“You’re being dramatic. You can always help me, you know.”
My bear decided to plop down right in front of the door, judging that as the best way to help. “There. I’m helping your legs stay healed. And I’m keeping you away from the bad one.”
“You could always come with me to go see Roland, you know. What could possibly hurt me if you’re around?”
He gave a tired yawn and didn’t move. “You should stay up here.”
“Look, sweetie. I have a limited window to get information that might be very important to me.” Why it would be important, I couldn’t totally tell you. It’s not like I was ever going to kiss Kerdik again. Still, the unsolved puzzle nagged at me. Would I turn into a dragon eventually? “I need to go, hun. Will you help me down the stairs?”
After a few more back and forths, Abraham Lincoln consented to take me down the steps. I sat on his back as if he was a horse, gripping handfuls of his fur as he made his way through the hall and down the stairs. The stone steps were narrow for a bear, but we made it without me flying headfirst over his shoulders and bashing my head on the floor. So you know, bonus.
I didn’t look forward to seeing what was left of Roland’s face, but I braved the grotesque sight as best I could. Jean-Luc gave me a curious look, and Madigan glanced up from his work upon our arrival. “You’re supposed to be in bed. You’re going to rip your stitches, Princess.”
“Aren’t ye supposed to be in bed?” Mad groused. Though he’d been torturing Roland for far too long, his short, light brown hair was still combed, and neatly parted on the side.
“Sheesh, with the two of you. I’m alright. Just a little sore. Plus, I rode on Abraham Lincoln the whole way, which is pretty much bedrest.”
I could tell Jean-Luc was getting comfortable around me because he shot me a dubious look. “Riding a bear is hardly bedrest. Go back to your room. You’ve no need to see more of this. Even my stomach’s starting to turn. I’ve never seen an Untouchable at work before. So meticulous. So gruesome. Incredible.”
“I’m not here to see more torture.”
Madigan straightened, raising a thick eyebrow at me. “I’m not going to stop what I’m doing. I’m keeping him alive until your Da’s all better, but this little piggy’s going to regret crossing an Untouchable by messing up his lady.”
“I know, though I wish you’d stop this. It’s horrible, Mad. I mean, truly awful. I came down here to ask Roland a few things before his time’s up.” It was my nice way of saying “die.”
“I’m sleepy, Momma. I’m going back to bed. The bad one won’t let the mean one out.”
I was tired, too. I kissed the top of Abraham Lincoln’s head and toddled closer to the cell, the dank air filling my lungs and making me question everything.
“By all means, Princess,” Roland croaked out. “How can I make your life better?” The sarcasm was thick, and to be honest, I was shocked he had the presence of mind to speak, let alone allow his acerbic personality to register.
I glanced up at Madigan and Jean-Luc. “Could you guys give me a minute?”
Madigan scoffed while Jean-Luc’s shoulders shook with silent laughter. “Ye must be joking.”
“What? He’s locked up and barely alive. He’s not going to hurt me.”
“It’s not tha I’m worried about. You’ve got tha bleeding conscience tha drives people to insanity. You’re going to try and sneak him out the second I leave ye be.”
I sighed. “Fine. I wasn’t going to jailbreak him. I just wanted to have a private conversation.”
“Come to have a little family picnic?” Roland snarled at me, his gaping eye cavity staring at me like it was its own entity.
My legs were stiff as I moved to touch the cell. Mad stopped me before I could enter. “Not a chance. Ye stay right on the other side of the bars. He can still hear ye with his one ear from there.”
Roland let out a pained noise of agony, his hand moving up to touch the phantom ear that was now a hole on the side of his head.
I gripped the cell’s bars to keep me from wobbling. “Not a picnic. More like story time. I was hoping you could tell me the one about the dragon.”
“Tarasque?” Roland squinted his remaining eye at me. “Everyone knows there was a sea dragon in Avalon years ago. Ask your precious boyfriend. I bet you won’t even have to bewitch the information out of him.”
“I’m asking you. Only you seem to know Kerdik created her with a kiss.”
