The Hidden Kingdom, page 15
“Jamesan Strong, as I live and breathe.”
“I’ve only just arrived. I wanted to see my brother first, and then I’d planned to come to pay my respects to you as well. Sir.”
“You were with Ryan, aye? Then ye know he’s even more of a louse than before he got my Esmerelda in a bad way.”
Jesse dropped his eyes. “I was on my way to see her next.”
“Oh, aye?” Khallum squinted as the mid-morning breeze dusted sand into his eyes. “There a particular reason you might want to see her?”
“I’d like to offer my felicitations on the arrival of her daughter. My first niece.” Jesse fumbled through a nervous nod. “And, of course, to you, sir, for the birth of your first grandchild.”
“Hmph,” Khallum said. “Ye seem appropriately joyous of the news, but not particularly surprised. Why is that?”
Jesse pointed behind him, at nothing specific. “Both Ravenna and Ryan told me the happy news.”
“Happy,” Khallum repeated. “Happy for whom? Esmerelda? Not your louse of a brother.”
“Aye, I know. I ken the situation.”
“The situation?” Khallum narrowed the space between them. “The situation? The situation. Aye. Yes, the situation.”
Jesse’s hands flexed in agitation at his side.
“I’ve heard that you may know more about this situation than even I do.”
“Sir?”
“I’ll ask ye as man, but if you lie to me as a boy, you’ll never set foot in Warwicktown again.”
Jesse hesitated. Nodded.
“Is it true, that Esmerelda was with you, all this time? All this time, when we believed her lost to the sea?”
Jesse pressed his lips tight. He inhaled through his nose and blinked a moment longer than he should have. “Yes, my lord. She was with me.”
Khallum saw the spots behind his eyes before he was aware of the boiling rage surging up from his toes. “And...” Khallum closed his eyes. He rolled his tongue along the roof of his mouth. “When we spoke in Greystone, ye didnae think that might’ve been the time to tell me?”
“I’d sworn a vow. To my brother. An unbreakable one.”
Khallum leaned in, mere inches separating their faces. “And what of the unbreakable vow a steward swears to their lord?” he boomed. Nearby merchants pretended not to listen as they reluctantly went on with their business.
“I made my choice, and it’s one I must stand by, as a man of honor. All I can do is apologize to you, my lord.”
“Apologize. Aye. Aye. And was she with you in Greystone Abbey, then? Was my daughter, whom I believed to be dead by her own hand, there, with you, perhaps just in another room? Right under my nose?”
Jesse’s lips twitched. “She was... she was there. But not at the tavern. We made use of Dungarde Keep.”
Khallum’s mouth and eyes flew open in tandem. “So now you’re telling me one of my oldest mates was in on it, is that it? That Steward James conspired to keep my daughter from me?”
Jesse shifted in the sandy dirt. “Lord Warwick, I did all I could to keep Esmerelda safe. I would’ve given my own life to see it done. I’m only here long enough to see this with my own eyes, and then I’ll be on my way once more.”
“On your way? Do ye always have somewhere more important to be, or is it only when you’ve been forced to face me?”
Jesse at last dropped his eyes. “I gave my word that if I could see that Esmerelda was safe and cared for once more, I’d return and give my aid.”
“To whom?”
“I cannae say. I’m sorry.”
Khallum raised his finger to rail on him some more, but his mind at last caught up to his ears. “You’re telling me you returned only for Esmerelda? To see if she was safe?”
Jesse nodded. “I’ll not trouble you much longer.”
Khallum narrowed his eyes. “If she was with you, then why did she return without you?”
“Her stubbornness, I suppose. She felt she’d become a burden to me.” Jesse sighed. “It wasnae true, and I assured her as much. But when you told me, that is, when I learned of Ryan’s fate, I couldnae keep it from her. I said I’d bring her home, but she slipped away before I could do so.”
“When? When did she slip away?”
“A few nights after ye told me, I ken?”
Khallum gaped at him. “But that was almost two months ago. It doesnae take months to travel from Greystone to Warwicktown, does it?”
