Page 46 of The Iron Hex

Eira slowly took a step forward, and a tree branch cracked loudly under her foot.

Shit.

A gasp emanated through the trees from the campsite, and Eira heard footsteps begin to recede.

She lunged into the clearing as she saw the blurred outline of Hugo in the distance do the same, desperately hoping they could at least catch a glimpse of the person in their campsite.

“Stop!” Hugo yelled as he leaped out of the trees, his dagger pressing into the dark-haired woman’s back as she ran away from Arthur. “Tell me what you’re doing here right now, or I’ll kill you,” Hugo growled.

Eira stepped around the clearing to stand beside Arthur, Hugo and the woman just ahead of her. She willed her body to be ready to try to cast something if she needed it as she listened for more sounds through the trees. Eira could feel the Flow gather around her as it waited for her to tell it what she wanted.

“Shit,” Eira heard the woman curse before she turned to face them. The woman was beautiful, with olive skin and luscious deep brown curls.

Hugo gasped, dropping his dagger and stumbling back before falling to one knee. “Your Highness,” he said, head bowed.

“You weren’t supposed to get back this fast,” Princess Evangeline De Clare said.

25

Rhona

Knights traded shifts all the time, but Rhona wasn’t one to adjust her schedule on a whim. So when she approached Sir Winston about his overnight prison shift he was, understandably, a bit surprised. It hadn’t, however, stopped him from taking the shift in trade for Rhona’s next morning garden shift.

Now Rhona stood at the end of the dimly lit hallway, cells full of the Iron Empire’s enemies as far as she could see. The captives moaned and screamed, filling the hallway with a cacophony that overwhelmed Rhona on the best of days, and nearly stopped her from doing her job on the worst.

She’d already been working for hours, nearly half her shift done, waiting for the right moment to approach the two prisoners she needed to speak to. Now was the right time.

Rhona paced the hallway, peeking into each cell until she found who she was looking for—the Corisian. Finally, she saw him. He was filthy, huddled in the corner, his blond hair dull and greasy from lack of washing.

“Corisian,” she said lowly, watching his head snap up to look at her, his blue eyes bright even in the dim light of the stone cell.

“What do you want?” he said, spitting at her.

“I want to understand why you attacked the noble houses this week,” Rhona said, nonchalantly wiping the spit off her chest plate with one gloved hand.

The Corisian looked at her, head tipped to one side. “Your people already ripped all of my fingernails off to get that information from me,” he grunted, showing his bloodied hands to Rhona. “Not that they needed to, since they had a witch with them the whole time. They just did it for the cruelty... unsurprisingly.”

Rhona cringed at the sight of his hands; she couldn’t imagine how much pain he was in. She had had a hunch that the Corisian may react this way to her, which was reasonable given the circumstances, so she had come prepared.

Rhona held out a roll that she’d stuffed with freshly cooked meat in the mess hall before she’d headed to this shift. It was cold now, but it was much better than the slop that the prisoners were fed: some sort of grain mixed with water, not even cooked enough to digest easily.

“I brought something that might interest you.” She watched the Corisian scramble forward and reach for the sandwich, making her wonder when he’d last been given that slop. “But not before you answer my questions.” She pulled the loaf out of his reach.

“You’re all monsters,” he growled, anger and yearning warring in his eyes as his gaze locked onto the roll in her hand.

“Maybe, but I’m a monster that is willing to feed you... provided you earn it.”

The Corisian waited, silent. Rhona chose to take this as a yes.

“Good.” Rhona nodded. “Why did the Corisians attack the noble houses?”

“The Iron Empire is dangerous, and we intended to remove some of the more influential nobles to destabilize the trade structure of the empire.”

“And?”

“And if we disrupt the trade lines and businesses of the noble elite, it will leave the military side of the Iron Empire weaker to invasion.” The prisoner’s eyes remained trained on the food in Rhona’s hand.

“So you intend on invading?” Rhona pried.