by Mandy Rosko
And the door and portal were both closed.
Amanda shook her head. “Not like we didn’t see that coming, I guess.” She handed Udolf the books. He took them, glancing down at them as if he did not know what to make of them. She briefly wondered if he even realized they were books right away, considering they weren’t big, heavy hardcovers made of leather.
“Okay,” Amanda started, pushing her hair out of her face. “The quick explanation is that I’ve been having visions of your world, thinking it was a story idea, and writing about it. Those are my books.”
“These are books?” He flipped through the pages, his mouth set to a firm line, clearly unimpressed.
Amanda snatched the book out of his hands, leaving the others on his lap. She felt really protective of her work just then, but that wasn’t what was important. “Whatever, shut up. The point is that I’ve been writing Hargreave as the villain, but he never was. I always knew this, too. I was going to write a story for him, but everything was getting too messed up in the series.”
“What is…?” Udolf looked between the two of them. “What is this about? You attack me for literature?”
“No, not literature. Not really.” Amanda rubbed her temples. She was getting a headache.
Hargreave tightened his claws around Udolf’s throat. “I suggest you listen to the woman, old man.”
“Hargreave, it’s okay.” She reached out and touched his arm. That seemed to get his attention, to calm him. “I’ve got this.”
He looked at her, the tension in his shoulders seeming to melt away slightly, and he nodded. Amanda was shocked and pleased when he even released Udolf’s throat.
Udolf still seemed less than impressed by this whole thing as he righted the tiny spectacles on his face. “What is this about?”
Amanda took in a deep breath. “Whenever I was thinking about rewriting Hargreave’s story, I always thought about who had to be the real bad guy. The twist at the end, you know?”
Udolf said nothing. He still had that sour puss expression on his face.
Amanda clenched her hands into fists. “I can’t always figure out what I’m making up in my head and what’s real; some of what I wrote was clearly right, and some of it wasn’t, but I always had you in mind.”
Both grey brows lifted high. “Me?”
Amanda nodded. “I’ve talked with Hargreave about this a lot.”
“Yes,” Hargreave agreed, his eyes still flashing. He showed off his teeth and the points they had become. “Extensively.”
Amanda wet her lips. “I want to make sure I’m not wrong about this, too. You’re the easy target because you’re kind of, well, older, and you just…you give off a vibe.”
Udolf glared at her. “So, because I am old and ugly, I do not meet your requirements for innocence?”
The question would have made her flinch if she wasn’t so sure she was right. “What do you know about what happened to Hargreave and his family, and what does Eldric think happened?”
“The king knows what happened.”
“Unless you’re hiding some things from him,” Amanda said.
Hargreave paced the room. “He attacked my people first. That insufferable cock.”
“Edward was my friend. He did what needed to be done,” Udolf said. “You were a casualty of that.”
Hargreave spun on the man, his fist slamming into Udolf’s nose before Amanda could stop him.
She jumped and shrieked a little, her hands flying to her mouth to keep anything else from coming out.
Udolf held his face with both hands, his eyes squeezed shut through the pain while Hargreave pointed a clawed finger at him. “Never speak of what happened as if it was nothing, you miserable old—”
“Hargreave,” Amanda stood, taking him by the arm before he could hit Udolf again. “He needs his teeth if he’s going to confess this to Eldric.”
Hargreave puffed and panted for breath. He looked at Amanda, then down at Udolf. There was something animal in his eyes, something unforgiving and cruel, and part of Amanda really wished she could just let him take his anger out on Udolf for his part in what happened, but for now, he couldn’t.
Amanda turned back to Udolf, getting to her knees in front of him.
All three times the skeleton key brought her to a place she’d needed to go. An intense anxiety and anticipation built up inside her. She was close. She was so damned close to getting all the answers. She was here for a reason, and this was it.
“Why did Edward attack Hargreave’s clan, and why does Eldric think Hargreave’s parents are responsible?”
