When Dragons Rage

4

With his arms flailing unsuccessfully to control his flight, the Tolsin guardsman landed hard on the round wooden table, shattering it completely. The short drop to the ground forced a grunt from him and caused his tin-pot helmet to bounce off. It clunked and danced across the floor, striking Call Mably full in the knee, which was, for Alexia, a consequence unintended but hardly unwelcomed.

Mably—a scrawny man with brown eyes and thin lines of hair covering his pate—hissed and clutched at his knee. He glanced up at her with a hot glare. He wore a leather mask of Oriosan green that had been festooned with a variety of marks and little badges to stress his authority as Tolsin’s magistrate, and its gaudy display only served to undermine the glare’s heat. He straightened up at his table in the Thistledown Tavern, and did his best to keep his voice even.

“To what do I owe this honor, Princess Alexia?”

Alexia took one step forward, pinning the guardsman’s right hand to the floorboards. “I came to visit Crow, but this man was under the mistaken impression that no such visit would be allowed.”

Mably’s nostrils flared for a moment, then he picked up a small steaming bowl of mulled wine. “He was not mistaken. The Traitor is to be allowed no visitors.”

Alexia frowned and turned her head partway to the left. She let her own gaze fall over a few of the tavern’s patrons near the fireplace. As they abruptly looked down, pretending to mind their own business, she spoke softly. “If I heard you correctly, Magistrate, you said Crow would be allowed no visitors.”

“I did, Princess.”

“And you are under the mistaken impression that rule would apply to me?”

“I am.”

Alyx walked over to him, the golden mail surcoat she wore rustling as she went. She leaned down, her gloved hands pressed firmly to the table, her nose a gnat’s length from his. “I noted your impression was ‚mistaken.’”

Mably’s eyes hardened as much as they could, which meant they avoided looking as runny as soft-boiled eggs—but not by much. His voice tightened, rising in register. “I recall that. It was not.”

“Ah, very good. Then consider this. I am a Princess of Okrannel. I am of the same rank as your King Scrainwood. King Augustus is married to a cousin of mine. If I were to choose to deem your prohibition an insult, then demand satisfaction of you, what do you think would happen? Do you think any of your people would stand against me? And do you think that if I slew the lot of them, you included, I would be censured or punished in any way at all? Don’t nod, Mably. You might not be the smartest man alive, but you are not that stupid. I want to see Crow. I will see Crow. Now!”

She straightened up and hooked her thumbs behind the round buckle of her belt.

Mably reached for his wine coolly, but the ripples in the liquid as he grasped the bowl revealed his fear. He raised his left hand, flicking it casually toward the back of the tavern. “The princess wishes to see the prisoner. Let her pass.”

“You are most kind.”

Mably’s voice grew cold. “Even you would not imagine you would be allowed to wear a weapon.”

Her eyes tightened. “You have my word of honor…”

“Yours, yes, but not his. You see my predicament, Princess. Your sword belt, please.”

Alexia unbuckled it and slid it off. Then she rebuckled it and hung it from a peg on one of the tavern’s wooden columns. Unrestrained by the belt, the mail hung on her like a girl’s summer shift, rustling loudly as she crossed to the back corner. There, a corpulent guard struggled to his feet, pried a wooden chair off his ample buttocks, then moved it aside from the trapdoor leading down into the cellar.

As the man opened the door, she took a lantern from a wall peg and turned the wick up. The opened trapdoor revealed a steep set of ladderlike steps, and cold and moist air washed over her as she descended. The guard closed the door over her head and the scraping sounds from above indicated he’d resumed his post. She listened closely to see if Mably was ordering him to keep her imprisoned, but she heard nothing. A pity. While she hoped the magistrate would do something stupid, he was too much of a coward to strike openly.

Since it was a small town, Tolsin didn’t have much need of a gaol to house prisoners. When Crow had arrived someone had decided they needed a place to keep him—and the best option turned out to be the root cellar below the Thistledown. Alexia was fairly certain that Mably owned the tavern or had an interest in it, and that the Oriosan government would be charged for keeping Crow safe.

As nearly as she could tell, the preparations for housing Crow had been kept to a minimum. A corner of the cellar had been cleared and a patch of straw had been spread out. An eyebolt had been hitched to a rafter and from it hung chains that ended in manacles. The chains were long enough that Crow could lie down, and that surprised Alexia.