Jesse’s expression shifted to concern. “Are ye telling me she hasn’t been here all this time?”
“She only just arrived a few days before you, lad!”
Jesse paled. He took a step back, eyes cast to the sky in thought. “You’re certain of this? That she wasnae... I dinnae, hiding somewhere here?”
“You dare question what I know, Jesse Strong?”
Jesse shifted his gaze toward the keep. He ran his hands over his face. “I need to see her.”
“So the two of you can compare your betrayals before I can ask her? I ken not.”
“Lord Warwick.” The tension between them was immediately severed at Darrick’s arrival. “Am I interrupting?” He caught sight of Jesse, and a wide smile brightened his face. “Jesse. What a pleasure. Steward Strong will be so happy you’re home. You’ve been to see Ryan, then?”
Jesse seemed caught between this moment and another. “Your Grace. I’ve just come from seeing him.”
Darrick laid a hand on his arm. “It was Ryan who taught me that miracles are not fable. He’ll come around to the man you remember. The man we both remember.”
Jesse nodded. “Aye. I hope so.”
“Don’t let Hamish wait too long to see you.” Darrick turned to Khallum. “You sent for me?”
“I did, Your Grace.” Khallum sent a hard glare at Jesse. The business of Esmerelda would have to wait. The business of the kingdom could not. “Jamesan. You’ll nay be leaving Warwicktown until I decide we’re finished. In case ’tis unclear what I mean, that’s an order. From your lord.”
Jesse nodded through relief he didn’t hide. “Lord Warwick.”
When Jesse was gone, Darrick asked, “The sharpest sword wouldn’t have cut through whatever lay between the two of you.”
“Doesnae matter,” Khallum muttered. “I need to bring ye up on matters. It’s time.”
“Time?”
Khallum blew a choked breath between his lips. “For me to step aside. For you to take your place in leading us through this.”
* * *
“It gives my heart joy to see you out of your bed now. And that gown,” Ravenna said, circling Esmerelda with a growing smile. “I can see now the lady you were raised to be.”
“Oh, nonsense,” Esmerelda retorted, blushing. “Though it’s nice to feel well enough to be amongst the living once more. Even if it is hard to resist hiding away from the world with Gemma. When I look at her, I can almost forget... the rest.”
Ravenna squeezed her arm. “She’s beautiful. She already looks so much like you. She has your eyes.”
“And her father’s mouth.” Esmerelda frowned. “How I always loved Ryan’s mouth. The curve of it when he smiled... that mischief...”
“Jesse has the same mouth.”
Esmerelda turned away, pretending to tidy an arrangement of irises. “Does he?”
“I came to tell you something.”
“Everything all right?”
“Esme, please, look at me.”
Esmerelda turned. She was so lovely in the royal blue gown, the flush rising to her pale cheeks. Ravenna saw Esmerelda’s whole life ahead of her, suddenly. Saw everything, for all its beauty and joy, all its heartache and sadness. A vision that was as imprecise as it was certain, for though Ravenna rarely experienced these looks into the lives of others, when she did, they weren’t the unreliable prophecies of man.
Ravenna shelved these thoughts. “We swore there’d be no lies between us, and I’ve been keeping a great secret from you. Don’t be cross with me, Esme. I had to be certain you’d make it through those dark days before I added to your troubles. Nothing was more important than seeing you and Gemma survive that.”
Esmerelda’s practiced smile fell away. “Go on, then.”
“When I went to see Oldwin, that night. You remember?”
“Ravenna, there’s nothing about our time in Duncarrow I’ll ever forget. Ever.”
“He told me that the Langenacht would be only a charade. That he’d blessed his...” Ravenna paused for strength. Saying these words aloud gave them flesh and bone. “His seed. That no matter how many Rhiagain men came to take their place with me, the child born of the Langenacht would be his. And that, knowing this, I must still go forward and go through with the ceremony just the same.”
Esmerelda gasped. “No.”
