Highest Lord

by R. J. Price

“Ask your brother how execution feels.”

  Jer turned to Av, who shuddered and turned back to the wall.

  “He'll take fifteen strikes,” Ervam said. “We'll see what you can take. Go wait outside, Jer.”

  “Wait, what? Why am I waiting outside?”

  “Discipline is private, so go wait outside.”

  Frowning, Jer left his father's house and sat on the steps. A moment later, Mie sat on one side of him and Anue on the other. His frown deepened as he turned to Anue.

  “I have nowhere else to go,” the girl said. “Can't talk to my mother, and Aren is busy all the time. Mie looks after me. He knows all the best places. I train after Aren does because Ervam says I shouldn't let her know that I'm training. He wants to see how long it is until she remembers me.”

  “She knows you're here, Anue. She just trusts that you're being taken care of.”

  Jer felt something akin to revulsion. He and the children were off the porch in a moment and moving to the other side of the yard. Anue looked to the house with the most pitiful look.

  “Mie, take her into the palace—find Telm.”

  “But Father said—”

  “Go, Mie!” Jer shouted.

  The boy flinched away from him, but took Anue's hand and pulled her away. Neither needed to be around for whatever was going on inside the house. Mie might be able to avoid some of it, but Anue couldn't. She was too much like her rank was supposed to be.

  She felt too keenly.

  Jer knew he wanted to get away. He felt a bit like he was standing in line waiting to be executed.

  He wanted to run away, but he knew that if he did run, his father would find him and things would be worse. Yet his father had never had to act upon that threat because his boys stayed and awaited their turn. Even when their mother threatened, and did, put them over her knee. He recalled that feeling and the fear and shame that went along with it.

  They had never done anything that didn't merit a simple slap to the backside, but he had also understood, even at that age, that most of the discipline was standing while waiting as his brother was punished.

  He wandered to the other corner of the yard, placing distance between himself and the door. As he did so the door opened and Av left their father's house, his eyes downcast. Av didn't look around him and the man moved oddly.

  Jer didn't want to know what had happened inside that house.

  But he had to go.

  Swallowing his fear, he made his feet move. Of all the things he had done in his life, for some reason this was the hardest. In all those other times, in all those other events, he had still been his own man. Through all Em had done to him, he had felt something, but he had never really been afraid. He figured eventually it would all work out.

  This would not work out.

  When he raised his hand to knock, Ervam opened the door. The trainer looked surprised.

  “What? You expected to chase me down?”

  “... Yes...” Ervam gave Jer a look that implied he was mad. “I slapped my brother once. Every warrior for miles around was running away from me.”

  “I sent Mie and Anue to Telm,” Jer said quickly. “Mie didn't quite feel it, but I think Anue feels like queens are supposed to because she looked really, really afraid. Like, I'm really wanting to run away, but Anue looked like she ... might have started slaughtering people if she were older and knew that was an option.”

  “Really?” Ervam asked.

  “Really, like, really, really.”

  “Perhaps you should go to the bathroom before we start. I don't need you wetting yourself.”

  “I'm a man, I don't wet myself,” he protested.

  “When you start repeating a word endlessly, you're afraid enough to wet yourself. I've seen it often enough.”

  “I've wet myself a whole of twice, and one time you ran into the room screaming and covered in deer blood after telling us that terrifying story about dark spirits,” Jer said.

  “I'm being serious,” Ervam said.

  “So am I,” he said. “Can we just get this over with?”

  “Shirt off, against the wall.”

  Jer pulled his shirt over his head and set it on a chair before heading to the same spot where Av had been. He pulled to a stop just short of the spot and turned to his father, not wanting to advance farther. The trainer simply stared back at him.

  “But that feels bad,” Jer whined.

  “I'm not spoiling two spots in my house for this, stand there,” Ervam snapped, jabbing a finger at where Av had been.

  “But I'm not supposed to be able to feel that,” Jer protested.

  “Stand there, Jer.”

  Whining, Jer moved to the spot where Av had stood. He felt something and it made him feel badly. He wasn't certain what the feeling was, but it turned his stomach and made him want to cry.

  “Three strikes because you aren't being disciplined, but I need you to understand what more than one is like,” Ervam said, plucking up a switch.

  “Where did you get that?” Jer asked.

  “I've been teaching the children a bit of swordplay and didn't want to give them actual training swords just yet,” Ervam said, lifting the switch. “You owe Mie a new sword. Face the wall. Keep your eyes on the wood.”

  Jer turned his face to the wood and tried not to think about anything at all. He tried to clear his mind of everything, even what was about to happen, because he well understood that the idea of a thing could be enough to break a person.

  “Brace yourself on the wall.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Do it.”

  Jer sighed and placed his hands on the wall. He barely had time to set his weight before the first strike was laid across his bare back.

  It burst into agonizing pain, which was surprising for two reasons. The first being that he had never felt that sort of pain before, despite suffering a broken bone, three sprained ankles, and a dislocated shoulder. Av had beat him, the guards had taken turns beating him with various items, and none of that compared to the pain he felt at the first strike of the switch.