“That part’s a more guarded secret. Urien knows all about it, but not many others do. Tara was a handmaiden in Morgan’s castle, back when Urien was alive, way before you were born. Master Kerdik was a more frequent visitor back then, and he spent most of his time with Urien.” He said this bitterly, as if he’d wanted to be the special birthday boy who got to be the line leader. “Story goes that Master Kerdik fell for Tara, slept with her, and she transformed into Tarasque – part dragon and part sea creature. She was a gentle girl in her life, though, so even though she was a monster, she didn’t kill anyone. She disappeared to the sea, and eventually impaled herself to end her life.”
I covered my mouth with my hand. “Why did she kill herself?”
Roland shrugged, but then let out a loud whimper as the small movement caused ripples of pain to echo through his cowering naked body. “How should I know? I’d say she probably didn’t like who she was anymore. She was feared, even though she never hurt a soul. Probably killed herself to save Avalon the trouble. There was already a brigade forming to take her down.”
“Did she transform right away, or did the dragon mojo happen over time?”
“Oh, right away. The first time they coupled. She broke through a wall in the castle. You probably saw the newer stone put in on the east wing of Morgan’s castle?”
I nodded, vaguely recalling the discoloration. “I didn’t think to ask about it. She really was so big that she broke through stone?”
“Everyone knows that story. They just don’t know how she became the monster she was when she died. They think Kerdik did it to her on purpose because she angered him. Only a few knew that they’d been entertaining a secret affair.”
I bit down on my lower lip. “So Kerdik can’t have sex with anyone, or he turns them into a dragon?”
“That’s the way of it, yes. Why do you care?” A wicked smile swept over his face. “You fancy him, no?”
My mouth popped open, and Mad rolled his eyes. “No! Of course not. I love Bastien. Kerdik’s my friend. He’s just very secretive, and since he hangs out at the mansion a lot, I need to know things, like if he’s going to go screwing the help and accidentally turn one of them into a dragon! That’s maybe something you could’ve told us, since he’s staying under our roof.”
Roland chuckled, and I admit, I didn’t think he had any levity left in him to risk what was left of his life. “You’re pink for the green monster. And I worried I’d wounded Bastien beyond recovery, but it appears that spot’s reserved for you. Promising to marry his Untouchable friend wasn’t enough of a dagger in the back?”
Madigan held up his hand to stave off my stammering response. “He’s trying to provoke us into cutting his miserable life short. Ignore him. I know ye don’t fancy Kerdik or me. It was Bastien’s idea I marry ye to begin with. He couldn’t stand the thought of ye with someone who would want to get ye into bed. None of tha was your idea.” He didn’t say this with sadness, but rather stating an obvious fact. Mad didn’t let the lines get blurred, which was one of the things I respected about him. “Don’t let him mess with your head.”
I lowered my chin and let my hair fall forward to cover the heat from my cheeks. “I know you love Avalon, and you fought hard for your province before it was taken from you. I know you hate me, but I never hated you. I didn’t ask Mad to do this to you.”
Roland spat on the floor at my feet. I guess his continued loathing wasn’t a huge surprise, but it stung nonetheless.
I cleared my throat. “So if there’s
something you want done for Avalon, or a rule or policy you think might be helpful for Province 9, let me know. I’ll tell Lane when she gets back.”
Roland’s intake of breath was barely audible, but his shock was plain on his torn face. “I don’t understand.”
“If you want something done for your people, tell me what. I’ll do my best to make sure it happens.” I sighed heavily. “The only regret I want you to die with is how terribly you treated your family.”
Roland’s snarl came back. “I was a good son, a good nephew.”
I tipped up my chin to meet his eyes. “But I was your family, too. I wanted a cousin so badly. I would’ve done anything for you. So now that you can’t keep trying to kill me, I’ll help you look after the one thing you love. Let me know how you want things to be run, and I’ll do my best to see your life’s work wasn’t for nothing.”
