The Girl Who Fell From The Sky - Rebecca Royce Page 0,59

not talking to my wife like that.” Astor stood behind the Baron, which made him jump. “Kidnapping me is one thing, but insulting my wife is something else entirely. In fact, I bet you have Torrin’s total attention right now. That’s what you want, right?”

Baron pointed at me again, as though Astor hadn’t spoken. “I will see you dead. You fall out of the sky and expect to just—”

He was yanked backward, Torrin holding on to his ear. “I think it’s time I added to my throne. It’s never been enemies, but maybe it’s time for a change. What do we think, boys? A new head to the collection? Make your daughter an orphan and your so-called followers leaderless and pathetic? Yep. I think that’s just what I’m going to do. After I beat you in a challenge.”

Held down by his ear, the man stuttered, “I-I haven’t challenged you.”

“You insulted and kidnapped my brother. Now you are yelling at my wife and making accusations that are not yours to make. Those amount to challenges. I’ll see you at six. As the sun goes down. In the main hall. Let’s see you live up to the insults you make.” Torrin actually smiled. He couldn’t possibly be finding amusement in this? “I’ve let you get away with being annoying long enough. The City-State is mine. You all live by my protection. And I’m tired of protecting you.”

I shook my head. It was hard to reconcile the barbarian-king Torrin with the husband who had cared for me so thoroughly last night. It was like they were two different men who looked startlingly alike. Here he was, having spent a terrifying day murdering half-monster Reamers, and now he was going to fight some more? Just because he liked it.

I opened my mouth, but Nox squeezed my hand. I was kind of surprised he was still holding it, but there it was. Mattis still had an arm around me, too.

“Wait,” Mattis said in a low voice. “He’s our leader. Let him lead.”

“If you speak against his challenge, you’ll lessen its effect,” Nox explained, similarly in a near-whisper.

“But he’s been fighting all day,” I said, keeping my voice in line with theirs, so others wouldn’t hear. “Why can’t he let someone else deal with this? And didn’t his father prohibit him from killing Baron the Great?” I was so confused.

Even more so when Mattis laughed. “He’s not going to kill Baron, just humiliate him and make him stand down.”

I wasn’t so sure. I watched Torrin give an order, and two other men hauled the Reamer prisoner away. Probably I didn’t want to know his fate. Cannibals and demi-humans the Reamers might be, but they were still living creatures. One of whom I might have killed today, and at the very least had a hand in killing. That nipped my self-righteousness off at the stem. I still felt the wetness of Reamer blood soaking through my new clothes. Who was I to judge Torrin for his show of force against a slime like Baron the Great?

“Does this happen a lot?”

Mattis replied, “Baron made a play for the throne after their father, the king—after what happened to him. Torrin was really young, just a kid, but he beat the sh—”

“Thoroughly defeated Baron the Great in a challenge very similar to this one,” Nox finished. Not primly, though his interruption wasn’t lost on me. “And the war party has followed Torrin ever since.”

I hid a smile. “So he re-enacts that victory periodically?”

“Well to be fair, Baron the Great does make it real hard not to punch him in the face. Daily,” said Mattis. “But yes, victory in battle is one thing, but all the men seeing Torrin pound on Baron some more will just be the end to a beautiful day.”

This culture was really messed up. And I was both alarmingly and thrillingly part of it. “Do I have to watch?”

Were wives of leaders supposed to observe the beating? My brother and his government were big on optics, and I’d been rolled out on numerous occasions as a decoration or to prove that well, if Brent’s sister is there, the cause must be legitimate. As if he wouldn’t lie right in front of me or something. People could be so willfully blind. I’d always hated contributing to Brent’s power grabs, even as a silent onlooker.

I wasn’t prepared for the charged silence that met my words. Mattis grinned and dropped a scarf-covered kiss on my head, moving away from me.