The Traitors We Are: Crown and Tide Book 1, page 15
"Seems that way, but it's not like we had other plans, eh, boss?" Conren asked with a mocking tone in his voice.
"Well, pack up, and let's move out. The sooner we get this over, the sooner we can return." And the sooner I can stop Ordan, thought Lorcen.
"Not much of a place to return to." Aifa snorted, looking around the camp. "Ain't that right, Squirrel?" The dog yawned. Give it to the big girl. She had a sense of that animal.
"Not everything needs a response, girl." Barked Conren once again, trying to assert his dominance over Aifa.
"Well yer about to get a response, and I can hazard a guess y' won't like it very much," Aifa growled.
Faen separated them. After packing, they were off. Little time or effort was wasted before departing. Lorcen required those under him to travel with only the essentials. Otherwise, what was the point? You either struck first and lived or struck second and died. Lorcen had an eye for creating havoc and was good at his job. This mission wasn't exactly in his wheelhouse, but it should be easy enough to get done. It would give him time to attend to the other things he had on his plate.
This part of the Sparse Forest wasn't marked with trails. It was even wetter in this part of the forest than in the camp. The whole world was gloomy and gray. Out this far, they had to be careful of every footfall and missed step. There were other battle lines to worry about, and you never knew when you might find yourself flanked. Besides, this far out in the middle of nothing, it wouldn't be surprising to see some sort of monstrous horror lurking in the shadows. Lorcen had seen strange things in his time.
The rain continued as his group made their way to the rendezvous. Each of them had seen worse conditions than this, but that made it worse in some ways. They were people who thrived in danger. The mundane and banal were for others. Give them a hurricane, and they would have a vested interest. This drizzle bored them.
Finally, they sighted the group and planned their ambush. In the center of the patrol was a man Lorcen recognized as one of the royal family, but he couldn't quite recall his name. Quite the defector, though, all royal and all. Lorcen signaled Faen and Conren to aim their arrows at the front rank. While they fired, Aifa, already in position, would come up from behind them and cause a distraction. A bloody distraction. Amid that chaos, Lorcen's job was to knock the royal off his horse and steal him away. It needed to seem as natural as possible.
Faen and Conren's arrows landed true and stopped the patrol in their tracks. Faen's arrow hit a man in the neck. The man collapsed, his throat now spurting blood. Conren's arrow stuck in a lad's eye. The boy tried to pull it out in confusion before joining his companion on the ground in a bloody heap.
Aifa did as she was told and swung her large battle-ax in bloody arcs along the men in the back of the patrol. Even Squirrel did his bit, and he kept the men out of their position, dancing around snarling as they tried to regroup. The patrol was being hacked up and killed to bits, and all that remained was for Lorcen to do his part.
He darted out from his hiding place and made his way to the center of the carnage. The frightened noble looked at Lorcen from his horse. There was confusion on his terrified face, so Lorcen nodded in reassurance. This was what they had arranged with him, after all. It would be nothing to just…
A sword was in his chest. His blood spilling and his breaths were becoming a struggle. The royal lad pushed the sword further in, and Lorcen recognized the end had come for him. Betrayed. Murdered. Murdered by his father. The sounds of the battle rang in his head as his vision darkened and faded. The ground rushed up to meet him, and the last thing he heard was a scream—a scream of joy.
"I did it; I got one! I shoved my sword right into him! Damn. That is a lot of blood." It was the noble who killed him—his sister's future husband.
Part 2: Concealed Daggers are the Enemies of Peace
Wolves in the Giant’s Mouth— Merily
Merily figured it would be massive, but this bordered on obscenity. But, if you were going to have a city that large, why not have it be the capital of Harfal after all? That made perfect sense to her. What surprised her was the number of people. Surrounding her were all manners of people. There was nothing like traveling away from home to teach you how small and isolated your life was. Not that she had ever traveled far from home before, mind you.
