CHAPTER 14
The guard’s name was Dukat, and Aully knew he was a gentle soul.
“I’m sorry for all your troubles,” he said as he led her down the stairs. “Truly, I hope you don’t hate me for this.”
Aully exhaled deeply. “Then why are you doing it?”
The elf shrugged. “Because I wish for us to be more. As a people, I mean.”
“How?”
“I. . I don’t know.”
The stairwell veered to the left, and for a moment Aully thought about spinning around, darting up the stairs past her captor, and hurling herself out of Briar Hall’s tallest window. No. That is the coward’s way out.
“You must have some idea.”
“I suppose. It’s just. . Carskel has said so much of our former glory, of how our people and the Quellan once ruled all these lands. We were free to do as we chose, to go where we chose. But now we’re either stuck here in this forest or the one farther north. We’re surrounded by humans on all sides.” He spat then, a thick wad of phlegm striking the floor just as Aully took another step. “Surrounded by vile rats that were handed lands that used to be ours, rats that treat us as outsiders. We were here first. That should mean something.”
She was taken aback by the anger in his voice. Dukat, once her Uncle Detrick’s personal guard, was engaged to Aully’s cousin, Mariah. She had never heard him sound so angry.
“So you turn your back on Celestia?”
Dukat laughed. “Celestia abandoned us long ago, Aully. She doesn’t care.”
That’s not true, but she didn’t put the thought to words. Playing to his anger, to his perceived role as victim, would only bring his blood to boil. She needed to strike closer to home if she had any chance of escaping.
“But what of me, Dukat? What if Carskel decides to hurt me?”
“He wouldn’t do that, Aully. He loves you. You’re family.”
“Uncle Detrick is family too. That didn’t stop Carskel from cutting off his finger.”
“That’s different.”
Aully turned slightly as she descended, saw doubt begin to spread across Dukat’s face.
“How is that different? Detrick is his uncle too. If he can hurt him, then he could hurt Mariah. Would you want that?”
Dukat paused on the stairwell, shook his head vehemently. “No. That wouldn’t happen.”
“Why not?”
“Because Mariah would never talk down to Carskel like Detrick did. Because she’s respectful.”
“How can you talk of respect and my brother in the same sentence? You know what he did to Brienna. You have to. How can that be forgiven? How can you trust him?”
He forcefully grabbed her shoulders, and his face grew firm. “Both Carskel and Ethir told me of your treachery.” He spun her around and gave her a shove. “I won’t allow you to poison me with lies.”
Anger made her heart beast faster. Not that she’d expected anything different from him. He was the same old Dukat she’d known since the cradle: gentle in the heart, dull in the head.
They passed by the entrance to the courtroom where the Lord’s Chair resided and continued down. Dukat didn’t speak any longer, and Aully let him be. He was dead to her now, a traitor like all the rest, no matter if he was supposed to marry her cousin or how kind he normally was. Betrayal was betrayal, and to Aully that meant a head for a head.
Near the bottom of the winding stairwell was a final door. Dukat roughly stopped her and rapped on the wood. A moment later the door cracked open, and Carskel’s grinning face emerged.
“She is here, as you requested, Lord Carskel,” said Dukat. Aully gnashed her teeth.
“Ah, so good of you, Dukat,” replied Carskel in that much-too-proper voice of his. “Leave her outside, and go back to your duties.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
Dukat bowed and marched back up the stairs. The door Carskel had been peeping out of closed, and for a moment Aully thought of making a dash for the exit, which was only fifteen feet below her. But then she saw a shadowy figure pass in front of the portal, a spear jabbing into the walkway, and she slumped against the wall.
Chains were unlatched, and the door opened fully.
“Come in, sweet sister,” Carskel said, standing aside for her to enter. She brushed past him in a rage.
The room she entered was one she had rarely seen, even though she had lived in Briar Hall for all her life. It was her father’s study, and his father’s study before him, where the family history and all the great tomes that had been passed down and added to for two thousand years were kept. Unlike the rest of the Hall, it was a dark and dreary place, windowless to protect the books’ ancient inks from fading. Aully had never liked being in there then, and she liked it less so now.
She breezed through the stacks of books and into the center of the room, where a great marble desk sat. The few times she’d been there before, this desk had been stacked with teetering tomes, but now it was empty but for a small pile of washcloths and a wooden bowl filled with water. A pair of candles offered sparse, gloomy light. She leaned over the desk, examining the swirls in the marble. Her fingers traced over the corner surface, where two elvish letters had been carved.
Breath was on her neck. “Yes, sweet sister. Father kept his desk a mess, but finally you can see its craftsmanship for how shoddy it truly is. Such a waste of good stone. But what can you expect from the one who built it?”
Aully didn’t answer.
Her brother’s arm snaked down, and he placed his hand atop hers, tracing the letters with her.
“Those stand for Gradovic Thyne, the first Lord of Stonewood.”
Aully jerked her hand out from under his and moved away. She kept her chin up and her eyes on the upper shelves, refusing to acknowledge her brother’s presence.
“You were a bad girl, sweet sister, and I hope you’ve spent the past twelve days considering what you’ve done.” Carskel said, sighing. “Ignore me all you wish; that does not alter that I must punish you.”
“Do as you wish,” she said finally. She was amazed at how loud her voice sounded in the cramped space. “There’s nothing you can do to hurt me.”
“Is that so? I would not be so sure of that.”
Aully turned to confront him, saw him leaning against one of the shelves, with that wicked smile he was so fond of pasted on his face. Aully hated that expression, but she was thankful for it too, for whenever he gazed at her like that, he looked less and less like her father.
Another rap came on the door, and Carskel clapped his hands together.
“Our company has arrived,” he said, eagerly kicking himself off the wall and nearly skipping to the door. Aully took a step back in horror as Ethir Ayers shoved Kindren into the study.
“Thank you for the gift, Ethir. Now please, if you could just stand there and not listen, we three have things to discuss.”
“Yes, my Lord.”
Ethir took his position against the wall, with his hands behind his back, but Aully didn’t linger on his continued presence. Her every thought was on her betrothed as he slowly lifted himself off the ground. His right arm was no longer in a sling, but it hung lower than his left. His face was bruised, his mouth drawn tight with pain, and as he stood, it looked like it was great agony for him to even move. Yet still his lips curled into a smile and his eyes twinkled.
“Hi, Aully,” he said.
She rushed him, wrapping her arms around his waist. He grunted in pain but did not shove her away, instead twining his fingers in her hair.
“I’ve missed you,” Aully said into his dirty tunic, the same one he’d been wearing when they were captured. It stunk horribly. She didn’t care. She felt close to crying, knowing what Kindren being here meant, and needed to hide her face until it passed. She would not show Carskel any weakness.
“Is that not precious?” said her brother.