  The second being the pleasure that rode through his body underneath the pain.

  He had never felt pain like this and his body craved it.

  The second strike fell and the pleasure was gone. The pain was multiplied tenfold. His world lit on fire.

  The third strike fell and Jer screamed.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Er walked towards Ervam's home, then turned back. He walked back towards his brother's home and pulled to a stop as the children walked into the palace. Mie stopped to stare at him, but Er waved the boy on. He wouldn't be walking into the palace for no reason. Mie would have been told to go find someone and there was no way that Er was that person.

  Url watched his father do this and wondered what had caused him to behave in such a fashion. Dismissing the children was obvious, because even Url knew.

  What interested him was the pacing. Was the back and forth the indecisive motions of his father? The man who had always been so sure of himself on palace lands?

  He knew that his father was pacing towards Ervam's place because he felt the oddities himself. He chose to ignore them because whatever that feeling was, it didn't involve him.

  And then Av walked into the palace, meaning to skirt around Er and probably run to hide and lick his wounds. Er grabbed hold of Av and pushed him against the wall, eliciting a cry of pain. Which interested Url because he had never known pain to last for more than a few moments. Even when Ervam had laid a hand on him the winter before, it had only lasted for as long as the trainer touched him.

  He drifted up to the pair of them.

  “What did you do?” Er asked.

  “Accidentally attacked a servant,” Av said.

  “That meant you had to be beat by a trainer?” Url asked.

  “I attacked a servant,” Av said.

  “Means Lerd is here,” Er said, glancing to Url. “He calls to Telm and would demand it, to p
rotect her from getting blood on her hands. The question, then, is why he attacked a servant.”

  “I was mistaken,” Av said.

  “The truth, or I go and get my brother to continue what he started,” Er said.

  Av shook and tried to get away from Er. He finally seemed to get his hands to work and pushed Er back. Breathing hard, Av bent over and looked as if he were about the wretch. Url glanced to his father for an explanation but was given a signal to keep his mouth shut.

  “Why did you attack the servant?” Er pressed.

  “I thought she was Rewel,” Av said, still bent over.

  “Why did you think she was Rewel?” Url asked.

  “Because I saw him and he had a bloody blade,” Av growled as he straightened. There were tears in the man's eyes. “I don't know what's wrong with me.”

  “This Rewel...” Er said quietly.

  “I don't want to talk about it.”

  “How many pieces were identifiable?” Er asked, edging slightly closer to Av.

  “His head.”

  Url's mind finally focused and skipped back. He finally placed the name and managed to make eye contact with his father. The other warrior took in a small breath and motioned Url back. He shifted backwards willingly.

  “You blooded a man,” Er said. “And you've been seeing him around, obviously.”

  “In bits and pieces, mainly. This was the first time he was whole. Thank goodness Lerd was there. Spirits know what I would have done to the poor girl, but I don't know how to control it. The healers aren't any help. They just tell me I'm either suffering from blooding, or something of that sort, or I've inherited his curse and it will only be cured by love's true kiss, as if that's even a thing!”

  “When was the first time you saw him?” Er asked. “And this is important.”

  “After we returned to the palace and I spoke to Aren.”

  “What did she say?” Er growled.

  “That I wasn't getting so much as a kiss for saving her, or a pat on the head, not even a kind word. I was also basically banished from her sight along with every other male and—” Av stopped and cocked his head.

  Url and Er both stopped and cocked their heads, straining to hear what Av heard. Url gave his head a shake and turned to his father, who sighed through gritted teeth.

  “Today, what set it off?” his father asked. “Another conversation with Aren?”

  “No, I went to the training grounds to watch her and she didn't even see me, was too busy with training like she should be, and it upset me.”

  “Oh, good, everyone's seen you moping about after her now,” Er said, giving Av a quick pat to the arm. “That's a good thing. Attacking a servant puts you in odds with the servants, and with Telm. The beating you took will put you back on an even keel with them. Trust me, I know about keeping the servants happy.”

  “I'd rather just crawl into bed right now,” Av said.

  “You can't, you have to go present yourself to Aren,” Url said. “Again, trust us. We know about settling servants. You need to do a walk of shame to her rooms, present yourself to her and, if she doesn't know already, you have to explain to her what you did and then what happened in response to that.”

  “She knows already, Lerd took me to her. Sent the servant to the healer hall—should I apologize to her?”

  “Goodness no,” Url said. “You never apologize for being a warrior.”

  “You do, but not right now. The poor woman's in shock.”

  “But he didn't do anything wrong,” Url said to his father, who sighed and shook his head.

  “Youth. She did nothing wrong, Av got worked up and saw a man he tore to shreds, therefore, while neither was really at fault, Av still has to apologize. Not to mention to smooth the ruffled feathers of the servants. And you do it properly, Av, because if you don't seem like you mean it, that means you don't mean it. If you have trouble meaning it, I can take you back out to your father's.”

  Av shuddered and pressed tighter against the wall, which made him grimace from pain again. Unless Av was bleeding, there was no reason for him to still be in pain. Url sniffed the air, but he couldn't detect the slightest hint of blood. Surely there must have been a great deal of blood.

