes as she watched to see what Eleanor would do.
Eleanor corrected her already-perfect posture and looked at me with a distant coolness I’d never seen from her before. “An escort won’t be necessary, Your Highness.”
Eleanor didn’t deign to look at Sigrid as she slipped quietly from the room.
“Is collecting enemies your grand plan?” I asked.
Sigrid pouted prettily. “I suppose you think I should be collecting friends. Gathering the relatives of the people I’ve slaughtered around me to make amends and heal together?”
Her expression mocked me, but she practically shook with tension. Asking a lioness to be a lamb and then letting the other lambs taunt her was asking for someone to be torn to pieces.
I could think of two ways she might release some of that tension without killing anyone…but if I suggested one of them, it might’ve just been the thing that made her snap.
“Come on,” I said, opening the door. “Come train with me.”
She looked skeptical. “The Saxons don’t allow women to fight.”
“That apparently doesn’t stop them from fighting you.”
She exhaled an angry breath. “Much as I want a sword in my hand, I won’t have that fuckhead captain squealing to the king about me breaking the rules.”
“Oh, I’ll take care of the fuckhead captain…”
Her eyes flashed with delight. “You’ve come around to the idea of crushing the people in your path?”
I shook my head, realizing what a risk this was. “If I take you down there, you’re agreeing to do it my way this time. You’ll have to trust me.”
She didn’t quite flinch, but her eyes shuttered like she hated the very idea. For a charged second, she stared me down, looking like she wanted to give a caustic reply.
Then she raised her chin like she’d come to a decision. “I can try…”
And that was as much as I could ask of my lioness for now.