Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
CHAY
“First, consider your approach, as it is critical you avoid startling them. Direct incursion from behind or the front will mark you as a threat and make taming your target either impossible or a very complex endeavor.”
~ How to Tame Your Brumby: A Collection of Raider’s Ban Wisdom
Ten years later
L a’Angi was the birthplace of legends—and nightmares. It loomed over us between the limbs of the apple trees and their yellowing leaves like some sort of old, angry god. I was going to be within those walls soon, in the heartland of military prowess. I’d grown up hearing it spoken about with reverence.
I wasn’t planning on birthing any legends or nightmares, myself. I had enough of both.
“Remind me again why we’re here?” Callum complained, staring up at the foreboding keep in the distance.
Awe sat uncomfortably in the hollow in my guts, but Kadan grinned, the expression charmingly crooked and full of fun. From the front, his father Darrius, Count of Raider’s Ban and our liege lord, shot him a quick, amused look, anticipating the upcoming levity, before turning back to the road ahead of us and feigning dignity.
Kadan rolled his shoulders, settling the road-stained tunic better over his shoulders. He looked more like a merchant’s son than the prophesized one. With his dirty blond hair flopping over the crown-like scar on his forehead, no one would guess his birth had been preceded by comet storms. His moment of birth had been marked by a solar eclipse, and then celebrated by every soothsayer and wise man in the lands. The scar he hid with a studied nonchalance was left by a lightning strike that, to hear his father speak of it, had been less godly and more terrifying. The real legends looked like everyday men and acted like them, too.
Kadan’s smile vanished, and with eyes on where Callum sat scowling, he said, “You wanted to try your hand at seducing the lady of La’Angi before Luca claims her.” The words were heavy with the ring of sincerity, driving home the ridiculousness of his statement.
Callum’s lips twitched as he shifted in his saddle. “Don’t wish that on me. Wild horses—the Butcher as a father-by-law! Luca’s a braver man than I.”
“Braver,” Kadan repeated, pretending to consider the idea as we rode toward our destination and the Duke in question. “Less intelligent,” he offered, with another glitter of fun in his eyes. “Besotted. More ambitious. Take your pick.”
“Can we only choose one?” Callum sighed, giving in and going along with Kadan’s jest, leaning forward in his saddle and absently running his fingers over the full quiver of arrows before him. He was nervous—and considering what we were actually up to, I didn’t blame him.
The Butcher had the kingdom at sword point, and the King’s advisor was stealing everything from us while we stood by, helpless.
At least, that was their intention. We weren’t practiced at being helpless, though.
How brave or besotted Luca was, marrying the heir to the Butcher—well, he did seem fond of her. He’d certainly visited La’Angi often enough over the past few years. Love or ambition? I’d always assumed the latter. You take La’Angi, you take the military, and then the country, you controlled the locways and every level of our society. “He told me La’Angi cider was almost as good as the expensive bottles of knappchs we import,” I offered, to keep Callum from complaining again.
“Ah, see,” Kadan agreed, with a nonchalant flick of one hand toward me, as if I’d just proved his point. His warhorse snorted and swung its head in my direction. “Noble women who don’t know we’re scoundrels, cider, our friend’s wedding—and, of course, the famed La’Angi tourney. I’m confused as to why we didn’t do this earlier.”
He left out “the assassination of the Butcher”. Yet more evidence he was wiser than people expected when they saw his carefully curated shit-eating grin.
Grim laughter rippled through the ranks of the men around us as though those unspoken words were heard. Even Callum’s scowl crumbled before the statement.
We’d been looking for this opportunity for years.
I saw him open his mouth to respond, but I’d switched my attention to the north of the road, where the orchard was dim and leaves lay heavily on the ground, blanketing the roots of the trees ahead of the coming winter. Was that hooves? Was it one of ours? Surely?—
A flash of movement was my only confirmation. Kadan reacted a moment before me, grabbing Callum’s reins and urging both of their mounts out of harm’s way. I reined in hard to avoid the path of a big chestnut horse bearing a young rider as a kite might bear a ribbon.
The chestnut whipped around, kicking and whinnying in fear, panicked to find itself in the center of our group. With my heart in my throat, I waited for the rider to give it directions as I tried to get Bliksem and myself further away, but they were either overwhelmed or clueless.
“Get clear!” Callum shouted unnecessarily as the beast reared up, snorting out a challenge as the rider scrambled to keep their balance.
“Lean in,” Kadan told the rider, his voice carrying over the horse’s commotion and the men’s shouts of surprise.
Desperate to help, I found myself doing exactly that, following Kadan’s instructions as if my own acquiescence would make a difference to the rider’s struggle.
