“No one will let you rule. Not by yourself, not at your husband’s side, not at all. Drop your weapon and pray to the dead you keep in the stars that I will grant you mercy.”
Amarande took a step forward.
“No one gets toletme do anything, and I certainly do not desire to earn a thing from you.” Amarande drew her sword—the WarriorKing’s belovedMaite—with an echoing metallic promise. “I am not beat until I am dead.”
A new smile flickered across Renard’s face as he released his own sword from its scabbard, in all its gaudy, bejeweled glory.
“That is not an argument you should use with me, Amarande.”
CHAPTER 48
LUCAhadn’t gotten the grand tour of the Bellringe the last time he was on castle grounds.
Yet he recognized the landmarks beyond the main castle—the chapel with its bell tower, the garden full of roses made aubergine and gold by Taillefer’s better talents, and the gateway to the workshop where the prince’s worst impulses were fed. The stables and the sliver of hidden exit they offered was up a hill, but he kept his eyes away, lest he draw Dunixi’s attention.
However, as little as he knew of the grounds, Luca was sure that Dunixi was not taking him to the sort of cell where someone like Renard would keep someone like Geneva.
Hers would be a gilded, private prison not unlike what Amarande had shown Luca behind her own council room—the place where she’d been kept away and secure for a few days’ time by those who wished to elevate Ferdinand.
Though they allowed Luca to keep his armor and weapons, two Bellringe castle guards trailed like bruising purple shadows as they rounded a corner within the rose garden and headed for a set of exterior stairs set into the main castle. The entrance was similar to Taillefer’s workshop, torches lining the walls as the stairs curled in a vanishing corkscrew plunging into the earth.
“Just this way, Your Highness.” Dunixi gestured, his naked hand striped about the fingers with skin so pale it was nearly reflective in the low light—where his rings had once been. “The king thought it imperative to keep such an important prisoner as isolated as pos-sible.”
This was a line. Dunixi wouldn’t know the word “imperative” if it smacked him across his broad forehead.
“Indeed, I imagine so.”
Down they went, farther than Taillefer’s lair—not five flights, but seven, the final landing leading to a thick door, reinforced with metalstriping. There was no guard posted, which Luca found unusual considering the earlier line he’d been fed, but he still politely stood aside as one of the men escorting them stepped up to unlock the door.
“After you, Your Highness,” Dunixi offered yet again.
Swallowing his nerves, Luca stepped across the threshold.
A lone torch was on the far wall, and it wasn’t until Dunixi stepped in beside him with the torch they’d used to descend the stairs that Luca could make out who was beyond the bars of a cell that ran the entire length of this massive underground chamber.
Not Geneva.
No, there wasn’t one prisoner, but several. Say, fifty to a hundred. One by one each face met the light. And one by one he recognized them.
Tala. Naiara. Petri. Mannah.
From behind, someone grasped Luca’s elbows, wrenching them together, while the whiff and slice of a blade whispered past with pressure about his waist—his weapon sheaths immediately crashing to the floor.
“Any ideawhywe happened to find all these fine folks in the wood armed to the teeth with swords and arrows, Your Highness?” Dunixi asked, angling before Luca now, as the guards behind him swept away his weapons and bound his hands.
“These are members of the Otxoa household. They are my party, coming ahead of the conclave. You have no right to hold them.”
One guard got the lashing around his wrists just right. Tighter than he’d had as Dunixi’s prisoner the first time—perhaps this man could give the pirate a lesson. If he was paying attention, Dunixi didn’t show it. He was too busy sneering in a ridiculously self-absorbed way. As if he’d won. As if this was the end.
Luca did not grin back.
“Oh, we have every right, stableboy.” Dunixi’s tone matched his expression and grew with each righteous word. “Because though they are not uniformed, though they put up a terrible fight, they are a useless little army, for a useless little kingdom, and a useless little king who’ll now be enjoying the rest of his useless little life in this windowless hole with the people brave enough to defend him but too untalented to do so. Useless army, useless king, but all of you are just stupid enough to be dangerous. Get used to the dark,stableboy,it’ll be your home until the stars.”
Disparagement session finished, Dunixi nodded to the guards.
The soldiers drew their swords, and the one with the keys stepped forward to open the cell, his weapon up to guard and attack, should anyone rush the door. They didn’t, though, giving Luca just enough room to be shoved inside, a boot snaking out to trip him up. His hands properly secured behind his back, Luca was unable to push them out to break his fall, sliding into the cell on the heavy metal of his chest plate, which they had not removed.
Dunixi laughed. “They won’t even catch you when you fall.Useless.”