It was at the end of her questioning that Udolf’s eyes flew wide, and she knew she had him.
Amanda nodded. “Right. You’re the family friend. Advisor to the king and everything. You know exactly what was going on back then.”
“I don’t know what you’re speaking of,” Udolf said, glaring. He barely cast his eyes up to Hargreave, as though he wasn’t worth looking at. “His side attacked first. They thought they had a sword in hand when really it was a butter knife. They failed in their attack.”
“My father and mother did not attack your worthless clan,” Hargreave hissed.
Udolf smiled, and Amanda swore it was the ugliest smile she’d ever seen in her life. “Prove it. You were in that hole for a reason. To be made an example of after your father’s cruelty when he set fire to farmlands and innocent homes.”
“Only because Edward had me put into that pit!”
He was getting loud. Amanda reached for his hand, but he pulled away, nostrils flaring as he glared fire at Udolf.
Udolf smiled. Even though his nose was a little crooked and bloody, his eyes became half lidded as his mouth quirked up, as if he was a cat playing with a mouse until it got tired so it could eat the poor thing.
Hargreave seemed to pick up on that as well, and he clearly didn’t like it. His eyes blazed.
Amanda thought he would punch the man again, and she felt terrible for it, but she also didn’t want to stop him. She wanted to do a little punching of her own just to get that smarmy look off his stupid face.
When Hargreave leaned in, Amanda didn’t expect him to grab for Udolf’s hand. Udolf frowned and tried to pull back, but Hargreave was still too strong.
“Ten fingers,” Hargreave said. His voice had never sounded so rough and menacing. “I wonder how many I could break without the guards hearing you scream.”
There was a bulging blue vein at the side of Udolf’s temple, and it pulsed heavily, disgusting her as a bead of sweat slid down his skin.
“You are the monster here.”
Hargreave grabbed one of his fingers. He looked to Amanda. “You should look away from this.”
Amanda really wanted to, but at the same time, she didn’t. This was a monster in front of her. Udolf was a complete monster, taking pleasure in what had been done to Hargreave. Those weren’t the actions of an innocent man. She shook her head. “No. I’ll hold his mouth shut if you need me to.”
She went to stand behind Udolf.
He looked back at her, then at Hargreave. There seemed to finally be some fear in his eyes. “You—”
“Tell me why Edward attacked my father’s lands. I know he did it first. Tell me why.”
Amanda meant what she’d said. She would hold her hands over Udolf’s mouth if she had to, but she really hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Hargreave grabbed one of Udolf’s fingers, bending it backwards hard, but not enough to break.
Still enough to scare the hell out of Udolf. “The cattle!” he said quickly, stopping Hargreave. Udolf panted for breath, his adrenaline clearly high. “Your cattle weren’t plagued by the diseases running rampant through the lands. We reached out to your father. He refused to help.”
Hargreave frowned. Then shook his head. “No, I remember he sent a herd out. It was for your people. He did help.”
“Not enough. Our people were starving,” Udolf said.
“So my
father was to starve his own people for yours?” Hargreave shot back. He shook his head. “Edward started a war for cattle?”
“No, boy, your father started the war,” Udolf said, getting some of his bravery back.
Though, it also could’ve been sheer stupidity rushing in through his fear and adrenaline.
“You were taken by accident. Our men brought you to us thinking you a farm boy. How were we to know the prince would have been so far from his home? When your father burned down three villages in retaliation, Edward wanted war. I did not try to stop him. He was justified.”
Amanda wasn’t buying it. “If Hargreave was taken when he was wandering around someone’s farmland, it could’ve only been because Edward was stealing crops and animals. You can’t blame this on Hargreave’s parents.”
She looked to Hargreave, noted how his eyes were dilated, and the way his chest rose and fell. He was in serious distress. He was going to do something violent and Amanda wasn’t going to stop him.
