Chapter 15 #2
My stomach does something between a drop and a somersault. Another noble stripped? But just the sister, not the whole family. Her ‘crime’ can’t have been as severe as ours.
The three of us are staring at Jonas, waiting for his response, but it appears his reticence has returned. Regardless of his revelations over the last five minutes, he’s clearly not a gossip. I find that I like that about him.
‘What did the sister do?’ Llinos repeats my question. ‘Why was she stripped?’
Jonas’s Adam’s apple bobs slightly before he answers us. ‘She got pregnant … without Etta’s blessing.’
The shock is so acute that I feel almost winded by it.
‘You have to be joking.’ Benny’s expression is as aghast as mine. ‘You can’t be serious? Stripped for accidentally getting knocked up?’
People aren’t meant to get pregnant before they’re married and blessed by one of Etta’s priestesses – after all, she is the Goddess of Life – but I’ve known dozens of children born out of wedlock in the slums, and none of them have been stripped.
Not that most of them have much magic to strip.
More and more children in the slums are being born with barely any magic at all.
I suspect that – as with most things – the noble children get the majority.
‘Was it just because she was a member of Korvane’s court when it happened?’ I ask in bemusement.
‘That’s the reason that was given,’ Jonas replies, yet I can hear the ‘but’ teetering at the end of his words.
‘But …’ I prod him.
Jonas looks around as if he’s afraid of being overheard. Fair. Assuming there’s someone else with Loch’s skill around, there’s a good chance of it. Jonas must reach the same conclusion as he presses his lips together and mutters, ‘Later.’
I’m desperate to know the details, not to mention where the sister is now, as there’s a chance that she and Kay could be of comfort to each other while Estel and I are facing the trials.
I’m about to suggest we head to one of the antechambers around us so we can speak freely, when a young man walks towards us.
‘Brother!’ He embraces Jonas tightly before stepping back with a wide grin. ‘I worried I wouldn’t get to see you.’
‘Brother?’ Surprise hitches in my voice. The boy looks about fifteen, which means that he would have been born before I was stripped. Yet Jonas’s mother died several years before, and as far as I’m aware, Artur never remarried.
‘William.’ Jonas smiles at his sibling. ‘I’m surprised to see you. I didn’t think Father would allow you to come.’
‘Well, he’s not here.’ William winks. ‘Had to do something important, apparently. But there’s no chance I’m missing the inauguration.’
‘Your father remarried?’ I blurt. ‘You never said.’
Jonas combs his fingers through the length of his beard as his eyes skim over mine and across to the rest of the group. ‘William is my father’s ward.’
‘But I’ve been with him so long that we’re as good as kin,’ William quickly adds. ‘I know Jonas better than my own family in Rowell. In fact, I doubt I would even recognise them if one of my cousins from the city were here at this very ball.’
‘If they’re from Rowell, you’re probably better off not knowing them,’ Llinos mutters to me and we share a smile.
‘So how come you ended up here? With Jonas?’ Benny asks. ‘It’s a long way from Rowell.’
‘Indeed.’ William nods. ‘My mother sent me here after my father passed away, when I was about three or four. She knew Artur from their youth and believed I would have a better education here than if I’d stayed up north.’
‘And you’ve stayed here all this time?’ I query. Even when my mother was so sick she could barely remember our names, she’d never have sent us away. But maybe that was because she’d already lost Florian. After his death, she clung to Kay and me harder than ever before.
‘My mother died when I was nine,’ William tells me. ‘Killed in a battle with the Issen. I have an aunt in Rowell, but it was seen as best that I stayed here.’ He shrugs, trying to portray a nonchalant air that I don’t believe. ‘It is my home now.’
‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ I say, meaning it.
Kay was only twelve when our mother died, and it was two years later that we lost our father, too.
At least she has memories of them, even if so many of them are tarnished by sickness.
If William only has memories of his parents up to the age of four, I doubt there is much, if anything, he can genuinely recall.
Thoughts of Kay make my stomach churn with worry. It’s not even been a full day apart and I feel half mad with the need to see her, to know she is well. We’ve never been apart for longer than a night, and it’s clear this separation will be more torturous than I feared.