Ravenna moved through the rest of her words in a haste, before her courage failed her. “During the ceremony, Oldwin told me something that’s been chipping away at me ever since. He told me that he was my true father. He told me how it had come to pass. So now I must come to face what is before me. That I’m carrying the child of my greatest enemy, and that this same enemy claims he’s my father.”
“Ravenna,” Esmerelda whispered. “Oh, Ravenna.”
“Take the pity from your eyes. I can’t bear it.”
Esmerelda pressed both hands to her mouth. She shook her head. “It’s not... is it true? Can it be true?”
“You’ve seen me fly in my new form, even if you’re kind enough not to ask me about it. We both know I didn’t get that from the Ravenwoods.”
“But he’s a liar! A deceiver! Could there not be another explanation? Maybe he’s spelled you!”
“I trust nothing that comes from that creature’s mouth, but there must be some truth in there, somewhere. I feel there’s some truth in there, though I won’t find it here.”
Esmerelda’s mouth parted. “You’re leaving.”
Ravenna nodded. “Not yet, but soon.” She approached Esmerelda, taking her hands. “I wanted to wait for you to be well again. To be strong. And there was something else I was waiting for. The other thing I’ve come to tell you.”
Esmerelda’s eyes prickled with tears. “Will it break my heart?”
Ravenna leaned in and kissed the corner of her mouth. “I believe it’ll mend it. Jesse has returned. He’s here, and he’s waiting, quite impatiently, to see you.”
* * *
“Just us?” Darrick gazed around the empty Hall of Warring. Without the rumbles and energy of all the great Southerland men, the room seemed somehow less imposing. The table, only that. The great open window, boasting bird excrement older than he was, let in a glare from the morning sun that cast the filth of the place into crude display.
“Aye. Just us,” Khallum repeated. He stood on the opposite end of the room, under the row of swords from his forebears. Darrick remembered the Warwicks melted down only small pieces of their father’s steel to make their own, so that every sword wielded by the present lord was from all the men before. “Rutland has brought you up on the events at Goldthorpe overnight then?”
“This one was close to home for the Southerlands.”
“Those were Rutland’s words.”
“You didn’t bring me to ask who’s behind it, surely.”
“I may not yet know the hand who wields these atrocities against our own men, but aye, you and I know who issued the command,” Khallum said. He crossed his arms. “What I donnae know, what I cannae ken, no matter how I spin my mind around it, is why he comes for us. I can increase my guard, which I’ve done. I can send men at his men, which I’ve done. I can wait, which I’ve done. None of these things make my men and their families safe again.”
“Is it my counsel you’re after?”
“I have all the counsel I need already,” Khallum replied. “Your governance is what I’m after, Your Grace.”
“I see.”
“All these long years, the Warwicks have been the only strength in defiance of the crown. It’s been my burden, as it was the burden of my father, and his, to stand against what others refuse to. Is that why Oldwin sets his sights on us? I donnae know. But ’tis my own failings that have laid bare a truth I find myself hardened against confessing, even as you stand before me ready to hear it.”
Darrick listened to the man speak of his failings, keenly aware of his own. He’d first stepped back, allowing the Westerlands to lead their own war. When it was over, he’d launched himself forward, declaring himself king in all but name, riding a momentum that required more than simply his desire, though he hadn’t known it at the time. And then, nothing. What had he done, but sit idly in the shadows, contemplating the words and strifes of Khallum and his men, daydreaming of a wife and child that were now his? Even Wyat had asked, before he’d left to return to his responsibilities at the Reliquary, what he was waiting for.
What was his purpose, if not to do as Khallum was now asking him to do?
“Khallum,” Darrick said, stepping forth. “The failings are my own, in waiting for this moment, rather than seizing upon it, as is my duty. For lazing about with Anabella and Stefan, while the Southerlands burn. While my kingdom burns.”
“I wouldnae have said it quite as such,” Khallum muttered. “It’s been the great honor of all Warwicks to stand where others have refused. But I fear, as my men now do, that it isn’t the Southerlands Oldwin is after, though I’ve no doubt he’ll raze it to the ground before this is ended if we donnae stop him. What he’s after is bigger than us, in a way that leaves me trembling straight to my boots.”