“It was either that or starve,” Udolf said, glaring over his shoulder at her. “Ludolvic would not give, so we took. When he burned our villages, we took our anger out on his son. When he threw his men at us, we threw ours back at him. We were starving, but there were still more of us.”
Hargreave trembled. “Edward nailed my parents to crosses and left them to rot. He nailed my mother to a cross. Eldric left me in that hole even after the death of his father.”
Udolf shook his head. “No. Eldric knew nothing of your fate.”
Amanda frowned. “What?”
Hargreave shook his head, still holding Udolf by his middle finger, trembling with rage. Amanda had never seen anyone so angry they shook with it before.
“Bullshit.”
Udolf shrugged. “Do what you will to me, but Eldric thought you had died in there.”
“He came to see me in that prison.”
“And was told you had died. Fallen ill of some disease and passed. He did not know you lived until you returned to follow in your father’s footsteps and take your revenge.”
“And my parents? What reason does good Eldric have to justify their torture and deaths?”
“The only reason there is to justify it. That they were the monsters, the ones who wanted death and disease. Eldric is a good king, better than his father, despite his weaknesses,” Udolf said. “He does not need to know what the love of his people was built on.”
Amanda shook her head. “I knew it. I fucking knew it.” She stepped away from Udolf, doing a little pacing of her own. “You’ve been twisting everything around so Elric thinks Hargreave and his family are the monsters. You could’ve ended this whole thing whenever you wanted.”
Udolf stayed silent. Amanda expected him to speak, but she supposed it shouldn’t have been a shock when he didn’t.
It was annoying as all hell, though. It felt like there was more to this. Why wasn’t he bragging about it? Doing more of the villain monologue?
Maybe because of the way Hargreave still had his finger in hand.
“Who was it that told Eldric I had died?”
Amanda paused, looking at both men. Udolf pressed his lips together, grunting when Hargreave yanked his finger back a little more.
His eyes weren’t fire red. They were blood red. “Who was it?”
Udolf swallowed. “I did. To ease his pain.”
There wasn’t anything to ease Udolf’s pain when Hargreave broke his finger.
Chapter 17
The only thing that spared the old dragon’s life was Amanda. Hargreave wanted to kill him. He ached to sink his claws into the damned man’s throat.
Amanda’s vision of how this would all unfold had been correct. Udolf was the true villain of this tale.
Edward had needed someone to be the villain, to give himself, his people, and his son, a proper excuse to murder Hargreave’s parents and destroy his home. Under Udolf’s advice, Edward blamed Hargreave’s mother and father for the war, and when he’d been taken, it had given the man permission to be cruel.
He wanted Udolf to suffer more, but he still wanted to kill him. He’d broken the man’s finger before Amanda could save him, and it was ultimately a good thing.
Udolf screamed so loudly that it drew the attention of the guards in Eldric’s castle.
They swarmed outside the door, pounding on it, shouting on the other side while Udolf, the worm, clutched his hand in what was likely the worst pain he had ever suffered in his life.
This was a man of tricks and fine clothes. Even if he had been a commoner, he would not have known war and suffering to the same extent Hargreave did.
He felt no pity for him as he kicked the man in the foot, ignoring his yelp and flinch.
“On your feet.”
Udolf glared at him. “You do not command me.”
He did now. Hargreave reached out, snatching the older man by the collar. He made a boyish sounding cry of panic when Hargreave pulled him to his feet.
Hargreave ignored it.
The worry in his mate’s eyes was something that he could not ignore, however. “What are we going to do to him?”
“Take him to Eldric. With any luck, the fool will be on his way here, knowing his oldest friend is in danger.”
He looked Amanda in the eyes, a sliver of fear spiking into him. “Stay behind me. Don’t look any of the men in the eyes. I don’t want them provoked.”
If they attacked Amanda, Hargreave would fall back into that animalistic state of anger and rage, but there would be terror within him this time, as well. He wished for an easier way to protect her, but for now, the best protection seemed to be keeping his claws on Udolf’s throat.