The light from her lantern finally touched Crow himself, bleeding some color into what had been the white ghost of a figure huddled in the corner. He’d been stripped of his clothing, and while his long white hair and beard suggested antiquity, his body was still that of a younger man. His left leg remained slightly swollen from broken bones that had only been partially healed by magick. A single scar started at his hairline to the right side of his face, came down over his cheek, then picked up two companions at his collarbone, which then traced down past his hip and thigh to his knee. A plethora of other scars, all white with age, crisscrossed his body.

Alexia gasped—not because of his nakedness or the scars, but because of the new livid bruises on his chest, his arms, legs, and face. His lower lip had been split and his left eye was all but swollen shut. A crust of blood matted the hair at his right temple and one bruise on his chest clearly bore the imprint of a bootheel.

Her gasp snapped his good eye open. Anger rather than fear flashed through it, then the right corner of his mouth tugged back in a smile. “Princess. I am honored. Forgive me for not getting up.”

Alexia shook her head and crouched down, setting the lantern at the edge of the straw. “They beat you?”

“They were provoked.”

She frowned. “You went with them peacefully. You wouldn’t do anything stupid.”

He snorted, and his smile stretched the split lip. “Your confidence in me is gratifying. I am afraid I did provoke them.”

“How?”

He raised his hands. “They’d looped the chain high enough that I couldn’t lie down.” His right eye sparkled as he separated his hands, then, quickly, slammed his wrists together. The manacles hit hard with a muffled clang, then the right one sprang open. “A manacle is only as good as the spring that keeps the catch shut. I unwound a bunch of the chain from around the rafter. After that I helped myself to some of the provisions down here. They have some passable wine in that cask over there, and there is some good cheese in that wooden box.“

Alexia smiled in spite of herself. “So, I shouldn’t have been worried about you at all?”

He winced as he shifted more fully onto his left hip. “Not concerning my hunger. As it was, they decided I had some sort of key in my clothes, so they took them. Then they decided I needed a lesson.”

“I’ll make sure they get you some clothes. I’m freezing myself down here, and I’ve got a quilted gambeson on under this mail.” She rubbed her gloved hands over her arms. “You won’t have to endure the cold tonight.”

He shrugged. “I’ve been in far colder climes and survived, but your kindness is appreciated, Highness.”

“Crow, you should call me Alyx.”

“Highness, we have been through this before.”

“Times are different, Crow. Before you didn’t want any familiarity because you said our causes would someday force us apart. You didn’t want to be a liability. I didn’t know what you were talking about then, but now that I do, it doesn’t matter.”

Crow snapped the manacle back around his right wrist. “Highness, I wasn’t thinking about who I had been when I said that. And I must apologize for misleading you. I would have gladly shared with you all I knew of your father. I didn’t know him long or well, but I respected him. That I could not act to save his life is the single greatest regret of my life.”

“Crow, I said none of that mattered.” Alexia sank forward onto her knees and pressed her palms to her thighs. “Yes, I do want to hear from you about my father, but we have a more pressing problem. Mably’s intention is to take you to Meredo, where you will be executed.”

Crow nodded slowly, then rested his head against the corner. “He’s taken pains to let me know my fate. In great detail, in fact. I gather he’s hoping to ride one of the horses they use to tear me apart.”

“Crow, I’m not going to let that happen.”

“Princess, there is nothing you can do to stop it. We are in Oriosa. Scrainwood has hated me for a very long time, and he has cause to do so. I knew, coming back here, that I risked my life. The simple fact of it was, though, I had to. I had to get Will to safety, return Ryhope, and get whatever it was the Draconis Baron wanted gone from the fortress away.”

The scrabbling of a rat in the straw caught her attention for a moment, then she looked back at him. “You’re wrong that I can’t do anything to save you.”

“Highness, I have no doubt you could save me.” He laughed lightly. “You could toss me over your shoulder as if I were some lace-laden damsel in a bard’s song and cut your way out of here, but then what? It’s not that you can’t save me, it is that you should not. Remember, you’re here to convince the crowned heads to commit to fighting Chytrine. Allying yourself with me will not help you.

