Duty: a novel of Rhynan (20 page)

Tomas’ features tightened even more. His eyes glinted
in anger. “I didn’t. It was more a matter of trusting Areyuthian to
be honorable. We were close to reaching an agreement. Baron
Areyuthian extended his hand. Orwin attacked when I reached for
Areyuthian’s hand. He caught me by surprise. I still don’t know how
he got the knife beneath the mail, but once he did he twisted it,
driving me down. Once I was there, he started beating me. Next
thing I know, I am looking up into my wife’s face.” He frowned at
me. “How did you get here? I left you in Kyrenton.”

“Rolendis, with the help of some of her husband’s
men-at-arms, was plotting to breakout Jorndar. I discovered their
plot by accident the afternoon before they put it in motion. I
spoke to Captain Parrian but there wasn’t much more he could do
than what he already was doing. Or at least that was what he said.
But Jarvin mentioned plans after he spoke with him later.” My
stomach twisted in a renewed wave of dread. Now that I was
reiterating it all, it sounded as though I panicked and ran when it
wasn’t necessary.

“You brought Darnay and Elise with you, right?”

I nodded. “They are in the camp with Jarvin.”

“And mother?”

“I had to convince her before she would allow me to
move Darnay again.”

Tomas stepped closer. I could feel his gaze on my
face but I couldn’t bear to meet it.

“She only came because if Jorndar escaped none of
them would be safe.”

“Brielle.”

The sound of his voice so close resonated through me.
I wanted to look up into his face, but I feared what I would see.
So, I stumbled on with my telling.

“Rolendis promised me as incentive to some of the
conspirators. I panicked.”

“It doesn’t sound like it.” His hand touched my
hair.

“No, I did. I decided that I wasn’t going to sit
around and wait for them to use me that way. After speaking with
Parrian, I knew I couldn’t fight them. So, I ran.”

“So, Kyrenton might be under Jorndar’s control.”

I nodded in shame. “And his men, the ones we have
been wondering about, are lying in wait for King Mendal.”

Rathenridge tensed beside me. “Why didn’t you say so
earlier?”

His words so mimicked the ones in my head, I
cringed.

“Hush, Aiden.” A weary note underlined Tomas’ voice.
“Go and gather the men. We will ride south as soon as the fire is
under control.”

Rathenridge swung onto his horse.

“Bring back a horse for me. It looks like I am going
to be riding after all.”

Rathenridge acknowledged the request with a curt nod.
Then he set heels to his horse’s flanks and they sprang off at a
gallop. We watched him go together.

“He means well.” Tomas turned and caught my shoulder.
Pulling me around to face him, he caught my gaze with his. “Now
what have you not told me?” Half-stranger and half-friend, he
studied my face, reading my emotions and giving nothing in
return.

“Have you found Loren?”

“No, and I am not letting you change the subject.
What pushed you to recklessly barge through a battlefield to find
me? An action I forbid you from ever repeating. One stray arrow, a
wild swing, and I could have lost you.” His eyes darkened even
more.

“I feared if I didn’t reach you, you would die. I
know it is irrational. But I couldn’t banish the thought after
dreaming about it two nights past.”

His hand lifted to touch my cheek. “Promise me you
will send someone else next time. I have lost one wife. I don’t
wish to lose another.”

I nodded my agreement.

“Thank you.” He kissed me. Quick but powerful, it
left me wanting much more. But I had to be satisfied with the
mirrored regret in his eyes. The distant sound of approaching
horses signaled the end of our time together.

“I’ll return. When I do, we’ll deal with the issue of
Jorndar. We will leave a remnant to organize things here.” He swung
up into the saddle of the offered horse with a great groan.

“After stopping in the camp for supplies, I’ll speak
to Darnay. I plan on being gone before you return from the
village.”

The seven horsemen who had been guarding us moved to
follow him, but he stopped them. “No, guard Lady Irvaine. I lay her
safety at your feet. I hold you each personally responsible for her
wellbeing. Understood?”

“Yes, my lord,” they replied.

