Chapter 33
Aiden
Gods damn it, why did I say that?
I ran my hands through my hair as I walked to the back of the house where the kitchen was. The hum of conversation mixed with the clanging of pots and pans.
I fucking love you for it.
I rolled the words around in my head. They were true. Too true. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
Kiera was nervous around me. She still didn’t trust me. Not completely. I wasn’t even sure I completely trusted her.
But that didn’t stop me from wanting her. Loving the pieces of herself she offered me. I had to fight for every piece, and I never wanted to stop fighting.
When she’d sat there looking so heartbroken and defeated, telling me of the impossible position Renwell had put her in, it’d stirred something deep inside me. Her desire to do right, her guilt in falling short, and her grief for others.
It was a deadly mix, and one I understood all too well.
But her story—our time in Aquinon—was making more and more sense. Her desperation to save Helene and Isabel. Renwell taking Maz. We’d been caught in a battle between master and apprentice.
And Renwell kept fucking winning.
I burst into the kitchen as if I’d been running.
Maz glanced up at me with a quirked eyebrow, his mouth full of shredded potatoes.
I shook my head and sat on an open spot of bench around the massive table. Jek handed me a plate. My mouth watered as I stared at the food before me.
Piles of crispy shredded potatoes. Thick cuts of bacon. A golden loaf of bread that was mostly gone. A collection of jars filled with a rainbow of jams and butters.
It wasn’t grand, but it was a feast all the same. The sort of fare a worker might eat before toiling outside all day.
I filled my plate to the brim and began shoveling the food into my mouth.
None of us talked much other than to ask someone to pass some food.
The cook—a short man with an irritable scowl—barked orders at the two younger workers, a boy and a girl.
After a few minutes, the cook slammed down another loaf of bread in the middle of the table. “Gods-damned soldiers eating all my gods-damned food . . . not even a thank-you . . . such a waste . . .” He kept muttering to himself as he continued to terrorize the kitchen.
Caddik returned with a dark gray dog at his heels. Both of them sat next to Helene.
“How often do soldiers come here?” I asked him.
He snorted into the cup of tea he clutched with both hands. “Seems like every week now. Usually, it’s just border patrols looking for a free meal or a roof for the night. They piss on my walls and rile up my staff.”
I chewed my bacon thoughtfully. “So this was the first time Korvin knocked on your door?”
Caddik’s scowl deepened. “That animal didn’t knock. He just walked in like he owned my gods-damned house. I saw him ride up, though. Had just enough time to get everyone to the secret cellar.” He nodded at Nikella. “Teacher already knew where the passage was.”
“We’re both quite familiar,” Jek said under his breath with a twitch of his lips.
Nikella’s cheeks pinked as she glared at him and kicked his boot into mine under the table.
I clenched my teeth to keep from laughing. Jek had been in love with my mentor since before I’d known him. Sometimes I was almost certain Nikella felt the same.
“He didn’t even look around much,” Caddik went on.
He took a piece of bacon and fed it to the dog, who swallowed it whole.
“His dirty soldiers raided my kitchen while he gave me some oily speech about who he was and who he was looking for. Then he drank out of my teacup and ate my food, never losing that creepy smile of his. Told me to have a good day.”
Nikella dropped her fork and pushed her half-finished plate away. “He’ll be back.”
Caddik stared at her, idly stroking his dog’s alert ears. “Oh, I’m sure he will until he finds you. And that one.” He jerked his thumb at Kiera, who’d just entered the kitchen.
My heart thumped harder. She looked fresh and beautiful in her new clothes and her hair in a damp braid. The sun coming through the windows seemed to hug her, intent on making her glow.
But then Caddik’s words registered.
“He’s looking for her?” I demanded.
Kiera’s gaze darted between us, startled.
“Fits the description he gave,” Caddik said with a shrug.
I clenched my fork. Gods damn Renwell to the depths of the wandering hell. Sending his favorite hunter after two of the people he’d hurt the most.
Kiera met my eyes, uncertainty shining in hers. But I had no certainty to give.
