He had taken the blade and he had plunged it into his father’s flesh. His stomach twisted at the memory, recalling the resistance his father’s thigh had given as he had hacked it and the wet blood spraying onto his hands.
“I stabbed him straight in the leg.”
“It’s alright. You had to defend yourself.”
Rilan held on to Tomas to try and comfort him and make him feel protected. Tomas was still shaking like a leaf in the breeze, and the cold night was doing nothing to helping.
Rilan quietly got Tomas inside the cottage to prevent waking his parents. The hearth was low, illuminating the living space in a deep orange glow.
They sat before the glowing coals, trying to fight the cold away. Rilan threw a blanket over Tomas’s small shoulders.
Tomas wiped the tears from his face, thankful that the surge of energy coursing through his body was beginning to settle. Yet, the fear still lingered.
“He’s going to hurt me again tomorrow,” Tomas said, shuddering. “He won’t let me get away with this.”
Rilan patted his shoulder. “We’ll sort something out, don’t worry. Let’s just rest.”
Tomas rested his face in his open hands, clenching his teeth with dread. He knew he would not be getting away from this unscathed. His father was not one to forgive and forget.
Yet somehow, he also felt a bit of strength he had never experienced before. He had never fought back in the past when similar things had happened. Normally, he would allow his father to beat him without putting up a fight.
But seeing those helpless lambs had somehow spurred Tomas into action. He had defended himself, and that gave him an ever-so-small comfort within.
Despite Rilan being by his side throughout the night, Tomas could not rest. Every noise from outside made him jump.
He pictured his father, the butcher. He imagined those lambs. Helpless, afraid to die.
All the while, Tomas could do nothing. That was what ached the most. Not the bruised neck, or being dragged from bed, or the fear of his father.
Being unable to help those small lambs was what hurt Tomas the most that night.
Chapter 34 - The Stable Boy
Katryna Bower waited anxiously behind a pillar near the stables where she had first met Sniff the day she had arrived back in Ravenrock. She did not want to draw attention to herself, so she had gone into Trish’s clothes chest and taken a dress for herself.
She did not ask her handmaiden for permission, as she did not want to catch any suspicions from anyone else in the castle. If what the stable boy had said was true, then both he and Katryna could be in danger.
Trish would not mind that she had borrowed a dress anyway, Katryna knew.
She snuck out after ordering the High Sword to have the guards stationed at the gatehouse allow her and her brother Finn through.
“Let no one else out. Not yet. Not until we have some answers,” Katryna said. Ser Arthus had nodded and bowed to the princess before setting off on his duties.
Katryna could pull off being a lowborn rather well after living amongst them for half her life in Redwatch, without her family’s money or support. In some ways, she considered herself more of an average person than a princess.
She pulled a jacket on top of her dress and covered her head in a hood to remain inconspicuous to those going about their business around them.
Finn had come with her this time, despite her eagerness to investigate by herself. She did not want to endanger anyone else, but Finn was insistent, and their conversation about working together as a family instilled a deep sense of trust in her younger brother that she had been missing for many years.
Finn could be trusted; he was one of the only ones left that Katryna had absolute faith in.
Finn, however, struggled to appear as a lowborn. He wore a plain tunic, trousers, and a spare pair of boots, yet still walked like a prince.
“Slouch your shoulders, lower your head,” Katryna whispered to him as they entered the city.
Finn attempted to do as she had said, but still failed to make it look natural.
“Like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. Drag your feet a bit more- lowborns aren’t fussed about dirty shoes.”
As they made their way to the stable, Finn got a little better at blending in.
“Should we go in and ask for him?” Finn asked as they scoped the place out. The stablemaster, an older man with thinning yellow hair and mutton chops, was handing out hay to some of the horses tied outside and bucketing some fresh water into their trough.
Katryna shook her head. “He was afraid, Finn. We need to wait and talk to him alone. We can’t risk being seen by anyone else.”
Finn lingered around the back of the stables, while Katryna hung around the front entrance where several horses and their rides came in and out.
The iron horseshoe sign groaned as it swayed from its perched position atop the building, an uncomfortable noise of long-rusted metal.
Katryna awaited any sign of Sniff as the hours passed, circling around the area to try and avoid suspicion from watchful eyes.
Peasants went about their business, hauling cargo and resources in and out of Ravenrock along the road in carts and on their backs.
A smith hammered away against an anvil at some metalworks he had just forged not too far in the distance.
All the while, Katryna kept both eyes open, watching for the boy. It wasn’t until the late afternoon that the stablemaster closed up the main doors of the stable building, and out with him came a young boy. The boy must have been working inside the whole day.
The stablemaster and the stable hand went their separate ways having completed their day’s work. Katryna eyed Finn from across the way, gesturing with her head to indicate that it was the boy they were looking for.
They began to tail the boy as he made his way through the still bustling yet not quite so dense outskirts of town, presumably heading for his home. The streets grew narrower as Katryna and Finn paced quicker behind him to catch up without looking suspicious.
Sniff walked with a bowed head and hands in his pockets, as if completely oblivious to his surroundings.