Most of the people moving down the alleys and streets in the city were Keeplings. She expected that. What she hadn't expected was everyone else. Everywhere were people with different skin tones, hair colors, types of dress. The sheer variety was staggering. There were people with dark skin and yellow eyes chatting by shops. Laughing at the tables of a nearby tavern were even darker folk with blue hair. Almost running into her was a couple of pale, serious-looking folks with jet-black hair in a rush to wherever they were going. Their hair was even blacker than Kieron’s. Not one of the many different people stopped to note her party as they arrived.
There was no consideration for her or her small party at all. Merily had been afraid that she and the other Reachmen would be a sideshow, an oddity when they arrived at the Keep. They weren't even worth a second glance as they entered the massive black iron gates of the city. Merily realized that everyone here must have seen Reachmen dozens of times. There was nothing new to note about them. They were only a few anonymous Reachmen in the big city for the first time.
And the city itself was enormous. Three-tiered, each raised higher upon a hill with the Castle of Trestin in its center. The massive scale and brilliance of the castle reminded her of the stories Derris used to read to her. He would read aloud from his books on rainy days when they lied together in his bed. The castle was even impressive at a distance.
Appearing on the horizon, the city had seemed to stretch out and engulf the shining white cliffs. The city looked like the jagged teeth of a colossal giant rising from the horizon. It looked ready to consume the entire skyline. Their caravan caught sight of it a day away from actually reaching the gates. It was that big. Entering the jaws of the city, the main spectacle was still the castle. It stood atop the cliffs shining. Its towers gleamed in the bright sun. It stood over the city like there was nothing more important in the entire world.
Once they were inside the gates, the city itself had every sort of building she could imagine. More besides. The establishments were even more diverse than the people who frequented them. Everywhere were busy folk walking with purpose to and from the various businesses. Endlessly, they continued up and down the sprawling city streets that weaved in and out of each other. So much variety in one place. Some of the businesses were for goods and services that surprised Merily. Who needed someone to come to clean their house for them anyway? Why would you store your money in a building and pay someone for that “service?” In the Reach, they had simple shops. Butchers. Fishmongers. Taverns. Those sort of recognizable, honest businesses. None of this complex silliness. A quiet and unassuming life.
At the entrance of the city was a building decorated with statues of the three sister goddesses. Building upon a theme, it had three towers. The cathedral of the goddesses loomed above the rest of the surrounding buildings. It was like the patron deity of beautiful stonework and fancy architecture. As Reachmen passed, bells from the towers rang at a pleasant interval. A large crowd waited at the open wooden doors to let a robed priest place a gentle hand on their heads and enter. There was an impossible amount of people at the top of those stone steps.
Merily wasn’t sure what that was all about, but she didn’t intend to find out. She may be forced to marry a Keepling, but she wasn’t about to take his goddesses as her own. Not to say she was going to piss the three of them off on purpose. If anything, she was hoping she would escape their notice.
What bothered her the most about this place was its walls. She knew that castles and keeps had to have large walls to keep out the enemies of their kings. Still, she couldn’t avoid feeling that the large, bleak walls were oppressive. There was an unspoken menace in their presence that Merily couldn’t quite shake. It was almost like they had a mind of their own. She couldn’t imagine how anyone could go on living in their constant shadow. Those walls were a cage. A cage that people crawled inside of and died in.
Sure, she hadn’t gone far from her home in her life. That was true, but at least she always felt like she had the option to leave whenever she wanted. She wondered how many scurrying the streets of the Keep had ever been outside this city. How effective could these walls be at actually keeping enemies of the King out? She was here, after all, and all it took was a promise of marriage. Physical barriers couldn't prevent every threat to the realm. They even let Cael in, and Merily knew for a fact that was a mistake.
An official-looking gentleman was waiting for them near the gates. A small, bald, bespectacled man, he seemed to stumble with every step as he walked toward them. He took a deep bow when the visiting Reachmen approached him. Unaccustomed to this sort of formality, Merily, Ordan, and the rest of their party froze. None of the Reachmen knew how to respond to this treatment. They looked at each other for any sort of clue on how to handle this strange behavior. Finally, Ordan took the lead and broke the awkward silence.