“Close to its—” The beast whirled and bucked, snapping at Kadan’s own horse. The idea of this poor chestnut taking on a blooded Raider’s Ban warhorse would’ve been funny if there hadn’t been a lad on its back, one obviously untrained. The rider was wrestling with the reins, trying to drag the horse’s head in close to their knee, holding on grimly as it fought him, and I couldn’t do anything except stay out of the damned way.
Then bloody Kadan was out of his saddle and tossing his reins to Callum, offering an apple in an outstretched hand to the half-mad creature. “Only Kadan,” someone muttered behind me even as the beast was rearing again. The wry calm of the statement was at odds with the life-and-death battle before us, jarring me from my own razor focus for a moment.
“Whoa, there,” he was saying, his voice low and easy, but it was too little, too late. The rest of us knew it. Even, I suspected, the rider knew it. The horse’s hooves struck the air, and I watched as if time had slowed as the beast went over further, then further again. My heart beat fiercely in my throat.
I knew people were going to die. We were coming to La’Angi, after all. But this was not a fortuitous beginning.
“Jump!” Kadan shouted, at the precise moment his father called out the exact same word.
Whether it was the two layers of wisdom or that the rider simply knew what was good for him, he leaped clear of the horse, rolling across his back on the ground and springing to his feet like a cat.
“Get him clear!” My liege lord commanded, but again it was an unnecessary order. I was out of my saddle, wrapping my arm around the lad and tossing him as far as I could from those deadly, flailing hooves. Kadan lunged for the reins at the same time, trying to save the horse, reacting on instinct.
I found myself stumbling as the youth latched onto my arm, spinning himself around and pulling me with him—and then my legs went out beneath me. My head was full of the smell of rich orchard and terrified beast. I drove my boot heel into the ground and shoved us both away from where I could feel the reverberations of its struggle. Everything was a blur around us as I put all my energy into getting away from the threat, my arms firmly locked around the youth. With the roar of my heart in my ears, I again planted my heel and shoved. I still felt hooves nearby. Kadan had the reins, though. If anyone could salvage this, it was him.
Now another body length away, I rolled over the youth, risking a glance to get the briefest idea of how close those deadly hooves were.
Or, I tried to, but the world spun. I was lifted and then landed on the ground again. My bones rattled with the force of impact, and the air rushed out of my lungs. Disoriented, I tried to make sense of how the youth’s knees were squeezing my ribs and my right arm was pulled across his body at a strange angle, while also keeping track of our distance from the terrified horse.
Gray, smoky steel moved through my vision, but my mind didn’t actually identify it until after I felt the cool edge of it against my skin. That sensation spoke to a deep part of my brain. I froze, and my focus snapped from the horse to the youth.
A bird sang nearby, a strange, unfamiliar call, and men spoke in rushed, hurried tones, but it was all background noise. My limbs felt overfull. Remaining still was agony.
I didn’t try to swallow around that warm steel, but let out a very gentle breath.
Well, fuck.
“Hold,” someone said nearby.
The horse made an irritated noise, and I realized quiet had settled over us. I almost preferred the chaos.
I knew the youth above me probably had more than a dozen bows bent in his direction right now. Kadan had talked our way out of the Ltonan prince’s dungeons, into a peace treaty with the Red Hand, and away from a dozen hungry heiresses—but my faith in him hadn’t stopped the roaring of my heart.
Killed at the hands of a boy who didn’t even look where he was riding before we could even start this rebellion . The irony wasn’t lost on me.
“The horse needs some time to calm, Sister,” I heard Darrius say. His voice was as relaxed as if he were discussing the weather.
“Sister?” The question came from beyond the youth above me, and a quick laugh followed. “Well, if you’re my brother then my old papa’s got some serious explaining to do.”
The words danced over me like dappled sunlight, barely felt and hardly a distraction. Most of my vision was taken up by a floppy brown hat and the curve of the youth’s head beneath it. He wasn’t big, but he seemed to weigh more than a dozen horses, and his hand on me was like a vice. The blade against my throat didn’t shake. I could feel the strength in his thighs and the bite of his fingers. In another situation, I would’ve quite enjoyed it.
“We were just on the trail of a fox that’s been killing my brother’s chickens these past nights.” The youth was listening intently, but I couldn’t make myself focus. My mouth was a desert. A tickle on my neck made me wonder if I’d been cut or whether I was just anticipating the brief movement that would end my life. “Didn’t mean harm. Guess we weren’t watching as close as we ought, but we’ll be on our way—gotta catch this fox before we lose the track.”
Above me, the rider turned his face ever so slightly. His hand stayed steady, and he remained like a block of granite atop me, but I could see more than a sliver of his face for the first time.
He had pale brown, whiskey-colored eyes, and they were locked onto something beyond us—someone wielding a bow, I suspected. His jaw was square but smooth. The crinkle of leaves under a boot in the direction of that gaze confirmed my suspicions.
