CHAPTER XIII #8
“Yes, you should have chosen your words more carefully when you spoke to her. Now, the King asked you a question, Alyson…”
Heysan reaches for his summoned silver bracelet around her neck, pulling it off in a gentle embrace.
“And I would caution you to choose your next words carefully, for they will be heard in the presence of my brother’s chosen.”
Alyson’s eyes dart to mine again, piercing and cold as she remains silent. I take a slow walk towards the girl and stand directly behind Heysan’s kneeling body, returning her glare with my own.
“Who ordered you to kill the Woodlands man?”
The blonde Discerni keeps her eyes on mine as Desmond inches his blade for her fingers again. I barely catch Heysan’s nod beneath me.
Keep going. Seems like a small group.
Stormfall leans forward on my shoulder, his black mass adding its own intimidation as I
continue with a smile.
“Who are they?”
Alyson remains silent but Heysan’s voice fills my mind.
The Argents.
I frown. The birds?
I can’t tell. Those words are all that’s consuming her mind.
“Can’t be the argents,” I shrug my shoulder indifferently, watching as she gives an involuntary flinch to the press of the Master Informer’s blade behind her. “Or maybe it can. Only the unorganized would enlist the help of a girl.”
“Unorganized?” she scoffs. “They’ve been preparing for this since before I was even born. Since the moment he defected to the Court of Warriors.”
She turns to Keane with a malicious smile and spits out her next words. “Human lover.”
The room completely stills with the exception of Desmond. He quickly severs two more fingers behind her, pulling a deep scream from Alyson’s lips before her chin sags into her chest, going unconscious.
“I have enough to take to Esme,” Heysan grimaces as he looks over the girl.
He flicks the silver band back towards her face and takes a stand, watching as it tightens around her mouth and the back of her head again.
Both Keane and Desmond are glaring at Alyson from her sides, brows furrowed in thought before they look at each other.
“How many?” the King’s voice is heavy as he turns to Heysan.
“A small coalition. Four, maybe five heads. The Lady is one of them.”
The argents… my mind moves in different directions, was Arens’ reference this whole time not towards the magical birds? But instead towards a group that took on the name?
They’re involved, Stormfall grips my shoulder as I turn from the men. Used, as you said.
Golem catches my eyes before he opens the door. I walk out slowly, avoiding the glances from Nathaniel and Bryson and take a steady breath of air.
Could you get one, Storm? I look at the Bird of Ash on my shoulder. Capture one and bring it back?
Should be easy enough, his old voice fills my mind. What are you thinking?
I narrow my eyes on his yellow ones and smile softly.
That’d I’d like to give the Lady of Etter a false glimmer of hope.
Lady Esme is being held at the far end of the opposite hall, guarded by both Lord Crisjan and now Lord Walker. The new Lord of Etter had finished securing the village by the time we were done with Alyson, greeting Keane at our arrival with heavy features.
Both him and Crisjan recounted what took place before we rode into the residence.
The Discerni woman had requested a small council audience with Walker and Rae somewhere around the time we took lunch at the break in the Great Road of Silver and Gold.
Desmond’s stealthing hadn’t started until we were a turn of the sun’s ride to Etter, so the argents were able to summon word to her before our secret arrival.
Walker himself was in the town overseeing the new construction of a new set of barracks, while Crisjan was with Esme going about their normal duties within the residence.
Crisjan offered to write to Walker, to ask that he bring the human woman with him from town so they could have their meeting.
But Esme deflected, noting that Rae was one of the few women who worked in the woods with the forest trade.
Someone had to go get the woman, so Crisjan offered to walk to the woods while Esme would wait at the residence for Walker.
Crisjan quickly turned around, however, when the men told him that Rae had never worked a day at the timber site in her life.
It was all a ruse. Esme needed to get Crisjan out of the way as she waited for Lord Walker to arrive at the residence. The Knowledge man was to be the third of the three kills, a warning to any new Knowledge Discerni that wanted to take up the mantle as the new Lord of Etter.
Walker extended his arm out to Keane and Desmond, showing off two large gashes that sliced down his forearm in the same manner as Maude.
Esme had caught him off guard in their meeting room after he arrived, using a heavy blow to the back of his head before he even knew what was going on.
He woke up mid-way to the woman on top of him, carving into his skin with a large blade to create the number three.