“That’s all rather unnecessary.” Ordan waved dismissively and looked at him with haughty contempt. He made a show of stifled the beginnings of an insulting laugh. Her father had a way of making people feel small. “You may rise.”
“Oh, I’m, er, sorry. I’m, eh, not familiar with your customs.” The man pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he raised his torso. “My master, that is, the Marquess, Emil Trestinsen, told me to bring you to your lodgings. He has also assigned me to be your steward and scribe for your stay in the Keep.”
“Why on Aithe would we need a scribe?” Cael fumed. He was not impressed with any part of this and felt the need to be confrontational. “Y’ think we would want to write any of this down?” He spat on the well-paved road and rubbed it into the ground with the toe of his boot.
All Meri needed to know about how Cael felt about this place was written on his face. She had a hunch that the Keep could give him everything he ever wanted, and he would hate them all the same. Maybe that was either integrity or something close to it. She knew she could pretend to be the wilting bride if she needed to. She intended to put on a show and take them for all they were worth. Unlike her, Cael was unable to manage even the smallest amount of deceit or tact. She would have to try enough for the both of them. However, every inch of her wanted to run back out those gates and right back to the Missing Tide.
Merily stayed quiet. She watched the people moving in the streets while Ordan asked about their schedule. It was still hard to wrap her mind around the changes to her simple life. Being in the Keep. Marrying Lorcen’s killer. Governing her homeland.
Their guide pointed out as they walked that they would be staying in the top tier of the city. Their view of the Keep was only rivaled by the castle itself. Never in her life would she have expected to be so close to the throne. Never in her life had she wanted to be this close, for that matter. If there was one thing Meri learned in her eighteen years, it was that it didn’t matter what she wanted.
It was hard to tell where their group was going by their path so far. The Missing Tide was an extensive settlement by Reach standards, but it was nowhere dense as this. Back home, they didn’t have anything near as big as these buildings. It was easy to find your way from point A to point B. In the Missing Tide, you could reach most places by walking straight towards wherever you were going. In the Keep, they were going down random street after random street. There was no rhyme or reason that Merily could discern. Everywhere around her, there was something new to see.
As her party continued through the sprawling web of streets, she scarcely took in a word. There were too many things here to distract her. Merily didn’t love the Keep or its people, but impressive was impressive. Regardless of all her other feelings. It was hard not to be at least a little excited about their stay here. So many possibilities. So many plans. She could see Freia near the back of their group doing much the same as she was, obviously awestruck. She slowed her pace and started walking with her.
“What y’ think, Frey?” Merily whispered. Freia continued gawking at the magnitude of it all.
“I think I chose my payment wisely, Merr.” She replied in a whisper. “Wise indeed. I wish Naoma could have seen this. It’s crazy to think these bastards want us to pay all those taxes so bad when they have all this." She gestured at the tall, beautiful buildings and looming walls. “Like, they even sent their people to die in the Reach for a bit of our gold and food. Why?”
Freia had two good points. Fighting the war seemed foolish in the face of the ostentatious wealth of the Keep. Couldn't they have made do with even a little less? Was this worth the lives of Lorcen, Derris, and Fhinbar? Was this worth the lives of the Keeplings that had died? Was it all over because she was marrying a Marquess? Whatever that meant. Didn’t it make more sense to send excess wealth from a rich area to a poor settlement that needed it?
Also, point two, it was a shame they couldn’t take more people with them to see the Keep. She knew that would have been an unnecessary expense, and this wasn't a vacation, but it would have been nice. They even left Saorys at home at Ordan’s discretion. The only two people who weren’t strictly necessary on this trip were Freia and Kieron. Freia, of course, because Cael owed her, and she was the best bet at keeping the boy calm. As far as Kieron went, Merily suspected they brought him along because Ordan didn’t trust Kieron. Who knew what he would get up to staying in the Missing Tide on his own. Best not to think too hard on that one.
