Page 82 of Kept to Kill
‘Is she restrained properly?’ he asked.
‘Yes, my lord.’ The soldier’s grip on her tightened and made her wince.
The Scholar took her chin and moved her head this way and that as he looked closely at her face. She struggled, but it was fruitless.
‘She can’t be a courtesan, surely,’ he said to the soldier, not taking his eyes from her.
‘She was delivered like this, but by …’ the soldier lowered his voice to a murmur, ‘one of the ones you’ve been watching. Perhaps they believewesent her.’
The older man’s face gave nothing away as he continued his perusal of her flesh, raising her arm and looking intently at the skin of her fingertips.
‘Is it just the hands that kill?’ he asked conversationally, and it was a long moment before she realized he was speaking directly to her.
‘Answer,’ the soldier behind her said gruffly and shook her.
‘No,’ she muttered and left it at that.
The Scholar looked surprised. ‘So if one of these men were to touch your face …’ he asked.
‘He would die,’ she answered. There was no point in denying it.
She thought he looked a bit more intrigued. ‘Your hair?’
Her brow creased. ‘I— I don’t know.’
‘She’s stronger than the others I’ve examined before,’ he said, stepping back and removing his gloves. ‘Keep her.’
‘In the dungeon, my lord?’
He rubbed his bearded cheek as he considered. ‘No, closer. I have some tests I’d like to perform on her. Useherold room,’ he said – somewhat bitterly. Whoever this other woman was, the First Scholar seemed angry with her.
‘Yes, my lord.’
Another soldier appeared at the archway they’d entered from. ‘The Brothers you summoned are here, my lord.’
Lily looked up, hoping it would be her unit come to save her somehow, but the three large men who trudged in, though alike in stature to Mal, Bastian, and Quin, were definitely not them. And they weren’t dressed in black either. Did Brothers ever not wear their blacks?
She was pulled to the back of the room. The Scholar ordered the man who held her to stay and listen. She kept her head down, watching three sets of feet go past her. Thankfully, no one seemed interested in her or her bared body at all.
‘I called you here because I need a job done for me.’
The largest one, their leader it appeared, leveled a look at the man, clearly not intimidated in the least by his authority.
‘You must have heard by now that we have quit the Brothers.’ He sneered at the Scholar. ‘Everyone knows you’ve got your ears everywhere, Nixus.’
‘Yes, I had heard that the second-in-command of the Brothers and his unit had left the Army,’ Nixus spat. ‘How convenient it must be to be able to cast off such a mantle at will. But the fact is, I have a job and I need Dark Brothers to do it. I need you to retrieve a witch I’ve heard about in the south. I’ll pay you well.’
The three men looked at each other for a moment before the leader answered again. ‘The payment is unimportant. We have other plans that don’t include trailing after some hapless female,’ the leader said in no uncertain terms. ‘What of your personal unit? Greygor made you school them for all those years at your academy, give them access to the volumes here for his personal plans in return for your own unit of loyal Brothers.’ He grinned insolently. ‘Are you afraid that if you let them leave your side, they won’t return?’
Lily watched the Scholar’s lips thin into a straight line, the only sign that he was angry at the Brother’s words. Clearly, he was not used to being spoken to thus.
He let out a huff and waved his hand, dismissing them with the brusque gesture.
The three Brothers turned, each one fighting a smirk, Lily noticed. She didn’t lower her eyes quickly enough, though, and their leader’s met hers.
He looked surprised for a moment, as if he hadn’t noticed her before. His eyes did not travel down her naked body, for which she was thankful. Neither did those of the other two.
As their gazes locked for that moment, she realized there was something familiar about him, but she couldn’t place where she had seen him before. She tried to get a second look, but they were gone.