They neared an alleyway which shot off to the side from the unpaved street they walked. Katryna scouted ahead and then behind to realise that in the moment, no one was around.
She fell into a jog, catching up to the boy and grabbing his arm before pulling him to the side, into the dark alleyway, away from prying eyes.
“Hey! Let go!” he said. He was not totally alarmed, however, as Katryna had not been too rough with him.
Finn raced behind, blocking the entrance to the shadowed alley so that they would be out of view.
“What do you want? I ain’t got no money,” Sniff said, resting his back against the wall. The walls on both sides of the alley were tall and windowless.
Katryna felt now was the time. She pulled her hood off, letting her long, brown hair free so that Sniff could identify her.
Sniff’s eyes went wide and his mouth fell open. “K-Katryna? What are you doin’ here?!”
Katryna covered the boy’s mouth as soon as he raised his voice. “Sshhh,” she said, placing a finger over her lips.
Sniff nodded and Katryna removed her hand from his mouth.
“Why haven’t you left the city? I told you to leave!” Sniff looked over to Finn, suspiciously. “Who’s that?”
“That’s my brother. Don’t worry, you can trust him.”
Sniff cowered. “We can’t trust anyone no more.”
Katryna looked the boy in the eyes. He had the same look he had had the night he snuck up on her in the castle stables.
He was terrified.
“When we first met, Sniff, I was quite scared, too. My horse, Tulip, needed your help after she had hurt herself… and you helped us. I trust you, Sniff. Do you trust me?” Katryna asked gently.
He looked at her for a moment, staring into her welcoming eyes and making considerations in his head, bef
ore nodding.
“Then let me help you, too.”
Katryna took a step back from Sniff so that he was not cramped against the wall any longer. Sniff was still scared, yet she noticed that his breathing was calming down and his eyes appeared less panicked.
“Sniff, I need you to tell me the truth. What do you know about the murders of the king and queen?”
Sniff scratched his head and bit his lip, refusing to answer.
“Please, Sniff. Was it my other brother, Rowan? Does he have something to do with this?”
Finn chimed in. “How did you know to warn Katryna that night?”
Sniff shrugged, still afraid to speak. He stuttered a few jumbled words, none of which made any sense.
Katryna knelt to Sniff’s eye level. Her knees sank into the putrid, stagnant water beneath their shoes, but she paid no attention to it. She held on to his arms in a reassuring manner, the way a mother would their child, as if to signal to him that she was there to help.
“We need your help. My parents were both murdered. My aunt was also murdered. We need answers. You know something.”
Sniff glanced back at Katryna’s face. She could see in his eyes that his mind was racing at tremendous speed. Yet, something inside of him appeared to trigger, as if she had said something that had finally convinced him to open up.
Sniff took a deep breath in. “They… they have my mother,” he said solemnly.
Katryna looked to Finn, then back at Sniff. “Who? Who has your mother?”
Sniff shook his head. “The ones who are doin’ all this.”
“Alright, Sniff. That’s good; really good. But you need to tell us more. We can help you; we can help your mother.”
Finn took a step closer, patting the boy on his shoulder. “You can trust us. We aren’t going to let anything happen to you.”
“He came into the stable where I was working, couple months back,” Sniff began. “He told me he knew where I lived and knew about my mother. He told me he had a job for me, and that if I didn’t do as he says, that he’d kill me mother.”
“Okay, that’s good Sniff, well done,” Katryna said in an assuring tone. “Who was this man?”
“I don’t know ‘is name. He never told me.”
“What’s he look like?”
“Um…” Sniff thought for a moment. “About your age. Dark hair. Dressed somewhat fancy. I’m not sure.”
Katryna realised it sounded an awful lot like her brother, Rowan. Despite having her near-certain suspicion about him already, it still made her stomach sink to hear the recognisable description.
“And what did he want you to do for him?” Katryna asked.
Sniff began to sob. “I… I can’t tell you. He took my mother, princess. He still has her. He took her as assurance!”
“Sniff, you have to tell us. If you don’t, we may not be able to help you or your mother. What did he ask you to do?”
Through his tears and weeping, Sniff stuttered only several words. “He… he asked me to… poison… the king and queen.”
Katryna gasped audibly, feeling her hands begin to shake once again. She was staring at the person who had poisoned her parents… the boy who had poisoned them.
How could this be? Who could have done this? Why?
Katryna was shocked. They had found their assassin.
A flock of pigeons fluttered away overhead from the tiled rooftops, cooing in unison.
“I didn’t want to,” Sniff cried. He was clearly petrified of the consequences of his actions.
Every peasant knew that regicide was one of the worst crimes a person could commit, if not the very worst.
But Katryna fought through the emotion of the words she was hearing. She needed to be strong, for Finn and for this boy, and that meant keeping a clear head.
“It’s okay, Sniff. If this man forced you to do it, then it isn’t your fault. You aren’t going to be in trouble.”
“He snuck me into Castle Bower… he made me dress as a cupbearer. I served ‘em their drinks during their meeting with those masked foreigners. I swear, I didn’t want to!” Sniff said. “He made me do it. He said he’d kill my mother!”
