“Prove it. Kill him.”
My throat tightens and I take a step away from the prisoner. Oh, how I wish I could.
“I can’t.”
“You are to obey me in all things,” the Governor squeals.
The fucking witchsnorts.
“The War-Father said he wants the witch alive. I obeyhimfirst of all,” I say.
The Governor looks at the King of Witches and clenches his fists.
“Bow to me,” he says. The witch stares back at the Governor without moving. “Bowto me,” the Governor tries again, more loudly, like he thinks that’s the trick to commanding the spell.
“Harfor said he was Enchanted to obey me,” I remind the Governor. The Governor’s eyes flick between us as his little brain tries to figure out what to do from here. It would be better if it were just the three of us on the docks, but everyone else is here, too, watching. The Governor is not a man who handles humiliation well.
I hope the War-Father doesn’t plan to leave me here for long. It’s going to be one punishment after another.
“Bow to him,” I mutter, and the Witch King bends ever so slightly at the waist. After two years, I finally remember the way it feels to work the enchantment. He won’t disobey me again. I won’t let him.
The Governor straightens and sneers.
“You and your new little friend will scavenge the rockfield for driftwood…”
“What?”I snap.
“...While the rest of the castle feasts. An armful each, before you can come back inside. And then, you will clean from the meal.”
“Intheseconditions? We just went!”
The witch turns away from the Governor, watching me instead. But he stays silent.
“Clearly you didn’t try hard enough before,” the Governor sneers. “Teach you to laze about when I set a task.”
“We brought in everything there was.” From the corner of my eye I watch Malkin lift a hand to her throat.
“Then you'll have a long night.”
I stare at him in tight-lipped annoyance, breathing hard through my nose. Storms are dangerous on the rockfield on the other side of the castle. There’s nothing there to break the wind, and it howls for miles, coming off the ocean with uncut fury. To say nothing of the size the waves can reach in conditions like these.
I’m angry, and I’m tired, and I don’t know how to explain, even to myself, how I feel. By the gods, I cannot spend the rest of my life living like this, and all for a crime I did not even commit, and do not even remember.
At least the witch is being punished alongside me.
The Governor takes a step toward me, trying to intimidate me. I’m not scared of him. But a small, fragile part of me still wants to believe the War-Father could call me home tomorrow, and disobeying the council’s orders isn’t going to help my case.
“I need my sword.”
The Governor barks a laugh.
“Still making demands, are you? They don’t want you back, bitch knight.”
The witch narrows his eyes, but the insult rolls off me like water.
“Do you want me to watch the prisoner or not? Considering I’m the only person on the isle with the skill to doanythingabout him…” nevermind that he’s Enchanted, it’s idiocy to leave me unarmed with a prisoner this dangerous.
The Governor’s lips curl down. He looks at the witch for a moment.
