“He turned mean after, I suppose,” Niel said. His voice was still cold, hard, and low, his mouth downturned at the edges.
“I knew him all of a day,” Ayla informed him. She didn’t know why it mattered, what this brutish traitor thought. But the idea of anyone thinking shelovedDitmar, even in passing, made her sick. If Lord Niel wanted to hurt her, he was going to hurt her, with or without the truth. She could at least defend her side of it. “He saw me, he demanded me, and my father had no choice but to deliver.”
Niel leaned back in his chair, folded his arms, and stared at her. His brow was furrowed.
“It was an arrangement?” he asked flatly.
“In a sense.” Arrangement seemed to imply the passage of time. “My father is a merchant. His rival supplied Blackfell, and father wanted the position. He mostly sold goods, but Ditmar told father he wanted to own a mine, so father made a deal between Ditmar and a neighboring lord who'd found silver ore in a cavern on his lands. Except after the ink on the contract dried there was a cave-in. Two of Ditmar's men died, and you couldn't get into the cavern anymore.” The words spilled out of her; she couldn’t stop them. It wasn’t as thoughheneeded to know, but oddly, she wanted him to.
Niel’s lips parted slightly.
“There was no mining to be had,” he murmured grimly.
“No silver,” she agreed. “But Ditmar had paid expecting he'd get years of profit from it, so he came to Carinth to ruin my father, and he saw me, and… well. It wasn't father's fault, but Ditmar said he'd forgive the debt if I returned with him. It seemed a simple solution at the time, and father wanted his favor. Not that it mattered. Ditmar still hasn't given father any trade.”
Niel stared at her for another long moment, then nodded stiffly. A scowl flickered over his lips.
“I should not be surprised,” Niel said. “Enar. Pretty on top, rotten beneath.”
She stiffened, like she’d been slapped.
“I am sorry you find me so displeasing.”
“No.” He growled. “Not you. The nobility. The laws. Fathers who trade their daughters and men so powerful they can beat their wives without punishment. It sickens me.”
She blinked at him in surprise. The anger in his voice hadn’t faded, but it occurred to her that perhaps she was neither the cause nor the intended target.
“My father didn’t have a choice.”
“Of course he did. He could have fought. There’s always a choice,” Niel said. “In his shoes, I’d have chosen poverty over handing a child to a man like Blackfell.”
Ayla dismissed this immediately. She couldn’t blame her father, sacrificing her to keep the rest of the family safe. Back then, none of them had known who Ditmar was behind closed doors. He had not seemedkind,but nobody had expected the violence. And for a common-born merchant family, having a daughter become lady of a fief was no small thing.
“Well, it is a done thing. I am his wife.”
“You’ll be his widow before this ends.” Niel’s voice had the cold certainty of a promise. “And you can leave Blackfell, if you want.”
She stared at him, feeling frozen and unsure what he meant.
“I thought I was your hostage,” Ayla said. “That I was to remain.”
Niel snorted.
“Yes, you are, so long as he’s alive. I meant you could leave with me after it’s over. I’ll killhim, either way, but you have my protection if you want to leave this place for the far north, instead of being handed back to whatever Enarians survive our victory.”
He sounded insane. But then, he was a brutal man, and clever enough that he'd tricked Ditmar out of the castle in the first place.
Couldhe actually win? He'd mentioned reinforcements. Did the army camped outside know what was headed their way?
“...Thank you?” she offered uncertainly.
Niel reached for his wine with a shrug.
If what he said came to pass, could she really leave Blackfell with him, and go somewhere else? Ayla had assumed the siege would end with the traitors overrun and her delivered back into Ditmar’s grip. Was there another option, one where she left Blackfell forever, to start a new life where nobody even knew who she was?
She didn’t want her freedom at such a high cost: the slaughter that would doubtlessly happen on the fields and forests surrounding Blackfell. But surelythatwas outside Ayla’s control.Thatwas the province of men. And if she couldn’t kill the knight or get him to surrender, was it so bad to let him take her away from this place?
But men didn't make promises for free. Surely his claims of hating people like Ditmar weren’t enough to explainthisoffer. He desired something. And men usually desired one thing.