  “Stop snuffing about,” Er snarled at him. “He's not bleeding.”

  “Then I'm confused,” Url said.

  “You're not the only one,” Av said.

  “Try having Aren give you a caning. Olea does it and it's just a delight.”

  “I'd rather not relive this ever again,” Av groaned. “In any fashion.”

  “Fine, we'll do it your way,” Er said. “You go and present yourself to Aren, then into a bed. Don't soak in water yet, that'll make it worse. Go on.”

  Av groaned as he pushed off the wall. The warrior shuffled away, headed for the inner palace. As Av moved farther away, Url turned to his father, utterly confused.

  “Trainers are feared by warriors for a reason, but don't make me take you out there for a demonstration,” his father said quietly. “Disciplining warriors is part of his rank, but doing that to your sons, when you know how it feels? Ervam will be upset and I need to see to that. You need to speak with the others tonight about seeing to Av. We need to defend him from troubling events, otherwise he'll slip deeper into it.”

  Url knew what the touch of a trainer was capable of. Ervam had grabbed him the night of Aren's engagement ball. It had been a startling thing, but hadn't lasted more than a moment after Ervam's hand was removed. He didn't understand why the pain was lingering for Av.

  “Is he going mad?”

  “No, it happens to most of us. First man I blooded, I saw him everywhere for months. We may be bred for killing but we are also men underneath everything. When you blood a man, you'll understand a great deal better.”

  “What if I enjoy it instead of being brought down by it—does that make me a bad warrior?” Url asked.

  “Not that I'm aware of,” Er said. “Some men handle it better than others. Jer, for instance, blooded Em, from the look of her body. He doesn't see her haunting the hallways and doesn't quite realize that that is what he did.”

  “How exactly do we defend him against events? Aren's infected. All the high lords are coming to court. The barons are at court. There's a mating ceremony going on, and Aren won't let any man be alone with her.”

  “We keep them busy until the mating ceremony. A mated warrior is less likely to become unstable. He'll know where he stands at the palace and with the woman he's chosen. The high lord of the East is here, but hiding, so push him out of the rooms he's been given and into Aren. That should keep her busy for a while.”

  “I told her about that,” Url said with a grimace.

  “Maybe she'll ask to see the children,” Er said. “That would really keep her busy. I should have brought your sister to court. She should probably finish here anyhow but I wanted to be certain the mating happens.”

  “Mother would have killed you. Even I think it's foolish of Van to bring his children to court. Or for the high lord of the East to bring his son, who is not heir. Oh, and the high lord of the South? Don't get me started on him. The entire family is here.”

  “Lerd brought his entire family?” Er asked. “He's from the South, what does he consider his family?”

  “The mate, children, even the governess for the children...” Url trailed off as his father frowned. It occurred to him that Lerd, being a warrior, wasn't likely to bring his family to court without a very good reason. “He's leaving them at court.”

  “He's leaving them at court,” Er murmured. “Which means he believes his life and palace lands to be in trouble. Lerd has blood farther south where he could have housed his children, but he chose the palace. The only place with trained fighting men.”

  “Which means that Merkat has a standing army because simple commoners with pitchforks probably wouldn't make Lerd, of all men, pick up a weapon.”

  “An army large enough to cause problems. Do you see
how we know this?” Er asked.

  “By knowing the strength and reputation of one man and comparing it to his current actions to read beyond the public view?” Url asked.

  “Yes, that's about it. These assumptions can be wrong, which means we cannot simply go to Lerd and demand to know what is going on. We have to bide our time and wait.”

  “I don't like waiting,” Url grumbled.

  “Lerd doesn't either, which means we will not have to wait long if he has a conversation with Aren. She's still going on honesty and bluntness?”

  “Yes,” Url said with a nod. He hesitated when his father looked at him expectantly. “Lerd will ask Aren to house his family rather than dance around the point, in order to secure their futures. Aren will want to know why and when he tells her, he'll express concern because palace lands have no standing army. She will tell him that the North will stand.”

  “And he'll understand what that means without telling Aren. Wasn't he going to give you a slap when he met you?”

  “Yes...” Url said.

  “When that announcement is made, the other high lords will be upset with you. But Lerd will likely come find you once he's done speaking with Aren and give you a smack or two more for getting to the point which they all work towards.”

  “Should I run?”

  “Url... have I ever told you how your Uncle Mert found his mate, Polt?”

  “No,” Url said, wondering what his uncle and mate had to do with running from a warrior.

  “Oh dear, I probably should have.”

  And Url probably didn’t want to know, he decided.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Av was walking towards the queen's rooms when he came across Lerd and Aren walking in the same direction. The pair stopped as he approached and he pulled to a stop a distance away. He glanced to Lerd, wondering what the man had felt all those times when he had tussled with Ervam.

  “That was fast,” Aren said.

  “Best to get this sort of thing over with while the event is still fresh in everyone's mind,” Lerd murmured.

  “I apparently need to present myself to you when I do something stupid, and then after I'm disciplined as well,” Av said. “So I'm presenting myself. Can I go crawl into bed now?”