Darrick folded his hands over his mouth, thinking. He’d done nothing but these past days. Lying awake next to Anabella, long after she’d fallen asleep. In the long, lazy mornings. All the while returning to one thing. “The Hinterlands. The Hinterlands are the key. I don’t understand why. Not yet.”
“Does he mean to enslave more of them? The Medvedev?”
Darrick shook his head. “I don’t think the enslaving of the Medvedev was ever about control.”
“Then what?”
“Entry.”
“How do ye ken?”
“Mortain knew enslaving the Medvedev, violating the most sacred of all our laws, would draw outrage and ire from the kingdom, and it did. Of course it did. But where did it lead? Not to a victory for the Easterlands, or even Mortain. It ended in the Saleen’s total slaughter.”
“Leaving their lands undefended,” Khallum said, coming around to Darrick’s understanding. “Leaving whatever is there, undefended.”
“I know this doesn’t help us, not with the Rhiagain Guard crawling about the forests by the thousands. But what if...” Darrick paused, searching for the right words. “What if...”
“We need an ally, on the inside. Medvedev,” Khallum interjected.
“Do we have any?”
Khallum snorted. “We’ve never been welcome in those forests. After the Saleen died at our hands, I’m nay holding my breath for an invitation, either.”
“That wasn’t your doing. They know that.”
“Changes nothing.”
“Do you know yet? Or suspect?”
“What?”
Darrick waved his hand. “Who from your men is working with Oldwin on these attacks.”
Khallum bristled. “I still donnae know if it is one of my men.”
“But you suspect this.”
“I’m nay ruling anything out. Would be a fool who did.”
Darrick paced, working out his thoughts. “We don’t believe what he wants is in the Southerlands, and yet he attacks you, and not the others. Why?” Before Khallum could answer, Darrick went on. “You don’t stand between Duncarrow and the Hinterlands. The Easterlands does. The answer is here, somewhere, Khallum. It’s here.”
“Which is it, then? Is what he wants in The Hinterlands? Or the Southerlands?”
Darrick’s mouth parted as the pieces of understanding came together, not quite connecting, but coming closer. “What if it’s both?”
* * *
Ravenna watched the reunion of Jesse and Esmerelda from a distance. The gentle, awkward dance as they decided whether they should embrace or not, and how much; Esmerelda eventually burying her tears against Jesse’s chest, as he waged a battle with himself, and what, precisely, to do with his arms.
Ravenna’s night with Jesse had been pleasant. A man and a woman meeting on equal terms, with no expectations when the morning arrived. She’d commissioned no magic to bring him to her bed, nor to keep him there through the night. He’d fallen into her arms willingly, and she his. Only when it was over and behind her did she recognize it as the one and only time in her short life that she’d had as much to give as to receive.
She also understood it would be the last time she shared a bed with Jesse Strong. His heart was pulled elsewhere, even if he was unaware of it.
But so was hers.
Hers had been pulled elsewhere for years, and now, inexplicably, it was called to the one place she’d sworn to herself she’d never return.
Home.
Oldwin had found a way into her nightmares. She didn’t know how he’d done it, nor did she have the means to defend herself against these nocturnal violations. She supposed it had to do with the child growing within her, linking her with Oldwin for time undefined. Each time, he employed new and more horrible ways to threaten her. Last night, while Jesse lay sleeping at her side, Oldwin reminded her she’d never be welcomed back at Midnight Crest; that she was his now, but it didn’t have to be a punishment. Together, they could find the answer to eternal life and bring forth a child born knowing it would live forever.
An answer he claimed to already possess.
Ravenna didn’t know what any of it meant. She only knew the truths she needed would never come from Oldwin.
From the one who seemed all too insistent that she never again go home.
Ravenna didn’t expect her mother to be any more forthcoming than Oldwin, but Ravenna knew Varinya’s tells and tics, in a way she could never, and didn’t want to, know Oldwin’s. If her words didn’t reveal the truth, then her eyes would.
