After rounding the fountain, I can see Hojat leaning over Rissa’s body. There’s a stain of blood seeped through her chest, a silver dagger still embedded there.
I’ve seen Osrik lose his shit many times.
I’ve seen him snarl and yell, punish and kill. I’ve seen him slaughter without remorse, insult without batting an eye, make threats with indifference.
But I haveneverseen him like this.
It’s like his eyes are trying to adjust seeing the blade sticking out of her, like he can’t quite correlate the blood soaked through her dress.
His eyes snap to her colorless face and closed eyes, and he reaches out to grab her shoulders. “Rissa.” His voice is strained. Chapped. As if her name was torn from his throat and whipped raw in the wind.
Unmoving, he shakes her gently. “Rissa!”
“Sir Osrik,” Hojat gently chides, reaching out to tug away his hand. I see Osrik’s hands tighten for a split second before he lets Hojat pull him away.
“No.Fucking no!” Os snarls right in her face, denial and fury battling it out. “You will wake up, you stubborn woman. You can’t be fucking dead. Hear me, Yellow Bell? You can’t be fucking dead because we have mistakes to make.”
He chokes off, and I stand in shock as he suddenly folds his huge body over her slight frame, tipping his forehead down to hers, squeezing shut agonized eyes.
Ryatt and I are both frozen at his display, while Isalee’s eyes glitter with moisture, and a thread of a tear stitches its way down Barley’s cheek.
How am I going to tell Auren?
“Sir Osrik?” Hojat says gently. “Lady Rissa is not dead.”
Shock plummets through me, and Osrik’s head whips up so fast he almost headbutts our mender. Disbelief crosses his expression as he looks back down to her.
“The dagger just missed her heart, and because it was left inside her, she didn’t bleed out,” Hojat explains. “But I will need to get her into the castle’s infirmary to perform surgery immediately. I’m just waiting on a carrying board.” Just then, a couple of mender’s aids with their red bands around their biceps come rushing through the garden, carrying the board.
“I’ll carry her,” Osrik grunts out as he gets to his feet.
Hojat winces. “I’m not sure if—”
“I said,I’ll carry her.”
“Os...” I step forward, but Hojat waves me away.
“It’s alright, Your Majesty,” he says before looking back at Osrik. “Carry herverycarefully. Slow movements, support her neck, and try not to jostle her chest. She’s alive, but just barely. I’m not sure if she’ll make it once I remove the dagger. You need to prepare yourself, just in case.”
Giving a stiff nod and grinding his teeth so hard he nearly cracks his jaw, Osrik leans down and collects her in his arms. It’s the gentlest thing I’ve ever seen him do. As if he’s picking up the thinnest pane of glass, and one wrong move will make it shatter.
With Hojat leading the way, he carries Rissa out of the garden and into the castle, disappearing from view.
“What the fuck happened?” I ask as soon as he’s gone. There’s a blood spot and the impression of Rissa’s body still left on the grass. My eye catches on a glint of something else further in the distance, but a worker walks over it before setting a bucket down beside the blood and starts to wash it away. When I squint in the dark, whatever I’d seen before is gone.
Warken watches as the menders lift the dead guard’s body and carry it inside before he answers. “The patrol that came through the garden alerted me. When we came out, we found the guard and the woman. I sent for you immediately.”
“The working theory is that the guard followed her out here. Perhaps he was jealous or possessive of her, and so he killed her before slitting his own throat,” Isalee says.
“It wouldn’t be the first time something like this happened to a woman. Especially a beautiful one,” Barley says.
“Yeah, buthere?” Keg says with a shake of his head. I know he’s been spending time with his family since he returned with the rest of the soldiers, and I bet he didn’t expect to see violence like thisoutsideof the army.
“Do you know the guard personally?” I ask my Premiers.
Isalee shakes her head. “Just the basics. We’ll look through his file, but as you know, no one is allowed to serve who’s had a history of violent attacks or aggressive behavior.”
“The lady hasn’t been here that long,” Ryatt points out. “How could the guard get infatuated with her so quickly?”