He turned his horse toward the south and the camp.
Then as though by a signal I couldn’t see, the whole company moved
forward at once, falling into ranks without fanfare of any kind.
Before I knew it, I and my personal guard were left alone in a
field of mud and slush beneath the afternoon sun.

My stomach growled. My formerly gray skirt was now
brown with mud and heavy as I turned to meet my new companions.

“Which of you is the man in command?” I asked.

They exchanged glances. Not one of them more than
five summers older than me, they looked impressive sitting tall and
high on their elegant horses.

“Captain Eirianware at your command, my lady.” He
bowed slightly.

“Captain, I need to get to the village immediately
and I seem to have misplaced my horse.”

“You may ride behind me, my lady, if that isn’t
too…”

I waved his objection away. “I hope you don’t mind my
dirty boots, Captain.”

“If you would give me your hand, my lady.”

Within moments I was astride his horse, clinging to
his waist, and riding swiftly toward the ominous cloud hanging over
Wisenvale.

“Where would you like us to stop, my lady?” he asked
as we approached the first cottage.

“The Lord’s hall.”

We slowed to a walk. I wished we could’ve passed the
devastation more quickly. Broken doors, forced in from the outside,
and shutters hanging by single hinges spoke clearly about the
events of the past week. I tensed for the worst as we entered the
village square.

Only a short time before, Tomas and I had exchanged
our vows here. Now broken furniture, bedding, and broken barrels
from my father’s wine cellar were piled in obvious preparation for
a bonfire.

“Brielle!” Loren’s voice pulled my attention across
the square. There, with the still smoking remains of the lord’s
hall looming behind them, was a sea of familiar faces.

I swung down to the ground before my escort had come
to a complete halt. Hurtling an overturned bench and circumventing
a broken chair, I raced the distance to her.

Soot stained and sweat streaked, she began to cry,
smiling through her tears. We clung to each other. The crowd of
women encircled us in a dancing, laughing throng, giddy in their
relief. I hugged Loren and wept, finally releasing all the pent up
emotion of the past few days. Tomas lived, Baron Areyuthian
retreated, and Loren could still smile.
Thank you,
Kurios.

“Did Orwin touch you?” I pulled back to scan her
tear-streaked face.

“No. The baron locked us in the lord’s hall and
ordered none of the men to touch us on pain of death. He and Orwin
had a dreadful row about it right in front of us. Orwin wouldn’t
accept the terms until the baron leveled a crossbow at his head and
ordered him to back down.”

“So you are safe?”

“Safe and hungry.” Loren smiled wanly. “The baron’s
chivalry didn’t extend to feeding us more than starving rations.
Not that we weren’t already used to that.”

“We were well treated, my lady.” One of oldest women,
Granny Toren, edged closer. “As I was telling the young ones, they
should praise the Kurios. The border raids during the last coup
left multiple women pregnant, many of them young things without
means of support. This time we were blessed in our oppressor.
Compared to them, Baron Areyuthian was a gentleman. They were no
more than drunk ruffians then.”

I bit back my sudden thought that Areyuthian probably
participated in those border raids. My husband might count his life
from one of them.

“My lady.” I turned at the male voice. It sounded
partially familiar. A stillness fell over the crowd and the women
parted to reveal a man kneeling in their midst. He hid his face and
offered his hands in the classic position of supplication. “Have
mercy.”

“Rise.”

Captain Eirianware pressed through the subdued women
to join me. He made a comfortingly solid presence at my back. I was
grateful for his support when I recognized the man.

“Brevand.”

“Aye, my lady.”

Despite his contrite appearance, anger rose as I
remembered exactly what he was asking forgiveness for.

“I was told you betrayed my village, escorting the
enemy into the heart of my home. Is the claim true?”

He lowered his head, hiding his face again so that I
couldn’t see his eyes. I suppressed a frown.

“Yes.” His tone was clear and even, but it bothered
me that he wouldn’t look up.

“And now you have the gall to request mercy?”

Loren touched my arm. “He let us out before the fire
killed us, Brielle.”

