21. Stellan
STELLAN
The waist chain snapped tight before Bryony’s second blow struck the other side of the stone. It dragged me back hard enough to tear the half-healed skin around my ribs. I caught the iron in both hands before it pulled me off my feet.
“Bryony!”
Metal struck stone again. Her pulse was silent to me, but I heard her boots scrape across the throne room and the sharp ring of her sword meeting a chain.
The court had closed Cecily’s room. No door remained, and the wall ignored my hand when I pressed it to the place where Bryony had vanished.
“Open,” I ordered.
Red light spread over the stone.
Adrian’s voice came from the wall. “You don’t command Harrowmere any longer. Break Cecily’s room if you like. Every inch you take from your chain will close again once the Crown has her.”
“Come inside and say that.”
His laugh was quiet. “I don’t need to.”
Another chain whipped across the throne room. Bryony swore, then her short sword struck the floor.
I grabbed the length at my waist. Bryony’s blood had loosened it a little at a time.
I had spent hours measuring the new reach and testing how much force the damaged ring could take.
Another few inches might have let me reach the old release cut in the wall.
I wrapped every inch of that hard-won slack around my forearm.
The chain ran through the stone and back to its anchor at the dais. Harrowmere could hide the passage, but it couldn’t change where the iron went.
Adrian understood a second too late. “Pull that iron through the wall and every inch she gave you is gone. Your prison will close tighter than it was when she arrived.”
I braced the chain against my forearm. “I know.”
I planted both feet and pulled.
The links bit into my arm. The collar at my throat tightened, joining the waist chain in fighting me. I pulled again, harder. Stone cracked somewhere in front of me.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Adrian demanded.
“Coming for you.”
“I’m not in the throne room,” Adrian said.
I tightened my grip on the links. “Then you’re safer than the court.”
I hauled the chain sideways. The wall split along the hidden line, and black dust burst into the room. Pain ripped across my stomach as the iron cut through the healing wound. The slack disappeared link by link. All the progress Bryony’s blood had bought me went with it.
I pulled anyway.
The crack widened enough to show red light. On the other side, Bryony ducked as a chain passed over her head and buried itself in the wall. A second length had wrapped around her ankle. She hacked at it with the short sword while another came off the dais.
“Down!” I shouted.
She dropped without looking round. I drove my shoulder into the broken stone. The wall gave way in a shower of rock, and I caught the chain aimed at her neck.
Its barbed edge sliced my palm. I wound it around my wrist and pulled it towards me. The court answered by yanking the waist chain, but I held my ground and dragged the attacking length away from Bryony.
She cut through the iron around her ankle and kicked it aside. “Took you long enough. Did you ask nicely?”
Relief hit me hard enough to make my answer rough. “The door was being difficult.”
I looked at the broken wall. “I used my shoulder.”
She lifted the sword again. “That explains the hole.”
The brief curve of her mouth vanished when the chain in my hand twisted. I tightened my grip and broke one of its barbs against the floor.
“Get behind the witness rail,” I said. “The old silver line will slow anything Adrian has corrupted.”
Bryony looked at the blood already running down my arm. “What about you? You’re already bleeding through your shirt.”
“I’ll be busy.”
“Arrogant arsehole.”
She moved without wasting time arguing. I stepped between her and the dais as three loose chains rose from the floor.
The throne room had changed since I last stood in it. Red lines filled the carvings on every pillar. The Crown burned red above the empty throne, and Lenora’s raven seal lay at the middle of the dais. Blood covered one silver wing.
“He used the captain’s authority to give the court a false command,” I told Bryony. “He can’t take your claim from outside. He can turn these rooms against you long enough to spill your blood, and the Crown will do the rest.”
The chains struck together.
I caught one across my forearm and let another wrap around my waist. The third went for Bryony. She leaned over the rail, slashed the flat of her blade across the red line in the floor and shouted, “Harrowmere, hold the royal blood safe.”
White light flared under her sword. The third chain dropped a foot from her face.
“Again,” I said. “Name the attack.”
