Hadrian was desperate.

Royce was left muttering That doesn’t make sense. It should have worked, over and over as if reason, combined with repetition, could convince the door to open. He’d shown Hadrian how to use his dagger between the door and its jamb to catch and flip the bolt. The gap was wide enough and Hadrian had felt something rise and fall away. Royce examined the door and confirmed that the bolt had been removed. And yet, the door still refused to open.

Thoughts of Scarlett bleeding to death on a muddy path while crying out You promised to come back finally drove Hadrian to recklessness. He threw himself against the door, and nearly blacked out from the pain.

“That wasn’t very smart,” Royce said when Hadrian slumped to the floor, and wrapped his arms around his body.

“We have to get in . . .” Hadrian took a gasp of air, just a sip. Inflating his lungs pushed his ribs out and made his body shudder in agony. “Scarlett is dying . . .”

Royce gave the unrelenting wood a frustrated kick, which the door didn’t acknowledge in the slightest; it didn’t even rattle against the frame. “It doesn’t make sense! It should open. You lifted the bolt. It’s gone. That should have work —”

“Stop saying that! Stop arguing with the door and just open it!”

“It. Won’t. Let. Me!” Royce kicked the door again. “The brace is gone. You felt it. I heard it.”

“Is there another? A second bolt?”

“No, there was only the one, and now it’s gone.”

“Then what’s keeping it closed?”

“Damned if I know!”

“Wait —” Hadrian felt suddenly and mortally stupid. “Does it — oh, by Mar! Does it pull open?”

Royce looked at him, and for a fleeting moment Hadrian saw the shadow of shock, almost horror, at the thought. Then it vanished. “No!” he snapped, but he gave the door’s handle a pull to be sure.

“Then what’s stopping it?”

Royce shook his head. “Braced by something. Something I can’t see by looking around the edges.”

“Something strong.” Hadrian rubbed his shoulder and resumed breathing normally, or as normally as a man with cracked ribs could without wincing. “It didn’t give even a little when I hit it. It’s like a wall of stone.”

Royce slapped his back against the door and slid down. He looked sick, and Hadrian was sure his partner’s face mirrored his own. They had failed. Nysa Dulgath and Scarlett Dodge were dead or would be soon.

I shouldn’t have left her, Hadrian thought. I shouldn’t have let her die alone in the rain and mud. But if I hadn’t, Royce might be dead, too.

“Too late anyway,” Royce said in a bitter tone, looking at his own hands as if they had disappointed him. “Fawkes has finished the job by now. Killed her and the abbot. When you visited, did you go in there?”

Hadrian nodded.

“Any other way in?”

Hadrian gave him a look. “Do you think I would have bounced off the door if there was?”

Royce shrugged. “You were the one who asked if the door opened out, remember?”

“No, there’s no other exit. It’s a tomb. At least Fawkes won’t get away,” Hadrian said. “And you’ll hear no arguments from me this time. You can use whichever weapon of mine you want, and kill him any way you like. I’ll even watch. The bastard didn’t just kill Nysa, he —”

The door opened.

Royce, who’d been resting with his back against it, jumped up in alarm. It hadn’t been pulled wide, but merely swung inward in response to the slight weight Royce had placed on it.

“What’d you do?” Hadrian asked, stunned.

“Nothing,” Royce said, glaring at the tiny gap between the frame and the door.

“Take this.” Hadrian got to his feet and held out his short blade.

Royce took it with his left hand, then shoved the door inward with his foot.

The scene inside was mostly the same as Hadrian had witnessed days before. The slanted shaft of sunlight illuminated the chest within the small stone tomb. The differences were Nysa Dulgath, who lay beside the box, her hands folded neatly on her chest, and Lord Fawkes, who stood over her body with a sword in his hand.

The door announced their entrance with a creak of its hinges. Pressing down on the left heel of his shoe, Fawkes spun upon it like a child’s top, facing them.

“Do it, Royce,” Hadrian said. “This is one job that needs to end with a killing.”

“No!” Abbot Augustine came around the chest, shaking both hands to get their attention.

Hadrian held up his own hand, warning the abbot to stop. “We aren’t going to hurt you — just His Lordship.”

“You don’t need to kill him,” Augustine said.

“Need?” Hadrian said. Fawkes had plotted against and murdered Lady Dulgath, not to mention beating and selling them to slavers. Need had nothing to do with it. Hadrian thought of Ralph and wondered whether Royce was rubbing off on him.

