Page 98 of Kingdom of Chains

Glancing over his shoulder, Tatum asked, ‘She knows you’re leaving? Permanently?’

‘What happened to talking later?’ Blackmane was resisting the urge to look back at the house. He had heard the retched sob as he walked away, and he had kept walking.

‘Shame you didn’t get to say goodbye to Tolly.’

Blackmane blinked slowly. His brother was off protecting the borders, which was much more important. ‘There’s always next time.’

The pair fell silent.

Talgarth was swarming with injured and displaced people trying to find information about missing family members. They would have preferred to stay and help out for a few weeks, but orders were orders, and they had consequences of their own to face back home.

The return journey to Chadora took two days, and Blackmane barely spoke a word the entire time. Tatum managed to fill the long silences with long ramblings that Blackmane had learned to tune out. By the time they reached Chadora, he was exhausted and eager to be away from people for a while. But first they had to face the warden.

Shapur Wright rolled into the barracks like a dark storm, hands on his hips as he looked between them. ‘What the hell happened?’

As commander of their unit, it fell upon Tatum to answer. ‘I got everyone back here safely, and Hodge returned home alive, sir—as ordered.’

The warden stared him down. ‘Did you forget the part about the eastern camp getting ambushed? What about the guards who were slaughtered? Or the wastelands being overtaken by rebel groups again? The English locked out of Carmarthenshire while you two wandered freely through it?’

Tatum went to speak.

‘Shut your mouth,’ Shapur said before he had a chance. ‘I know what you are going to say, and I have already heard it from Alveye and Hadewaye—who arrived home nearly a week ago, by the way. You should have returned with them. The delay only confirms your involvement in this war you had no business being in.’ He looked between them. ‘I sent you there toobserve. To keep Lord Hodgesafe.’

Tatum cleared his throat. ‘My understanding is that he’s safely inside the walls of Hampstead Keep.’

‘With a hole in his hand and minus the woman he is to marry!’ Shapur shouted. ‘Where is she?’

‘Home,’ Blackmane said.

The warden’s gaze darted to him. ‘Yes. I heard all about your part in that. Lord Hodge is requesting your head. He is ready to go to war for this woman.’

‘With one hand?’ Blackmane asked.

Shapur’s eyes flashed, and his mouth flattened into a line as he stepped up into the defender’s space. ‘You are treading on thin ice, Blackmane. Remember where you came from and what we have handed you.’

Blackmane swallowed.

Shapur looked back to Tatum. ‘You are hereby stripped of your command.’ He reached out and tore the gold pin from his cloak. ‘You better thank Belenus that I am not throwing both your arses outside the gate. Now get out of my sight.’

The men saluted before turning and heading straight for the wash area. They waited until they were a good distance away before speaking.

‘That went about as well as I expected,’ Tatum said.

Blackmane glanced over his shoulder. ‘Were you expecting to be stood down?’

‘When you made the comment about Hodge going to war with one hand I was.’

It was out of character for Blackmane to talk back like that. Usually he chose silence when being reprimanded. ‘Sorry.’

Tatum waved the apology away. ‘Don’t be. It was a good joke. Wrong audience, perhaps—and bad timing.’

They were almost to the washroom when Alveye and Hadewaye jogged up to them, looking displeased.

‘What happened?’ Alveye asked. ‘You said you would be a day behind us. Next thing we hear, you’re waging a war against England.’

‘That’s one version of the story,’ Blackmane said.

Hadewaye fell into step with Tatum. ‘How did you manage to walk away from that conversation with the warden unscathed?’