Tomas Kyriel's Arc

Chapter 4 of 7

Tomas reached the top of the icy steps. Lord Reginald Vance stood against the tall gothic doors of his ice home. He was fat and bald, his purple robe trimmed with white fur. He held a short knife now. Not to fight. He pressed it flat against his own throat. "Come closer and I open my own vein," Reginald said. His voice was quiet and precise. "Then the binding is mine forever. Your soldier chained to you until he rots. I win either way, girl." Tomas stopped. He had a blade made to kill this man. He could not use it. He needed the knife out of Reginald's hand without a single wrong move. One flinch and the old man would open his throat. The curse buzzed in Tomas's chest, warning him to guard Elara, not to gamble her freedom. Elara came up beside Tomas. Her sword hung at her belt in its worn sheath, the metal etched with old runes. She did not draw it. She looked at her uncle with a flat, tired face. "You always liked being the smartest man in the room," Elara said. "Father stopped listening to you. So you'd rather die spiteful than lose." "I ran the kingdom," Reginald said. The knife pressed harder. A thin line of red showed. "I was better at it. That is a fact, not a complaint." Tomas watched the knife, not the man. He needed one clean second. He needed Reginald to stop watching him. So he did the last thing the old man expected. He dropped his own sword. It rang on the ice. Reginald's eyes flicked to the fallen blade. One heartbeat. Elara moved in that heartbeat. Light broke from her open hand, thin and exact this time, not the wide blast from the fight below. It struck Reginald's wrist. The knife spun away across the frost. He grabbed his stinging hand and cried out. Tomas closed the gap in two strides. He caught the old man by the collar and forced him down onto the steps. Reginald was heavy and soft and did not fight. He only glared. "Alive," Tomas said, breathing hard. "You stay alive. And you break it." "I will break nothing," Reginald said. "Not while I breathe." Elara knelt and pulled the fur cord from his robe. She bound his wrists tight behind him. Tomas held him still. The man who could free them was theirs now, caught and cornered, and still refusing. "We can't force the words out of him," Tomas said. "No," Elara said. She stood and looked at the frozen doors. "But he's the king's brother. And the king is inside no answer he'll give us. We take him to someone with power over him." Reginald went quiet. That silence was the first thing that scared him. Tomas hauled him up. They had their captive. Now they needed a way to make him talk.