EIGHT

“Eat this,” Blueleg said, placing a platter on the table in front of Leander.

It had taken the man two hands to carry it.

They were in Blueleg’s private quarters on the third floor of the keep. The window showed beautiful views of the mountains in the distance. The mountains were beyond their King’s kingdom. What was on the other side? What ocean or field or space beyond the stars lay there? Leander had always wondered.

Leander turned back to the plate with a crooked eyebrow. There was a slab of ribs dripping with gravy, Yorkshire pudding, roasted herb potatoes, and flame-roasted vegetables. It was a feast.

He was fed like this before battle sometimes.

He hiked up his sleeves and reached for a Yorkshire pudding. He dipped it in the gravy and heaved it into his mouth. Then he shoved the food into his cheek and said to Blueleg, “Am I going to be fighting my way out tonight? Is that why you’re feeding me this way?”

“No,” the man said, placing a clay goblet of water in front of him. “All the food served in the dining hall tonight is going to be laced in a sleeping draught tonight. Even the Maiden is going to eat it. We don’t need to make your job harder. Let them all sleep like the dead. I’m not even going to send you to bed with the others. If you can sleep, you should sleep here until nightfall.”

“Thanks. That is easier.”

The balloonist took a goblet himself and sat across from Leander. “I have to tell you how we’re going to manage all this. First thing, the Mistress will open the cage for you, so you won’t have to pick the lock.”

“That’s handy,” Leander agreed.

“You’ll go into the cage. Everyone will be drugged, but it would still be wise to be as stealthy as possible.”

Leander snorted within himself. Yet another reason why it was prudent for him to leave his armor out of the equation. He was rarely quiet when he wore it.

“Then?”

“Then you need to remove the key from around her neck,” Blueleg said reluctantly.

“That key isn’t on a necklace,” Leander observed. “It’s not like I can tug on the chain and get it off her.” He looked at Blueleg.

The man looked bored.

“Oh!” Leander exclaimed. “You’re giving me permission to root around her body to find it when you know full well that she keeps it down the front of her dress.”

“Can you do it?” Blueleg asked blandly.

“What on earth would make you think I couldn’t? Of course, I can. I can slide my fingers between a woman’s breasts. I’ve slid my blade between a woman’s breasts. This will be considerably more pleasant.”

“Have you really killed a woman?” Blueleg asked, shocked. “I thought knights were chivalrous and didn’t kill women and children.”

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Leander shrugged. “They dress like men and come on the field of battle like men. When you’re stripping corpses at the end of the fight, some of them are women. Some of the ones I’ve killed have been women. What does it matter when they’re all worm food in the end? It was their choice. They had as much of a right to a glorious death as the rest of us. Fighting for what they thought was right.”

“Oh…” Blueleg said. The moment hung.

Leander kept eating. Talking about death somehow made him hungrier, hungrier for food, for love, and for everything else.

“Oh,” Blueleg said again. “If you’ve stripped women’s corpses, you’ll be able to take the red dress off Faydra.”

“That’s her name?”

“Yes. After that, leave the dress and the key on the bed and carry her out. There’ll be a balloon waiting for you at the north watch tower.”

“The same tower the Mistress took me when I first got here?”

“The very same.”

“Are you going to steer us out of here?”

“No. The balloon with the basket beneath is a gift. Get her aboard, get aboard yourself, and cut the rope like you would a boat.”

Leander laughed. “That’s impossible. I don’t know how to steer a balloon.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. The balloon is magical and it will take you wherever your heart wants to go. What you want is stronger than the wind, stronger than the rain… even thunderstorms. It will go where your heart points.”

“That easy?”

“That’s how all my balloons work. I’ve rigged yours to follow you.”

“How did you do that?”

“I took a bit of your hair when I was prettying you up. It will follow your heart.”

Leander sniffed. “Well, that sounds wonderful. My Wizard would like to have a man as good as you working for him. Ever considered a career in warfare?”

Blueleg frowned. “I like it here. It’s magical… in its own way.”

“Suit yourself? Help me eat. This is too much food.”

Blueleg broke off a length of ribs. “I thought you wouldn’t offer.”

“Nah. I’m happy to. I guess the balloon is my reward for a job well done?”

“You don’t want the girl?” Blueleg asked. Clearly, he thought she was a much better prize than the balloon.

Leander didn’t answer at first. “What am I supposed to do with her? Where am I supposed to take her? I’m a knight. After this, I go back to the service of the King. I suppose she’s aged out of the orphanage, so you don’t want to drop her off there. I can take her back to the castle with me, but I don’t know what sort of future she’ll have there. It all would have been better if she’d chosen a husband here.”

“She was warned repeatedly that she needed to make a choice. When the maidens come here they are advised to take at least two weeks before making a decision, but to take no more than four weeks,” Blueleg explained. “It’s been four months.”

“Oh,” Leander said flatly. “Can’t I give her one more chance to choose someone?”

“No,” Blueleg said, keeping his voice equally flat. “She’s been given more than enough chances. The Mistress met with her every day and spoke to her about it, but got nowhere. It’s a shame you can’t marry her.”

“If I did, she’d be a widow by next week,” Leander said before ripping a bite full of meat off the bone.

“All the more reason for you to marry her,” Blueleg said with an evil eyebrow swagger.

“Well, I suppose I could get her carrying my child by the end of the week, I’ll die by next week, she’ll die in a few months when she gives birth to the baby. Maybe they’ll both die, her and the baby at once. Then we’d really have a happily ever after.”

Blueleg chuckled. “Well, if it’s not one thing, it’s another. I chose to be a balloonist. I used to be two feet taller. The accident that made me this way was completely my fault and if I had it to do over, I’d try to do the same thing again.”

Leander lifted his cup. “Cheers to my favorite kind of idiot.”

“And cheers to you,” Blueleg said with his cup raised. “To the man who kissed the Maiden and got her to kiss him back. If you could do that, I think you can do anything,”

They clinked cups.