I’d never developed a taste for whiskey. People in my family liked it a little too much.
Resisting the urge to draw in a deep breath or try to hurry Darrius along, I stayed still, wondering who it was he was pinning with those eyes.
While I doubted, at this point, I was about to have my throat cut, I was very ready for us to be done here. The ground was cold and damp and aches had started to set in.
Suddenly, that gaze cut down and locked onto me. Trapped behind my ribs by a sudden, inexplicable tightness, my breath burned. Heat spread throughout my body, and my discomfort fell away as I became deeply aware of every point of contact between us. His thighs gripping my chest. His hand wrapped around my wrist. The crush of his weight pinning my arm between us. The heat of him. The strength. I flexed a little, pressing up into the resistance above me.
I wasn’t in the hands of a young man, but a highly skilled woman.
“… never known a Matri’sion to lose a track.”
The words came from the other side of a waterfall. They only registered at all because of the ripple I felt going through the woman above me.
I drew in a breath but held myself still. Some of her hair poked out from under the ugly cap, and it shone like the best chestnut, a deep brown with a red glow. I wanted that cap gone. And the knife, too.
Down, Chay, I thought, dimly.
In another situation, I could’ve happily drowned my sorrows in her. I could already feel the burn of that knowledge in my blood.
She started again and I thought, for a moment, I’d said that out loud. But she asked, “You’re a knight?” And her eyes had narrowed in suspicion.
There were some freckles across the bridge of her nose, less than a dozen, and only faint. Her long mouth was a straight line of displeasure.
I didn’t try to respond. I figured it best, given the knife at my throat.
Darrius’ voice filtered through to me only faintly.
The blade at my throat was suddenly withdrawn. Distaste curved down the edge of her long mouth, and I didn’t know whether Darrius had said the wrong thing, or whether she liked this situation less than I.
Her cap drooped slightly more to one side. It was a silly angle, not a jaunty one, but another lock of hair escaped, longer than the first, and kissed the edge of her jaw.
The bird sang nearby again, a long, beautiful call. The woman above me leaned back, sheathing her knife and casting her eyes about.
Without thinking, I started to reach up, wanting to brush away those wayward strands of hair.
She flinched like I’d tossed a viper at her, recoiling violently, steel back in her hand and swooping toward me. Another bird call, and she paused, the knife halfway between us, her eyes locked on me. Distrust was stamped clearly across her features.
My hand had already dropped away. I was way out of line. I was so far out of line that I’d need to pack provisions to get back there. “Apologies,” I said, making sure my irritation with myself didn’t come through in my voice.
She didn’t respond, but settled back slowly, her limbs coiled tightly as if she expected me to strike.
“Hey, Chay,” Kadan said nearby. “We’ve made new friends.”
Friends . Somehow, Darrius had made friends with the person accompanying the woman. I realized one of my hands was still tangled up in her shirt, crushed between us, and I forced my fingers to unlock rather than press closer, shrugging off the wave of humiliation I felt at the sight of my own weakness. You can worry about that when the candles burn low, I thought.
She climbed off me without hesitation, her movements graceful in the way of a wild creature.
Of course she was tall—almost as tall as me—with strong shoulders. Of course she was. I’d blown my chances with the most attractive woman I’d seen in…a lot of seasons.
I climbed to my feet, stiff and awkward with annoyance at myself. I probably never had a chance anyway. For all I knew, her entire family had been hung and drawn by the last knight who’d crossed her path.
We were in La’Angi, after all.
I liked that reminder and let my frustration swell, directing it to the Butcher, sitting in that squat, uninviting keep that was the topic of ballads and dirges, both.
“It’s a shame this meeting never took place,” I heard Darrius saying to an older woman dressed in trousers and a man’s shirt, a quiver strapped to one strong thigh. She stood tall despite her average height, her blonde hair tightly plaited down her back. “I’m sure meeting you both would have been a delight. Best of luck in all your endeavors—and do feel free to introduce yourselves should we ever cross paths.”
The woman beside me hunched her shoulders and dropped her eyes to the ground in a way that made my worry flare.
Why was she shrinking?
The older blonde woman tossed her horse’s reins to my attacker, taking the still-skittish beast who was foaming and stressed for herself. Kadan had saved the horse. I hadn’t even noticed that minor miracle.
I met Kadan’s eyes, searching for guidance, but his expression was thoughtful and his only word of wisdom was, “Curious.”
He strolled back to his mount with a loose-limbed walk that only made me feel stiffer in comparison. Trust Kadan to understate a situation so easily.
Callum punched me on the shoulder, grinning as he did so. “How’s your throat there, Chay?” he asked, wiggling his brows. “Got a stiff neck?”
