Warlord's Ward

His History

"What?" I twisted to look up at him. Too shocked to realize that we were a hairsbreadth apart.

He gave me a wan smile and a soft look before returning his gaze to the vase.

"Her name is Baila Lae."

"Sister by blood?"

"Yes." He chuckled. "We grew up together and were very close. All of us."

"All of us?"

"Yes." He smiled sadly. "I had a family once, Jade. Does that shock you?"

It does.

"I can't imagine you being part of a happy family."

"Why not?" He tilted his head in curiosity.

"Because you're a killer. So severe and quiet. And your rage feels like it always simmering just below the surface."

"Hmm." He grunted. "You're not entirely wrong."

We were both quiet a moment.

"She is my rage." He gestured weakly toward the tiny billow of gray beneath the glass.

"Why do you not take her and go."

"I don't know the entirety of the spell that binds her."

"How could you not?" I asked breathlessly.

"Because it was Hawk that conducted the spell. At the King's behest."

"Why would you let him do that?"

"I didn't know he was. He was only a tiny boy then but already incredibly skilled."

"Why can't you ask him? It seems as though you've mentored him."

"I have. I've tried to get it out of him. But he truly doesn't know the depths of it."

I gave him a questioning look.

"It was a spell he did from a book of Seals that King Detry possesses. Hawk didn't even know what all it entailed." Warlord sighed. "And he certainly didn't know the girl was my sister."

"That is why he obeys you so thoroughly."

Warlord blew a thoughtful breath. "Both from remorse and fear of what would happen the day I decided to seek vengeance."

"You would destroy him." I supplied.

"I could. If I wished."

"But?"

"I don't. He was only a boy. As much a victim as Baila. And she'd never have condoned me harming him in retaliation." Warlord smiled fondly at the glass as though he were exchanging a secretive look with his sister even now.

Though there was clearly no expression or even a face on the tiny shell of a creature trapped in the fragments of light and contained in the glass.

"What would she think of you keeping me?"

He didn't move from the glass but turned his head to me.

"She wouldn't understand." He admitted.

***

"Why?" I queried.

"Because she wouldn't want me to hold any woman captive. She'd be ranting in my ear. But when she knew what the consequence would've been, had I let the King find you, she'd have agreed I did the only thing I could've."

"What would he have done to me if you hadn't claimed me."

"He'd have had you cleaned up and he'd have wanted you for himself. But as it stands...There are options."