A War Of Traitors( ARTK, Book 2)

Chapter 85

Juhna 20th, 3329 A.G

In her dreams, Nara walked through the ruins of House Ashhand. It'd been some years since the attack, as things grew where they shouldn't have and the blacksmith's had appeared abandoned- gutted of anything useful. It was strange to be back here again- Nara thought.

  Despite it being the warm period, she wore a long tunic and fur coat- only adding to the strangeness of it all. She found her golden-handled dagger on a table in what remained of a commoners home- one wall and another that'd melted over the ground. It felt sharper than even she kept it, to the point it sliced her after lightly dragging a finger over it.

  Then, somehow-  when she looked up Renard was there too. Only it wasn't him.

This Renard was far too skinny, in torn breeches that smelled like vomit and shit. Scars and fresh marks covered his entire chest and both of his arms- while his beard he'd always kept close was long past his nipples. There was a crazed, almost begging look in his eyes as he sunk to his knees before her.

  "Oh thank the gods-" He cried. "Please- please kill me..... please......."

  "What?" Nara frowned, confused. She would not kill him. She couldn't.

  "Please- please I'm ready-" he grabbed for her right hand, holding the dagger- and somehow mustered enough strength to put it to his throat. " I cannot do it myself. I don't care how it happens.... Just.... Do not let me suffer this world any longer please-"

  "I'm not going to kill you." Nara pulled her hand away with the intention of leaving, but he pulled her back. For whatever reason- Nara didn't fight him.  "What are you-"

  "Do it!" He choked out. "Coward just do it already! Choose!"

  "I won't-"

  Renard's hands shook as he pulled her arm forward, plunging the dagger into his neck. Nara's eyes widened as she reached to catch him, stopping him from falling forwards and deepening the wound. The light left his eyes quickly. He truly had been ready, perhaps for months-

  and then Nara woke up with a gasp.

She did not allow herself to think of it anymore. That image wasn't something she wanted to hold onto- especially since she'd started dreaming in memories. They'd planned on him sailing out early in the morning, and the bedroll beside her was empty- so she quickly rose. Her hair looked like it hadn't been brushed or rebraided in a few days (it hadn't)- but there were mostly soldiers and traders who looked just as rough in the shore market, so she left the tent without hesitation.

She found Renard close to the waters- eating oranges straight out of a jar while he watched a few soldiers row to Auricula with his things.

  "You didn't wake me." Nara complained, her arms crossed.

  "You looked peaceful-" he shrugged, reaching into the jar again. "Something almost no one gets to see-"

Nara punched his arm hard while he laughed. "Stop it-"

"Laughing, you mean?" His smile was contagious, and before long she was laughing too. "Forgive me, my queen. I hope in time you will learn I-"

Renard could not get another word out before she punched him again and they both laughed even harder.

Though he'd been half-joking, her real smile was rare nowadays- the laugh even more so, and so he could not help the way his heart leaped from his chest....

but the smiles did not last. He would leave just an hour after they'd started- when most of his soldiers had boarded ships and were still waiting on their commanders.

Andre and Nara stood with their escort of twenty Kroban- there to see the others off. She hadn't thought much of Uwen asking to ride with them- to see his lover off, but after seeing his sacks in a rowboat she understood. He would not be coming back with them.

  As he and Tuyon climbed into the rowboat, Renard forgot how to speak. He could not ask to change their plans now.... but he was frozen in place.

  Nara reached for his hands and held both of them for so long that she too- did not want to let him go. "You are my husband- and though a consort, my king. I l.... I enjoy your company. And..... I will miss you."

Disappointment nearly flooded his face. He and everyone else could understand what she were going to say, and it was something he wouldn't have minded hearing. Instead, she'd admitted something entirely different- words no one had heard from her mouth before.

  "And.... I you." He said, forcing a small smile before he let go of her hands. Nara watched as he stepped into the rowboat and sat between two soldiers. Since they'd met, he'd gone from a lord of a small island- who acted like it, to a true king with rather impressive swordskill. "Goodbye. When we see eachother again we will be Queen and king in Dedor again, and my sister will be dealt with."

  Nara nodded. Tuyon and Uwen stepped around her, sitting in the last free spots on the boat.

  "Be careful." She said. "The people in Sharean are not so......."

  "Accepting?" Tuyon finished her sentence. "I'd rather be stoned in my sleep than pretend to be something I am not any longer-"

  "Be careful." Nara repeated. "That is a command."

  Even now, with those loyal to her because their home was melted down too- he got some strange looks from the Kroban guard. They lingered far back enough not to hear the conversation, but Tuyon and Uwen were sitting closer than others on the rowboat. Kroba was no Praris, and even there people were killed every day. For a moment, she'd gotten a headache over Tuyon taking a lover that weren't already traveling with him.

  "I need my best advisor alive." She continued. "That is also a command."

  "Of course, my queen." He finally answered. "I would not dream of... leaving you too."

  Terricus.
Lillian.
Her father- though he'd been a piece of shit.
Thorne.

  Nara allowed them to go then, though she and the others watched until they'd gotten to Auricula and the rowboat was brought up. Oatship and Ashwood had been filled, and only a few dozen moments later all three started bringing their anchors up.

  Nara turned to Andre.

  "Let's go win a few more battles- shall we?"