In the Veins of the Drowning(25)

My mouth went dry. A tremor had begun in my muscles, either from the cold or shock, I couldn’t say. I fought against it and gave Lachlan a tight nod.

The lead guard pulled the massive door just wide enough for us to squeeze through sideways, and one by one, we wound our way through Fort Linum’s entrance like a silent serpent. The wind had cleared the sky so only the bright, swollen moon and a speckling of stars filled it. It lit the pale stones an eerie, watery blue. Agatha and I huddled against the fort’s rough wall. A gust whipped my hair up and into my eyes while the six guards spread through the courtyard, swords drawn, checking the smears of shadow cast by the pillars.

Theodore faced me and stepped nearer, his body cloaking me in sudden warmth. “Swear fealty to me now,” he said, low and close. “Before you leave Nemea’s domain and while there’s a witness. This way he won’t be able to claim you were stolen.”

I scowled and held the vase tighter. “You can’t possibly think it will matter to him. And how will he know? He’ll respond the same regardless.”

“It matters to me,” he said. “I won’t have the disloyalty of stealing another king’s subject in the night as a nick on my crown.”

My scowl only deepened.

He stepped even closer, gaze bearing down on me, and my breath caught. “Considering what I have done for you tonight, the least you can do is bend the knee.”

I held his glare for three beats of my hammering heart. It turned my stomach—kingdoms and the inane rules that shaped them. I did not want the gravel cutting into my knees. I did not want to step from one ruler’s fetter into the next. The responsibility of honoring, and kowtowing to, and obeying another man who would not do the same for me in turn. And yet it was the way of things.

I turned to Agatha and shoved the vase at her. “Hold this.”

With the courtyard cleared, the guards came back and made a wall around us. Lachlan leaned in, sounding nettled. “Quickly, quickly, if you don’t mind.”

I shot him an icy look. Then begrudgingly, shakily, I lowered myself to my knees. The gravel was as sharp as I’d expected. “What do you want me to say?” Theodore looked so severe staring down at me, his nose and brow highlighted in the moon’s opalescence.

It was Lachlan who answered. “Make it up.”

A gust ripped through us, raking my damp hair into the air. I clawed it from my cheeks and met Theodore’s gaze with as searing a look as I could muster. “I denounce the ruler of the Isle of Seraf.” Another gust boomed. Cold and howling, it pulled tears from my eyes. It muffled my soft words, sent a chill over my body. “I… I swear my… loyalty—”

Theodore lowered himself to his knees before me, his eye to mine, and my every thought dissipated. He was close enough for me to whisper and still be heard. My brow buckled with confusion at the gesture.

He gave a sharp nod. “Quickly.”

I fumbled through my memory for the long and dismal oath I’d made to King Nemea when I’d been younger. “I, Imogen Nel, pledge my loyalty to you, King Theodore Ariti of Varya. I… will try… to honor you in word and deed, will and action. Before Eusia—” I shook my head. Cleared my throat. “Before the Great Gods, wherever they may be, I swear it.”

The side of his mouth gave a wry downward curve. “You’ll try?”

I nodded. “I swear it.”

He gave me a hard look and helped me to stand. The shaking in my limbs was too much now to hide and Theodore steadied me with both hands at my waist. Agatha watched us with astonishment as she handed me back my vase.

“What?” I asked.

She shook her head, eyes blinking rapidly.

The group split up. Theodore and I, accompanied by four guards, hurried toward the stairs that led down to the stables and entry gate. Agatha remained with Lachlan and the sixth guard. We came to the edge of the first step and my vision rippled at the abrupt, shadowy drop.

“This is the way you entered the fort?”

“Yes.” Theodore set warm fingers to my elbow when he saw how I swayed. “They’re uneven. Some are very short. Others are much higher than they should be.”

“There has to be another way.” Panic skittered over my skin, through my chest. “Nemea couldn’t have made all the guests climb these.”

“My lady—”

“I’ll spill it. I can’t see three steps down in this dark and I’ll misstep and spill it and we’ll all die for it.”

“That’s a possibility.” There was not a flicker of emotion in his voice, but his gentle touch on my elbow firmed. “But if you do not move forward, death—yours, mine, Agatha’s—is a certainty.”

Behind us, the wind screamed around the edge of Fort Linum in a pained warning. This was not where I wanted to die, in the place that had made me small and frightened. I straightened my spine under Theodore’s scrutiny. The man who thought he knew me—who’d called me a coward. I adjusted my hold on the vase and took the first step down.

My progress was too slow. I felt with my bare foot for the edge of the step, making my way down with Theodore’s hypervigilant aid, and feeling certain that I would never be warm again. My teeth clicked loudly in my skull. My whole body shivered. The silk robe I wore whipped against my bare legs. I stopped on a particularly narrow stone tread and tried to calm my trembling.