12. Ayres
He heard the soft pop of a flare, and Ayres craned his neck up to watch the red, smoky marker fly up into the air.
People started yelling, and the courtyard full of soldiers which had been peaceful and orderly ten seconds before, descended into chaos.
Ayres dismounted his horse and handed his reins off to a small stable boy. His two guards, Piers and Kaiya, were already off their horses and watching the flurry of commotion. Guards and soldiers barked orders at each other, rushing out from the castle and quickly assembling by the front gate, each of them brandishing arms.
“What in Marras’ name is going on?” Piers grumbled, running a hand through his hair, staring up again at the red plume in the sky.
Neither Ayres nor Kaiya had a chance to answer him as a single cart, pulled by two white horses, pulled through the castle gate and into the stone courtyard.
Guards swarmed, closing in around the cart, and cut off the exit with a mass of armed bodies as the gate slammed closed behind them.
Captain Lamonte, captain of the Northern Guardian’s guards, jumped down off the cart onto the stone floor of the courtyard. He reached back inside, and with a grunt, tossed a woman’s limp body over his shoulder. Blood dripped down Lamonte’s face, and the bridge of his nose was split open and now angled awkwardly to one side.
“Gods, above, what happened to his face?” Piers muttered.
“Did she do that?” Kaiya put her fingers to her lips and sucked in a breath. “Marras, any harder and she could have killed him.”
A black sack had been pulled tight over the woman’s face and hair, and her hands dangling over her head were encased in round, ball-like iron fittings, designed so prisoners couldn’t use their fingers.
One of the encasings was slick with blood, and the chains that usually bound those fittings together had been broken and now dangled uselessly towards the ground.
Ayres eyed the broken chains with growing unease. That must have been the reason for the flare, she had broken out.
Whoever this woman was, she was dangerous.
All the guards at the gate stayed on edge, watching as the woman was carried like a sack of potatoes across the courtyard.
“That must be the last Contestar,” Piers muttered, “and the Guardian must be threatening everyone”s lives to make sure she doesn’t run off again.”
When his old friend got close enough, Ayres barked out, “Oi! Lamonte! What happened to your pretty face?”
The friendly House of Dark captain sidestepped over to them with easy grace despite the body over his shoulder. “Boys, Kaiya, don’t mind the blood. It’s nothin’ serious, but I have to say it’s ‘bout time you’ve shown up. It’s been years since I’ve seen yer ugly mugs.”
Piers clasped Lamonte’s free arm with his own, giving him a nod before tilting his head at the cart Lamonte had just arrived in. “We got here just before you did, just in time to see the show.”
“Who do you have there?” Ayres asked, stepping back, and nodding his head to the unconscious body. “Is she why every soldier in the castle is armed and guarding the gate?”
“Yes’sir,” Captain Lamonte looked around in turn at Ayres, Kaiya, and Piers with a wide grin. The dark brown of his skin—only a few shades lighter than Kaiya’s—made the sea green of his eyes stand out. “It’s the last Contestar. She’s a bit of a flight risk, so the Guardian organized all this just ‘n case.” He gestured around to the guards who were all watching Lamonte warily.
“I didn’t believe it was necessary,” Lamonte admitted. “And I woke ‘er up a bit early so I could prepare her for all this, but she broke out not even two minutes after I released ‘er.”
Lamonte shook his head in wonderous admiration, but the unease in Ayres’s stomach turned into boiling irritation. She was trying to run again?
“Where was she hiding?” Kaiya pushed her long white braids over her shoulders before taking a cautious step closer to the unconscious female.
“They picked ‘er up in Lyondrea.” Lamonte shrugged the shoulder the Contestar wasn”t currently draped over. “The Hunter found her nearly five days ago. I think before that she was in House of Ice. I don’ reckon it was an intentional harborin’ though.”
“Of course, she’s Ice,” Piers sneered. “Didn’t the King of Ice require all of his subjects to be looked at?”
“Tha’s wha’ I thought,” Lamonte shrugged his free shoulder again. “She must-a slipped through.”
Piers gave a disbelieving hum.
Ayres stepped over to Kaiya to get a closer look at the Contestar.
Thin, black leather armor encased her body from her boots all the way to the top of her throat where the black linen sack that covered her head was tied. Not an inch of skin showed. As he got closer to her, however, he noticed there were tiny red flecks of dried blood covering almost every inch of her armor.
“Was she injured?” Ayres asked, looking over the rest of her torso for clues, but the only thing he found was the same dark red dried blood covering almost every square inch of her.
Lamonte shook his head, bouncing the woman slightly to adjust her weight on his shoulder. “The Hunter gave her a beatin’, but I donna think what yer lookin at’s her blood. Didn’t see any cuts or injuries on ‘er besides a few to her face . . . but it’s hard to know.”
Ayres looked over the dried blood again and tightened his jaw, his lip curling over his teeth. How many innocent men had died so she could try and run again?
Lamonte saw the fury on Ayres’s face. “None of my men died extractin’ ‘er, it’s not their blood. It musta come before that, so I dunno whose blood it is. I dunno what she was doing in Lyondrea either.”
Ayres, Kaiya, and Piers all shared a weary glance. They’d all come to the Northern Castle to help protect whichever Contestar the House of Death chose to protect. Already that task seemed ominous and uncertain.
“The Guardian is waitin’ for me in her room, an I don’ wanna be around for when this one wakes up. Once was enough for that.” He chuckled softly to himself, reaching up to gently touch over his broken nose gingerly with one hand. “I’ll see ya durin’ the first feast tomorrow night though, yeah?”
Lamonte carted the woman around them and started across the courtyard towards the main keep.
Kaiya cracked her knuckles as she watched him go, her long white braids swaying down her back. “There might be a good reason why she stayed away so long.”
“If there’s not, she”s not going to make it to the first round,” Ayres grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest. He glared after the bobbing Contestar until she and Lamonte disappeared.