The Ivory Knight

Chapter 22

"You did."

"I was drunk."

"So?" 

Adeleina glared at him.

"Why did you kiss me back?" she fired back at him. To her surprise, it came out louder than she'd intended, and the tables around her and Rowan's fell silent as heads turned to see the commotion. Adeleina flushed and ducked her head. Rowan glared at her, then glared at the watchers until they turned away.

He, however, was saved from a reply. A raunchy-looking wench had sashayed over. She slid a bowl of steaming stew and a plate of bread each to the Adeleina and Rowan. With a gap-toothed smile and a suggestive wink at Rowan, the wench left the table, her hips still swaying. Rowan watched her leave, his eyes on her behind.

"Stop that," Adeleina hissed, snatching her bowl of stew and bread. 

"Why? It's a free kingdom."

"Sit somewhere else. I will not be seen in public with someone like you."

"You know, princess," Rowan snarled, his own voice positively dripping with contempt. "I would, but there's no space."

Adeleina could say nothing more to that. So she sat and ate silently, her eyes fixed on her stew and her entire being coiled as if to pounce. Or, perhaps to flee.

Dinner, suffice to say, was an uncomfortable affair. Adeleina said nothing more to Rowan, who did likewise. When Damien finally located them, Adeleina had been just about ready to explode with anxiety.

"What took you so long?" she said accusingly. Damien gave her an apologetic shrug.

"Sorry," he said shortly. "I have news--" Adeleina raised an eyebrow. "--But we have to go upstairs. This isn't for anyone's ears to hear."

Adeleina grudgingly followed him upstairs, her travelling sack in hand. Damien, it turned out, had managed to get three separate rooms this time, which both he and Rowan seemed very glad of.

"So?" Adeleina threw her sack on the floor and sat on her creaky bed. Rowan leaned against the wall, looking very moody, and Damien was pacing the floor. The floorboards squeaked with every step. 

"Several messengers from Corandell have passed through this inn," Damien began. "Alecsander is holed up in the castle. From what I've gathered, no one else has been killed since the first night."

"Why?" Adeleina spat bitterly. "Why hasn't he killed them all? He's capable of it."

Damien gave her a level look. "What's a tyrant, if he has no subjects to rule?"

Adeleina glared at the floor. She had no answer.

"There's already talk of dissent amongst the Corandellish. Word has reached all corners of the kingdom that Seva had taken over the castle. Alecsander hasn't sent his men to all the fiefdoms yet, but it's only a matter of time."

"His men?" Adeleina broke in. "Aren't they all mercenaries?"

"No. That was my other point: Alecsander has sent word to his father, apparently. Seva troops are making their way to Castle Corandell as we speak."

Adeleina jumped up, her mind blazing with fury.

"What?" she shrieked. This time, she didn't really care who heard her. "Where did Seva get its own soldiers?"

"Seva is a big kingdom," Damien said hesitantly. "I imagine King Seva has offered the Honor's Coin . In a penniless kingdom like that, there's no doubt many men would jump at the chance for money."

"Honor's Coin?"

"It's when a king offers money to those who sign up to be soldiers."

"He didn't offer them the Coin," Rowan spoke up, his voice dark. "He offered them the Stygian."

"What?" Damien and Adeleina both turned to Rowan, surprised by his contribution and confused at the same time. 

Rowan lifted an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "The Stygian?"

"Er..." Adeleina looked at Damien, who looked back, equally confused. "What's the Stygian?"

Now, it was Rowan's turn to look confused. He held two fingers up and rubbed them together, as if showing them something crumbling to the floor. "The Stygian. You know, the disgusting rubbery black stuff Sevans put in their tea? It makes them go mad. Once you take your first sip, you can't stop. It's what makes King Seva so stinking rich while the rest of the people are piss-poor."

"Oh," Damien interjected. "You mean resin?" He looked at Adeleina, who gaped in surprise.

"He's drugging them?" she asked. "That's ourageous!"

"He's not drugging them," Rowan pointed out, as if he were explaining something extremely simple to a dull-witted child. "You can't drug someone when they're already drugged."

"They're hardly competent soldiers, then, if they're stark-raving mad," Damien said scornfully. 

"They're brutal," Rowan said coldly. "They have no fears of anything. Besides that, they're desperate men. Desperate men aren't any better than wild animals."

A chilling silence fell over the room as Rowan finished.

"How did you know that?" Damien suddenly asked sharply, turning to Rowan. "How did you know about the resin?"

Rowan gave Damien a demeaning look. "I've been to many places, fool. Seva is hardly the worse kingdom there is."

"What are we going to do, then?" Adeleina asked, her mind still on the bleak situation in Corandell. Her throat was clenching with panic. "How could it even be possible to defeat an army of a thousand mercenaries and a thousand more Sevan brutes?"

Damien's jaw was tight, and when he spoke, it was through gritted teeth. "This isn't a one-sided war, Adeleina. It's not like Dale has no means of attacking...or defending."

"Oh, I'm sorry for forgetting about your coffers of heaping gold," Adeleina said bitingly. At the instant hurt and shocked look on Damien's face, however, Adeleina immediately felt bad. A moment of silence prevailed.

"I'm sorry," she offered softly. "I didn't mean-- I just-- I'm... worried," she finished stupidly. Rowan snorted.

"We're all worried," Damien said testily. He didn't meet Adeleina's gaze, and she felt the knife of guilt twist. 

Rowan looked ready to object, but he prudently closed his mouth.

"Sorry," Adeleina said again meekly. She was a terrible person.

"It's alright." Damien gave a feeble brush of the hand, and Adeleina knew that it wasn't alright at all. "I'm going to go to bed."

He left the room without a backward glance. Rowan followed him out silently, after giving Adeleina an exasperated shake of the head. You're an idiot, he mouthed, before strutting out the door himself.

Adeleina collasped onto her own bed, her chest hurting and her mind swirling with thoughts of her father, the Stygian, and her two travelling companions.    

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A word on mercenaries:

Hired help wasn't actually all that uncommon. Most kingdoms didn't have the resources to constantly maintain a good army. Sure, there were knights, and all lords swore fealty and did their best to try and provide a fighting force, but it wasn't enough. Most of the time, a kingdom's army was a temporary one, where the king pays a thousand or so mercenaries to win the war for him. Of course, this lead to rather unreliable armies, and treachery was too easy to come upon...