“Reject Adrian Rook’s command.”
The floor shook. Red and white light fought along the pillars, leaving the room in short bursts of darkness.
The chain around my waist tightened until I couldn’t draw a full breath.
I twisted, locked it against the restraint already fixed to me and pulled both lengths across each other.
One snapped. The broken end lashed past my cheek and struck the throne.
Bryony gripped the rail as the room tilted. “Did that work?”
“It annoyed the house,” I said.
“Excellent. I’m annoyed with it too.” Bryony tightened both hands on the sword.
A low laugh escaped me. It hurt, but I had missed that sharp edge in her voice. She kept fighting even while she was furious and afraid.
The red lines surged again. Adrian’s voice filled the room. “You are not the royal heir until the Crown accepts you. Edith hid you among humans and taught you rules that don’t apply here. Come to the throne and stop pretending you can order a court you don’t understand.”
Bryony straightened. “It accepted my blood when it trapped me here.”
“It recognised a source. Nothing more,” Adrian said.
Bryony raised the sword. “You murdered my grandmother when she refused to give me to you. You used Lenora’s blood because your own authority wasn’t enough to open the gate. I understand you perfectly, and I’m not taking lessons on royal law from you.”
The seal on the dais lifted. A thin chain ran from it into the floor. I pointed with the broken length in my hand. “The seal is carrying Lenora’s blood into Harrowmere. He’s using her oath to keep the command active.”
Bryony saw it too. “Is Lenora alive?”
“She was when he opened the gate,” I said. “He needs her living while he uses the captain’s seal.”
“Then how do we stop it without hurting her?”
I studied the path of red light. “Destroying the seal while her blood is in it could tear the oath out of her body and kill her. We need another target.”
“Break the line between the seal and the Crown.”
The line crossed the open floor. Bryony would have to leave the rail to reach it.
She tested the sword in her hand. “Cover me.”
I met her eyes. “Always.”
She came over the rail before the word finished.
The chain at my throat jerked me towards the throne, but I drove my heel into the floor and caught the next length aimed at her.
Bryony ran beside the white line. Red light rose around her boots in thin spikes.
She cut through the first two without slowing.
A chain swept low from her right. I threw the broken length in my hand around it and hauled back. The force tore open my palm and dragged me to one knee. Bryony reached the dais.
“Now!” I shouted.
She drove the sword into the narrow red channel. White light burst up the blade and threw her backwards. I released the chains and caught her against my chest.
For one second, I held her warm body against mine. Her fingers closed on my torn shirt, and her breath hit my neck.
Then the Crown screamed.
The sound struck every restraint at once. My body locked. Bryony felt it happen and tried to pull away, but my arms closed around her without my permission.
“Stellan?”
“Move.” The word came out strained. “Get away from me.”
Her eyes searched mine. “You’re holding me.”
“I know.”
The Crown pulled my right hand towards her throat. I fought until the muscles in my arm shook, but my fingers kept moving. “The red command reached my collar,” I said. “Adrian found enough of the old sentence to make the Crown move me. He can’t hold it once you close the command.”
Bryony caught my wrist with both hands. “Fight it.”
“I am.”
Her grip tightened. “Fight harder. You’ve spent over a century refusing this bloody court. Don’t let Adrian turn you into his errand boy now.”
“Very helpful.”
“You’re welcome.” She shoved my wrist away from her neck.
I managed to turn my hand enough to miss her throat. My knuckles struck her shoulder instead, and the impact sent her stumbling out of my arms.
“Back to the rail,” I said.
“I can cut the collar.”
My hand closed over the chain behind me. “The blade will cut me first.”
“It’s already cutting you.” Bryony shifted the sword, searching for an angle.
The iron edge had opened the skin around my neck. Blood ran under it, hot and fast. The scent reached the Crown, and the chains across the floor lifted again.
Adrian spoke from the dais. “Bring her to the throne, Stellan. The Crown only wants the blood she owes it. Obey, and I may leave enough of her human life intact for you to enjoy.”
