Page 83 of Fragile Oath

The rosemary seems to have wilted in your absence, but I’m coaxing it back to life. It’s resilient that way, useful not only for remembrance, but for weathering that which would destroy a more fragile plant.

With a pang,I thought of my rosemary charm on the bracelet I still couldn't bring myself to look at. I heard everything Papa didn’t say. That he missed me. That he knew something had happened, but he trusted me to weather it.

All our love,

Papa and Mama

Then there wasa postscript written in a different, equally familiar hand.

PS. Gray was never your color, darling.

Warmth seeped through me,filling up the parts of me that had been cold and empty and damaged since I left them behind.

I rolled the letter back up, wondering at the speed of their journey, if Mama had traveled by horseback, if Davin’s men had seen them home, or if it had been unnecessary. Somewhere in the furling of the letter, and the picturing of Socair, an idea formed in my mind, a small way to help.

Even if it meant asking Gwyn for a favor.

ChapterThirty-Six

DAVIN

Gwyn’s thunderingknock woke me before the sun even had a chance.

“They found him,” she announced as she burst into my room.

I barely had time to wipe the sleep from my eyes before she was digging around in my trousseau, throwing a tunic and a fresh pair of trousers in my general direction.

“Come on,” she complained when I wasn’t dressing fast enough.

“Gwynnie, darling,” I said while half-stepping into my left pant leg. “What in the hell are you talking about? Found who?”

“Edgar,” she spat, and suddenly I was wide awake.

The guard who had helped Alexei sneak Galina out of the castle.

I quickly slid my other leg into my trousers and threw my tunic on over my head. Gwyn tossed my boots at me, and I threw them on without bothering to lace them. All I could think about was how close we were to answers, and how much I wanted to make that bastard pay.

I wasn’t sure what state I had expected to find him in, but I wasn’t sad when his eyes were blackened, his lip bloody, and his clothes torn.

He scowled at us as we approached his cell, his muscles clenching like he was bracing for a fight.

“Did we check for a false tooth?” I asked.

“Yes,” Gal said from the corner of the room where he was examining a white molar under the low light of the lantern. “It was the first thing the soldiers did when they found him.”

Edgar spat on the floor, showing us just how he felt about losing his only way out of this. His expression was set in determination, just like the others had been. He wasn’t going to talk, not even with the threat of hanging.

That’s what they had all wanted, a quick death rather than giving up an ounce of information on their cause. Even if it meant innocent men, women, and children would die for that cause.

I considered that and the fact that if we were in Alech right now, there would be other ways to extract information from him. Bloodier, but potentially more likely to provide results.

“And we’re absolutely certain he was one of the men on duty that night?” I asked.

Gwyn stepped closer, crossing her arms over her chest. “Yep.”

I nodded once, gesturing for the guards to let him out of his cell.

“I am going to be honest with you, Edgar,” I said, rolling up the sleeves of my shirt. "I absolutely loathe traitors, especially when their actions cause harm to the people I have sworn to protect and the people I love."

---