‘Where is Father?’ Jonas asks, echoing what I’d asked him upon my arrival. ‘Why is he not here?’
William lifts a shoulder. ‘Dunno. Said he hoped to be back for tonight, but I guess that’s not the case. I don’t think he’s gone far though.’
I hope his task is to find a home for my sister, someone to take care of her in one of the inner rings, but I daren’t voice the hope aloud, lest I curse it with my breath.
‘Worked out who you’ve got to kill to win this thing?’ William asks Jonas, that childish grin back on his face.
‘Hopefully no one,’ Jonas replies with a frown. ‘That’s not the purpose of the Retterheld.’
William rolls his eyes. ‘No, but you know some people are going to want to kill you just because, right?’
‘Sure sounds like you’re from Rowell,’ Benny mutters, and the rest of us can’t help but chuckle, regardless of how macabre it may be. Before William can rebut, a hush drifts across the room, prickling my skin. The musicians stop playing, and a moment later, the entire hall is eerily silent.
The crowd parts at the far end of the room, and the figure they were all crowding around comes into view.
King Korvane.
My stomach clenches as the taste of bile stings the back of my throat. The monarch’s hair is a little longer than the last time I saw him, but it’s still just as dark, and even from this distance I can see his eyes share the same dark brown hue as his only son.
My pulse thuds, and for one blood-rushing second, I wonder if I should take my chance and plunge a knife through Korvane’s black heart right now.
This distance, no breeze, a clear view …
I’d hit my target the first time. And the blade strapped to my thigh would do the job perfectly.
Heat fills my lungs as my hands quiver. So much of me longs to do it.
To kill him. The way he killed Florian. And it’s not like that’s the only life he took.
In killing my brother, he also killed my parents. They just took longer to die.
I take a steady breath and cool, rational thought returns.
I could kill Korvane, but then what? He’s surrounded by knights, guards, and loyalists with magic I could only ever dream of.
If I miraculously got my dagger unsheathed and in his chest before someone stopped me, I’d be dead before I could even scream out why he deserved to die.
And they wouldn’t just stop with me. They’d come for Kay, too.
And it’s not like the king’s death would change anything. Not when Kyor is just as vicious as his father.
Korvane’s low drawl, silky and smooth like a snake, interrupts my thoughts. ‘Lords, ladies, distinguished guests, and of course … Etta’s blessed Rettlings. Welcome to my humble abode.’
A light laugh ripples through the ballroom like a wave. A lump swells in my throat, and for a moment, I struggle to breathe.
‘Are you okay?’ Llinos reaches out and squeezes my hand, steadying me.
‘Not really,’ I admit, gratefully clinging to her like an anchor. Regardless of what happens in the trials, I already know I’ll be indebted to Llinos, if only for this moment and the steady hold I didn’t realise I needed.
‘The Retterheld is revered across all Morathka as the most formidable and honoured trial that our people can face,’ Korvane continues, ‘but the reward outstrips even the gold in our coffers. What could be more precious than a gift from the Goddess Etta herself? I’ll tell you.
The winner of the Retterheld will enjoy not just the gifting from Etta, but our favour as well.
’ He smiles as if the second gift is as worthy as the first.
My ears hum so loudly with the rush of adrenaline that I barely hear what he says next.
Instead, my eyes are fixed on his crown – probably the most ostentatious piece of jewellery in existence.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen it. It was upon his head when he came to his wife’s bedchamber and found her lifeless.
Though I know it’s impossible, the smell of the queen’s blood fills my nostrils, cloying and metallic.
I can’t cope, can’t breathe. I need to get out of here.
But there’s no way I can bolt without drawing attention to myself.
My heart is battering my ribs as I try to keep myself still, when from the other side of the room, a loud banging causes Korvane to fall silent.
A sudden murmur of voices swirls around me as the moment is broken, and the vice around my ribs falls away. Dropping Llinos’s hand, I gasp in relief. I can still smell it, that acrid tang of blood, but I can breathe. And that’s something.
When at last I drag in enough air, I realise the chatter has fallen to a hush, and every eye has swung from the king to the lone figure staggering across the ballroom.
In one sweep, the swaying man grabs a glass of champagne, downs it in one, and returns it empty to the waiter’s tray before grabbing another.