“I just might,” Duke Hyton snapped. “If only just to punish you. I cannot believe you pulled this shit today ofall days.”
Duchess Hyton responded to her husband with a raised middle finger and Duke Hyton’s ruddy faceturned scarlet.
I threw my gaze down. I imagined a hole opening up in the carriage floor that I could slip through to escape the Duke’sbuilding rage.
“He is my best archer, you know,” General Hyton interjected, breaking the tension. I gathered some quick courage to glance up at the General. He looked back at me with a gleam in his eyes and a soft smile before turning his attention back to the drunk Duchess. “He shot multiple giants in the eye. The worm at least hassomefinesse.”
“Ragnar, women do not enjoy being shot in the eye,” Duchess Hyton replied. “But my damn husband would notknow that.”
Bile rose up in my throat. Maybe if I forced myself to vomit on the General’s boots, they would kick me out of the carriage and let me walk back tothe palace.
Duke Hyton lurched forward and pawed Duchess Hyton’s legs underneath her skirt. I gripped the cushion and froze, but Duchess Hyton laughed at her husband until he threw himself back to his side ofthe carriage.
“At least you did not sneak in a flask,” Duke Hyton said with a dangerously quiet anger. “Although I regret not bringing mine now that I have to stand next to a sloppy, drunkbitchforthe ceremony.”
“Eat a horse’s cock, Anders,” DuchessHyton spat.
My heart stopped. General Hyton looked over at his brother with a strange mixture of fear and amusement in his eyes. Duke Hyton’s glare at his wife made my stomachturn over.
“I swear,” Duke Hyton growled, his face contorted with rage, “when we get back to the palace, you are going to regret everydrunken word—”
“You cannot scare me anymore,” Duchess Hyton laughed. She smacked me on the shoulder with the back of her hand. “But you are about to make Adalia’s daughterpiss herself!”
I eyed the carriage door and fought the urge to fling it open and throw myself into the street. The back of my mind burned and I could not help but glance over at Duke Hyton, whose furious blue eyes were on me as his mouth turned up into anevil smile.
I was still as a deer in an open meadow as he stared. Duchess Hyton was impervious to the Duke’s rage, but he could redirect his ire to the smallest person inthe carriage.
I could not even breathe as I faced the wrath that had already killedmy brothers.
“I am not the one the girl should be scared of,” Duke Hyton said in a low voice that made my insides clench. He glanced sideways at his brother. “Ragnar, how about you tell her about the perfect killeryou made?”
Damn it all, please leave mealone.Please.
I turned my eyes to the General, but only out of politeness. I wanted to slam my eyelids shut and pretend I was anywhere else until thecarriage stopped.
General Hyton’s jaw tightened, but he answered his brother. “He was bornpowerful,and withpower comes…challenges.”
He softly glanced at me and then turned to face the Duke. His face glowed with pride. “When beating the pitch out of the other boys was not enough to satisfy his outrage, I gave him a more productive way to use that power. I had the Hyton blacksmith make the largest two-handed broadsword possible and taught him how to use it. He was the perfect executioner on the battlefield—one clean cut was allit took.”
The words “Bloodstone,” “power,” “killer,” and “executioner,” spiraled in my head at a dizzying rate. I gripped the cushion to try tokeep steady.
Duke Hyton faced his younger, taller brother and puffed out his chest. “You know, were I sent off to the military academy like you, the broadsword would have beenmyweaponof choice.”
“Yousent me to the military academy, Anders,” General Hyton replied with a scowl. “We could have traded places any timeyou liked.”
“You could have never lifted a broadsword,” Duchess Hyton scoffed at her husband. “You old, delusionalpiece of—”
The carriage came to a halt. I let out a relieved breath, but then gripped my skirt as a crowd roared outside. Just how many people could fit in the center ofthe city?
The carriage door opened and Duke Hyton got up and squeezed himself out of the carriage first, jostling the whole carriage with the momentum. Duchess Hyton groaned, and with the help of the footman, clumsily stepped out of thecarriage herself.
General Hyton left the carriage with more grace than I expected from a man his size. Once he was on the cobblestone street, he winked at me and held outhis hand.
Maybe the General was only taking pity on me because I had married his infamous soldier, but I needed an ally for the day. Hopefully I could get the Duke’s not-so-little brother to stand between me and the Duke’s rage. My stomach was still queasy, but I forced a smile on my lips and placed my hand in his palm as he helped me out ofthe carriage.
Instantly I hit a wall of noise. I snapped my head toward a sea of people cheering in the square. Young men and women hung out of the windows of the buildings around the square and waved the blue-and-white striped Lycaster flags. Children banged cooking pots in celebration. Smiling mouths chanted theHyton name.
The capital city of Lycaster had no worry of giant invasions, or any regard for the Northern provinces whatsoever, but at least a thousand people crowded the square. Maybe the peasants of Hyton were just as starved for entertainment as we werein Ashmore.
