Page 9

CHAPTER 9

C allum suspected that he’d slept more nights on the ground than he had in the warmth of a bed. He’d slept through pelting rain and bone-rattling frost. He’d slept within spitting distance of the Silerith border, where enemy soldiers and dangerous beasts roved in equally frightening measure.

It was no great trial to sleep in a chair by the fire in a palace guest room. He would have offered the bed to Laena even had she not claimed it for herself. He didn’t have to be a lord to know what was right.

Though perhaps a lord could have explained the sudden shift in their conversation, and the way her demeanor had shifted from pleasant to angry. Certainly, he was as used to angering people as he was to sleeping on the ground. But he usually knew why.

They’d been speaking of the horrors of magic. She’d known his name from the outset, which meant she’d known his reputation for hunting down magic users and punishing them for their crimes. If she took a softer stance toward magic, then he’d have expected her to hate him from the first moment.

Besides, magic was just as illegal in Etra as it was in Aglye. No, he must have said something else to offend her. What it might be, he could not begin to fathom.

Now, as the sky began to turn gray, he woke to find the bed empty. Laena was gone, leaving behind only the faint scent of lavender.

Callum dressed quickly and made his way out of the palace.

Though his soldiers had no doubt been looking forward to the reprieve of several days’ rest in Riles before starting the return journey to Vunmore, no one was griping as he entered the courtyard. They moved efficiently, loading fresh supplies and preparing the horses for the short ride to the sea.

The horses were Etran animals, sturdy and reliable, if not so fine as Aglyeans. They’d left their own mounts at the stables by the coast; Callum could not justify dragging the horses on a sea journey when the ride from Etra’s coast to the palace was little more than an hour.

As he took stock of what still needed doing, Laena strode out of the palace, her skirts brushing his legs as she hurried past him, nose tipped so high she might have been trying to imitate her sister. She’d bullied someone into drawing her a bath; her curls lay damp and thick around the shoulders of her clean gray cloak, and the scent of lavender was even stronger. He wanted to bury his nose in her hair and breathe it in all day.

He swallowed. It’d been too long since he’d had a woman, clearly. “Good morning, my lady,” he said.

She paused and looked over her shoulder. “Good morning, Captain Farrow.”

She didn’t correct him on his use of the title, nor did she use his given name, as he’d invited her to do yesterday. She didn’t give him that mischievous hint of a smile he’d seen last night. It felt like a loss.

Before he could ask after the quality of her sleep, she turned her back on him and made for the gate. Not running away from him exactly, but not dawdling. A chilly reception, if he’d ever seen one.

“What’d you do this time, Captain?”

Callum resisted the urge to drop his head back and curse. Of course Edmun would have witnessed that interaction. Of course. The man never missed a beat.

The older soldier was standing a few paces away, arms folded. He’d been in the ranks since Callum had joined. Callum never knew why the man hadn’t wanted to rise in the ranks; everything Callum knew, he owed to Edmun. Every time his contract came up, Callum feared he’d announce his retirement. And every time, the old man signed on the line without hesitation. Since Edmun was as fearsome with a blade now as he’d ever been, Callum had never seen reason to argue. In fact, it was a relief.

Edmun was thin and wiry, with only a few streaks of auburn still remaining in his whitening hair. Though Callum stood several inches taller, he often felt the old man was hovering over him. Especially when he had reason to disapprove of his captain’s choices.

Callum headed for his waiting mount. “What makes you think I did anything?”

Edmun raised a bushy eyebrow, and Callum sighed. There was no point in trying to hide anything from the man. Ever. “Honestly, I don’t know. She seemed perfectly happy last night.”

The eyebrow raised higher.

“When I sat with her at dinner,” he clarified.

And inspected her injuries, while trying not to think of kissing her. And slept in the same room.

And flirted. He was sure she’d been flirting with him. He’d been enjoying her quick wit, and the way she’d called him out on his manners. Not many in Aglye would have dared, but she did it so prettily, sizing him up and proclaiming he was surprisingly… nice. She’d said he was nice . It felt like it ought to have been an insult, but from her lips, it sounded like the epitome of high compliments. As if kindness was the pinnacle of greatness to which they should all aspire.

Kindness. No, Callum was anything but that. He simply knew how to exercise common decency, from time to time, when it suited him. And with Laena seated across from him last night, it had absolutely suited him.

The color had been starting to blush back into her cheeks when she’d abruptly shut down their conversation.

“It’s just as well,” Callum continued, watching her smile her thanks at young Godfrey as the kid handed her up onto a waiting horse. She looked well today, the ghostly paleness banished from her complexion, her rosebud lips curving into a smile. Someone in the palace had provided her with a fresh dress and polished boots. Though he imagined she might well have cleaned the shoes herself.

Edmun cleared his throat, and Callum realized he’d been staring at her. “Just as well, you say?” the old soldier said.

“She’s famously taken.”

“She is, indeed.”

“ Very famously.”

Epic-ballad-level famously.