Ruru made space between him and Nikella and waved Kiera into it.
“Should’ve just killed the weasel when he was here with only a few soldiers,” Sigrid grumbled, tearing her bread into chunks and dipping them in the bacon grease on her plate.
Helene scooted farther away from the Dag warrior. “I don’t want to be anywhere near a battle, thank you,” she said icily.
Yarina eyed her with distaste. “Then you may not want to be anywhere near Calimber.” She glanced between me and Maz with hard eyes. “Now tell us what you found in the mine.”
Everyone around the table perked up. Even Helene seemed begrudgingly interested.
I met Maz’s eyes, and he nodded for me to take the lead. Either to finish his second plate of food or because he didn’t want to talk about it yet. Or both.
Swallowing my reluctance, I told them of the mine. The forge. The cavern. The prisoners. The beach. The missing ship.
Maz pitched in with details here and there. Others asked questions. When I started speaking of the prisoners, Helene sent Isabel to play with the dog and her lizard in another room.
Which was fortunate when I reached the supervisor.
“We followed my marks back out of the tunnels,” I continued. Maz tensed. “But a supervisor stopped us to ask for our papers. Said we weren’t due for another three weeks with the next shipment of prisoners.”
Maz shot me a look of relief, his shoulders dropping. There was no need to announce the reason we were stopped. The others didn’t need to know about Bruna.
“What did you do?” Nikella asked, looking as though she already knew the answer.
I stared down at the empty stretch of skin on my finger. I hadn’t worn my father’s ring long enough to leave a mark, yet I still felt its lingering presence. It was good that I’d left it behind with Frieda.
You are not worthy to wear a king’s ring, that voice from the Abyss said.
“We had no papers and couldn’t speak without giving ourselves away, so I killed him,” I said in a dull voice. “We made it look like a tunnel had collapsed on him.”
Kiera drew in a sharp breath. “And no one saw you?”
I hesitated.
Maz sighed loudly, abandoning his last chunk of bread. “A few prisoners were there.” He glanced at Sigrid. “I saw Bruna, and that’s why the supervisor stopped us. She helped us hide the body.”
Sigrid’s eyes lit up. Then she scowled, pointing her knife at her brother. “You weren’t supposed to talk to anyone, Mazkull! Fucking Four, it’s not that hard! You could’ve—”
“She’s alive, Sig,” Maz said softly. “She’s waiting for us to come get her.”
Sigrid suddenly became very interested in the single piece of bacon left on her plate. Her heavy blond braids slid down to hide her face.
Yarina patted her on the back, then glared around the table at us. “We are getting Bruna out, right? And everyone else?”
“Aiden and Maz barely escaped last night,” Nikella said. “A rescue would take a great deal of planning.”
Yarina slammed her fist on the table, making Helene jump. “I say we just bury his fucking forge, along with the rest of his bloody sunstone, and take the prisoners with us when we’re done!”
Sigrid nodded heavily. Jek grunted in agreement. I looked across the table to Kiera.
She was already staring at me. Her spine was straight, her eyes harder than I’d seen them. “Agreed. Can it be done?”
“Oh, sure, with a few thousand warriors and a couple of warships, we could take Calimber no problem,” Maz said bitterly.
“We have a ship,” I replied. “And that supervisor told us where we can get another.”
Maz stared at me in disbelief. “The Shadow-Wolf prisoner ship?”
I nodded. The idea had been coming to me in bits and pieces since last night.
“We use Mynastra’s Wings to intercept the prisoner ship.
Once we take it, we sail into the bay—Skelly’s crew disguised as Wolves and us as prisoners—and anchor at the beach without raising suspicion.
Then we infiltrate the mine, burn down the forge with the stolen fireseeds, and escape with the prisoners. ”
“And what of Dracles’s army?” Jek asked, stroking his silver beard. “The supervisors would notice a fire and escaping prisoners and sound the alarm. Soldiers would overrun us before we made it back to the ship.”
“That’s why I said we bury them,” Yarina growled. She gestured at Nikella. “You made excellent explosives for us in Aquinon. Why not for the mine?”
