Chapter 24 #2
The commander bowed deeply, his face etched with worry. “The Shrikes, Majesty. They mounted them to the gates. Heads of the villagers who left for the pass yesterday. Couldn’t afford to pay the Shrike King’s toll.”
Shocked silence followed his news, followed by everyone talking at once.
If it had been chaos before, now there was pandemonium.
I stared in horror for a moment at the heads of an innocent family of merchants, our people who should’ve been protected from bandits on the major Saxon trading road.
How had we allowed it to get this bad, where our people either paid an unreasonable toll or paid with their lives?
The bandits had been bold coming all the way to our gates. “They must still be on this side of the pass,” I said loudly, drawing the attention of the room. “We can catch them before they make it back to their safe hold in the mountains.”
My father rose to his feet. “We will do nothing of the sort! They’re likely trying to lure us into a trap or they’re in league with the Danes. We need time to levy a tax to oppose them.”
Elric stepped forward. “Another tax, Your Majesty? The people have nothing more to give.”
The king gave Elric a look that made him shut his mouth.
“We have an army,” I pointed out.
The king turned his glare on me. “One that we need to prepare to strike back against the Vikings. They could attack any day. I can’t split my forces.”
Sigrid rubbed her temples in irritation. “They won’t attack. I’ll make sure of it.”
Further commotion at the back of the throne room drew her attention.
“Ah, the heads I did actually send for.” She grasped one of the gruesome trophies by the hair and held it aloft for my father to see, not caring that it was making people run from the room.
“These aren’t Viking warriors. Look at their eyes.
See the mark of Odin. They’re assassins sent with the singular mission to kill me.
In the hundreds of years of their death cult’s history, there had only ever been one time one of them was defeated and failed in his mission. For four of them to fail? Unthinkable.”
She lined the heads up at the base of the throne.
“It won’t occur to him that your men rallied to defeat these creatures.
That these soldiers were willing to protect me against such a foe.
He’ll believe I did it single handedly, which means I’ve either escaped your leash and staged a coup.
Or I did it with mortal speed and strength, an unfathomable feat.
He won’t dare to strike until he sees what my next move is. ”
Her strength seemed to be returning with each passing moment, and she was looking dangerously like the queen in this situation, despite my father’s place above her on the throne. We hadn’t faced his reckoning for Father Benedict yet, and now she was backing him into a corner.
But it was time to take a stand.
“If we’re to hunt them, we must leave now, Your Majesty!” I said. “Let me send a scouting party after them and assemble the army. We can rid the kingdom of these bandits once and for all.”
The king finally snapped, his face turning a deep red with anger at our defiance. “I’m not willing to risk my kingdom on the words of a coward and his wife the Dane! If you’re so concerned about it, lead a company of men yourself! But leave your wife here.”
Like hell I’d be leaving my wife in his clutches. Not after whatever he’d just done to her.
Sigrid and I exchanged a look that conveyed the same sentiment.
Fuck that.
I surveyed the room, relieved to find Godric uninjured. “Godric, take three men and ride like hell after them, but stay out of sight. We’ll meet you at the river crossing by nightfall. Don’t get close enough to engage.”
He nodded and tapped three other uninjured soldiers on his way out. I needed time to arm and supply a company—and figure out how to smuggle Sigrid out with us.
All of the severed heads had been removed from the throne room, some for respectful burial and some to send a message. All of the serious wounds had been healed, so suddenly the chaos turned into a tense calm.
I saw the change in my father, watched him detect that he’d lost his grip and needed to take back control. I knew him too well not to recognize that look on his face.
He smiled magnanimously at everyone. “It seems all is in hand. So I don’t think anyone will object if I share a piece of happy news to help us all move past the ugliness of this day? It brings me great joy to announce the betrothal of Lady Eleanor to Captain Elric.”
Eleanor blanched, and Sigrid put a hand on Eleanor’s arm to steady her. “I won’t let them force you into it,” Sigrid said in a barely audible growl. Apparently, she and Eleanor were friends now.
Eleanor rapidly composed herself and smiled graciously, walking with perfect poise to where Elric stood.
He offered his hand, and when she took it, all of the nobles and soldiers cheered.
No one seemed to care that both of them still had the blood of battle all over them.
The people of this kingdom were always too happy to fall back on tradition to move past anything uncomfortable.
At face value, they made a handsome couple. Both from noble families, both attractive and young, the brave captain and the delicate lady. But the delicate lady wasn’t a prize to be offered to buy Elric’s silence.
“Come on,” I said against Sigrid’s ear and tugging her towards the double doors at the back of the room. We could use the distraction to slip out before my father got ideas about putting Sigrid back in chains.
“Do something,” Sigrid growled as we made it to long stone corridor outside the throne room.
“Like what? I don’t have an acceptable reason to object.”
The look she gave me expressed exactly what she thought about needing a reason.
“Now isn’t the moment. It’s not like the wedding will be today. We’ll figure out how to get her out of it once we’ve dealt with the Shrikes.”
She scoffed. “It’s not that complicated. And don’t you dare tell me I can’t kill him. I don’t care if we sort of begrudgingly like Elric now, I’ll not see her forced to wed anyone. But I won’t kill him before we find out what the king is bribing him to keep quiet.”
Her tone rose as she got more heated.
I turned her by the shoulders, pulling her in for a thorough kiss that made the servants down the hall giggle and duck into a doorway.
Sigrid kissed me in return, threading her fingers into my hair to pull me closer, but then she jerked back.
“You can’t just kiss me anytime you want to get your way. ”
I closed the distance between us again, letting my lips brush against hers as I said, “But I can kiss you anytime I want?”
“Where’s the armory?” she said, taking me by the hand. But there was a spark of heat in her eyes and a wicked tilt to her lips that promised more than kisses as she leaned in to claim my lips again quickly.
As soon as these endless battles gave it a rest.