Royce didn’t move. He stood holding Hadrian’s sword, staring at the lord.

Fawkes tossed his own sword away, letting it clang on the floor.

Surrendering? Hadrian thought. He has no idea who he’s dealing with. Royce doesn’t care about such things.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

In the three years they’d worked together, Hadrian had learned that Royce refused to abide people like Fawkes. Pragmatic in most ways, Royce never allowed a man or woman to live who had crossed him. While he would never label it as an excuse, his reasoning was that leaving enemies breathing was the sort of careless behavior that came back to haunt and possibly kill. In Royce’s line of work, staying his hand was just sloppy.

Hadrian had his own theory. Violence always came from somewhere. Most often its origin was taught, handed down as an heirloom from one generation to the next or a gift presented from close friends. That sort of mean streak became part of a person’s character and displayed itself through insults and unwarranted cruelty. The other sort was violence born of necessity. Beat a dog long enough and it bites and will continue to bite anyone and everyone, in an act of perceived self-preservation.

Hadrian had known men who had suffered insults all their lives due to their size, name, appearance, or birthplace. These were the first into battle and the last ones out. They couldn’t walk away from even a casual slight and needed to prove themselves to any detractors. These were men who expected the worst of everyone. Royce was a step beyond that. People hadn’t merely belittled or slighted Royce — the world had tried, with strong prejudice, to erase him. Hadrian still didn’t know the whole story, but he knew enough to believe Royce might have been a show dog that, through cruelty, had learned to be more than mean — he’d taught himself to survive through the precise application of malice. For this reason, Hadrian found it odd that Royce hesitated.

“Go on,” he urged. He held a strong belief that Fawkes didn’t deserve even a single additional breath.

Fawkes stared at Royce in a manner that — if the lord had any clue about the thief’s history and temperament — would have been brave. Then he let out an almost impatient huff, folded his arms roughly, and shifted his weight first to his left, then his right hip.

Seeing this, Royce lowered the short sword, letting it hang against his thigh.

“Royce?” Hadrian asked, stunned.

He didn’t reply. Instead, Royce glanced down at the body of Nysa Dulgath, then over at Fawkes.

“Are you going to kill him or not?” Hadrian asked.

“No — no, I’m not.”

“Fine.” Hadrian pulled his bastard sword. “Then I will.”

“No!” Royce stepped between them.

“What’s wrong with you? That bastard killed Lady Dulgath, tried to kill us, and . . . and Scarlett is probably dead by now. Because of him, there’s no way to save her — if there even was a chance to begin with.”

Hadrian wanted to believe the tall tales . . . that the stupid cloth in the box was more than just an old rag; that it really never rained in Dulgath in the daytime. He wanted to believe it all, because then Scarlett —

“Scarlett Dodge is hurt?” Fawkes asked, almost as if he cared.

“Congratulations. You managed to kill one of us,” Hadrian said.

“Where is she?” Lord Fawkes asked with a strange urgency.

“Still on the path where you fought us. Has to be dead by now. Probably —”

“Take me to her!”

“Right after I kill you.”

“I can help.” Fawkes turned to the abbot and said, “Augustine, gather the monks. I’ll need to speak to all of you when I return.”

“Of course,” the abbot said, and bowed to the lord.

Fawkes turned back and stared at Hadrian with intense eyes. “If you care for Scarlett, take me to her.”

“Do as he says,” Royce told him.

“What?”

“I’m serious. I really think he can help her.”

“This is . . .” Hadrian didn’t have an answer. Still, he sheathed his weapon. Opposites Day had stopped being funny a long time ago.

----------------------------------------

The storm had passed, the rain had stopped, and the clouds were breaking up, revealing a setting sun that stained the sky a bloody red.

Scarlett hadn’t moved. They found her curled up and lying on her side in the muddy path. Her beautiful hair was matted into the silt that had built up around her. Dirt smeared her face, and blood was everywhere. Some had already darkened as it dried but around her mouth, still bright red. Her eyes were closed and remained shut even as the horses charged toward her.

She didn’t move.

“Scarlett!” Hadrian shouted, jumping from his saddle and wincing with the impact as he rushed over. He fell to the ground alongside her body and slipped an arm under her neck. She didn’t react. One of her hands slipped off her lap and fell into a puddle, where it stayed. Hadrian cradled her head in his arm and put his hand to her lips.

