“What? You’re not the only one that longs for a soft bed, my friend.”
“Hmph,” the enchanter said, teasing. “Perhaps I’ll join you later.”
“Hah,” Cyrus said. “Just don’t wake me, whatever you do.” He left and turned to go down the hallway. “If someone wants to drag the Baron down to his own dungeons, I wouldn’t complain.”
“He probably would, though,” Longwell said. “I think I can hear him complaining now.”
“Complaining, whining, dying-when it’s a raping, murdering, bastard doing it, who cares which it really is?” Martaina asked.
Cyrus felt his feet clank against the stone as he walked down a hallway that led to the Baron’s quarters. The torches burned, giving it a smoky aroma that filled his nose. There was a soft whisper of leather on stone behind him, causing him to hesitate. “If you’ve come to proposition me, even if I were amenable, I’m far too tired for that tonight.”
Aisling walked past him, her shoulder bumping gently against his armor. “You didn’t speak up against their treatment of women in this land.”
“I gutted the Baron who captured our people and raped our women,” he said, staring at her as she turned to stand opposite him, only a few feet from his face. “I gave away half the guild’s spoils so we could try and give the women a fresh start if they decided they wanted to leave behind this adventuring life. I don’t know what else you want me to do.”
“It’s not only about what you do,” she said in a low whisper, “sometimes it’s about what you say-or don’t say.”
Cyrus let out a deep sigh. “I’m in love with a woman who wields a sword better than any man I’ve ever met save one, a woman who wears heavier armor than I do, who can beat the ass off almost any man she’s ever crossed swords with. Do you really think I have a problem with women being the equal of men in any capacity?”
“Perhaps you’re just a glutton for pain,” she said acidly. “But if you feel that way, why didn’t you condemn it when Longwell told us how it was over here?”
“Because I was too busy listening to Longwell condemn it while he tried to backpedal away from his society’s embracing of male superiority,” Cyrus said, leaning against the wall to his left, resting his glove against it. “I just assumed that we who are here from Sanctuary, where we have a few women officers who help run our guild, would all know that I feel that way.” He paused and glared back at her. “Where is this coming from? Me? Or how things are back in Saekaj?”
“Maybe both,” she said, arms crossed. “You can’t tell me it’s the same for humans, either. How many women are taken into the Society of Arms compared to men?”
“Fewer,” Cyrus said, resting his weight on the wall.
“Half as many, I’ve heard, just in the first trial,” Aisling snapped. “Because the orphan girls who are slight of body are taken to the Wanderers’ Brotherhood and trained as rangers rather than thrown into the Society’s Blood Families.”
“Which is good for them,” Cyrus said, “because it gets brutal there.”
Aisling’s eyes narrowed at him. “Are you saying girls can’t handle a fight like that?”
Cyrus didn’t back off. “I’ve seen many that could. But most were eliminated, yes.”
Aisling’s face broke into a frozen smile, distorted, without any sense of mirth to accompany it. “Pretty little things.”
“Yes,” Cyrus said. “And they were weeded out by the first trial and sent to be scullery maids or serving girls because it was deemed that if they should continue in the Society or the Brotherhood they’d be nothing more than pretty broken things.”
“So what’s the difference between that and here?” Her voice was cool, and her eyes held a hint of disgust. “You can’t tell me some of those scullery maids, in the houses they worked in, got any better treatment than our female warriors and rangers at the hands of the Baron’s men.”
“No, but I also can’t do anything about them, either,” he said, annoyance rising. “I’m not in charge of Reikonos or the Society of Arms or anything, really, save for Sanctuary’s army here in Luukessia and my own self. So if you really think I’m tacitly endorsing their treatment of women, or anything else-pigs and chickens or crops and fields, for example, I’m not. I’m trying to do the best I can to do right by my people. That’s it. Radical societal transformations will have to wait for someone both more visionary and less likely to strike down someone who pisses him off with a sword.”
“They might need the sword and the will to use it if they’re going to radically transform a society in the way you’ve described.”
“Why are you here?” He leaned in closer to her. “Is this because you think I’ll change my mind and give in to your advances if you argue with me more? Because-”
“Don’t insult me by suggesting I’m only here because of some unquenchable desire of my loins to have you,” she said, her voice hot with her temper. “I’ve made clear my interest and you’ve made clear your lack of. That’s fine. I’m giving you my opinion, that’s all.” She didn’t smile.
“Duly noted. But you’ve never been much of one for formalities or arguing, so forgive me,” he said, “for suspecting ill intentions. I didn’t mean to insult you by suggesting-”
“Yes, you did.” She slipped back a step, but it was so subtle he almost didn’t notice, so perfect was her balance and movement. “But that’s all right.” Her smile was back, but it was hollow, unreal. “I’ve come to expect it.”
“I’m sorry,” Cyrus said, and meant it. “I’m sorry if I’ve been unkind to you.”
She smiled, and her expression was more genuine but still tight. “I believe you. And I bid you good night.” She turned and drifted into the shadows of the hall, and he could barely see her as she walked along, toward the throne room.
Cyrus entered the Baron’s quarters to find him on the ground, lying on his side, moaning. Hoygraf’s eyes found Cyrus as he entered the room, and looked around at the rich surroundings, the tapestries and furniture, made as exquisitely as any of the pieces he’d seen of note in Sanctuary. “You know, Baron, you had a pretty good life here before you went and stuck your head in the dragon’s mouth.”
The Baron had a layer of white, dried spittle around his mouth and he grunted, his reply low, straining to get out. “And will … again … after you leave.”
Cyrus squatted a few feet from the man and looked at him. “I have my doubts you’re going to pull through this, honestly. But I tell you what,” he said, cheery as anything to the dying man, “if you do pull through by some miracle, I’ll have one of my women-maybe the one you hanged on the wall of your castle-put another knife in you. And I bet she’ll be less charitable and more efficient in her choice of targets than I was.”
“You … are scum …” The Baron forced his words out in grunts.
“I find insults like that have more effect coming from someone who has the moral credibility to muster some righteous outrage with it,” Cyrus said with a taunting air. “Maybe a priest or something. But from you?” Cyrus leaned closer to the Baron. “Tell me something-did you let your men have their way with the captives or did you get in there and lead from the front?”
The Baron’s cold eyes found his and the man moaned in a guttural pain. Sweat beads were falling off his forehead and he was already pale, paler than he had been before. “Does it matter at this point? Will it save me if I didn’t?”
“No,” Cyrus said with a shake of his head. “They were your men, after all, and in spite of whatever lies you might make up, I have no doubt that the beatings and all else happened with your permission, if not your direction. This is just a chance for you to ease your conscience before you die.”
Hoygraf set his jaw and when he spoke, it sounded like his teeth were grinding. “I have nothing on my conscience to be rid of.”
Cyrus viewed the Baron with cool indifference, watched the blood trickle from between his fingers where his hand rested on his belly. The air in the room stank of excrement and other things. “Are you a married man, sir?”
The Baron looked up at him with hateful eyes. “Presuming you have not killed my wife in your haste to wreck my holdfast.”
“I have killed no women in my siege,” Cyrus said. “The women of the castle were escorted to the village, so I presume she is just fine, wherever she may be. I was only curious about her reaction to your efforts to violate
