Chapter Eight
Jet
“She still sleeping?” I asked Vishen, who’d run to check on Serin while I had another tense discussion with my father.
“Yes. Knight is glued to her, and I re-locked the door when I left. Hopefully, she can talk to us when she wakes up.”
“Yeah. I’m glad to have a name, at least. But we need to be able to speak to her.”
“We will. But first, let’s meet with a possible guard.”
“Who is this one?”
“She just graduated last week. So hopefully we got to her before the system could really corrupt her.”
“That it?”
Vishen shot me a smirk. “Her file noted her as ‘unnecessarily violent’ during sparring drills. As well as ‘headstrong,’ ‘outspoken,’ and ‘independent.’”
“All marks against her when it comes to the military,” I observed.
“But makes for a good guard,” Vishen said. “She was orphaned in her teens, enlisted as soon as she was old enough, hasn’t seemed to make any friends…”
“So, there are no connections to worry about.”
“And being so deeply untrusting of other people, she’s not likely to let anyone within five feet of your wife.”
“Good. Let’s interview her. Get her hired. I don’t like leaving her alone when she’s not even able to scream. What?” I asked when Vishen shot me a look.
“You’re uncharacteristically protective of your new bride, don’t you think?”
“I don’t want her silenced or dead before I can question her. It’s different.”
“Is it?” he asked, shooting me a smirk. “I’ll send for the guard. Meet me behind the shed in twenty.”
I ducked back into my quarters.
Seeing the way Serin was trembling, I made my way back to the hearth, piling the wood and lighting a roaring fire.
“Sorry, Knight,” I said, petting his head before bringing in a large bowl of water for him. “I won’t be long. Then you can escape this hell.”
I made my way out of the room, checking the lock, then continuing down the hall and out of the castle, trying to avoid being seen by any of the staff, who might then try to get into my room while I was away.
I somehow managed to avoid the damn redcaps who were standing, staring at the usual exits. They were too dumb to think I might come out a side door.
Vishen was waiting for me behind the shed.
“How is she?”
“Shivering hard again.”
Vishen winced.
“Hopefully, when she wakes up, she will be able to speak. Then we can figure out what’s wrong with her. Maybe she has some sort of tonic she needs for a chronic ailment or something.”
I hadn’t considered that.
But it made sense.
Why else would she get so unwell so quickly, revive a bit, then get worse again?
“Get your fucking hands off me, you hedge-born loiter-sack!” a female voice snapped as footsteps crunched closer.
Vishen shot me a smirk.
“I guess Serin’s guard is here,” I said, chuckling.
Just as she rounded the shed, one of the male soldiers reached out again to shove the woman’s shoulder, making her stumble. And that, it seemed, was an indignity she could not forgive.
In a move so fast it seemed to blur, she reached into a sheath attached to her belt, pulled out a knife, and held it to the man’s throat.
“Touch me one more time, and I’ll paint this whole forest in the lovely shade of Soldier Goon, Number Fifty-Seven.”
Vishen cleared his voice, making all parties stiffen and turn. Their gazes fell on him, then me. Their eyes widened as they all rushed to press their fists over their hearts and bow.
The woman, though, kept direct eye contact the whole time. Maybe it was wrong of me, but I liked her defiance. That was what was necessary for people working for me. Because there would be times when they would need to listen to me, not my father.
“Nira, I presume?” Vishen said, looking at the woman.
Nira was a mix of military-fit and feminine curves—strong arms, muscular thighs, round hips, and a heavy chest. She was tall for a woman, nearly the same height as Vishen, with deep red hair pulled back in a high ponytail, golden brown eyes, and a charming smattering of freckles over her nose and cheekbones.
There was a hardness to her features, though. And I imagined if she had spent the last year or so dealing with pushy assholes like the ones right behind her, she needed to be that way.
“You two can leave,” I said to the men, who looked offended but quickly retreated.
Nira stepped back, glancing to make sure the soldiers weren’t lingering around.
“What is this about? I have a job to do.”
“You’re in the presence of the prince,” Vishen reminded her.
“Yeah. And his father will have me whipped if someone else reports me for shirking my duties. So you’ll forgive me if I don’t drop to my knee and kiss his ring.”
Vishen shot me a look as he tried to press a smile flat.
“Well, if the prince here likes you, you won’t have to worry about those duties or whippings anymore,” Vishen told her.
Nira’s keen eyes moved to me for a split, uninterested second before focusing back on Vishen.
“Well, you can tell the prince that I have no interest in him liking me, nor anything that might come from his interest.”
“I have no interest in fucking you, if that’s what you’re concerned about,” I said, making Vishen snort.
“What do you want with a female soldier then?”
“My new wife needs a guard.”
Her chin lifted at that. And whether she was aware of it or not, I saw the way her eyes went bright.
That was interest. Because a soldier was just another number, a meaningless position to the court.
But a guard? A guard had a lot of prestige and respect.
There’d be no more pushing around or unwanted advances from her peers. Because she would be above them.
“I want a female guard whom I can trust to be alone with her.”