Nikella pursed her lips, deep in thought. “I could figure something out,” she said. “But it would be dangerous. And the prisoners would have to be out of the mine before the explosions. The timing would need to be precise.”
Timing was never precise in a battle. Especially one with this many moving pieces.
We would have to hide explosives around the mine and discreetly free the prisoners.
Once we started escaping, the army would charge in after us.
We’d need to set off the explosives without killing ourselves or the weak, confused prisoners.
Skelly would have to fight the warship and any remaining soldiers to keep our escape route clear.
We could be crushed by the supervisors, the mine, Dracles and his army, or the warship.
It sounded impossible.
I rubbed my temples, exhaustion fragmenting my thoughts.
Caddik’s chair screeched across the floor as he stood up. “Enough useless planning. That mine has stood for decades and won’t be destroyed over breakfast. I have beds and cots for you all, unless Korvin changes his mind and burns down my house before lunch.”
Kiera’s eyes widened as if she didn’t know whether that was a joke.
Unfortunately, I was sure it wasn’t. We needed to rest while we could, but we had to keep moving before long.
In what direction, for what purpose, only the Four knew. But I wouldn’t give up my plans. There was always a way.
Helene stood from the table first, reminding me of something.
“A moment in the cellar, Helene,” I said, standing as well.
She eyed me with distrust and a little fear, but she nodded.
I opened the door in the kitchen that led down a set of stairs to the first cellar. Unlike the secret one, the room was full of fruits and vegetables, drying from the rafters or peeking out of barrels. Casks of wine layered the shelves next to sacks of flour and rice.
I pushed one of the shelves aside and pulled up the burlap cloth that hung over the metal door. It was well-hidden, yet Korvin hadn’t even bothered searching the whole house. Instead, he’d sipped tea and eaten breakfast.
Shaking off my sense of foreboding, I opened the door and followed Helene into the secret cellar.
“Well, what did you need to say to me in this ghastly hole?” Helene demanded. She folded her arms tightly around her chest, the sickly lamplight aging her by a dozen years.
I grabbed Garyth’s letters out of my bag. I’d found them after we left Yargoth. Ruru, or someone else, must’ve stashed them there. “I believe these were your husband’s.”
Helene gasped and gently took them out of my hands. “But . . . Melaena?”
“She’s fine, the last I heard. She didn’t want to get caught with them, so she sent them with Ruru.”
Helene shuffled through the papers, an oddly fond smile lifting her lips. “This was one of his greatest achievements. He worked so hard to gather this group of people—men and women who would answer the call when the People’s Council could rise again.”
“His work was not in vain,” I said softly. “Those names will be invaluable to the next king or queen of Rellmira. I will make sure of it.”
She looked at me with sad eyes. “I was wrong to think you do nothing for your kingdom. But couldn’t you accomplish more if you told our people the truth?” She waved the letters. “If you made allies of those who would support you, rather than scheming in the shadows?”
“There aren’t many who would want to risk allying with me. The risk of death is too high.”
“We are dying anyway,” Helene whispered. “I want my daughter to grow up in the Rellmira that Garyth remembered, that he envisioned for the future. I would ally with anyone who provided that for my family.”
Her words struck a chord deep inside my soul. It sang of hope. Of a world where, one day, I wouldn’t have to fight anymore. I wouldn’t have to hide who I was.
But king?
“I am not worthy to sit on the throne,” I said. “But I will fight for the Rellmira we both want until my last breath.”
Helene sighed, clutching her husband’s coded letters to her chest. “Then I pray the Four will keep your last breath for many years to come.”
Hours later, after a quick bath and some much-needed sleep, I couldn’t shake Helene’s words from my mind.
The People’s Council. The prisoners. Rellmira.
I had so much to fight for. So many hopes placed on my shoulders. This was why it was easier to stay hidden, so that if I failed, I wouldn’t crush everyone else’s hope as well.
Restless and irritable, I stole away to the one place I might find peace—Kiera’s bedroom.