“I believe you,” Katryna reassured.
Even Finn was looking wide-eyed and speechless, yet he remained willing to listen to what the boy had to say.
“But what about the night you came to see me? My father and aunt, did you murder them as well?” Katryna said.
“No, m’lady, I swear I didn’t,” Sniff said sternly. “After I was poisoned the wine, he told me t’stay low, and keep quiet about the king and queen. And then, you came into my shop.”
No wonder he appeared so shocked when I told him who I was. He was serving the daughter of the people he had poisoned.
Katryna wiped the sweat from her brow. “Thank you for telling us all this, Sniff. But we need to know who the man is.”
“I don’t know what else t’say.”
Katryna thought for a moment. “Before, you said ‘they’. That they have your mother?”
Sniff nodded.
“Is it more than one person doing this?” Finn asked.
Sniff nodded again, sobbing.
Katryna gulped with both the astonishment of finally getting somewhere, as well as the dread of realising that this may go further than just Sniff and one other man.
“The man always said ‘we’. He said that ‘is partner ‘as my mother, and that she would do terrible things to her if I don’t do as they say.”
“Wait, ‘she’ will do things to your mother?” Katryna asked. “As in, a man and a woman are behind all of this?”
“She snuck into my room one night a few nights back. Woke me up from my sleep with a blade to my throat. She said if I say anything to anyone that I’m dead, and the princess is dead,” Sniff said. “She sounded desperate. That’s why I came t’warn you.”
Finn gulped. “Could it be Rowan… and Ofelia?”
The thought was a horrid one and made Katryna wince. Could they truly be in on this together? Ofelia had seemed so genuine and honest when she had first met her. It seemed impossible for such a woman to be responsible.
“I only saw her one other time,” Sniff suddenly recalled. “The night you came to visit the stables with your horse. I remembered the golden hair and the scar on her face. I saw her again when she snuck up on me in my sleep.”
Katryna felt the façade of everything around her suddenly shift and collapse. In an instant, it was as if the curtain of mistruths had been ripped apart, revealing the awful, honest reality that had been in front of her the whole time.
Everything clicked into place.
Katryna stood tall, clenching her fists, and staring into nothingness for a moment as she figured out each and every intricate detail that she had suddenly uncovered.
How didn’t I see this before?
“Thank you, Sniff,” Katryna said, a little too calmly despite the anguish in her eyes. “I promise, I will do everything I can to get your mother back.”
Sniff nodded with a teary smile, wiping up some snot from the underside of his nose. He truly did trust what she said, it seemed.
“Now, go home and wait there until I return, you hear me? Lock your doors and windows, and don’t let anyone else in.”
In an instant, Sniff was off, fleeing from the alley and back into the streets.
“Kat, what is it?” Finn asked suspiciously, realising his sister’s sudden shift in demeanour.
Katryna shook her head and smacked her forehead with her open palm in frustration. “We need to get back to Castle Bower, this instant.”
Chapter 35 - Armistice
King Emery Blacktree triple-checked that his crown was sitting both firmly and level atop his head before he gave the gesture to Ser Yelin Mortimer that he was ready to proceed.
“Forward march!” Ser Yelin ordered, thrusting his arm up in the air. The plump guard, atop his horse, was fitted in shining plate armour with chainmail underneath.
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br /> To Emery’s rear was the force he had assembled, consisting of around eighteen-hundred men-at-arms and infantry from the reserves in Dawnhill and Veridia, organised into square units of one hundred men.
The show of force would help to intimidate King Tobius Seynard, or so Emery was hoping.
Emery, atop his black and grey warhorse named Midnight, was clad in a chainmail coat with a leather vest on top, thick gloves, black trousers and boots, and his golden crown atop his head. At his side, digging rather uncomfortably into his hip was his sheathed sword; again, just there for show.
Emery had no intention of using force at this meeting with the Caldaeans.
“Let’s end this,” Emery muttered to himself, eager to get his daughter back and achieve some sort of justice for his son.
Midnight was taller than any man and gave Emery a good view of the force he had assembled which he proudly looked over once more before continuing on their final leg into town. Midnight whinnied as Emery reined the horse forwards.
To Emery’s flank was his son Petir on his own horse, a brown steed named Fury. The palanquin, with his wife Sirillia resting comfortably inside, hung around the back of the force, surrounded by guards. The most protected place for her to be.
“Make sure my wife is properly seen to while we are meeting with Tobius,” Emery said to his royal guard.
Ser Yelin nodded. “Of course, my king. She will be in good hands, I assure you.”
“Very good.”
The red star shone bright as always since its first appearance months earlier. Emery had noticed it was growing larger by the day; what had initially been a crimson dot visible only in the darkest of nights had become one of the larger spectacles in the sky.
The infantry shouted in unison as they marched to a continuous beat hammered by drummers. Banners atop high poles proudly displayed the black and silver shield sigil of House Blacktree.
Emery Blacktree’s forces continued to march towards the agreed upon meeting place- the farming town of Tellersted. The charming Caldaean town sat near the border to Ashen in the middle of a flat floodplain, surrounded by an endless sea of fields, farms and grasslands.
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