“But?” she asked.
“But I want someone who answers to me, not my father.”
“Why is that?” she asked, but she seemed too smart not to understand why that was. Only a fool would be able to exist close to the court and not see him losing his mind.
“There seem to be some threats to Serin,” Vishen slid in to answer. “But we don’t want to bring the issue to the king until we have more information.”
“What kind of threats?”
“She’s been poisoned,” he told her. “Pricked with something to make it impossible for her to speak.”
“Bellhush.”
“Yes,” Vishen agreed.
“A guest?”
“A servant. We’ve kept everyone else away from her. But they were close enough to her to prick her while they brought water for a bath.”
Her brows lifted at that.
“No wonder she needs a guard. The servants slither all around this palace.”
“We need her protected so she is able to speak to us,” I explained. “She appears to have some… condition that is making her unwell, and we can’t figure out how to help her.”
“And let me guess—you don’t want anyone else to know she is mute or unwell.”
“Exactly,” Vishen agreed. “But we also need someone who will do whatever it takes to protect her. Or help us sneak her away for proper treatment from someone not directly connected to the court.”
“Because someone is plotting against it.”
“We have no clear evidence of that right now,” Vishen clarified.
“But only a fool would think there aren’t those plotting against the king. And you.” Her gaze slid to me.
“So you understand.”
“I do.”
“And you have no problem swearing your loyalty to Jet,” Vishen clarified.
“Does swearing my loyalty to him secure me private quarters in the prince’s wing?”
“It will,” I confirmed.
We’d have to open up the closed room. There wouldn’t be much inside it, but it would certainly be better than sleeping on the ground among hundreds of other soldiers.
“What do you need then, a blood oath?” she asked, looking at me.
That was as good an offer as we could get. Because I could demand that. If I did, she would bleed from every orifice until there was nothing left.
“For now, your word will do.”
She pressed her fist to her chest with more gravity than she had a few moments before.
“I will send for your things,” Vishen said. “But we want you on duty immediately. If the prince and I need to leave, we need to know you are there with Serin.”
“Don’t have much to gather anyway,” Nira said with a shrug, falling into step with us as we made our way back to the castle.
We walked in silence up to my wing of the palace, our footsteps sounding like military parades as we approached my quarters.
I pushed open the door, and Knight flew off the bed, rushing into the hall to flee the heat of the room.
“Oh,” Nira said, shocking back as we moved inside.
“She’s cold,” I explained, grabbing a glass of water and striding over to the bed to pull up a conscious but weak Serin and pouring the water between her lips until she was revived enough to grab the glass and chug herself.
Glass after glass.
Vishen tamped out the fire as her shivers lessened until, finally, she seemed clear-eyed and present.
“This is Nira,” I explained when her gaze fell on the soldier woman. “She is going to be your personal guard. She will be with you whenever I am not able to be.”
Something about those words had Serin stiffening, but she still didn’t seem to be able to speak to explain why.
“Nira, this is Serin,” Vishen told her. “And you need to make sure no one comes within arm’s reach of her.”
“That I can do.” Then, speaking to Serin herself, “I don’t like anyone getting close to me, either.”
“We are also in charge of personally fetching her water and food,” Vishen explained. “While we are unsure of who is trying to silence her, we don’t want to take any chances with tainted food.”
Nira nodded. “And do we fetch our own food as well?”
Vishen had spoken endlessly to me about the meager rations of the military.
And, I imagined, those only got smaller and more sporadic as my father started to cut funding from the military to grease the palms of important Unseelie families.
He talked about foraging for his own food when three days passed without a meal from the court.
Of chewing on tree bark to ease the gnawing of his stomach.
“You are free to have whatever food you want,” I told her. “We don’t ration here. But you might also want to be careful. Once people know you are Serin’s guard, they might be willing to poison you to get to her again.”
“I can take care of myself,” Nira said. “And her.”
She looked long and hard at Serin, and something seemed to pass between the two women that Vishen and I couldn’t interpret.
“My schedule today is clear,” I told her when the silence grew awkward. “So Vishen can show you your quarters, give you a tour, and give you instructions before you start your guard duties tomorrow. I have several meetings to endure.”
“We should probably mention as well about the redcaps,” Vishen said.
“Those bastards,” Nira grumbled.
“They follow Jet around. They might also bother you with Serin. We don’t know yet.”
“The king’s spies, I assume,” Nira said. “Do we have to be nice to them?”
“Jet enjoys launching them off of cliffs on occasion,” Vishen said, smirking. “We can’t engage with them all the time, but if they are being especially pushy and someone gets a rock thrown at them…”
Nira smirked. “Understood. Well, it looks like we need to fetch more water,” she said as Vishen filled Serin’s glass again.
I had a feeling she wasn’t anxious to get water, but to get the task over so she could tour her own room.
As I sat with a still-silent Serin, handing her cup after cup of water, all I could seem to think of was getting her speaking so we could get her well again.
Which was why Nira was a step in the right direction. Her surly demeanor would keep everyone away from Serin.
Then I could finally get some answers.