Page 11 of The Sundered Realms

Silence.

“My orders were only to bring her to the castle,” Lord Vhannor said. “You’ll release her at once. With my apologies for the untoward treatment.”

His voice did not give any indication that this was a matter of compassion, or that he was angry.

The Lord of Embhullor had given an order, and he expected it to be obeyed precisely. That was all.

Liris’ heart kicked up as a guard cut the ties around her wrists and moved behind her.

So Lord Vhannor, not the marshal of Yenti Castle, had been the one to order her brought in, but now he made a show of releasing her. And stating his apologies rather than instructing the guards to offer theirs? This only made sense if he needed her cooperation for something—

The blindfold came off.

Liris’ eyes had adjusted to darkness, and for a moment the only part of the room that came into focus was Lord Vhannor.

She judged him in his early thirties, maybe a couple of years older than Jadrhun. The same golden skin tone as Jadrhun, too, and eyes with epicanthic folds, though Vhannor’s were narrower and his spiky black hair cut short, the wildness contained. He was only a little taller than Liris, but he filled the room with his presence.

It wasn’t just that he was beautiful; he didn’t appear to be using that at all. There was something in his square jaw and broad shoulders, in the way he wore no symbols of his rank at all beyond the expensive material of his otherwise utilitarian pants and short coat, in his calm but unyielding certainty as he regarded her with the full focus of his attention that said nothing would stop him from getting what he required.

Or maybe it was his piercing eyes, an almost lavender-gray that practically gleamed against his dark hair.

This was a man who knew exactly what he was capable of, and it was a lot. He would not hesitate or be swayed, and that meant she was in danger.

A blink, and the rest of the room came into focus.

An office: Lord Vhannor stood in front of an impressively massive slab of a wooden desk covered in papers. Nothing she could easily make into a weapon, especially not with him in between.

Only two guards now, on her sides and not between her and the door. Possible. The faded rug they stood on covered most of the room, but there was uncovered stone at the edges—

“This is her,” Tenoti piped up eagerly.

Liris kept her expression even with an act of will as Tenoti stepped forward from the wall.

“I am no one worth your attention, my Lord,” Liris said past the hot ember burning in her chest, forcing her gaze to drift to the ground like she was overwhelmed.

“Liris, don’t be like that, I already told him about all the languages you know,” Tenoti wheedled.

Liris bit her lip as if embarrassed. “I may have, ah, overstated the breadth of my knowledge—“

“Oh come on! I showed him the one you’re teaching me, and also what I remembered from your notes, so he knows—“

Void it, he’d seen Thyrasel. Or whatever approximation Tenoti had reproduced. This wouldn’t work.

Liris abandoned the pretense and glanced at Tenoti at last. “My secrets are not yours, to violate or to tell,” she said coldly. “But I see you will sell whatever you hold to the highest bidder. Let the world bear witness to how you honor your bargains.”

Tenoti blanched. “No, wait, that’s not—“

Lord Vhannor cut in. “We don’t have time for this. Liris, please come here.”

She didn’t move; he needed her for something, and she would use that. “Tell me why.”

His eyebrows shot up. He wasn’t in the habit of people not leaping to do his bidding, apparently.

And that did what she needed it to do.

One guard took that as a signal to seize Liris’ arm and drag her forward, and she braced herself and tugged him sharply toward her.

The guard stumbled, and now she moved.

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