Page 30 of Thorns & Fire (The Ashes of Thezmarr #2)

Torj

‘The midrealms are comprised of five kingdoms ruled by magic-wielding families: the Embervales of Delmira, the Fairmoores of Harenth, the Stallards of Tver, the Duforts of Aveum and the Terlings of Naarva. So it has always been’

– The Midrealms Chronicles

‘I DON ’ T KNOW why I’m surprised,’ Torj muttered as he entered the ship’s galley and spotted Kipp kicking his feet over the side of a bench, peeling potatoes.

‘What?’ the strategist replied with a grin. ‘I was born in a kitchen, Bear Slayer.’

‘I know... at the Laughing Fox. You’ve told me more times than I – or anyone else, for that matter – can count.’

Kipp flicked a ribbon of potato skin at him. ‘How can I help? If you’re in need of romantic advice – which you clearly are – I’m afraid for once I’m at a loss myself.’

Torj frowned. ‘You? Kristopher Snowden? With no witty anecdotes on love and women?’

Kipp shrugged. ‘Not today, my hammer-wielding friend.’

‘What’s wrong?’

A dramatic sigh followed and Kipp handed a potato and peeler to Torj. ‘Oh, I’m just trying to find a way to break it to dear Dessa that we’re not on the road to “for ever”, you know?’

Torj stared at him. ‘Tell me this isn’t because she didn’t like the Laughing Fox.’

‘Did she say she didn’t like it?’ Kipp looked mortified. He nodded to the dirt-coated potato in Torj’s hand. ‘That’s not going to peel itself.’

Mystified, Torj didn’t think there was anything to do but peel the damn vegetable.

‘And no,’ Kipp continued. ‘In answer to your question, it’s not because of that. Though it certainly didn’t help. Imagine insulting a man’s palace like that?’

Torj huffed a laugh.

As always, Kipp had the gall to look offended. ‘So tell me, Warsword, if you’re not here for love advice – which, again, you sorely need – what are you here for?’

It took Torj a moment to move past the fact that he was in the galley of a ship peeling potatoes with the man who’d once been the worst shieldbearer at Thezmarr, asking for help. ‘There are a few things I don’t understand, that I need to piece together.’

‘Just a few?’ Kipp tossed a potato into the massive pot at his feet, unnecessarily splashing water everywhere.

The look on Torj’s face had him raising his peeler in surrender.

‘Alright, alright! Are you going to tell me what you found in the private study last night? Before the dashing Lord Devereux spoiled all our evenings?’

‘How’d he spoil yours?’ Torj asked.

‘A matter that’s neither here nor there.’

Torj ignored this. ‘He was there, right outside the study. Like he knew to expect us, like he knew we were after something.’

‘Interesting,’ Kipp said.

‘I thought so,’ Torj agreed. ‘Which makes me think that we didn’t find anything he didn’t want us to find...’

‘Which was?’

‘Nothing that Farissa detailed to me. But there was a binder containing all the ancestry of the royal families, dating back centuries. And an ornament of a gold leaf – a laurel, Wren said.’

‘Riveting,’ Kipp mused.

‘They were hidden in a drawer with a false bottom,’ Torj added.

Kipp paused. ‘Well that makes things interesting at least.’

‘So you think these things are relevant? Are they proof that there’s a spy at Drevenor?’

Kipp made a non-committal noise. ‘I’m not saying anything at the moment.’

‘If there is, it’s Darian fucking Devereux,’ Torj said.

‘And you think Devereux – what? Planted these items there in the hopes that a Warsword would somehow find them and come to all the conclusions he intended?’

‘All I know is this... If there is power to be taken, Darian will take it.’

‘You really hate the man, don’t you?’ Kipp observed. ‘I do however, feel it’s my responsibility to check...’

‘What?’

‘That you’re not just jealous,’ Kipp supplied.

Torj cut him a warning look. ‘You’re telling me that Kristopher Snowden, chief strategist of the shadow war, the man who’s so well-connected he could get a tankard of sour mead in a desert, doesn’t know about the Devereux family?’