There was no way I could’ve managed a response, so I just brushed some dirt off my shirt and went to where Bliksem waited for me, climbing back into the saddle.
“What was—” someone began.
“Not yet,” Darrius cut in, the words almost idle. He glanced into the trees as if expecting them to have ears.
Eventually, some blood must’ve returned to my brain, because I realized Darrius had mentioned Matri’sion.
The renegade Steppe nomads, who claimed and defended one of the richest parts of the Steppes, were half-myth, all women…and could not possibly exist in La’Angi.
Had the blonde been a Matri’sion? Surely not. What was she doing so far east?
My mind went to my attacker, and now that my brain was working, I realized the way she’d tied me up was reminiscent of what I’d heard from Darrius’ stories. Darrius was the only man I’d ever known to travel across Matri’sion territory. It was part of his legend.
Not even the Matri’sion disliked Darrius.
Were they both Matri’sion? What were they doing in La’Angi? Unease gnawed at me. La’Angi was the key to the country. Everyone knew it. But Matri’sion weren’t a political power. They weren’t strong enough to take Arcanloc, and even if they were, they’d never expressed an interest in such a gambit before.
“If anyone recognizes either of those two, anywhere, you’re to say nothing,” Darrius said to the group as we moved through the orchard, his words firm. “You don’t mention this encounter to anyone. Not to your drinking buddies, not to one of us, not to them if you see them again, and certainly not to anyone from La’Angi.”
I blinked. This was all obvious, wasn’t it? With the Butcher being who he was? It’d be a swift death to exist publicly in La’Angi as Matri’sion.
Kadan started whistling a merry tune, and Callum broke into song to cover any awkward silences. I took up the chorus, and voices rose around us.
Had they been fleeing?
I let out a long, slow breath, rolling my shoulders under the grimy shirt on my back. They ached where I’d struck the ground.
Then I caught my first glance of La’Angi, up close.
The keep stood atop the cliffs, dropping down to the bay beneath on one side. On the other, circular walls spread down the hillside like dark ripples. A lone patch of green marred one area, indistinct from this distance. Smoke filled the air in the lower levels, lingering around the thatched roofs.
I felt my belly tighten. A group of traders, their carts well-guarded, watched us warily, slowly heading toward the sad, squat city. Kadan lifted a hand, and we greeted them as if they didn’t curl their noses like we were shit on their shoe.
At the gate, there was a short line to enter the city. Guards sporting the La’Angi crest of a sword and apple moved freely among the crowd. I wasn’t sure how regulated the fees they took were, and didn’t plan to find out, ignoring Darrius’ conversation with them and studying the walls and gate as we slowly neared.
I hadn’t expected the curtain walls to be small, but I still hadn’t been prepared for the sheer height and depth of the fortifications . I’d been to Azashi and even laid eyes on the child-King. And these walls might’ve been taller than those around the King himself.
Which probably made sense, as the King’s power came from his military, and the Duke controlled the lion’s share of it.
One of the guard met my eyes. He stood beside the big wheel that was currently wound tight, holding the gate open. I ignored the hostility in his gaze.
We had the fastest horses in the country. But behind walls, fast horses couldn’t do much.
“Two?” Callum asked, with a grin.
I nodded. It’d take two of us to raise one of those gates.
I saw Callum turn and murmur it to someone. Trusting the information would spread, I skimmed my eyes over the location and number of guards. They traveled in threes and held spears and shields. La’Angi favored crossbows, and I knew they’d be loaded and waiting out of sight and the weather. Off to the side, I saw a guard take a knife and slice open a sack, rummaging through it. Whatever he found he must’ve liked. Some went into his pocket. The man standing beside the donkey looked impassive as a second guard stood beside him, hand on his sword, staring at a nearby young woman who was trying to slip behind another cart.
“Twelve on,” I told Callum as he leaned over toward me. “Twelve around.” I forced my eyes away from the guards as we entered the lower level of the city. Those odds weren’t insurmountable. It’d be how far away reinforcements were that’d make the difference. Given La’Angi’s reputation, I was going to assume we wouldn’t get a lot of time.
I leaned forward and ran a hand along Bliksem’s neck. Kadan glanced over, grinning that big, shit-eating grin, his blue eyes full of trouble. “Keep your eyes out for the red lamp district,” he said, loud enough to be overheard. “I wouldn’t mind sampling the local talent.”
I nodded, playing along and making a show of looking around, though I knew he wouldn’t be relaxing in the company of anyone he didn’t know until we were free of this place. The street was wide and cobbled, but the side streets on this level were deep mud. This close to a main gate and along the main road, inns dominated. I had no doubt fleas did, too.
Fortunately, we hadn’t come here to lie with dogs.