Page 15 of Nightingale (The Broken Kingdoms #1)

“W

hat game are you playing at, Rian?” Castil smoothly asked him as he carefully observed from the doorway. He’d come in twenty minutes prior with a light rap of his knuckles to the curved door and entered a minute after no response came.

“What do you mean?” Rian asked as he absentmindedly pulled shirt after shirt out of his dresser and tossed them onto the nearby bed.

“I don’t buy that she all of a sudden escaped for a single second, and don’t think I’m stupid enough to be goaded into it.” He played with the silver buttons on his black coat, a long number that fit him magnificently. There was grey ribbon on the very edges of it, trailing along the hem and collar with pockets along the side. He wore a simplistic white tunic under it, matching it with charcoal pants and tall boots that were made from a shiny material.

Rian sighed at his insufferable sibling’s scolding tone as he packed his clothes up, one by one. They’d leave in the morning, after she’d had time to rest and eat from the small tray of food he’d brought her an hour earlier. She wasn’t naive of course, and insisted that he eat from every plate first, and drink from the glass before she even touched the tray.

He had, and she was satisfied enough to eat most of it. The water had been laced with a sleeping sedative that worked only when the entire liquid was consumed, which she had. Vrea now slept soundly, resting before tomorrow’s long trek began.

She would be furious with him in the morning because there was no way in the seven hells that she wouldn’t realise he’d basically drugged her in order to get her to rest properly.

“I would never think you stupid, Cas.”

“Then what are you doing helping her?”

“Because I can get to her family.” He shifted a look towards the locked closet where Vrea slept. The walls were thick enough that she wouldn’t be able to hear their conversation, but they spoke in hushed voices as a precaution. The Princess was a tricky little thing, after all.

“Because I can end this damned war at long last and she’s the key to it all.” He added.

Castil studied him for a moment, silent as if he could find some answer to whatever question he was mentally pondering. It was unnerving, intruding and a touch chilling as Rian knew why he looked at him that way.

As he knew why Castil cared so much about this.

“And how did you manage to convince her to let you join along for this ride?” His sentence was short, clipped, but still as regal as the White Knight himself.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Tell me.” He pushed.

“No,” Rian shoved the last shirt in his bag, searching for a couple pairs of trousers next. “How do I know that you won’t run to our King and spill everything I’ve shared with you in this room?”

Because even if he’d sired them all, regardless of which woman bore them in the end, he was their King first.

“How do I know that you won’t do the same with the information I’ve already handed over? Our siblings know quite a bit because of you, if not everything.” His brother interrogated him as if they were enemies, which he supposed they were in most cases. “Everything I’ve shared with you is a sensitive matter, one that could have my head in a noose if you opened your mouth about it.”

Rian heard regret there.

“I wouldn’t.” He shook his head, “Trust in this family is scarce and I don’t plan on breaking your confidence.”

“Trust doesn’t exist in this family.” Castil corrected, dragging a strand of blond over his shoulder and toying with the straight ends. It had always been down his back, for as long as Rian had been alive. He never wore it up, never tucked it into a full braid, never cut it.

He continued as he ran his hands through it. “But you haven’t thought this through, not in the slightest. She could plunge a stolen dagger in your back when you’re not looking or poison your food. She could leave you to fend for yourself against the Blacklegs.”

The massive spiders that roamed in the east.

The ones known for devouring humans whole and spitting out their bones, melting their flesh right off of them with their acid breath if the stories were to be believed. Rian and Vrea would need to sneak past the massive spiders if they had any hopes of making it to Niroula. The tales said that they lurked in their massive caves and only came out for a meal at night. Their legs were twice the size of any human, with viciously jagged teeth to match.

“You know,” Rian began quietly, “I don’t have any threat to you, since I’m the last heir of our father. Only Daria was below me, and she’s gone now thanks to the Greenvasses. I thought you out of all people would have wanted me to put an end to this war.”

“Why?” Castil asked softly.

Rian tossed two pairs of pants into the bag, not caring where they ended up. It would all get jumbled on the ride there anyways. “Because of how many of them you’ve killed on the battlefield. Because of how many of us they’ve killed in return. Do I need to go on?”

“I’m older than you by six years. I’ve had more time to kill, more fights that I’ve been shoved into. Don’t credit me with those kills when it was either that I survived by staining my hands red, or that I died by the blade of someone else.” He ground out, frustration clear in his sharp features. His cheekbones looked as if they could cut glass alone, as did his jaw. “I’m not so willing to die easily, like Theseus did.”