But the Discerni man was able to overpower her and force her off, and it was then that she ran from the room, the woman fleeing just as Crisjan arrived back from the woods.
Both of the men were chasing after her as she made her way to the stables, which is what we rode into upon our arrival.
“You both need your rest,” Keane tells them in appreciation. “I’ll have Canon join as guard for tonight.”
“And Esme?” Walker asks the King in a calm voice, his gaze hard.
Keane eyes the Lord in quiet understanding. “She has information that we need. Once we acquire that from her, her crimes will be announced to the full of the village just as those before her.”
Both Walker and Crisjan bow their heads, the look on their faces holding no sympathy for the Woodlands woman.
Lord Crisjan eyes me for a moment before he walks away, his glance telling me that he wants to talk, needs to talk, and I have no doubt it’ll be about the demonstration I gave earlier with the argents.
At least he’s no longer looking at me with fear in his eyes.
Keane waits for both men to disappear before he places his hand on the door to the dining room. He stops before opening it, looking over our small group in calm determination.
“We’re all good on what we’re doing?”
Are you around, Storm? I call quietly.
Yes, his deep voice soothes my small nervousness, just say the word.
“Stormfall is ready.”
Keane nods and presses into the door, his heavy steps reverberating off the wall as we once again walk into the same cold room used for all the previous dinners here.
The large table is bare with the exception of a few lanterns of bottled moonslight, their glow sending rays of silver across the white marble walls and the large glass windows that rest at the end of the room.
Lady Esme has her shoulders and wrists tied behind her chair, the full of the bindings tight and giving no release.
Her long blonde hair is waved out of place, her light grey and green dress disheveled from her ride and attempted escape.
There’s smudges of dirt all over her hands and face, the full of her looking the most haggard I’ve ever seen.
Gone is the pristine woman of Woodlands, replaced by someone much more sinister now that she’s been found out.
There’s a determined sneer on her face, one that washes away the previous passive and docile act that she had not long before.
She looks evil, if one can put a look to that, and even more so when her eyes crinkle in small laughter, as if this whole situation is a joke and we’re not in on it.
“It’s good to finally meet the real you, Lady Esme,” Keane announces.
To think I ever considered her to be the one who was coerced out of the three…
“I’ve been around, Your Grace,” she laughs offhandedly, “you were just too busy to see.”
I sigh and pull out a chair to her left and sit down, resting comfortably against the sturdy back as I analyze this new woman in front of me.
“I hear a congratulations is in order for you, Lady Alexis,” she turns her gaze on mine with a cool smile, eyes flicking to my ring. “Word has traveled through Woodlands fast.”
“Thank you,” I smile sweetly, “hopefully you’re alive after this conversation to hear more word of our half-born children and your future sovereigns.”
Keane’s lips turn up in a small smirk just as Esme narrows her eyes.
“That will never happen.”
“No?” I lift my brows, fingering the green agate around my finger.
“Never,” she spits out.
“It will,” I affirm, “and I also think you may be around to hear about it. Though I can’t fathom the state you’ll be in when you receive the word.”
“Woodlands won’t allow it, you dumb whore. We won’t allow your union.”
“Hmm. Anyone in particular I should keep my eye on?”
Lady Esme glares at me, opening her mouth to reply before she shuts it tight.
“No?” I shrug my shoulder. “That’s okay. I’m here to talk of something else, actually. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m deeply curious about you…”
Esme attempts to sit up straighter in her chair, her gaze narrowing in thought.
“I’m intrigued as to your summoning, Lady Esme” I tell her in appreciation, “deeply intrigued. Your power is unlike anything I’ve ever felt. Almost on par with the King’s himself. How were you able to control the illusion over the full of the village?”
I hear Heysan move behind me, the Ancient heading for a drink as we all try to keep a level of casualness to this meeting.
“With flying help,” Esme chuckles, confirming what I suspect. “The birds are innocent. They can’t fight against the magic. I did tell you that they were too without care for their own good…”
“You did,” I nod.
“Still,” she continues with a smile, “the summoning I use is not something many can do.”
“I know it,” I raise my brows, impressed. “I have my own flying help, of course, though he chooses to turn people to ash without any forced summoning.”
Lady Esme gives me a dark smile, her blue eyes sharp. “Hence why I’ve been trying my hardest to get my hands on you two.”