“Aye, Naoma would have loved this.” Merily could tell that made Freia a bit sad, so she added, “but I set her up at my mom’s place, remember? I doubt yer dad will even notice she’s gone, and my mom will take good care of her. Saorys is quite the cook, as y’ know.” Freia nodded, and the smile returned to her face, but she still changed the topic.
“Y’ think yer betrothed has any rich friends?” I know he is a man of refined breeeding.” Freia teased her with an imitation of a Keepling. She knew Merily was having trouble getting used to her engagement, so she made as many jokes about it as possible. She was on to something. The best way to get used to something was to become desensitized to it until it no longer bothered you. Eventually, the sting was just part of you, and you paid it no mind. Merily played along with a laugh.
“Oh, my dear Frey, I’m sure the Keep boys will be lining up to buy y’ things! Pretty soon, Kod will be getting letters from all over the Keep begging for your hand.” Merily stuck her tongue out at her. “Dear Savage Reachman, please bequeath upon us your beauteous daughter.” She pronounced each syllable in a slow cadence. Merily tried her best to keep from laughing,
“Freia Andersee, I dare say you will be the talk of the Keep! The most eligible bachelorette since chaste, noble Sina herself. Though, not quite so chaste, eh?” Freia smiled at that.
“Aye, that’s the truth. If one of these rich Keep boys realize I could be bought for the price of a couple of pints to Kod, I'll soon be in yer same situation.” They both burst out laughing.
“Ladies, can we continue?” Ordan’s impatient voice broke through their laughter.
Ordan and Cael had both turned and looked at them in annoyance. The girls quieted a bit but were still giggling. Mostly, it was random bursts of tepid, nervous laughter now. Merily couldn’t feel hurt if she kept herself distracted. Pain could only affect you when you let it. That’s what she kept telling herself anyway. Besides, Ordan wasn’t the only one with plans. Her first step was to make an excellent first impression.
The procession turned, and their path became a wall of half-raised tents and stalls. Everywhere, people were preparing for some sort of gathering. There were men on stilts. Robed witches were casting spells. Dazzling lights now played on crystal statues. The statues surrounding the square glowed even in the shadows. All manner of jesters and clowns dressed in patchwork clothes prepared their acts. Even the hawkers were already preparing their goods. Whatever this was, it was already a spectacle, and it hadn’t yet begun. Now, this was what Meri needed. This was a proper distraction. Witches. Jesters. Men on stilts. Not a whole lot more she could ask for.
“Hold on, now!” Merily blurted out. They all stopped and waited for her to continue staring at her with a mixture of surprise and concern. She was a bit too emphatic in her exclamation. “Er, what’s all this for? uh...” Merily asked in excitement, realizing she didn’t know their steward’s name.
“My name is Sheldon, Ms. Oberlan.” His smile was kind and unassuming. He gestured to the activity going on all around them, “This is a carnival to celebrate the end of the war. They are still setting it up, but it should be ready tonight. You all are, of course, welcome, as it is partly in your honor.”
With that, they kept moving towards their destination. Every so often, Meri would turn and look behind her. Freia was right in making the best of this horrible situation. After all, just because she had plans, that didn’t mean she wouldn’t get a chance to enjoy herself. There was plenty of time to get lost in the endless distraction this city seemed to offer.
***
Whatever the meat on the stick contained remained a mystery, but it was delicious and cheap. In Meri’s experience, that meant it was better not to ask too many questions about what she was eating. Merily and Freia thanked the woman who cooked it and paid for their food. They went on their way past the various booths and tents of the carnival. Night came slowly when you were waiting for something. She had been waiting in her room all day so she wouldn’t have to deal with Ordan.
It wasn’t so awful, though. Her accommodations were bigger than her whole house at the Reach. Waiting there hadn’t been unpleasant at all. Out in the Keep, she could no longer see those horrible walls in the darkness of night. All around her was life and joy.