“It’s too late,” he managed to say as his teeth locked together and he glared at Fawkes.

“No, it’s not,” Lord Fawkes said, climbing down from his horse. “Back, Derby,” Fawkes told the animal. The horse moved away, obeying as if she understood.

“She’s not breathing!”

“She’s still here,” Fawkes said. “I can feel her. She’s not down the river yet. I can pull her back.”

“What river?” he asked, exasperated. “What are you talking about?” But Fawkes had closed his eyes and started humming. “What’s he doing?”

Royce shook his head. The thief watched intently while the lord began making new sounds and speaking foreign words. Fawkes moved his fingers as if plucking strings in midair.

“Royce, what’s going on?”

“I don’t know.”

Hadrian brushed the hair from Scarlett’s face. Tears were welling on his lower lids, and his lips mashed themselves together as he held the woman tight.

Don’t you give up. You hear me? You wait! I’ll be right back!

But he hadn’t made it in time.

If you save her, she’ll save me.

But Nysa was dead.

I didn’t do it because of Royce.

The first tear slipped down Hadrian’s cheek. He let it fall. His stomach was tight, the muscles pulling on his ribs, but he no longer cared.

“It’s all Fawkes’s fault. Why didn’t you kill him?” Hadrian asked Royce.

“Because . . .” Royce looked embarrassed. “Because he spun on his heel.”

“What?”

“When we came in, Fawkes pivoted on his heel — his left heel.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“He’s never moved like that before. He didn’t — but I remember —”

Scarlett jerked violently in Hadrian’s arms. Her mouth flew open and she gasped a loud, gurgling breath. She coughed and bent over, retching blood and vomit. Then, sucking in a breath deeper than any Hadrian had heard before, she coughed again before another breath was drawn. Her fingers clutched at Hadrian and, finding his arm, clamped down and squeezed. Then she pulled him to her, hugged him tight. Her other arm, the hand that had fallen into the puddle, came around his neck.

She blinked several times and looked at Hadrian through clear eyes. “I waited,” she managed to whisper, clutching him. “It wasn’t easy, but I waited. I waited for you.”

Fawkes sat down in the mud, looking tired — more than tired; he looked drained. But he was smiling at Scarlett. Hadrian couldn’t make sense of anything. Couldn’t explain even to himself why the man’s look was so wrong. Such an expression didn’t belong on the face of Christopher Fawkes.

What in the name of Maribor is going on?

“We need to get her out of this mud,” Royce said. “Abbeys have healers, don’t they? Augustine should be able —”

“I’m fine,” Scarlett said, pawing at her stomach where her dress was torn and stained. Where the stab wound should have been, the skin was smooth. “Nysa saved me.”

“Nysa’s dead,” Fawkes told her.

Scarlett looked at the lord, surprised to see him. Then she glanced at both Royce and Hadrian before saying, “But . . . I don’t understand. Nysa came to me, she pulled me back.”

“That was me,” Fawkes told her.

Scarlett stared at him for a long time then finally said, “Like Maddie Oldcorn?”

Fawkes nodded. “Like Maddie Oldcorn.”

“Do you know what they’re talking about?” Hadrian asked Royce.

“They’re talking about squirrels living in bird’s nests.”

“Oh, of course,” Hadrian said. “Thanks for clearing that up.”

“I was hoping you’d remember,” Fawkes told Royce. “All the words in the world couldn’t convince you if you didn’t believe. Come, we need to get back or Abbot Augustine will worry.”

“Well, we certainly wouldn’t want that,” Hadrian scoffed.

“Hush,” Scarlett told him, “and help me up. She — he — healed me, but it’s not like — I mean, I did get a sword shoved through my gut.”

Hadrian helped Scarlett to her feet. She wavered slightly, leaning on him. He could still picture Knox shoving that steel into her stomach and was dumbfounded that she could stand at all.

“We have a lot of work still to do tonight,” Fawkes told them. “The king will want an explanation.”

“I know I’d sure like one,” Hadrian said.

“It really won’t help. The answer doesn’t actually make any sense.” Royce reached out for his horse’s reins and stopped. He flexed his right hand, then tore the splint off and flexed the fingers again. He pulled the splint off the finger on his left hand and felt it.

“I hope you don’t mind, Hadrian,” Fawkes said. “But I’ll have to deal with your ribs later. It has been a long day, and it’ll be an even longer night.”