Twist and Turns, page 10
Malvo passed a full plate to her, then dug into his own, his table manners as impeccable as always. She remembered how he’d seemed to hang back during the fighting, his sword unused, his face pale. She didn’t want to fault him for his behavior, remembering her own self-doubts after discovering her hidden skill. He’s likely been protected by well-trained men his entire life, she told herself. He has no need to fight for his life because others are paid to do so.
Still, it didn’t sit well with her. Especially compared to the bravery that Braken had shown. But here sat Malvo, gobbling down the best the inn had to offer while Braken and the others were bedding down in the straw and feasting on scraps. It doesn’t seem right.
“Today was certainly interesting,” Malvo murmured after taking a sip of wine. “Not what I expected.”
Linetta took a bite of the sliced meat covered in gravy and chewed. It felt like rubber between her teeth. When she didn’t respond, Malvo continued unabated. “I know these surroundings are nothing compared to what you’re used to, but after what I saw today, I’ve come to believe you aren’t a woman completely bound by her station.”
She wasn’t sure where he was going with his words, so she nodded, allowing him to continue while she picked at her plate. “I’ve never seen a noble female with such prowess with a bow. Where did you learn it?”
“My father taught me as a lark,” she lied, then took a small sip of wine. “I just happened to be good at it, so I pursued the skill.”
“Your father doesn’t seem the type of man who is prone to larks,” he replied with a grin. “Nor the type who would allow his daughter to practice with a weapon.”
“There is the face he shows to the public,” she said in what she hoped was a breezy tone, “and the man he is behind closed doors.”
“Indeed,” Malvo said with an understanding nod. “We all keep parts of ourselves hidden, don’t we?” He set down his fork and took another sip of wine, then he stared into her face. “There is something, though, that I fear I may not be able to hide for much longer.”
Linetta looked up at him, worried by his tone. Malvo’s face was a study in how a man on the cusp of love should appear. “I know that my title is no match for your own, but I know now that you aren’t as conventional as many of the others who hold our rank. I hope, my darling lady, that you might see a way to—”
She could see where he was going and knew she couldn’t let him finish his thought. “Please excuse me,” she said suddenly, standing without warning. Pressing her hands to her stomach and affecting a look of pain, she ground out her words in a rush. “Dinner doesn’t seem to be agreeing with me. I need to...rest.”
Dropping her napkin on her plate, she fled the room. Mrs. Rainer looked up from her post at the bar, startled. “Something wrong, dear?”
“Nothing at all,” she said, affecting a smile. “I’m just awfully tired after today’s travel. May I have the key to my room?”
“Of course. Let me show you the way.” The innkeeper led her up the stairs to a room overlooking the street. “This is our finest chamber. Please don’t hesitate to ring the bell”—she said, indicating the pull cord near the bed—“if you need anything.”
“Thank you,” Linetta said, then closed the door and leaned against it, letting out a long breath of relief. How, in the multitude of worlds that make up the Web, am I stuck here with no memory, an angry bodyguard, and a nobleman about to profess his love for me?
She undressed slowly, wondering what she could do to get out of this mess. Lord Malvo is interested in allying himself with Linetta Cimmera, either for advantage or because he has genuine feelings for her...er...me. But I don’t feel the same way. Malvo was handsome, charming, and chivalrous, but he didn’t make her swoon inside.
Still, I can’t give up this chance to learn more about myself before I reach the capital. I can’t just break things off and hope they won’t be awkward or worse for the rest of the journey. Rejecting Malvo outright is impossible.
That meant she had to go along with his little romance, or at least not turn him down explicitly, until they reached their destination or she recovered her memory. With a last look at the windows to make sure no shadows lurked outside them, she blew out the candles and climbed into bed.
This isn’t going to end well, she thought as she stared into the dark.
***
“I’ve always wanted a large family,” Malvo was saying as he rode along beside her the next morning. “My own family was small, and I often wished for more brothers and sisters to share my life with.”