Then Ravenna would know.
“I’ve only just arrived. I wanted to see my brother first, and then I’d planned to come to pay my respects to you as well. Sir.”
“You were with Ryan, aye? Then ye know he’s even more of a louse than before he got my Esmerelda in a bad way.”
Jesse dropped his eyes. “I was on my way to see her next.”
“Oh, aye?” Khallum squinted as the mid-morning breeze dusted sand into his eyes. “There a particular reason you might want to see her?”
“I’d like to offer my felicitations on the arrival of her daughter. My first niece.” Jesse fumbled through a nervous nod. “And, of course, to you, sir, for the birth of your first grandchild.”
“Hmph,” Khallum said. “Ye seem appropriately joyous of the news, but not particularly surprised. Why is that?”
Jesse pointed behind him, at nothing specific. “Both Ravenna and Ryan told me the happy news.”
“Happy,” Khallum repeated. “Happy for whom? Esmerelda? Not your louse of a brother.”
“Aye, I know. I ken the situation.”
“The situation?” Khallum narrowed the space between them. “The situation? The situation. Aye. Yes, the situation.”
Jesse’s hands flexed in agitation at his side.
“I’ve heard that you may know more about this situation than even I do.”
“Sir?”
“I’ll ask ye as man, but if you lie to me as a boy, you’ll never set foot in Warwicktown again.”
Jesse hesitated. Nodded.
“Is it true, that Esmerelda was with you, all this time? All this time, when we believed her lost to the sea?”
Jesse pressed his lips tight. He inhaled through his nose and blinked a moment longer than he should have. “Yes, my lord. She was with me.”
Khallum saw the spots behind his eyes before he was aware of the boiling rage surging up from his toes. “And...” Khallum closed his eyes. He rolled his tongue along the roof of his mouth. “When we spoke in Greystone, ye didnae think that might’ve been the time to tell me?”
“I’d sworn a vow. To my brother. An unbreakable one.”
Khallum leaned in, mere inches separating their faces. “And what of the unbreakable vow a steward swears to their lord?” he boomed. Nearby merchants pretended not to listen as they reluctantly went on with their business.
“I made my choice, and it’s one I must stand by, as a man of honor. All I can do is apologize to you, my lord.”
“Apologize. Aye. Aye. And was she with you in Greystone Abbey, then? Was my daughter, whom I believed to be dead by her own hand, there, with you, perhaps just in another room? Right under my nose?”
Jesse’s lips twitched. “She was... she was there. But not at the tavern. We made use of Dungarde Keep.”
Khallum’s mouth and eyes flew open in tandem. “So now you’re telling me one of my oldest mates was in on it, is that it? That Steward James conspired to keep my daughter from me?”
Jesse shifted in the sandy dirt. “Lord Warwick, I did all I could to keep Esmerelda safe. I would’ve given my own life to see it done. I’m only here long enough to see this with my own eyes, and then I’ll be on my way once more.”
“On your way? Do ye always have somewhere more important to be, or is it only when you’ve been forced to face me?”
Jesse at last dropped his eyes. “I gave my word that if I could see that Esmerelda was safe and cared for once more, I’d return and give my aid.”
“To whom?”
“I cannae say. I’m sorry.”
Khallum raised his finger to rail on him some more, but his mind at last caught up to his ears. “You’re telling me you returned only for Esmerelda? To see if she was safe?”
Jesse nodded. “I’ll not trouble you much longer.”
Khallum narrowed his eyes. “If she was with you, then why did she return without you?”
“Her stubbornness, I suppose. She felt she’d become a burden to me.” Jesse sighed. “It wasnae true, and I assured her as much. But when you told me, that is, when I learned of Ryan’s fate, I couldnae keep it from her. I said I’d bring her home, but she slipped away before I could do so.”
“When? When did she slip away?”
“A few nights after ye told me, I ken?”
Khallum gaped at him. “But that was almost two months ago. It doesnae take months to travel from Greystone to Warwicktown, does it?”