Amanda nodded. She stood at his side, almost too close in a way that could hinder his ability to protect her, but the smart girl she was, she found a small dagger on the desk by the light of the window and gripped it tightly.
“Just in case,” she said when he looked at her.
If only she knew how beautiful she was holding that blade.
Hargreave yanked open the door. Shouts from the guards nearly overpowered everything else, but for the screams of Udolf.
He sounded small, womanly almost. It was a good thing, because his shrieking was what caused the guards in their blue armor to lower their swords and spears. Anyone who had been forming their scales or readying fire stopped that, too.
“Back, you bastards, or I’ll gut him like a pig!”
Hargreave almost wished they wouldn’t back down.
Amanda touched Hargreave’s shoulder, gripping it, and like every time before when she had touched him, it had a calming, soothing effect that made him almost sigh.
It was a relief to have that anger leave him, like black smoke from an unhealthy fire. It didn’t entirely go away, but it was manageable with her touch.
Amanda looked at him, then at the guards. “Hey, guys, we need to talk with Eldric. Not to hurt him or anything, but just to talk.”
“There will be no talking.”
Hargreave frowned as some of the men stepped out of the way, and others were pushed. A stocky woman in armor revealed herself. She had only hateful eyes for Amanda, which Hargreave did not appreciate.
“You will come before Eldric, but you will not make demands, whore. You betrayed the king that sheltered and fed you.”
“I know, sorry about that.”
“Good men died that day!”
“Only the ones who deserved it,” Hargreave said.
Jane glared at him. “And you! What have you done with Olga? The servant girl. She vanished.”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure she’s all right,” Amanda said. “She’s at Hargreave’s place.”
That didn’t seem to please Jane. Hargreave cut her off before she could spew anymore anger and hatred at his mate.
“Just take us to Eldric, wench. This old man is going to piss himself.”
“I’m already here.”
The guards parted again, this time offering more room
when Eldric made his appearance. Alger was at his side, walking with a slight limp.
Hargreave glared at the man. “You’re looking well.”
Alger didn’t glare back at him, or come back at him with an insult like Hargreave would have hoped for. He pressed his lips together at the sight of Hargreave holding Udolf by the throat, however.
It was Eldric who sneered at him. “Speak not to him. You will address me only.”
Hargreave spat on the floor. “Does that suffice?”
“All right, all right,” Amanda said, and Hargreave’s heart jumped when she actually stepped away from him. She still had the small dagger in hand, but it would do nothing if one of Eldric’s guards, or that woman, attempted to grab her.
None of them did.
“You both need a mediator or something. You hate each other too much and we’re not going to get anywhere if you’re both fighting like this.”
The tension in Hargreave’s spine and muscles didn’t lessen. He and Eldric looked at each other, both silent for once.
Eldric’s face turned a bright red, as if he too was struggling to contain his anger and rage.
It was Alger who put his hand on Eldric’s shoulder, a gesture Hargreave understood all too well.
“Let’s listen to what they have to say.” Alger leaned in close, whispering into Eldric’s ear, but Hargreave still caught the words. “This does not have to end with violence.”
Hargreave looked to his woman, hardly able to believe this had worked.
Udolf moaned, and the scent of urine was suddenly in the air.
Amanda didn’t know what to expect after the confrontation in the hallway. She’d basically been playing things by ear.
Eldric brought them to his library to talk around a table. Hargreave, paranoid that his enemy would spring a trap, refused to release his prisoner.
Amanda thought that showed just how dedicated Hargreave was to keeping Amanda safe, considering Udolf smelled like piss.
Amanda had absolutely no experience in being anyone’s therapist. The one time she tried moderating her Facebook fan page turned out to be a disaster.
She wasn’t dealing with people on the Internet. She was dealing with two men who had a long history of hating each other, and fighting with each other. Hargreave blamed Eldric for some pretty heavy stuff, and Eldric had been raised to think Hargreave was a monster of a person who came from monstrous people.