Linetta nodded distractedly, her eyes on the forest that ran close to the road. She was sure someone was in there. Someone, or several someones, were keeping pace with the group, just out of sight, she was certain of it.
A shiver wracked her, and she turned away, trying not to let her paranoia run rampant. “Do you have a chill, milady?” Malvo asked, removing his coat and holding it out to her. “Please, wear my coat and warm yourself up.”
“What do you think happened to the werewolves?” she asked, ignoring his offering. “Something must have happened to them to cut off their howling like that.”
Malvo’s brow wrinkled, the corners of his mouth turning down. “I do not know, milady, but rest assured they won’t return to bother us again. We fought them off with aplomb, and any creature should think twice before attempting to rob us again.”
It wasn’t the answer she wanted. Blind confidence wasn’t enough to overcome the fear that gnawed at her belly. She turned her gaze back to the forest, seeing Malvo lay his coat over the pommel of his saddle out of the corner of her eye. A few minutes later, he held out another offering, this one a water skin. “You must be thirsty, milady. Please help yourself to my water skin.”
“Thank you,” she said, taking a draw off the skin and swallowing the water. It did little to refresh her, her mind too focused on the dangers around them. Still, Malvo keep up his chivalrous gestures, sharing his skin and handing out occasional morsels he’d packed away from the inn, mostly bits of dried fruit and sweets.
“I’ve been saving this one,” he said as he passed her an ornate chocolate in the shape of a swan. “It’s a rare prize, but I can think of no finer person to share it with than my beloved.”
As she reached for the chocolate, she heard a gagging noise from behind her where Braken was riding beside Finrik. Linetta stiffened, but she refused to turn around and dignify the soldier’s behavior by acknowledging it. Sure, Malvo is laying it on pretty thick, she thought, but at least he’s not pouting like a child.
Sleeping in the stables hadn’t seemed to agree with the velox. He’d been cranky all morning, barely speaking two words to her. Things only got worse when they stopped for lunch under the noonday sun. “This looks like a perfect place to stop,” Malvo said, calling his men to a halt in a clearing of sorts. The forest was twenty paces from the edges of the road on either side, and scattered in the grass before it was a half-dozen boulders of various sizes and shapes. One seemed to make a natural table of sorts, and Malvo gave orders to his men to pull two of the small rocks over as makeshift chairs.
Linetta watched him bustle around, barking out instructions as his men did his bidding, laying out a tablecloth, then filling the table with a picnic of sorts. As she stood, brushing the dust off her britches, Braken came alongside her, crossing his arms over his broad chest. “Is that a vase with a single rose?” he asked, jerking his chin at the table being set.
She ignored him, knowing he was only mocking Malvo. “What’s with the ‘beloved’ stuff?” he asked when she didn’t answer him. “Isn’t it inappropriate to address a noblewoman like yourself in such a way?”
Her brows shot up at his words. Now he cares about what’s appropriate to say to me? After everything he’s said? “He’s harmless,” she said, waving away Braken’s concern.
“That doesn’t look harmless to me,” he said, laughing and gesturing toward the tower of cakes the men were assembling.
“Shhh,” she said, glaring at him. “Don’t let him overhear you.”
“Since when did you become so protective? I didn’t hear you complain at all when I was forced into the stables last night.”
“Perhaps there weren’t enough available rooms,” she said lightly.
“That inn was nearly empty,” he grumbled. “Just like Malvo’s head.”
“Be nice,” she warned.
“What’s his deal, seriously?”
Linetta sighed. “I think he has some sort of crush on me,” she admitted, keeping her voice low. “It’s meaningless.”
“Harmless and meaningless, eh?” His brows furrowed. “Are the feelings mutual?”
“Why do you ask?” Linetta replied. “Afraid I might keep you in the stables the entire trip?” She’d meant it as a joke, as a means not to have to explain why she couldn’t reject Malvo out of hand.
Braken didn’t find her joke funny. “I saw him giving you little sips and feeding you out of his hand like he was taming some wild creature. Maybe that’s what you like.”
