Page 72 of The Iron Hex

Interlude

Lord General Kerrigan crumpled the missive he’d received just before the attack on Astrad as his squires cleared out the bodies of the naive attackers. He kicked one of their limp, dead legs out of his way as he strode out of his offices and into the throne room, King Arthel’s throne empty and coated in a thick layer of dust.

He hoped Sir Rhona was as stupid as she was strong. Perhaps then she wouldn’t be able to decipher the strangeness of what the Corisian had said. He wasn’t ready for the general members of the Iron Retinue to learn about the Soulless Knights. He needed a plan, a way to make sure that the soldierswantedto make the change for the Iron Empire, and Lord General Kerrigan knew that telling them they’d be all but dead wasn’t going to cut it—no matter how loyal his knights were.

He hadn’t even known that the Soulless Knight had made it to Corisia, and it certainly wasn’t part of the orders it had been given. He and Dr. Balet had sent out only a few of them. Two had already been destroyed, andnowthe Iron Empire’s enemies knew of their secret weapon. It was only a matter of timebefore the still small, but growing, rebellion he’d heard rumors of learned about them too. He shook his head; it was going to take a lot more control to utilize them properly... if Dr. Balet could even perfect the soldiers in the first place.

Lord General Kerrigan scowled at the throne. Those bastards had done everything in their power to ruin his life. Ruin his business, brainwash his children and try to marry them off as pawns in their political games, let his wife die... he’d been happy when he killed the damned king. Lord General Kerrigan had been making Astra safe ever since, safer than it had been in Arthel’s useless hands, anyway.

But Hugo... Hugo’s betrayal had been unexpected. Lord General Kerrigan launched the paper into the fire burning in the throne room, watching it turn to ash in front of him.

One of the Iron Retinue’s spies had spotted Hugo in the northeast, and that same someone had heard him discussing Luwha. Kerrigan had faith in his people, but Hugo, and whoever he was traveling with, was clearly more capable than he had anticipated.

“I’ll do it myself,” he growled, storming out of the throne room in search of his commanders. He was going to need a regiment and their fastest horses to beat Hugo to Luwha. He allowed himself a tight smile—how wonderful would it be to chop the betrayer down where he stood himself?

36

Hugo

Hugo woke with a start, panic seeping in for the briefest of moments before he realized where he was. He held Eira, her soft body enveloped in his as she breathed gently, still asleep. The sun shone through the windows, the fire in their room nothing but embers in the early-morning light. Hugo had wanted nothing but this for so long he almost didn’t know how to process it. Eira’s sweet scent was closer to him than he’d ever had any right to even dream. He squeezed her closer to him, a sigh leaving her lips as she curled closer to him in her sleep.

It might have been the most peaceful moment of his life, until someone began furiously banging on the door. “What’s happening?” Eira’s eyes shot open and she sat up. Within a fraction of a second, Hugo’s beautiful moment was shattered.

“Hello! Let me in!” a woman’s voice yelled from the other side—a whisper-yell, trying to be quiet while also not stopping the banging for a moment.

Hugo jumped up, pulling on his pants as he watched Eira frantically look around the floor for her clothing, her body covered with the blanket they’d slept under.

“Stay here,” he said, buttoning his pants and running to the door, a dagger in his left hand. He had barely opened it before Evangeline pushed through the doorway and closed it behind her.

“You both could have at least told me that you were going to stay the night together,” she said before looking at the dagger in disgust. “Really? You didn’t recognize my voice?”

“Evangeline, did you really need to beat down the door?” Hugo asked, still frustrated that she’d already ruined his morning.

“Yes,” she hissed.

“Wait, why?” Eira said, wrapping the blanket around herself and standing. Hugo’s body stirred, seeing the outline of her curves and knowing she had nothing on under that thin blanket.

“There are Iron Retinue soldiers downstairs!” Evangeline whispered.

Hugo snapped to attention, “City guard?”

“No, they had plate on.” Evangeline shook her head. “I was going to go down and get some breakfast since you two decided to sleep in and there they were, talking to the barmaid from last night. She looked at me and I knew she was telling me to get away before they saw me, so I bolted.”

“Shit,” Hugo said, searching for his shirt. “We need to go.”

“Agreed,” Evangeline said. “I’ll grab our stuff from the other room and meet you here in five?”

“In two,” Hugo said, opening the door and shutting it quietly, silence enveloping him and Eira as they quickly dressed. He hoped that someday he wouldn’t be running, wouldn’t be fighting... that someday he’d be able to wake up next to Eira, and relax. He mapped the escape routes in his head, remembering the back door they’d used last night to sit out by the lake. It was their best shot. A soft rap on the door a minute later had them on the move.

Hugo could hear a commotion from the bar as they wove through the back hallways, Eira and Evangeline behind him. He slowly opened the door to a thankfully empty boardwalk.

They just needed to get to Arthur and their other horses. If they just got to the horses, they could ride away from here.

The three slowly walked around the building, trying to not seem too conspicuous but still heading to the stable as quietly and quickly as they could. Hugo was untying the knot on Arthur’s reins when he heard the front door of the tavern creak, looking to Eira in a silent hope that she and Evangeline would hide. He couldn’t bear something happening to her.

Hugo held his breath as he watched the front door to the tavern slowly creak open, three knights stepping out of the building. Two of them looked normal, but the other... the other looked like Saoirse had. Grayish skin and a cropped scalp with scars all over it. Except they weren’t scars, Hugo finally noticed. They were cuts held in place with staples—unhealed skin, raw wounds that should have healed by now if these knights had been chasing him from the capital.

He knew Dr. Balet had given him a bad feeling, and he knew he didn’t approve of the decision to work on these knights, but this was even worse than he’d thought, even worse than the lord general had ever told him. Lord General Kerrigan had confided in Hugo about the Soulless Knights, how they’d need them for what was coming. And no matter how much he’d pried, the lord general wouldn’t tell Hugo what was coming. All he knew was what little he had seen in the documents he had stolen when he fled the capital, the only proof he had of the lord general’s scheme.