My left foot moved towards Bryony.
Bryony raised the sword between us. Her face had gone pale, but her hands were steady. “You’ll have to get past this.”
“I know what you can do with it.”
“Good.” She set her feet.
“Go to the rail.”
Bryony didn’t move. “And leave you here while he drives you around?”
“He isn’t driving me anywhere.” I pulled the loose end of the throat chain across my back.
The next step nearly proved me a liar. I stopped it by catching the throat chain behind my back. Its loose end ran to an iron ring beside the throne. I wrapped it once around my fist.
Adrian’s command pushed me towards her again. I pulled in the opposite direction.
The collar closed.
Pain burst across my throat. I kept pulling until the forced movement stopped. The Crown pressed the command into my bones, but it couldn’t move me forwards without choking the body it needed.
“Stellan, let go.” Bryony lowered the sword and came towards me.
I shook my head once. My sight darkened at the edges. “Rail.”
“You can’t hold that,” Bryony said.
I forced air past the iron. “Watch me.”
She stopped outside my reach. Anger flashed across her face, aimed at me now instead of the room. “There has to be another option.”
“You broke the red line. Harrowmere is already fighting him. Give it time.”
“How much?” She took another step.
“Less if you stop distracting me.”
Bryony glared at me. “I’m distracting you by trying to stop you strangling yourself?”
“You’re close enough to make this harder.”
Heat flashed between us, then she saw the blood running down my chest and swore.
“I’m not feeding you while the court can use you,” she said.
“I haven’t asked.”
“You need blood,” she said.
I pulled the chain tighter when the Crown tried to move me. “Keep your blood. Keep your anger too. I came through that wall because he was hurting you. Get out of my reach and let me hold him here.”
Her expression changed, but she didn’t soften. “I’m still furious with you. I haven’t forgotten what you did or how long you kept it from me. I also know you won’t hand me to him. Both things can be true, so stop trying to send me away and help me end this.”
The Crown forced another command into the collar. My arm jerked. I hauled the chain tighter, and my knees struck the floor.
Bryony flinched but stayed where she was. She understood the trap now. If she came close, Adrian could use my body against her. If she cut the restraint too early, the command would have nothing holding me back.
“Tell me what to do,” she said.
“Take the sword to the white line. Put the blade flat against it and order Harrowmere to close the captain’s command.”
She backed towards the rail without turning away from me. “And then?”
“Then the red light dies.”
“And if it doesn’t?” Bryony asked.
“It will.”
Her stare sharpened. “Try again.”
The old answer would have been a promise I couldn’t keep. I held her gaze while the chain crushed my next breath.
“If it doesn’t, you leave me here and get into Cecily’s room.”
“Fuck that.” She put the sword against the white line.
“Bryony.”
She looked straight at me. “You chose to come through a wall for me. I’m choosing to get both of us out.”
Pride and fear hit me together. I couldn’t speak around the collar, so I gave her the smallest nod I could manage.
She reached the rail and laid the sword against the white line. “Harrowmere, close the false command carried by Lenora’s seal. Keep your captain alive. Reject Adrian Rook.”
The house went still.
Adrian’s red light held for one long second. Then the line Bryony had cut began to darken from the sword towards the dais.
“You don’t understand what you’re refusing,” Adrian said.
“I understand you want it,” Bryony replied. “That’s enough for tonight.”
White light climbed the pillars. The loose chains crashed to the floor, and the raven seal dropped onto the dais. The order in my body weakened, but the Crown kept its hold on the collar. My fist stayed locked around the chain.
Bryony stepped over the rail.
“Stay there,” I managed.
“The red light is gone.”
“The Crown isn’t.”
She looked at the throne. The metal points above it remained red. My restraint pulled once more, trying to turn me towards her.
I dragged the chain tighter.
Bryony stopped. Her gaze moved from my face to the iron wrapped around my fist, then followed it to the collar buried in my bleeding throat.
She finally understood the purpose of the chain.
I had pulled it tight enough to keep the Crown from making me touch her.