“Vrea killed him,” Rian said, buckling his bag closed and tossing it by the door. “By dressing as a servant and adding poison to his food. He wasn’t exactly looking for trouble and found it anyway. I wouldn’t call that easy, just unsuspecting. Weren’t you the one that executed the man blamed for her crimes until another stepped forward?”

Castil flinched but ignored his question, finding other things in his statement to focus on.

“Remind me again why you’ve decided to trust her?” He asked, having moved out of the way as the bag tumbled to a stop right before his polished knee-high boots. “Considering she’s personally responsible for Theseus, and don’t forget that she was caught trying to get into your room, to kill you? She’s a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, let alone travelling while alone. ”

“You almost sound like you admire her.” Rian snorted in amusement, rotating on his flat heel to face Castil. “Oh wait, that’s right. You do .”

“Enough.” Castil’s cheek jumped, muscles flexing in his neck. “I think it’s admirable how she never gave up. A fighter, through and through. You know my feelings regarding her situation and how fucked up this entire war is. If her parents didn’t force her into this, didn’t breed for the sake of adding more weapons to their already large arsenal of heirs, then she wouldn’t have been here in the first place.”

He let out a puff of tight air that held a fraction of his frustration. “And is that more or less fucked up than our parents forcing us to fight each other? To kill in order to get to the throne?”

“Theirs do it too.” Castil reminded him with a sing-song tone of warning. “It’s a mess, on both sides. I admire you for wanting to put a stop to it all, however I don’t think you’re the right man for the job. Nor do I entirely buy your reasoning, considering everything that you do know.”

He held his siblings’ stare, locked in with the icy grey eyes that were almost molten silver.

“And you are?” He asked softly, knowing exactly why his brother said that.

“Don’t go there, Rian.” He threatened with cautious resonance that wasn’t to be taken lightly. “Don’t push me on that matter.” His stance was hard, spine as taught as a crossbow string and his shoulders locked.

Rian was tall, yes, but Castil was even taller.

And he used it well.

Rian didn’t back down but he lowered his gaze to break off from the intensity that Castil poured into his look of steel and bone-chilling control. “Seems like you’re not the right man for the job either, if what you’ve said on that matter is true.”

He struck a nerve.

The room shifted into uncomfortability.

“Of course it’s true. Why would I lie to you about something like that?” Castil raged in displeasure, and Rian knew why. “You think I would make something like that up, and then unveil it to you?”

“Hmm,” He huffed and guilt tried to cripple him for what he’d said. “I guess trust isn’t entirely gone in this family, if you’ve put your faith in me with your dirty little secret.”

“This family exhausts me.” Castil sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and pointer finger. His eyes closed and he inhaled. “With or without trust in each other.”

He came close, pushing himself off the wall until he stood an inch away from Rian. Rian stopped packing for a moment and set his sword down, facing his brother.

“You’re the only one I even remotely care about, Ri. I don’t want to see you hurt, and I don’t want to see you dead. I won’t lie though, you wounded me with that foolish act in the hallway but I can overlook it if it means getting her out of here.” Castil said in a barely audible voice. “I don’t know what ingenious plan you’ve worked up in your wise head, but always remember that they’re smart too. They’re just as quick as you are, maybe even quicker.”

He peered at the door where Vrea slept as if he expected her to pop out and attack them, casting his gaze away before too long.

“Careful, brother.” Rian grinned and clasped him on his lean shoulder, patting twice. “You sound as if you love me.”

Castil’s face turned into carved stone, a masterpiece carefully worked at for years in order to achieve the level of beauty his brother held. “I love one person in this entire world, and you are not them.”

“I understand.” Rian swallowed, his mouth dry. “We can’t exactly learn to love each other now, can we? Not with the odds against us.”

His sibling agreed with a dip of his chin. “Not when we can lose any of us in a single, swift swipe of steel. I can’t let my heart care for you when I could lose you tomorrow. When you could be the very end of me, if I’m not careful.”

“I can’t promise it won’t be me.” He smirked, returning to his packing before he could forget anything.

“As I can’t promise that it won’t be me who kills you,” Castil responded and returned to his place on the wall. “Just don’t be the one to kill her.”