I looked away.
“She hurt you,” he insisted.
“No.”
“She did. She hurt you. That angers me, cousin,” he confessed. “I wish I had known while she drew air. I wish I could’ve made her sorry.”
“An apology, what a concept,” I thought. “I-”
“Not what I said,” he said.
“What did you say then?”
“She can’t hurt you here,” Willoughby replied. “She can’t hurt you anywhere. She’ll never hurt you again. All that evil wench can do is look up in dismay as you live your life and let her rot.”
“Look up?” I asked. I followed his eyes to the floor.“FromHell?”
“She certainly didn’t go to see the Lord,” he said. “Children get you a straight ferry down, I’m told.”
“Children?”
“Hurting them,” he said. “She hurt you. She’s in Hell.”
I felt exposed. “...I don’t like people to know, Ser Willoughby,” I said. I knelt in front of him, meeting my hands.
“I understand. But I know.”
“Everybody knows,” I said. “At least back home. And I know they know, but I don’t like it. I try so hard to pretend it never happened. I try harder to ignore the whispers.”
“Again, I understand.”
“Did you…” I swallowed. “Can I ask you a blatantly awful question?”
He nodded.
“What is a Rusted Blade?” I thought about our ride “Is it a person or a team? Mr. Evergreen said…. He said nothing, really, but he seemed reverent of the idea—to you.”
Willoughby stared ahead. “A Rusted Blade is a knight who does bad things to bad people for a greater good. I guess you could call it a team, though we were never together in one room. The King appoints us based on…a natural ability.”
“To hurt people?”
“Yes.”
“And you are appointed?” I asked.
“I was. For the War. Though, as you can see, the title never really leaves you,” he said. “Once they know what you were, that’s all you’ll ever be. Rusted iron.”
We sat in silence. “Are you going to hurt Mr. Evergreen?”
“That depends entirely on Mr. Evergreen’s behavior. Has he been bad?” he asked.
“N-No?”
“Can you be trusted to tell me if he had?” he asked.
“He’s been good,” I promised. “H-He would never hurt me.”
He nodded. “Fine then. Good. Between you and me, I can’t say he was ever on my list. I actually like the man. I think he’s funny.”
