Chaos erupted. The nobles packed into their pews screamed. His kirei’s Queensguard jolted into motion. But they were too slow.
His Sons reached him and Sera first.
“Get my wife out of here,” he snarled to Rakon and Leif while Calix tossed him his glaive, which had been hidden beneath the pew alongside their other weapons. The feel of his polearm’s haft in his hand was a welcome distraction. Something familiar in the midst of so much that didn’t make sense.
Large Rakon moved to loom protectively over them both as Leif trained one of his arrows on the doors. “Come with us, Your Majesty,” the former rumbled. “We’ll get you out of here.”
Finally, his kirei rallied. Her chin lifted in that way he hated. Her jaw clenched. “Out the back. I already have carriages prepared.” But then her eyes flew wide, a lick of fear shining in their storm-gray depths. “Wait! My godparents.”
Aldric snarled to himself and cast about for the Lord Chancellor and his wife amidst the tangle of bodies and the flash of silk and jewels. They were wasting precious moments.
Hesitation was what got a man killed on the battlefield.
People scattered through the cathedral, clearly not knowing which way to run.
Confused screams clattered against one another.
Another boom rattled the doors.
He spotted Duke Percival’s beastly dog first, and then the duke. The older man locked eyes with him just long enough to shout something he couldn’t quite hear but could read well enough on his lips before he was swept up in the panicking crowd and disappeared.
Get her out of here.
“Move!” he shouted, whirling to face his kirei. She met his glare with all her usual defiance until he added, “Your godfather wants you to go on without him.”
Her defiance shattered, leaving her looking so young, though she was only ten years his junior. So lost. So unsure.
Shifting to a one-handed grip on his glaive, he snatched up her right hand with his left and started off toward the back of the cathedral as quickly as his legs could carry him. He would just bodily drag her out of there if he had to.
Even though he hadn’t the faintest idea where he was going.
His Sons and her Queensguard fanned around them in a protective ring, with that blond-haired captain of hers—Arkwright—leading the way as they forged through the labyrinth of corridors leading through the cathedral’s living quarters.
At least Sir Arkwright seemed to know where to go.
Within his hold, Sera’s hand was clammy. Her fingers trembled. Without thinking, he tightened his grip until her trembling stilled.
Off to his right, on his blind side, Leif observed in rough Kunishi,“That was some kiss.”
With an annoyed grunt, Aldric turned his head until he could finally glower at the older man with his one good eye.“Shut up.”
Leif grinned, flashing his gap-toothed smile. Calix frowned at them both. With all of his usual self-loathing, his half-Kunishi Son was the only one of them who refused to learn a single word of that musical tongue.
When his attention returned forward, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Sera was now staring at him—wary, curious. “I didn’t know you were fluent in Kunishi,” she murmured.
He huffed out a humorless breath. “There’s a lot about me you don’t know, kirei.”
Her lips pressed into a thin line, her face becoming shuttered once more. Unreadable. “And there are many more things I wish I didn’t already know,” she whispered as if to herself, leaving Aldric frowning over the cryptic words.
Perhaps she meant his reputation as the Crow? Some of the rumors were exaggerated.
Most weren’t.
The door Sir Arkwright led them to was an unassuming slab of iron-banded wood, bolted and barred. When the knight finally got it open, though, Aldric was left squinting against the light of day—painfully bright after their time within the dimly lit hallways.
The alley behind the cathedral was packed to the brim with horses, Elmorian soldiers, and carriages. He spotted his own destrier, Mourn, in the mix, though he knew he had left the scarred brute tied up out front.
More confusingly, though, were the carriages. There were three of them, each painted with the royal stag of House de la Croix.