“Also,” Edmun said, “she doesn’t like you.”

Mages, but he thought she had .

Now she was ignoring him. As if he didn’t exist at all.

“The captain saved her life,” Godfrey said, appearing on Callum’s other side as if from nowhere—Edmun must be training the soldiers in the art of sneaking up on their commanding officer—and he reported this bit of news like it was the greatest thing he’d ever heard. No doubt he’d be repeating some other gossip in an hour, and with just as much reverence.

How the blazes did he already know about last night’s attack? That Princess Katrina’s palace was leaking, and make no mistake.

Though, Callum supposed, there’d been plenty of guards and more than a couple of servants in the orbit of last night’s events. Still. He expected silence from his soldiers on such matters. Absolute silence.

“Did he now?” Edmun said. The old soldier was clearly enjoying this conversation, and Callum’s barely concealed annoyance.

Who was he kidding? He wasn’t concealing anything. Not from Edmun.

“No, I didn’t. She saved herself.” Callum ground the words out from between gritted teeth. “I merely investigated the situation.”

“ Did you now?”

Callum glared at Edmun. “Stop it. You’re not too old for me to throw you in the stocks for a day.”

Edmun snorted. “As if you’d dare.”

“I am your superior officer.”

“ Are you?” Edmun’s eyes sparkled with amusement, and more than a hint of challenge.

In theory. As far as Edmun and the others should know, anyway.

The courtyard doors swung open, saving Callum the necessity of responding. At least it gave him more time since Edmun was unlikely to let this go. The man had been a soldier since before Callum had been allowed to wield more than a wooden practice blade. Callum might be his superior officer, but Edmun took no shit from anyone.

And it was clear he knew precisely what Callum had done. During the weeks of their journey from Aglye to Etra, he hadn’t said a word. But Callum had felt it in the long, knowing looks the old man had leveled at him.

Apparently, he planned to say it outright .

“I wonder that the queen-to-be did not come to see us off,” Callum said, shifting the subject before Edmun could speak. “Seems strange.”

In fact, aside from the encounter in her waiting room, the queen-to-be had said nothing to him at all. Callum hadn’t been lying to Laena when he’d said he rarely talked to royal families. His typical jobs were raids and skirmishes. Battle, not diplomacy.

But he’d have expected the queen-in-waiting to at least make an appearance. Perhaps she’d been planning something—a ball or a feast, or at least an insufferable council meeting with speeches and gaudy gifts—and his insistence at leaving this morning had changed the plan.

He suspected that would be giving her too much credit. Still, she ought to be here, to say a few words or let her regent do the speaking on her behalf. To send the delegation off with the blessing of the crown, or some shit like that.

“I wouldn’t know about such things,” Edmun said. “Being naught but a simple soldier.”

“Stop it.”

“My superior officers, they know what’s best. I wouldn’t dare rise above my station.”

“Edmun.”

Edmun steered his gelding in closer, as close as it was possible to get without entangling the horse’s legs. Or so it felt. “What do you suppose the king will do, upon our return?”

Callum shrugged, finding that his gaze had once again drifted to the head of brown curls at the front of the party. She’d taken up the lead, he realized. Without prompting, without asking, and without him. She looked natural there, her back straight, her smile relaxed and easy as she chatted with one of the other soldiers.

“I suppose Hawk will bore the lady with a bookish speech that she’ll probably understand every word of, as clever as she is,” Callum said. “Provided that he doesn’t put her to sleep. Then he’ll hold a party and we’ll make an alliance, sign some papers proclaiming our continued peace, and she’ll be on her way home.”

What were they going to discuss? The question sat heavy in the pit of his stomach. A simple peace treaty between already peaceful nations would make little sense. Hawk couldn’t mean to go to war with Silerith—could he?

Edmun rolled his eyes heavenward. “I meant what will the king do about your stealing the delegation.”

It was all Callum could do not to reach over and clap a hand over the old man’s mouth. Which, aside from drawing attention, would likely unseat him from his horse. “Do not let her hear.”

“If you want my advice?—”

“I don’t.” The words came out sounding harsh, but Callum could not afford to be soft. “I want to guide this delegation back to Vunmore in safety. The king will have no objection to that.”

Edmun clamped his mouth shut, narrowing his eyes as if considering whether to speak his mind anyway. Before he could, Callum urged his horse forward, cutting around the side of the procession to join Laena and the others at the front of the group.

“My lady,” he said, interrupting whatever conversation she’d been having with young Godfrey and another soldier. “I trust you slept well?”

She glanced over at him, her expression shuttering. As though his very presence irritated her so much that she could no longer be cheerful. “Well enough.”

“Princess Laena’s never played snakes and roses, sir,” Godfrey piped up, clearly unaware of the tension between them. “We’re gonna teach her.”

“Careful playing cards with these rogues, my lady,” Callum said as Godfrey and the others protested. “They’ll take you for all you’re worth and look innocent while they do it.”

She tipped her nose in the air. “I can handle myself, Captain.”