Jesse’s expression shifted to concern. “Are ye telling me she hasn’t been here all this time?”
“She only just arrived a few days before you, lad!”
Jesse paled. He took a step back, eyes cast to the sky in thought. “You’re certain of this? That she wasnae... I dinnae, hiding somewhere here?”
“You dare question what I know, Jesse Strong?”
Jesse shifted his gaze toward the keep. He ran his hands over his face. “I need to see her.”
“So the two of you can compare your betrayals before I can ask her? I ken not.”
“Lord Warwick.” The tension between them was immediately severed at Darrick’s arrival. “Am I interrupting?” He caught sight of Jesse, and a wide smile brightened his face. “Jesse. What a pleasure. Steward Strong will be so happy you’re home. You’ve been to see Ryan, then?”
Jesse seemed caught between this moment and another. “Your Grace. I’ve just come from seeing him.”
Darrick laid a hand on his arm. “It was Ryan who taught me that miracles are not fable. He’ll come around to the man you remember. The man we both remember.”
Jesse nodded. “Aye. I hope so.”
“Don’t let Hamish wait too long to see you.” Darrick turned to Khallum. “You sent for me?”
“I did, Your Grace.” Khallum sent a hard glare at Jesse. The business of Esmerelda would have to wait. The business of the kingdom could not. “Jamesan. You’ll nay be leaving Warwicktown until I decide we’re finished. In case ’tis unclear what I mean, that’s an order. From your lord.”
Jesse nodded through relief he didn’t hide. “Lord Warwick.”
When Jesse was gone, Darrick asked, “The sharpest sword wouldn’t have cut through whatever lay between the two of you.”
“Doesnae matter,” Khallum muttered. “I need to bring ye up on matters. It’s time.”
“Time?”
Khallum blew a choked breath between his lips. “For me to step aside. For you to take your place in leading us through this.”
* * *
“It gives my heart joy to see you out of your bed now. And that gown,” Ravenna said, circling Esmerelda with a growing smile. “I can see now the lady you were raised to be.”
“Oh, nonsense,” Esmerelda retorted, blushing. “Though it’s nice to feel well enough to be amongst the living once more. Even if it is hard to resist hiding away from the world with Gemma. When I look at her, I can almost forget... the rest.”
Ravenna squeezed her arm. “She’s beautiful. She already looks so much like you. She has your eyes.”
“And her father’s mouth.” Esmerelda frowned. “How I always loved Ryan’s mouth. The curve of it when he smiled... that mischief...”
“Jesse has the same mouth.”
Esmerelda turned away, pretending to tidy an arrangement of irises. “Does he?”
“I came to tell you something.”
“Everything all right?”
“Esme, please, look at me.”
Esmerelda turned. She was so lovely in the royal blue gown, the flush rising to her pale cheeks. Ravenna saw Esmerelda’s whole life ahead of her, suddenly. Saw everything, for all its beauty and joy, all its heartache and sadness. A vision that was as imprecise as it was certain, for though Ravenna rarely experienced these looks into the lives of others, when she did, they weren’t the unreliable prophecies of man.
Ravenna shelved these thoughts. “We swore there’d be no lies between us, and I’ve been keeping a great secret from you. Don’t be cross with me, Esme. I had to be certain you’d make it through those dark days before I added to your troubles. Nothing was more important than seeing you and Gemma survive that.”
Esmerelda’s practiced smile fell away. “Go on, then.”
“When I went to see Oldwin, that night. You remember?”
“Ravenna, there’s nothing about our time in Duncarrow I’ll ever forget. Ever.”
“He told me that the Langenacht would be only a charade. That he’d blessed his...” Ravenna paused for strength. Saying these words aloud gave them flesh and bone. “His seed. That no matter how many Rhiagain men came to take their place with me, the child born of the Langenacht would be his. And that, knowing this, I must still go forward and go through with the ceremony just the same.”
Esmerelda gasped. “No.”