“Look, Malvo is a gentleman. Well dressed, well spoken, and kind to offer his protection on our journey.”
She felt him stiffen beside her, saw his hands balling into fists by his sides. “You would fall for a man like Malvo,” he bit out, his words full of rough edges. “All appearance and no substance. But when the going gets rough, it won’t be Malvo saving your ass, milady.” He said the last word with a mocking tone.
“Come, milady,” Malvo called at the wrong moment. “Come join me for lunch.” He gestured grandly at the table he’d finished setting. Braken grumbled under his breath, then walked away, across the road to sit alone on a boulder and eat.
Linetta wasn’t pleased about the situation, but there wasn’t much she could do. Although part of her wished it was just her and Braken as it had been in the beginning, there were too many reasons not to leave the group they’d found. She joined Malvo at the table, marveling over the spread he’d set out for them. “This is something.”
“It’s nothing for my beloved,” he said, and she heard the sound of choking coming from Braken’s direction.
Chapter Fifteen
Late in the afternoon, they crested a hill, and Linetta caught sight of a city in the distance. The sun seemed to hover just above it, setting its roofs ablaze in a golden burst of flame. She gasped, unable to help herself.
“What is that place?” she murmured. “It looks like a mirage, like it will disappear when we get too close.”
“It’s Gelder’s Glen,” Braken responded, his features seeming more relaxed than earlier. She even caught a smile playing around the corners of his lips. “It’s said to be the first place where Fae shaped gold, and pieces from the Gelders there fetch a handsome price on any world in the Web.”
“It’s beautiful,” she said, a bit breathless.
Braken looked at her, his mouth opening as if to speak, then closing again. He looked away, and shutters seemed to close behind his eyes. “You really don’t know about Gelder’s Glen?” he asked, his tone disbelieving. “It’s also renowned as the Fae Realm’s biggest and best shopping district.”
“Of course I know the Glen,” she said, affecting a blasé attitude and shortening the name in an attempt to seem in the know. “I just haven’t seen it from this angle before is all.” Braken stared at her, his expression guarded, until she propelled her horse down the hill, leaving him in her dust.
The city itself seemed to be made of gold, although as they got closer, she could make out more details. The roofs were not made of the precious metal as it appeared, but the tiles were formed out of an alloy that shone in the sunlight. The walls of the buildings were formed of plaster made from sands the color of melted gold, and bits of colored glass were decoratively pressed in their surfaces to increase their reflective shine. Even the walls around the city looked like they were made of gold bricks, though Linetta assumed they’d been painted to give off that impression.
Still, making her way through the gates, she saw a city built on wealth, down to the evenly-spaced cobblestones that shone beneath her feet. “I have a reservation at the Gilded Grimoire,” Malvo shared while they made slow progress down the crowded city streets. “We will rest here for a few days while I conduct some business.”
“I’m not going to cool my heels here while you peddle your trinkets, or whatever it is you do.” Braken scoffed.
“My plans are to make a few trades and gather supplies for the remainder of our journey,” Lord Malvo replied stiffly. “And it is uncouth to expect such a sensitive lady to spend all day, every day in a saddle.”
Finrik snorted, slapping a hand on Corvo’s back. “Didja hear that? Calling Linn a sensitive lady. You saw the way she shot that bow like a vengeful demon.”
Malvo’s eyes narrowed, and he scowled at his man, causing Finrik to stop laughing and stand up straighter. He then turned his gaze to Braken, who failed to wither under it. “My orders are to get the Lady Linetta to the capital sooner rather than later. That means there’s no time to wait around for you.”
“Your orders?” Malvo asked with a confused countenance. “I thought the Lady Linetta gave the orders. Aren’t you her footman?”
“Her leafing footman? I’ll tell you what—” Linetta hurried to slap her hand over Braken’s mouth, leaving him sputtering beneath it.
