Brynn Tallow's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Brynn Tallow wore her crown to breakfast, but no soldier stood at her door. She owned the black stone manor, the silver on her fingers, and the old claim to a throne her bloodline lost three generations back. She owned no army. A crown without spears is only a hat. She had summoned one woman who might change that. The mercenary came up the drive at noon. Brynn watched from the high window. Her raven shifted on her shoulder, feathers catching purple light. Below, the woman did not knock. She tried the door handle, found it locked, and leaned against the black wall to wait. Rude. Brynn liked that better than a bow. She met her in the entrance hall. Kara Ironside was the sellsword captain she had paid a courier to find. Scars cut across her brow and cheek. She looked at the crown, then at Brynn's rings, and did not kneel. "You whisper," Kara said. "I heard about that. Lady who gives orders soft because she's never been told no." "My men obey." "You have no men." Kara crossed her arms. "That's why I'm standing in your hall." Brynn kept her voice low. "I have gold. I have a claim older than any crown now sitting in that palace. I need a captain to put steel behind it. You take companies for coin. I'm offering coin." "Coin runs out." Kara pushed off the wall and walked a slow circle around her. "I've fought for three lords who couldn't pay past spring. I buried my own men for them. I don't bleed for a title and a nice house." The raven clicked its beak. Brynn did not flinch. She understood then that gold alone would not buy this one. Kara wanted proof the claim was real, not just words in a cold hall. Brynn drew a folded paper from her furs and held it out. "The bloodline record. Sealed by the old court before mine was driven out. Read it." Kara read. Her jaw worked. She had expected a liar. "This is true?" "Every line." Kara folded the paper and kept it in her fist. "Then here's my price. Not just coin. I lead. In the field, you don't whisper orders over my head. My company fights for you, but they answer to me first. Agree, and you get an army by the first frost." Brynn's hand tightened on a silver ring. She had never shared command with anyone. The whisper that bent her servants meant nothing to this scarred woman. But a shared army was still an army, and words alone had earned her no spears. "Agreed," she said. Kara spat in her palm and held it out. Brynn looked at the rough hand. Then she clasped it. The raven lifted and settled, as if sealing the bargain. The claim had steel behind it now. It also had a second will beside Brynn's own, one she could not command with a whisper.