“Many congratulations, lady knight,” the Governor says. “It seems your time here is at its end.”
Hellions never sail out this way. I'm the only reason one would.
“Thank you.” I place the letter carefully back in its tube.
“You have proven obedient and loyal,” the Governor says, as if the taste of apple doesn’t still linger in my mouth. “Here. Sit with me.” He gestures to the table where he spends most of his day, covered with a small feast of expensive foods that the Governor has hoarded for himself. A bowl of dried, shriveled stone fruits. Pickled vegetables. A plate of golden-brown biscuits. Two small glass cups next to a jar of wine.
I’m not used to him treating me with any kindness. What if he was using the spyglass on Malkin and me, and this is a sick punishment for the apples?
But no, his change in personality makes sense. I was sent here as a witch, and now the Hellion's approach proves my innocence.
Pulling out a chair, I sit opposite the Governor. My mouth waters at the sight of the food.
“Eat,” the Governor says. When I hesitate, he nods and smiles.There’s a desperate glimmer in his eyes that I don’t like as he watches me.
“Thank you.” I reach for one of the biscuits with my left hand. I really don’t need the luxury, when I’ll be gone from here soon enough, but after two years of only food from the sea, scurvy grass for our health, and the occasional stolen treat, I can hardly say no.
“You are no doubt eager to restore your name,” he says as he pours wine into both cups.
“I’m eager to return to the war,” I agree. The Witch King has haunted my dreams, and I need him gone.
My lips close around the pastry. It’s so dry I can barely bite into it, and have to settle for gnawing off a flavorless corner. It must have been baked months ago. The Governor licks his lips.
“I… should wonder what you will say about the Bluff,” he continues, his voice pitching higher.
With a frown, I lean back in my chair and look at him. He pushes one of the cups across the table towards me, but I don’t reach for it.
“Why?”
“It’s a miserable little shithole, isn’t it?” the Governor says. His voice takes on a whining quality. I chew slowly, still grinding through the same tough bite, and stare at him. I feel like I’m trying to eat rocks.
Whatever misery I’ve lived through here has mostly been at his hands. The barren landscape is depressing, but no worse than the witch lands where I’ve spent my life fighting for our people’s safety.
And then something shifts in my head, and I remember what I’ve spent the last two years, insult by insult, slowly forgetting: that a knight commands respect.
That I am the adopted daughter of the Exalted War-Father.
By the tides, the man in front of me is worried what I’m going to say about him. About how he’s treated me and everyone else here. And the food he’s offering me—it isn’t because he’s realizedI’m innocent of witchcraft. It’s because he knows as soon as the Hellion arrives, I’ll have the power to crush him under my boot like a bug. True, the rule of the isles isn’t under the War-Father’s command, but nobody cares about the Governor if they’ve stationed him all the way out here.
I place the biscuit back on the plate, only the corner missing.
“What do you want?” my voice comes out sharp. The Governor gulps visibly.
“Lady knight…?”
“From me. What do you want from me.”
“...To go home,” he whispers. I stare at him without expression until he bobs his head and continues. “My bitch sister inherited everything. I petitioned to be given a position,anything, and what do I get? Governor ofthis.” He throws his hand out towards the windows. “Murderers and whores and filth. I’m like you, lady knight. I don’t belong here. If I could just…”
“You’re nothing like me,” I interrupt.
The Governor wets his lips again.
“I mean no disrespect, lady knight. But surely, after ten years of loyal service, I deserve…”
For two years, this man has treated me like shit stuck to the bottom of his boot. And now that the War-Father’s ship is visible on the horizon, too far north to be on patrol, too far west to be headed anywhere but the Bluff, he suddenly thinks I’ll take his side?
“You don’t want an imperial knight for an enemy, so you think you can bribe me into forgetting the last two years,” I suggest calmly.