“A few days will be fine,” she said, talking over Braken’s angry noises. “I’d like to do some shopping myself, since the Glen is where all the fashionable ladies find their fripperies.”
Malvo grinned and inclined his head. “As you wish, milady. The inn is this way.” The nobleman turned down a narrower street off the main drag, and Linetta released her hold on Braken.
“What are you doing?” he hissed at her. “Why are you being so deferential to that creep? I know you’re as eager as I am to get back to the capital.”
No one seems as eager to get back to Exeria as you do, she thought but held back from speaking. “Come on, I don’t want to get lost.” She nudged her mount forward, following Malvo and his retainers.
The inn was painted in a deep shade like amber honey, its roof just as shiny as the rest. The wooden sign hanging out front was of a gold-encrusted book next to a candle that made the symbols on its cover glow. Stableboys were lazing in the lengthening shade of the stables off the courtyard when they made their way in and dismounted.
Jiff whistled to alert the boys who dragged themselves out of the shadows to fetch the horses. Corvo and Finrik followed to retrieve the group’s possessions, while once again, Jiff hurried off on foot at Malvo’s instruction. Linetta wondered where the valet was being sent. Jiff said little, always dancing attendance on his lord and doing little else. So where does he keep disappearing to?
The inn’s interior was as ostentatious as its exterior. Everything seemed to glitter and shine, from the candelabras to the goblets and plates. The image of gold was everywhere, so much so that it almost hurt her eyes to look around.
Malvo marched off to find the innkeeper while Linetta lingered near the fire, feeling lost. She’d been staying in unfamiliar places for days now, a new location almost every night, and it was starting to make her feel more and more unmoored. The longer she existed in this state of limbo, with no memories of her past and no idea of her future, the more she struggled to feel like anything was as it should be. If I’m unsure of my own reality, how good a judge can I be of any reality?
Braken was behind her suddenly. She could feel him there without having to turn around. The desire to close her eyes and lean back into him hit her with the force of a blow, but she resisted, instead standing quietly and staring into the flames.
“Let’s go,” he said softly, putting his hands on her shoulders and making the need to melt into him stronger. “You and I. We can find another inn, leave early in the morning. We could be back to the capital in a few days. No need to wait around for Malvo and his miscreants.”
“That’s not fair,” she said. “His men have been polite and helpful. They aren’t miscreants.”
“What does it matter?” he said, and she could tell that his temper was being tied down with a fraying rope. “We don’t need them. I’ll get you home safely and quickly, if you trust me.”
She turned around, searching his face. He kept his expression schooled, and there was a shielded look in his eyes. “I’m staying,” she said at last. “I like traveling with Malvo. He knows how to talk to people.”
She hadn’t meant it as a slight against Braken, but he took it as one. His eyes narrowed, and his demeanor turned frosty. “You don’t know what you like,” he grumbled. “But I know what I want. To get you to the capital and be rid of you!”
His words hurt, and for a moment, she thought she saw regret in his features, but it vanished quickly enough that she wasn’t sure if it had been there in the first place. “You can leave at any time,” she struck back, her tone prim, her body stiffening. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” Linetta walked toward Malvo, who was speaking softly to the innkeeper.
She didn’t look back, didn’t want to look back. Arguing with Braken always ended up with someone hurt and usually both of them. He sometimes seemed so impossible to talk to. Okay, most of the time. But that didn’t mean she enjoyed losing her temper with him. She took a deep breath, then fixed a smile on her face as she reached Malvo.
“Here is your key, milady,” he said, handing her what appeared to be a gold-plated room key. “It’s to the finest accommodation that can be had in the city, of course.”
“Of course,” she parroted, beginning to wonder if anything ever went not as expected among nobles. “Could you please have your men bring my things up to my room? I would like to get some air.”
“Certainly,” he called after her as she set off for the door. Braken was nowhere to be seen in the common room, so she had to assume he was outside. She stepped into the courtyard, scanning the area for Braken with no sign of him. Corvo and Finrik were sitting on stacks of saddles, passing a bottle back and forth.
