The Sword Unbroken - SAMPLE CHAPTERS

Chapter Four: Unexpected Attentions

Rerdas sat in the front room of the grounds house, finishing another coat of polish on the toes of his boots. He eyed the gleaming surfaces critically for a moment and then dropped his foot to the ground with an impatient stomp.

"Etiana! We're already well past fashionably late! Dantin has been waiting for a full season by now!" he shouted, his voice echoing down the hall. Earl Heckly had secured his own invitation from the Duke of Umber and insisted that Rerdas and Etiana could not arrive in a rented carriage, but should ride with him. 

A moment later Hammond popped out of the hall and stopped in the doorway, wearing a contented smile. "May I present the Lady Etiana Toriem," he said with suitable gravitas, stepping aside so that Etiana could glide into the front room. 

Rerdas sat up and looked her over, wide-eyed.

"Is it too much?" she asked, in a tone that said she didn't really care what he answered. 

Rerdas grinned. "You look wonderful. It's perfect."

Dantin Heckly had made good on his promise, and with his help Etiana looked the part of a wealthy noblewoman on her way to cavort with royalty. Her dress had a dangerously low cut neckline topping a corset embroidered with gold. Waves of lustrous black and gold satin made up her voluminous skirt, and diamonds glittered around her neck, on her fingers and in the tightly wound braid of her hair. In spite of all the grumbling she had done earlier in the day, her cheeks were flushed and eyes bright with excitement. When Rerdas offered his arm, she was unable to bite back her smile.

"Good luck!" Hammond cried after them, as they processed across the courtyard and to Dantin's waiting carriage outside the manor gates. They were off to the ball.

Dantin and Etiana kept up a constant patter of conversation as the carriage veered toward the North Inner Ring, where the sprawling Umber estate had long stood. For his part, Rerdas kept quiet, trying not to show too much of his apprehension.

He had promised Etiana that he would attend the ball with her. After all, the Duke had invited them both, although Rerdas assumed his invitation had merely been an attempt to ensure that Etiana would come. The prospect of facing the entire court was unsettling to him. This was the sort of event where drunken lords would take any excuse to challenge people to duels, just to stake their own reputations. Gossip would flow as relentlessly as the wine, and Rerdas dreaded hearing his family name mentioned amid the stream. They had much to hide, and appearing at the ball was a risk.

He shifted uneasily and leaned toward the carriage window, pushing the curtain aside to watch as they rolled onto the tree-lined avenue outside the Duke's estate. It was dark, but Rerdas knew the thick green foliage on the trees was thinning out. Soon the leaves themselves would change, and then collectors would come to call for the Queen's Tax. His thoughts drifted to the man still cornered in their cellar. It made him queasy to think that they had staked so much on him.

Since the incident with the wooden stave, Rerdas had been careful to have several weapons on his person whenever he went into Imalroc's quarters. The fighter had kept up his subservient charade, but Rerdas watched for tell-tale signs of anger. He had to admit that he barely caught any. For a man who had in that one unshielded moment seemed consumed by hatred, Imalroc was remarkably good at hiding it. He was still not an impressive figure, however, and Rerdas was at a loss as to how he might train the man back into fighting shape.

Imalroc was too dangerous to take out of the cellar unchained, but there was not much training that could take place in the bare, cool room. Etiana was struggling to set up a fight for them, and all the while what money they had left slipped out of their hands, one onyx ingot at a time. Rerdas forcibly drew his focus back to the task at hand. Securing the Duke of Umber's favor was their best option.