Page 91 of The Iron Hex

“Thank you,” Eira said, placing her hand on Hugo’s arm.

As Eira and Evangeline ate their pastries, Hugo felt the urge to pull out his polishing stone and methodically sharpen his blades. He had a terrible feeling they were going to need them before the day was through.

44

Rhona

Once in a while, the Iron Retinue sent its best knights for a shift guarding the streets of Astrad. In part, it was meant to show the people of Astra that no one, not even the knights of the Iron Retinue, was above any sort of work guarding the empire’s hard-working civilians. The other part was so that Rhona and her compatriots could look for witches in hiding—ones that may have successfully hidden their abilities all this time.

Rhona felt strange about this particular duty now. Before, she’d have excitedly searched for witches in hiding, frothing at the mouth for the praise she’d get for catching one. Now, she wondered how many of them would have actually done any harm. Lady Maeve had been kinder to her than...anyone, and she was the exact thing Rhona was supposed to hate. Could she say she hated witches, still?

Rhona patrolled the busy streets, citizens quieting down as she walked past, as if they were afraid that if they spoke out of turn that Rhona would detain them, or worse.

The mood had changed in the past few years. People had seemed so hopeful when the Iron Empire rose and now... nowthey seemed forlorn. Maybe it was the crops rotting and causing food shortages; maybe it was everything else. Rhona felt like each moment she spent with people that weren’t in the Iron Retinue was showing her a new side of the Iron Empire... one she didn’t particularly like the look of.

“Miss,” said a young girl as she ran up to her. “You are so so tall, how did you grow so big?”

Rhona smiled, leaning down to the little girl’s level. How did she tell her that it was because Rhona’s father was very big and very scary? That Rhona tilled the land as she grew up. That it wasn’t because she had any sort of magic growing potion, or even enough food growing up. The little girl also didn’t look like she had enough food; most people didn’t these days.

“I dreamed really hard about being big and strong, and big and strong I became,” Rhona stage whispered conspiratorially, as if she was imparting a big secret. It was kinder than the truth.

“Ohh,” the little girl said, eyes widening. Her mother came running up behind her, a graying woman in her early forties with clothes that were frayed and falling apart.

“Honey,” she said. “Leave the lady knight alone!”

Rhona stood, towering over the two. “It’s okay, madam.”

“I’m so sorry about her. You don’t see many lady knights and all she ever talks about is becoming one.” The woman scratched her head, the exasperation clear in her voice.

“Are you two all right this evening?” Rhona asked, her plate armor clanking as she stood to her full height, towering over the woman and her daughter. “Is there anything you need help with from a knight... or anything you think I should know?”

The woman watched Rhona, mistrust in her eyes. “The crop was bad this year,” she said, but Rhona could tell there was more. There was something she didn’t want to tell Rhona.

“I have heard about the crops. Is there anything else?” Rhona asked gently, lacing kindness into each syllable. She needed this woman to tell her what she was withholding.

“Aye, a lot of us are hungry, but that’s not what’s got everyone upset and scared.” The woman looked around, as if someone was going to hear her. “There’s something roaming the streets at night. People are frightened.”

It was the first Rhona had heard anything like that. “Something, or someone?” Rhona asked.

“A person, but not a person. They don’t speak, and they don’t react but they’ve... They killed my friend’s husband. They’ve killed many... and others have just disappeared.”

A chill ran through Rhona, her heart beating a furious rhythm. This sounded like the creature the Corisian had talked about before Lord General Kerrigan had killed him.

“I will bring this to my commander and the city guard,” Rhona said, a twitch in her brow starting as she tried to play off what she’d been told. “Please, stay inside at night.” She shouldn’t have said that last part, but if the people of Astrad were going missing then Rhona needed to do what she could to protect them without causing a riot. They’d be safe inside... she hoped.

“Thank you,” the woman said before grabbing her daughter’s hand and walking away, the little girl looking back at Rhona as she left.

Rhona’s patrol took on a methodical pace as she played the conversation with the woman repeatedly in her head, trying to figure out how something was on a rampage in Astrad and no one had done anything to stop it yet. Had the city guard not known about it? Or had they been directed to leave whatever it was alone to do as it pleased? As she strode past the burned-down husk that remained of the city guard barracks, she noticed something glinting in the distance. She turned abruptly, heading through the rubble to where the wall had caught her eye.

She’d never noticed it before; the barracks had always obscured what was behind it. Rhona had never had a reason to go to the barracks, not after she’d been rejected by the city guard.She’d have never thought to look here had the Corisians not burned the building down.

She stood facing the city wall, a stone archway with a gilded bull’s head above it leading to a path that sloped downward. To anyone else it would seem like somewhere that the city guards could access as needed, but Rhona knew that this was what she’d been searching for for weeks. And here it was, hidden in plain sight.

Ten minutes later she was waiting for Maeve to open her door. Rhona huffed from the sprint that had brought her to the lady’s quarters again. The instant Maeve did, Rhona pushed into the room and closed the door behind her.

“Hello to you too,” Maeve said, looking at Rhona with concern in her eyes. “Did you leave a mark on my door with how hard you pounded on it?”

“I found it,” Rhona said, grabbing Maeve by the shoulders.