There was an elongated silence between us that seemed to stretch on forever. Madigan’s mouth was dropped open in astonishment, and Jean-Luc was actually speechless. Roland watched my face in the dim lantern light for signs that I really was the witch he’d pegged me as. I wasn’t sure what was going to come hurtling out of his mouth when he spoke, but to see him cooperate was a bit of a surprise. He slowly stood, moving in all of his naked glory forward to grip the bars with the one hand that still had fingers. He cried out at the slight movements, breaking my heart all over again. I kept my eyes fixed on his bloodied and bruised face so I didn’t catch a glimpse of the nude parts of him no cousin should ever have to see.
Roland studied my face for signs of a lie. “If bounty hunters set up in the province, they have to register, and they can only carry out business in the other provinces. For some reason, the more of them that do business close to home, the worse our land gets.”
I nodded, glad we were making such leaps. “Okay. I can do that.”
Roland’s blue eyes burned with a fire that told me I’d touched on his sweet spot. He didn’t know how to be a good friend or a cousin, but he loved Avalon, so I tried to pick out the noble attributes, so I could look back and remember the good parts of my cousin. I couldn’t stand his whole life being remembered by his murder attempts on my life. A man had to be more than his worst moments, and I would find that light, so help me.
Roland’s voice rasped as his body trembled with the draft all basements seemed to come with. “Let the shepherds handle their own territory disputes. The more government tries to get involved in their squabbles, the worse it all gets. Unless a life is taken in the feuding, don’t bother with it. It makes us look weak, and no one’s happy in the end. They just want to fight, so let them fight each other, not you.”
“That’s good advice. Keep it coming. I’m listening.”
“Don’t give Morgan an inch!” His voice took on a passion that showed just how deeply he’d been wounded by my mother. “I promise to haunt you for all of my days if you give any of my people back to Morgan. It’s how I landed myself in the Forgotten Forest. Those of us who gave up plots of land bit by bit? It’s a slow death.” He swallowed hard and glanced at Mad, who leaned against the bars next to him, unperturbed but ready to pounce if Roland made any false moves. “Trust me on this; a slow death is one that crushes everyone’s spirit. Province 9 is filled with tough, resilient people who want to live out their lives in peace, free from Morgan’s rule. They left comfort to risk a new start because they believe we can be more than what Morgan allows. Do not move the boundaries I was helping the men set up, no matter what Morgan offers or threatens. I would not forgive you for that.”
I nodded, tucking my hair behind my ear. “I wasn’t planning on letting her anywhere near us.”
Roland scoffed. “She’s your mother. You’ll crack, and Province 9 will fall.”
It was hard to look at Roland’s face, the dark cavity where his eye should have been gaped at me with all of its blackness. “My mother threw me down a well. She hurt my dad.” I reached out and touched the remainder of Roland’s fingers that were holding tight to the bar. “I so wanted us to be a family. I was scared to meet you, worried you’d hate me or think I was stupid.”
“You are not stupid, Princess. The duchess explained your learning errors to us. Stupid is not the right word at all.”
“Thanks, Jean-Luc.” I turned back to Roland, surprised he was letting me touch his fingers. “I want you to know that I forgive you for trying to kill me. I forgive you for threatening me and stabbing me. I didn’t ask Mad to do this to you.”
Madigan looked at me as if in disappointment. “Your forgiveness changes nothing. He’s still going to die slowly for harming the lady of an Untouchable.”
Roland’s expression hardened. “I don’t need your forgiveness.”
I swallowed hard and dipped my chin, trying to remember all that Lane had instilled in me. When the kids at school ostracized me, picked on me and made every day worse than the one before, Lane encouraged me to forgive them. They were young, and thanks to them, I’d always been far older. If I didn’t release them from my anger, I would become them, hating what I didn’t understand.
Now that I was staring down my own personal tormenter, I finally understood the lesson she’d been trying to teach me. “Forgiveness isn’t for you; it’s for me. I won’t carry resentment around. When you die today, all of you dies. You won’t live on through my anger. You’ll affect nothing, and I won’t lose a night of sleep over the terror you tried to scare into me. I’ll take care of your province, because the only parts of you that affect me are the honorable ones. Your evil will be buried with your bones. Only your kindness will be allowed to live in Avalon.” Roland spluttered, but I ignored him. “You only saw the witch in me, no matter how much I tried to be your family.” I shook my head sadly. “I want to be the kind of person who sees what good there is inside of you, and isn’t haunted by your wickedness. So that’s how this is going to end. You don’t have power to decide any of it; I do.”
