Page 76 of The Sun He Buried

He opens the door.

“Ketill.”

He glances back.

“Send a healer to the guard.”

His concern disappears under a warm flare that irritates me more.

“I assumed you meant to let him bleed for educational purposes.”

“Lose the ear.”

He leaves before I decide to help him with that.

Voices rise through the floor as Ketill reaches the hall. Baldr asks after the guard before his own room. Ketill answers. My brother thanks the stable boy by name. He doesn’t pause to hunt for it.

Solveih says something too quick, then laughs at herself.

Her ease comes with it, bright through the bond. It fits around my brother as if he’s done nothing more difficult than hold out his hand. Baldr doesn’t even have the decency to sound false.

The black bottle stands behind the east ledger.

I pour.

The rim meets the rune over my mouth. The silver lets the ale through, and nothing else.

No Dróttin before me cut that rune. They took the mask off in private for a cup, bled for it, sealed it back—a fair trade, for a man who stops at one.

I haven’t stopped at one since the dinner.

The first cup is gone when someone knocks.

“Enter.”

A travel-worn soldier steps inside. Melted snow darkens his collar, and the red cord at his shoulder marks the eastern companies. He bows with a sealed letter held against his chest.

“My Dróttin. General Varrik requests a private audience concerning the winter levies. He asks leave to present himself within the week.”

“No.”

Solveih’s pleasure brushes hot beneath my ribs. Baldr’s voice follows from below, patient as daylight.

I set two fingers against my temple and press. It changes nothing. She doesn’t live in the skull.

The soldier still hasn’t moved.

I wave him toward the door. “Was there a second request hidden behind you?”

“The general said the matter shouldn’t be written.” He offers the letter. Varrik’s black seal catches the lamplight. “He instructed me to place this in your hand.”

“Then you’ve discovered the limit of his reach.”

The man lowers the letter. “What answer shall I return?”

“No.”

His jaw sets. He shuts his mouth.