Ravenna moved through the rest of her words in a haste, before her courage failed her. “During the ceremony, Oldwin told me something that’s been chipping away at me ever since. He told me that he was my true father. He told me how it had come to pass. So now I must come to face what is before me. That I’m carrying the child of my greatest enemy, and that this same enemy claims he’s my father.”
“Ravenna,” Esmerelda whispered. “Oh, Ravenna.”
“Take the pity from your eyes. I can’t bear it.”
Esmerelda pressed both hands to her mouth. She shook her head. “It’s not... is it true? Can it be true?”
“You’ve seen me fly in my new form, even if you’re kind enough not to ask me about it. We both know I didn’t get that from the Ravenwoods.”
“But he’s a liar! A deceiver! Could there not be another explanation? Maybe he’s spelled you!”
“I trust nothing that comes from that creature’s mouth, but there must be some truth in there, somewhere. I feel there’s some truth in there, though I won’t find it here.”
Esmerelda’s mouth parted. “You’re leaving.”
Ravenna nodded. “Not yet, but soon.” She approached Esmerelda, taking her hands. “I wanted to wait for you to be well again. To be strong. And there was something else I was waiting for. The other thing I’ve come to tell you.”
Esmerelda’s eyes prickled with tears. “Will it break my heart?”
Ravenna leaned in and kissed the corner of her mouth. “I believe it’ll mend it. Jesse has returned. He’s here, and he’s waiting, quite impatiently, to see you.”
* * *
“Just us?” Darrick gazed around the empty Hall of Warring. Without the rumbles and energy of all the great Southerland men, the room seemed somehow less imposing. The table, only that. The great open window, boasting bird excrement older than he was, let in a glare from the morning sun that cast the filth of the place into crude display.
“Aye. Just us,” Khallum repeated. He stood on the opposite end of the room, under the row of swords from his forebears. Darrick remembered the Warwicks melted down only small pieces of their father’s steel to make their own, so that every sword wielded by the present lord was from all the men before. “Rutland has brought you up on the events at Goldthorpe overnight then?”
“This one was close to home for the Southerlands.”
“Those were Rutland’s words.”
“You didn’t bring me to ask who’s behind it, surely.”
“I may not yet know the hand who wields these atrocities against our own men, but aye, you and I know who issued the command,” Khallum said. He crossed his arms. “What I donnae know, what I cannae ken, no matter how I spin my mind around it, is why he comes for us. I can increase my guard, which I’ve done. I can send men at his men, which I’ve done. I can wait, which I’ve done. None of these things make my men and their families safe again.”
“Is it my counsel you’re after?”
“I have all the counsel I need already,” Khallum replied. “Your governance is what I’m after, Your Grace.”
“I see.”
“All these long years, the Warwicks have been the only strength in defiance of the crown. It’s been my burden, as it was the burden of my father, and his, to stand against what others refuse to. Is that why Oldwin sets his sights on us? I donnae know. But ’tis my own failings that have laid bare a truth I find myself hardened against confessing, even as you stand before me ready to hear it.”
Darrick listened to the man speak of his failings, keenly aware of his own. He’d first stepped back, allowing the Westerlands to lead their own war. When it was over, he’d launched himself forward, declaring himself king in all but name, riding a momentum that required more than simply his desire, though he hadn’t known it at the time. And then, nothing. What had he done, but sit idly in the shadows, contemplating the words and strifes of Khallum and his men, daydreaming of a wife and child that were now his? Even Wyat had asked, before he’d left to return to his responsibilities at the Reliquary, what he was waiting for.
What was his purpose, if not to do as Khallum was now asking him to do?
“Khallum,” Darrick said, stepping forth. “The failings are my own, in waiting for this moment, rather than seizing upon it, as is my duty. For lazing about with Anabella and Stefan, while the Southerlands burn. While my kingdom burns.”
“I wouldnae have said it quite as such,” Khallum muttered. “It’s been the great honor of all Warwicks to stand where others have refused. But I fear, as my men now do, that it isn’t the Southerlands Oldwin is after, though I’ve no doubt he’ll raze it to the ground before this is ended if we donnae stop him. What he’s after is bigger than us, in a way that leaves me trembling straight to my boots.”