A murmuring of assent passed through the crowd. I
glanced around at their faces. Yarni with her daughter pressing
against her side nodded. Durana watched Brevand with good will, a
rare event. She usually regarded any man other than her late
husband with wariness. Finally, I turned to Loren.

She pled for leniency. “Despite his part in our
capture, he has been kind to us, offering what help he could in the
circumstances.”

I suspected he had played both sides of the fence
until it was clear which side would win, but I couldn’t point that
out to Loren. Her eyes begged for me to show mercy.

“His betrayal of Lord Irvaine is a far greater
offense than his treachery against us.” I turned back to Brevand to
find he had finally lifted his head. He eyed me dispassionately
from behind a contrite expression. My stomach turned. I prayed he
wouldn’t be able to fool Tomas with the mask. “Lord Irvaine can
hear his case when he returns.”

“What do you wish done with him until then, my lady?”
Captain Eirianware asked.

“See he gets a taste of the women’s captivity until
then.”

I caught the captain’s signal to his men out of the
corner of my eye. The six converged on Brevand with surprising
speed. Within a few movements, he was bound and gagged.

I selected one of the women. “Yarni, would you be
kind enough to point out the best place to store this man? We will
set about making sure he can’t run until Lord Irvaine gets
here.”

Yarni nodded and led two of the men off in the
direction of the nearest cottage. They dragged Brevand between
them.

I strode toward the lord’s hall, Loren in tow. Many
of the women came with us. A few left to see to their children or
set their homes to rights now that the invaders were gone.

The smoke still rose from my childhood home, eroding
my hope of recovering even a small measure of my family’s
heirlooms. My mother’s chest full of her prized gowns, linens, and
jewelry weighed the most heavily on my mind.

The lord’s hall stood, barely. Stone walls stripped
of all wooden adornment supported a blackened skeleton of beams,
half broken, against a sky still marred by smoke. It wouldn’t be
safe to walk through the ruins yet, but I could see that hope for
recovery was slim.

I stood as close to the doorway as I could, the heat
of the recent flames still radiating from the stone, and tried to
grasp the finality of the ended chapter. My favorite tangible
connections to my past were gone. The special scent of my mother’s
rose and lilac perfume mixing with the smell of sun-warmed linen
were now only a memory consumed in the stench of scorched stone and
charred wood. I could no longer bring out her perfume bottle and
revel in reminiscences of her laughter, her bright eyes, or the
feel of her arms around me. Only time would reveal if her jewelry
escaped the blaze, but the memories entangled with the cold metal
and stone were not as precious as those stolen golden moments of
just Mother and me. Orwin, in his typical way, burned away the most
precious of my possessions, leaving the less valuable.

I stepped back away from the wreckage, struggling to
control the mixture of anger and grief tearing through me.

“At least the barns survived.” Loren’s out-flung hand
indicated the low structures just visible through the smoke.

I was not in the mood for counting our blessings.
Still, I nodded. “Come, let us assess the rest of the damage.” I
led the way off toward the nearest cottage.

Following my lead, the women set to work, picking up
debris.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I threw my anger into my work. In a few days we
cleared out five cottages, lugging out broken furniture, sweeping
floors, and cleaning hearths. The women and I labored tirelessly to
reclaim a small measure of the life the invaders stole. Red-gold
sunlight cast a long patch of light through the western facing door
of my current project when I heard someone say my name. The shadow
of a woman’s head fell across the moisture-slick stones beneath my
brush.

“Brielle?”

I pushed up onto my knees and squinted into the
light. It was Anise.

“What are you doing?”

“Cleaning.”

I couldn’t see her frown, but I could sense it in the
tilt of her head.

“Why?”

“I cannot hunt down my cousin and hurt him the way he
has hurt me and those I love. Durana cares for four children. One
is just learning to crawl. She needs a clean floor. So, I am
scrubbing it for her.”

“I saw the lord’s hall.”

“Then you know that nothing survived.”

“Not completely true. Some of the men pulled out some
furniture from the bedchamber. The linens didn’t escape, but some
jewelry and an ornamental sword were spared.”

I locked my jaw so my chin wouldn’t tremble. “At
least it is something.” My voice quavered.