The door slams behind him as he storms out.
For a second, no one says anything.
Glancing around, I then clear my throat. “So…I take it he doesn’t like being Fake Rip?”
“He’s grown weary of it,” Slade replies.
Lu snorts. “That’s one way to put it.” Her dark eyes flash to me. “It never used to bother him before. He used to like it in the beginning. It was good for him too. Taught him some good things.”
“What changed?”
“He started to resent that he wasn’t himself,” Lu says with a shrug. “Can’t really blame him either.”
My eyes flick to Slade. “Why did you decide to be your own army commander? That ruse can’t be easy to maintain.”
“I became a soldier so I could better learn how to protect Drollard and to discover more about Orea. The signing bonus was a big incentive too,” he says with a shrug. “We needed the money, and Fourth was recruiting, and they didn’t care about age. But I soon realized I was good at being a soldier. Even more, I realized I liked it. I quickly worked my way up, faster than anyone else ever had, using only my physical strength. Fighting always triggered my spikes, so I let it be part of my soldier persona. It set me apart.”
“I bet it did.”
“I never used my rot magic. Never wanted to,” Slade says. “But Fourth’s king was a tyrant, and by the time I hit twenty, I realized how much dissent there was in the kingdom. The king was also doing things at the border that could’ve jeopardized Drollard’s secrecy. So, I decided to take my other form and challenge him for his crown with my rot magic. I won, and Ravinger became king, while Rip became commander. I made sure to quell any pushback by using both forms and keeping my identities separate.”
“And you still wanted to lead your army after that?”
“The army is unstoppable with Rip,” Judd chimes in. “He’s stronger, faster, and more alert. His fae instincts have helped us win more battles than I can count. And his spikes scared the shit out of people. He became notorious in his own right. The rumors of the two of them alone were enough to keep people in line.”
“Commander and king. Seems like a lot of work.”
Slade tips his head. “I had to win a lot of battles when I took position because of other kingdoms trying to test the new king’s weaknesses. But it’s not as if I could just rot the world, so I met them on a battlefield instead. Grew Commander Rip’s reputation. Once that was established and our army’s strength was realized, the challenges stopped.”
I nod, taking this all in. “And so your brother fills in for you as Rip when you need him to?”
“Yes.”
“But what does Ryatt want to do?”
All three of them look at me blankly.
I gape at them. “You’ve never asked him?”
They look a bit sheepish now.
“Alright. We’ll just…table that for now. But maybe sometime, you could…retire Rip?” I offer. “And Ryatt can either lead your army for real, as himself, or do whatever it is he actually wants to do—which you’ll find out, when you ask him,” I say pointedly to Slade.
He flashes me a smirk. “Noted.”
“Alright, I’ll go to the Perch to get that message sent off, and I’ll make sure the caregiver knows we need our timberwings ready as soon as they’re finished hunting,” Lu says as she starts to walk toward the front door. She pauses just at the doorway to the hall and looks over her shoulder. “Don’t do too much this time, Rip.”
Slade stiffens but doesn’t reply. She sighs and then walks off, the door closing after her.
As soon as she’s gone, Judd jumps up. “I’m going to go get the damn wine while she’s out. I know she stashed it somewhere. Whistle if she comes back.”
I can’t help but smirk.
Judd looks at Slade just before he disappears down the corridor. “I’ll get food and water packs ready and start closing up the house, too. You go do your thing, but like Lu said, don’t do your thing too much.”
When he walks off, I frown over at Slade. “What are they talking about?”
His steady eyes settle on me. “Well…there’s more that I haven’t explained about the rip.”
Slade and I enter the cave, the dim blue shade surrounding us in its subterranean midnight. I let my head tip back, let my gaze run across the shadowed dips and curves of the ceiling. The fingers of the stalactites reach down, pausing in their grasp, while the little clouded beetles cluster together against the fluorescence, making their whole bodies glow.