A Crown Of Blades(ARTK, Book 3)

Chapter 49-50

Manor 12th,3330 A.G

  "Oh- godsfuck!" Eudo cursed after missing his second bird of the day. The army were not allowed to be completely still for any length of time during their breaks; given construction work or training or just something to keep busy, during all but two days of the week. It would be different if they were traveling or had just finished a battle- but Eudo still did not intend to spend those two days doing nothing. He were supposed to be one of the queen's greatest warriors, and as a Queensguard to a woman who knew damn well how to protect herself- he spent much of those days simply standing.

So often times, when his gaurd shifts were over- he'd join those training or spend his entire off days with them. One could forget the skills that made them a warrior, or so he were told.

Hunting still forced him to move his body.

"Let that one go." Andruche shrugged. "Was a tiny fucker anyways."

Eudo sighed. That hadn't been the point. He'd been decent at hunting the snakes back home. He'd killed many people, so a damned bird shouldn't be so difficult. "It were still right until the arrow grazed it's feathers-"

"Birds tend to fly, my friend." Andruche stifled a laugh. They were silent for a while as they walked through the snowy woods, until Andruche pointed to their side and laughed again. "Look. Can you imagine if we all had the same shame as rabbits?"

*check in editing- you got an idea in your head that you thought was funny and couldn't be bothered to do actual research on it*

Eudo frowned, failing to see what he were talking about- until Andruche moved his chin and pointed through a cluster of three trees. Between them, there were two rabbits fucking.

Eudo laughed then too.

"We'd all be walking around naked, doing it in the square or behind someone's bedchamber window as they were trying to sleep." Eudo grimaced at that memory. It weren't so funny when one hadn't been able to sleep for more than two days.

"What about that beautiful village girl you mentioned once?" Andruche said and hit him on the arm in a jesting tone. "Surely you'd like to get in there. And imagine how much easier it would be if we were all naked all the time-"

Andruche saw how quickly his friend's face fell and knew when to shut up, so he did. He couldn't know the full story, of course- very few did.

Arabella, her family, the men who did it to them, and him- as far as he knew. Not that it were any of his business who she felt comfortable enough with to tell, but he'd always felt.... happy weren't the right word for it.

Not with what she'd gone through.

Arabella were as beautiful as he said, but because of that night he doubted she'd ever feel truly comfortable naked in front of any man- let alone multiple. He could expect nothing from her, and he'd long since understood that.

As well as he could at least, having never been through something like that himself.

"She is....." Eudo gulped. "I believe I do love her. We've spent very little time in each other's presence, but I would die for her all the same. And it isn't mine to tell I just.... don't believe we'll ever have that sort of relationship."

Though Andruche shook his head, he knew what this was. Eudo was an honorable man, so whatever had happened to this girl; he would keep to himself. Andruche did consider himself to be slightly less honorable than Eudo, but he would respect this.

Andruche thought back to when he first came into the queen's service, how he'd spent the night before his Dedori departure visiting his dead son's aunt at the whorehouse. They hadn't done anything besides talk, but nevertheless he'd paid her for her time. They spoke of everything from his son's birth to death, to the day her sister were born and how she were apparently a handful as a child. She'd told him a story of the time she had to chase her through the streets and crowds of Dedor because she thought it was humorous, how when she were fifteen and started working she'd convinced her first client they slept together(yet they hadn't) by getting him so drunk he remembered nothing in the morning.