Kipp offered a sly smile. ‘Oh, I absolutely know about the Lords of Larkwood Valley, and all their dirty deeds. Doesn’t change my question, though.’

‘Piss off, Snowden,’ Torj snapped. ‘I don’t want to talk about Wren.’ It hurt just to say her name.

‘Ah, yes, the king and queen of not talking about it.’

‘As opposed to you, who wants to talk about everything under the damn sun?’ Torj shot back. He unclenched his jaw. ‘Have you heard from Cal?’ he asked instead.

Kipp gave a nod of confirmation. ‘Just before we left Drevenor he sent a raven from Ciraun. He introduced Zavier to Talemir and the shadow-touched folk who’ve been running the capital in his absence.’

‘Did he say how they took the return of their heir?’

Finished peeling his last potato, Kipp jumped down from the bench and helped himself to a cask of wine on one of the far shelves.

‘The response was mixed, from what I gather, as was to be expected. But as thick as Cal can be sometimes, he’s not quite stupid enough to put too much detail into a message that could be intercepted. ’

Torj supposed that was as much information as he was going to get. ‘What are you doing down here, anyway? It’s unlike you to hide yourself away.’

‘Ah,’ Kipp said sheepishly. ‘I may have made a comment about the captain’s daughter that he did not appreciate—’

Torj rolled his eyes. ‘Kipp...’

But the strategist waved him off. ‘It’s fine, it’s fine. I assure you, she didn’t mind. But I thought it best to stay out of the way for an hour or so, get in the cook’s good graces by peeling some potatoes—’

‘And drinking his wine?’

‘Never said I was a saint, Bear Slayer.’ Kipp looked around with a sigh. ‘Mainly, I needed somewhere quiet to think.’

‘I know what you mean,’ Torj replied. ‘I still can’t believe a Warsword is dead, and another is missing...’

Kipp made a noise of agreement. ‘If I were Audra, I’d be ensuring the Warswords work in pairs from now on. And that those stationed in more remote regions be called back to Thezmarr.’

‘It’s going to keep happening,’ Torj said. ‘Even when I was fighting with Wilder, it wasn’t an easy victory, not by a long shot. They’re prepared. More than we realized.’

‘We underestimated them,’ Kipp agreed.

‘We did.’ Torj leaned back against the bench. ‘Well, at least you got to visit home... How did you find returning to the Fox?’

‘Different,’ Kipp admitted, his face falling.

‘Oh?’ Torj was surprised. It had seemed to him that the strategist was having his usual whirlwind of a time.

‘Harenth is different. Everywhere is different. Those damn posters are up everywhere, even in the Fox. According to Albert, people go there for a drink after rallies and protests and start fights. The Fox survived the shadow war, but this? I don’t know.

Bounties on strangers’ heads? Public hangings?

There are guards everywhere. My usual sources for.

.. things... are going underground.’

Torj dropped the last potato in the bucket and wiped his hands on a rag. ‘There was law and order before. There were systems and hierarchies. Designed for the protection of all those in the mid-realms.’

The stairs to the galley creaked, and Wren’s face peered down at them. ‘Just because it’s the way things have always been, doesn’t mean it’s the right way.’

‘I didn’t say that it was,’ Torj replied evenly.

But Wren continued. ‘Don’t you ever wonder if all the trouble the midrealms have been through in recent years, with the shadow war and everything that came after, might have been prevented if we’d changed things sooner?’

Tossing the rag aside, Torj shook his head. ‘People taking matters into their own hands never works out. Not like this.’

Wren scoffed. ‘Is that what you really think, Bear Slayer?’

Torj tensed. Wren had done exactly that as the Poisoner – had broken the laws of the midrealms to deliver her own justice. ‘Why don’t you tell us what you really think, Embervale?’

‘I think that societies that do not adapt or bend tend to break. Something is not working in the midrealms. It hasn’t been working for a long time now.

Until we acknowledge that, we are doomed.

’ Wren paused, her expression like a midnight storm.

‘In short, I’m starting to think the rebels have a point. ’