The Beauty of Darkness - Mary E. Pearson Page 0,47
see what I saw when—”
“Are you a trained soldier, Your Highness?”
He cut me off so sharply he may as well have slapped me. The sting hissed through the air. So this was how it was to be? I leaned forward, my palms flat on the table, and met his stare. “Yes, I am, Captain, though perhaps trained with a different eye than yours.”
“Oh, of course,” he said, sitting back in his chair, his tone ripe with disdain. “That’s right. The Morrighese army does do things a little differently. It must have something to do with that gift of yours.” He shot a grin at an officer next to him. “Go ahead, then. Why don’t you tell us just what you think you saw?”
The ass. Apparently Rafe’s claim of me as his future queen carried little weight with the captain—as long as the king wasn’t present—but I couldn’t let my pride nor contempt keep me from sharing what they needed to know. So I told them everything I knew about the army city.
“A hundred thousand armed soldiers is a staggering claim,” he said when I finished. “Especially for a people as backward as the barbarians.”
“They are not so backward,” I countered. “And the men I rode in with, Kaden and Griz, can confirm what I’ve told you.”
Captain Hague rose from his chair, his face splotched with sudden color. “May I remind you, Your Highness, we have just lost twenty-eight men to the barbarians. The only way we’ll be gathering information from savages like them will be at the end of a knotted whip.”
I leaned forward. “And it is clear you would prefer to gain it from me in the same way.”
Captain Azia laid a hand on Hague’s arm and whispered something to him. Hague sat down.
“Please understand, Your Highness,” Azia said, “the loss of the platoon has been a bitter blow to all of us, especially to Captain Hague. One of his cousins was a soldier in the unit.”
My hands slid from the table, and I stood straight, taking a calming breath. I understood grief. “My condolences, Captain. I’m sorry for your loss. But please make no mistake. I owe a debt to the men you slander, and if they are not invited to our table, do not expect to see me there either.”
His wiry brows fell low over his eyes. “I will convey your wishes to Colonel Bodeen.”
I was just turning to leave when a door at the back of the room opened and Colonel Bodeen, along with Sven, Rafe, and Tavish emerged. They startled when they saw me, and Rafe’s eyes turned briefly sharp as if I had undermined him.
“I was just leaving,” I said. “It seems you’ve already taken care of matters here.”
I was out the door and halfway down the stairs before Rafe stepped out on the veranda and stopped me. “Lia, what’s wrong?”
“I thought we were going to meet with the officers together.”
He shook his head, his expression apologetic. “You were asleep. I didn’t want to wake you. But I told them everything you told me.”
“About the silos?”
“Yes.”
“The brezalots?”
“Yes.”
“The size of the army?”
“Yes, I told them everything.”
Everything. There were some things even I might have held back. “The traitors on the Morrighese court?”
He nodded. “I had to, Lia.”
Of course he did. But I could only imagine how it lowered their regard for Morrighan and me even further. I came from a court roiling with snakes.
I sighed. “They didn’t seem to believe anything I said about the Vendan army.”
He reached out and took my hand. “If they seem skeptical, it’s because they’ve never encountered barbarian patrols that numbered more than a dozen before—but I told them what I saw too, the armed and organized brigade of at least five hundred that led you into Venda. Trust me, we’re evaluating the measures that need to be taken, especially now with the deaths of an entire—”
I let out a soft groan. “I’m afraid I’ve gotten off to a bad start with your officers, and Captain Hague already dislikes me intensely. I didn’t realize one of the dead was his cousin. He and I had a bit of a clash in there.”
“Bad news or not, Captain Hague is always a pill best taken with strong ale. At least that’s what Sven tells me. I know the man only in passing.”
“Sven’s right. He made it clear he had no respect for the Morrighese army, and he scorned the gift as well. I was as welcome in there as a skinned knee.