I could hear Jean-Luc’s reverence for Lane’s words that spilled out of my mouth, and Mad’s curious glances that told me he didn’t quite understand, but he respected me all the same. “Run along now, wee Rose. Go quickly and I won’t tell Bastien you’ve been skipping about the castle when ye should be in bed.”
“Bastien’s not home,” I informed him. I let a weight settle on my simple words, telling Mad that Bastien wasn’t doing so hot.
“Aye.” Mad’s blue eyes met mine, letting me know that he heard me, and he would deal with Bastien’s bout of drinking when he finished up in the dungeon. “He’ll be grand before ye know it. Just give him time. He loved this piece of shite.”
I nodded, limping back from the bars with as serene an expression as I could muster on my composed features. “No more torture,” I ruled, sounding more sure of my new royal role than usual. “The pain will only distract him from the misery he should be feeling. He broke Bastien’s heart. He deserves to feel nothing but that for a while.”
I could tell Mad didn’t love this idea, but eventually he consented. “Aye. Up the stairs with ye now.”
I hobbled to the stairs, wishing I had my bear to hike me up the stone steps. My room was on the third floor, and I was in the basement. I kept my chin up and limped up the first step, keeping my face neutral so no one could see how painful this was.
“Jays, I can’t watch this. Ye shouldn’t have come down here.” Mad stepped out of the cell and locked Roland inside. He didn’t even debate giving Jean-Luc the keys. I knew that as solid as Jean-Luc was turning out to be, Mad trusted only the Untouchables. “Up ye go, wee wife.”
In the next second, I was scooped up into Mad’s thick arms, cradled to the dirty shirt that covered his broad chest. He was careful not to touch the wounds on the back of my thigh, and carried me up all the flights of stairs until I was at my bedroom. He kicked open the door, startling Abraham Lincoln. He frowned, holding me in the doorway instead of putting me down on my bed. “Where’s Link? I don’t like the idea of ye being alone in
here.”
“Pfft. Like I wouldn’t watch my own mother,” Abraham Lincoln huffed with a yawn.
“Abraham Lincoln will stay with me. Link’s out bringing Bastien home.”
Mad’s eyebrows pushed together. “I still don’t like it. Roland’s got at least eleven men who might want to avenge their duke. Everyone knows ye sleep. It would be the perfect place to run a blade through ye.”
I glowered up at him. “Your bedtime stories are severely grim. I’ll be fine.”
His jaw tightened as he took a step back. “No. I’ll take ye to your Da. Master Kerdik is with him. Where’s your brother?”
“I dunno. Probably helping with dad. Really, Mad. It’s fine.”
Madigan didn’t even act like carrying me down two more flights of stairs to the main floor where my dad was being kept was an inconvenience. I don’t know how these guys did all they accomplished, and without sleep, no less. Mad tapped on the door with his foot, waiting patiently for Draper to open it. “She shouldn’t be unguarded,” Mad offered, shoving me at my brother.
Draper fumbled to get his arms into position, holding me with tight hands and worry on his features. “Okay. You can’t be here for this, Rosie. I’ll take you back upstairs.”
My spine stiffened when I heard my dad howling his pain. “Wait! Dad, what’s wrong? Help him! He’s hurting, Drape!”
“I know, pumpkin. We’re trying to draw the Fool’s Parsley out of him. It just takes time.”
When Kerdik shouted, “Get her out of here!” it shook the walls with his frustration. “She shouldn’t be here for this.”
I tried to hoist myself up so I could look over Draper’s shoulder, but Draper slid quickly out of the room and shut the door behind us. “Why were you even out of bed in the first place? I thought you were sleeping.”
“Dad! I won’t leave you! I’ll help! I’m here!”
Mad watched me struggle to get at my dad, thrashing in Draper’s arms to no avail. He huffed at my effort and wrapped an arm around my ankles to band them together. “Hush now. T’won’t do for the king to hear ye crying for him.” He shook his head. “And ye ripped your stitches. Your leg’s bleeding through your jeans.”
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