Page 31 of Our Vicious Oaths
“Tell me your name, soldier,” Malachi commanded.
“Gen … Gen … Gengin,” the redhead answered.
Malachi’s smile was neither comforting nor friendly. “Gengin, I am not here to speak with the warden. I am here to interview soldiers and servants within the warden’s stronghold to ascertain if they hold any knowledge of treason against the crown.”
The sentries looked ill.
“Show me to the banner room,” Malachi ordered. The sentries rose to their feet, and the redhead named Gengin said shakily, “Of course, Your Grace. As you wish. Please follow us inside.”
“You all behave. No eating anyone,” Kadeesha told Zahzah before they left the kongamatos at the gates with Rassa to lookafter them. Passing under the keep’s gates, the sentries tripped over their steps as her instructions to Zahzah reached their ears … which was partially her intent.
While the keep—with the exception of its polished onyx gates—was a drab, soulless structure of gray stone on the outside, it was outfitted in the splendor befitting of a noble’s dwelling on the inside. Rich red-and-gold tapestries and stunningly beautiful portraits of various fae hung on the walls of the corridors they traveled through. Plush runners of the same red and gold ran the length of the stone floors. The ceilings bore murals of pastoral images—woodlands, mountains, lakes, and streams—every twenty or so paces they walked. They were led into the banner room as Malachi had ordered, a noble’s equivalent of a throne room. Red-and-gold banners adorned the walls. Each sported a three-antlered stag in its center. Malachi ascended the steps and turned around to face the empty chamber there. His Cadre marched onto the dais as well and took up position on Malachi’s left side. Kadeesha, uncertain what to do, led Samira and Leisha to stand off to the side at the foot of the dais.
“Are you or are you not owed a blood debt?” Malachi’s question halted her movements.
“I am,” she said, perplexed, after turning to face him.
He waved toward the vacant space on the dais to his right. “Then this day, your proper place is on this dais as well as a part of my retinue. Your people may join you.”
“All right,” Kadeesha responded awkwardly. That was a custom one would never see in any of the Six Kingdoms. A liege lord nor their vassal kings wouldn’t ever, even symbolically, place an outsider in such a position of honor, no matter the reason. Once she, Samira, and Leisha were in place on the dais, Kadeesha stood stiffly, feeling entirely out of place.
“Round up three dozen servants and soldiers apiece. We’ll start with that batch and go from there,” Malachi ordered the sentries that had escorted them to the room.
“We will do so right away, Your Grace,” Gengin said. He and the silent two bowed low and hurried away from Malachi’s presence.
“You’re not afraid whoever might be involved will flee?” Kadeesha asked.
“If they do, it’s just an admission of their guilt,” Malachi answered. “But no, they will come before me.”
“How are you so certain?”
He looked at her, puzzled. “Because I am theirkingand I have previously demonstrated the consequences of making me hunt anybody down.”
And the way he said it made her finally understand exactly what Malachi being king of these lands meant.
Chapter Sixteen
AGROUP OF SERVANTS WERE SENT IN FIRST. THEREwere thirty-six, precisely the three dozen he’d requested. They were mostly adults, but the group also included a handful of gangly striplings on the cusp of maturity. As the anxious fae stood huddled together along a wall, Malachi and his Cadre exchanged gazes, communicating what didn’t need to be spoken aloud. At least not yet. It was, however, quite telling that the sentries had marched servants of a lower station in front of Malachi before they faced interrogation themselves. It could’ve simply been the inflated beliefs of their own superiority, or they could’ve been buying themselves time to cover their own asses when they did have to face Malachi. A smile that lacked warmth curved his lips without him giving conscious thought to it; the sentries would soon learn the error of their ways, regardless of their reasons. One of the young servants, a stripling nearly as tall as Malachi with a scrawny torso and long limbs, gasped at the cruel smile his king wore. Then he began dry heaving.
Kadeesha, who stood directly to his right, hissed in a breath. “You do not really mean to interrogate children, do you?” she gritted out. “I won’t—”
His smile turned more mirthful as he cut a look at her. She was obviously biting her tongue, a first for the archprincess. “I mean to do whatever necessary to extract answers. That is what you desire, right?” His voice boomed, making the servants press closer together and causing the Aether princess to scowl. Both were effects that he’d wanted.
“I will not stand idly by if the young among them are tortured,” she warned.
“But you aren’t concerned about the adults being tortured? Even if they are innocent?” That was a revelation; it spoke of a certain level of callousness he wouldn’t have assigned to her.
Kadeesha’s jaw clenched. “I don’t relish or condone harming those who are innocents.Iwould’ve demanded the guards present themselves for interrogation first, and only turned to servants as a last resort. And even then, I would use a gentler hand with the latter.”
His lips twitched. It was the way she talked about herself, placed emphasis on theI, as if she were leagues above Malachi in every way. Really, her not-so-veiled condescension should’ve grated on him. Yet he had to fight against the urge to seize the maddening woman and kiss her, get her beneath him until she screamed out his name and an apology. Rubbing his freshly shaven jaw, he turned away from the archprincess, severing the ability to look upon her and thus quashing such inconvenient thoughts. Later. Hewouldaddress them and her slick mouth later.
“You—come here, boy!” Malachi commanded the stripling who was still dry heaving. The boy began to violently tremble.
“It’s all right,” Kadeesha said soothingly. “You will not be harmed.”
Malachi worked his jaw. Who the fuck did this woman thinkshe was? “You have no authority here, Princess,” he reminded Kadeesha. It was another matter they needed to set straight; he found himself needing to make that clear to Kadeesha more and more.
“You asked me to be on this dais. You said it is my blood debt that is owed. Did you forget already?” she pressed back, and now his blood was boiling.