Darrick folded his hands over his mouth, thinking. He’d done nothing but these past days. Lying awake next to Anabella, long after she’d fallen asleep. In the long, lazy mornings. All the while returning to one thing. “The Hinterlands. The Hinterlands are the key. I don’t understand why. Not yet.”
“Does he mean to enslave more of them? The Medvedev?”
Darrick shook his head. “I don’t think the enslaving of the Medvedev was ever about control.”
“Then what?”
“Entry.”
“How do ye ken?”
“Mortain knew enslaving the Medvedev, violating the most sacred of all our laws, would draw outrage and ire from the kingdom, and it did. Of course it did. But where did it lead? Not to a victory for the Easterlands, or even Mortain. It ended in the Saleen’s total slaughter.”
“Leaving their lands undefended,” Khallum said, coming around to Darrick’s understanding. “Leaving whatever is there, undefended.”
“I know this doesn’t help us, not with the Rhiagain Guard crawling about the forests by the thousands. But what if...” Darrick paused, searching for the right words. “What if...”
“We need an ally, on the inside. Medvedev,” Khallum interjected.
“Do we have any?”
Khallum snorted. “We’ve never been welcome in those forests. After the Saleen died at our hands, I’m nay holding my breath for an invitation, either.”
“That wasn’t your doing. They know that.”
“Changes nothing.”
“Do you know yet? Or suspect?”
“What?”
Darrick waved his hand. “Who from your men is working with Oldwin on these attacks.”
Khallum bristled. “I still donnae know if it is one of my men.”
“But you suspect this.”
“I’m nay ruling anything out. Would be a fool who did.”
Darrick paced, working out his thoughts. “We don’t believe what he wants is in the Southerlands, and yet he attacks you, and not the others. Why?” Before Khallum could answer, Darrick went on. “You don’t stand between Duncarrow and the Hinterlands. The Easterlands does. The answer is here, somewhere, Khallum. It’s here.”
“Which is it, then? Is what he wants in The Hinterlands? Or the Southerlands?”
Darrick’s mouth parted as the pieces of understanding came together, not quite connecting, but coming closer. “What if it’s both?”
* * *
Ravenna watched the reunion of Jesse and Esmerelda from a distance. The gentle, awkward dance as they decided whether they should embrace or not, and how much; Esmerelda eventually burying her tears against Jesse’s chest, as he waged a battle with himself, and what, precisely, to do with his arms.
Ravenna’s night with Jesse had been pleasant. A man and a woman meeting on equal terms, with no expectations when the morning arrived. She’d commissioned no magic to bring him to her bed, nor to keep him there through the night. He’d fallen into her arms willingly, and she his. Only when it was over and behind her did she recognize it as the one and only time in her short life that she’d had as much to give as to receive.
She also understood it would be the last time she shared a bed with Jesse Strong. His heart was pulled elsewhere, even if he was unaware of it.
But so was hers.
Hers had been pulled elsewhere for years, and now, inexplicably, it was called to the one place she’d sworn to herself she’d never return.
Home.
Oldwin had found a way into her nightmares. She didn’t know how he’d done it, nor did she have the means to defend herself against these nocturnal violations. She supposed it had to do with the child growing within her, linking her with Oldwin for time undefined. Each time, he employed new and more horrible ways to threaten her. Last night, while Jesse lay sleeping at her side, Oldwin reminded her she’d never be welcomed back at Midnight Crest; that she was his now, but it didn’t have to be a punishment. Together, they could find the answer to eternal life and bring forth a child born knowing it would live forever.
An answer he claimed to already possess.
Ravenna didn’t know what any of it meant. She only knew the truths she needed would never come from Oldwin.
From the one who seemed all too insistent that she never again go home.
Ravenna didn’t expect her mother to be any more forthcoming than Oldwin, but Ravenna knew Varinya’s tells and tics, in a way she could never, and didn’t want to, know Oldwin’s. If her words didn’t reveal the truth, then her eyes would.
Then Ravenna would know.