“Scrainwood hates me because I know he’s a coward. Twenty-five years ago I told the crowned heads that they were cowards. I told them Chytrine had vowed to return. For them to follow the plans of anyone associated with me will make people question their leadership and judgment.”

“If they were that foolish or cowardly, it should be called into question.”

He shook his head. “I won’t debate that point. You have to remember that if you are going to lead forces to oppose Chytrine, you need forces to lead. If you make rulers choose between you and the appearance of competence, what choice do you think they will make?”

“That doesn’t hold for all of them, Crow. Queen Carus of Jerana is fairly new to her throne. She’s not bound by her father’s judgment. What’s been done to you is an injustice.”

“Yes, but an injustice that has endured for over two decades. The men who beat me weren’t even born when I was stripped of my mask, but they believe every single thing they’ve been taught about me since they were children. Even if you and King Augustus and Queen Carus stand up and say it was a mistake, they won’t believe you.

“But, Highness, you are right. Queen Carus can claim she was deceived about me. You have to take a lesson from her and claim that, too. You have to walk away from me. You have to claim that I fooled you, and you have to be angry about it. Don’t let my efforts here be wasted. You’ll gain by renouncing me, and your gain will be Chytrine’s discomfort.”

Alexia shook her head so adamantly that her thick blonde braid lashed past her shoulder and almost whipped his cheek. “No, I’m not going to do that. I’ve thought about this. A lot. You’re a friend. You saved my life. I care about you, and I don’t abandon people who matter.”

“Princess, I won’t drag you down with me.”

“You won’t drag me down. As you said before, I am strong enough to carry you, Crow.” She stood and looked down at him. “I have a plan. It will save your life, and it is frightfully simple. I’m going to marry you.”

Crow knelt there, his mouth open, then slowly began to chuckle. His shoulders shifted, then he sagged back into the corner. “Oh, very good, Princess. Cruel to joke with me like that, but very good.”

“It’s not a joke, Crow.”

His head came up, his right eye a crescent slit full of fear. “It had better be a joke.”

“No. It works perfectly. I marry you and you become my Prince Consort. This raises you to such a level of nobility that Scrainwood cannot carry out a summary execution. You will get another trial, since a trial in absentia is not recognized as binding in any treaty between Okrannel and Oriosa. Moreover, you were tried on charges of treason, and since you will become a citizen of Okrannel when we marry, the charges will no longer apply. The best they could do would be espionage and that would fail because you would have to be tried before your peers, and no royal would want that sort of precedent set. Scrainwood could demand personal satisfaction for any insult you gave him, but we both know he won’t do that.“

“Forgive me, Highness, but are you insane? Your plan might be clever, but it is wasted. You will burn a lot of political capital and for no good reason.”

“I hardly think you are ‘no good reason.’”

“Highness, listen to me, please.” Crow’s hands curled into pale fists. “Your loyalty to me… I can’t tell you what that means, but it is misplaced. You have to make sure Will can oppose Chytrine. You have to see that Kerrigan fulfills his potential. You have to raise an army to destroy Chytrine. You can’t let yourself be distracted by my fate.”

Alexia stepped toward him and crouched again, her shadow spilling across his scarred flesh. “What I see clearly is that your fate is tied up with mine, Will’s, Kerrigan’s, Vorquellyn, and Chytrine. If I let you die, I’m letting the world die.” She reached out and stroked her right hand over the left side of his face, keeping her thumb from touching his black eye. “I’m not letting either die. We’ll get a priest in here and have him marry us this afternoon.”

“No.” Crow shook his head. “Even if we did marry, no one would believe it. It would be assumed to be a trick, which it would be.”

“They would have to believe it. We would have witnesses.”

“They would say they lied.”

She snorted. “They would not dare say I lied.”

“They would, just not to your face. Before you they would say that I tricked you into it. No, Highness, abandon this plan.”

“Crow, it will save your life.”

“And ruin yours.” He reached up and took her hand in his. “Princess.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “Alexia, promise me you won’t do this. I won’t agree, so the effort will be wasted. Don’t. Please.”

She squeezed his fingers. “You will resist, won’t you?”

He nodded.

“Then I will have to find another plan.” She stood slowly, then leaned over and picked up the lantern again. “I am not letting you die.”

Crow’s right eye sparkled. Was that a tear forming in the corner? “Just worry about the world, Highness. The world you can save. Nothing else matters.”