Stalemate | A Rise To Power

𝘈𝘶𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘺

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"He wants to see you."

Audrey glanced up at Chege, assessing him in silence where he stood in the doorway to her bedroom. She did not need to ask who he meant.

What is Landon trying to do? She was painfully aware of the wedding looming ahead, giving her little option except to play along. She had one night left before the coronation, then another before she was bound to Landon in matrimony.

"Now?" she asked. It was night and her hair was down, out of the braid she wore during the day or while she was out. She didn't know how to stop how brown her hair was becoming; the redness was slowly fading from it, becoming a duller colour than the auburn it had previously been.

"I'll be out in a second," Audrey said.

Chege bowed before walking out, leaving her time to pull on a dress over her shift. Her left hand retained a scar from where she had slit it on Landon's sword, but she decided not to cover it with gloves and tied her hair into a messy braid before walking to where Chege was. They climbed the stairs to Landon's chambers together, and Chege waited outside while she went in.

Landon was idly throwing a knife at a wooden beam, his wrists flicking with each precise motion. Hunter brought it back to him each time, the fox's teeth clenching the hilt and pulling it out.

"We're going to be married soon," Audrey said.

"Shut the door." Landon took the knife from Hunter's jaws again.

"Shut it yourself." Audrey stood her ground. His voice always demanded obedience, but she chose to ignore it.

Landon's hand stopped in mid-air, poised to throw.

"I don't mind if others can hear," Audrey added.

Landon put the knife down and stood, closing the door while Audrey watched.

"What do you want to tell me?" Audrey demanded, refusing to let fear take over her. He was just a ruined boy, she reminded herself.

"After the wedding and coronation, I'm going to travel to the villages for more soldiers, and you're coming to help enlist them." Landon said, sitting down and throwing the knife again. When Hunter went to get it, Landon spoke a sharp command in Xiakyaore, the old tongue of the north, and the fox slunk away to sit at the foot of his bed. "For the survival of our kingdom, as the South are so merciless that they would not spare any of us."

"That's a lie," Audrey accused.

She got a wry smile in response. "You would be surprised at the number of people who cannot tell the difference between my lies and truths." Landon gestured for her to sit but Audrey remained standing. He sighed as if she were a petulant child.

"Could Aldric?" It was always an easy card to play. "Do you keep me alive because of him?"

"You're like a puzzle just waiting to be pieced together," he said. "You have nothing to lose. It makes it more interesting for me. So naïve yet such a fighter." He sighed. "I'm waiting for you to realise that there is nothing left to fight for."

"Don't pretend it's about the puzzle I bring," Audrey shot back.

"Aldric had everything." Landon's eyes fluttered shut for a moment. "He was the good fighter. The charmer, the heir. You had an older brother." His eyes flickered open. "Don't tell me you never lived in his shadow."

"I loved him too much to care," Audrey replied, trying to prod at the shield he kept up and find the inevitable weaknesses. "You can't claim the same for Aldric, even if you pretend you did."