Page 104 of Keldori By Daybreak

“I’m sorry, okay? Let me go, and I won’t have you both arrested for assault!”

I reached into his other pocket and found a length of delicate chain. I pulled it out and let the precious opal pendant hang loose from my hand. The stone glinted with the same glow as the veins that spiderwebbed up the stunk of the giant willow at the citadel’s center.

“Is this yours?” I asked.

“It’s—” He cut himself off and licked his lips.

“Doesn’t really look your style,” Ciarán tutted.

“Clashes with the Baron’s uniform,” I agreed. “Who’d you take this one from, then?”

“No one!” the guard insisted, and then whimpered in pain as Ciarán twisted his hand. “I don’t take anything from anyone! They give it willingly, just like you gave me your Skal!”

“And when you and your guard friends break into their inns? Do they give willingly then?” I snarled. “You take advantage of people. Weary and sick travelers seeking refuge that they can only have after you bleed them dry.”

The guard spat at me, and phlegm splattered against my cheek.

The subsequent cracking of his finger bone was drowned out by his howl of pain.

“You weren’t supposed to actually break his fingers!” I hissed through the tether, wiping Kamryn’s spit from my cheek.

Another finger snapped.

“It was an old woman!” Kamryn sobbed. “Please—”

Ciarán leaned in so his mouth was against the man’s ear.

“Liar,” he purred.

Snap.

The man howled in fresh agony, writhing in Ciarán’s arms.

“How do you know he’s lying?” I asked.

“Because torture doesn’t work.”

“Then why’d you ask?”

“He spat at you, and I wanted an excuse to break another finger.”

“You don’t need an excuse—”

Snap.

“You’re both crazy,” Kamryn sobbed. Tears spilled over the heavy pouches that hung beneath his eyes.

I stepped closer so that our noses were inches from each other. He was much older than either of us, and his uniform was striped with patches I could only assume spoke to his level of seniority. I wondered how many travelers he’d stolen from over the years, how many of them had been in conditions similar to or worse than mine, and how many rooms he’d broken into to take what he wanted.

To take who he wanted.

Anger rose in my throat, and before I realized what I was doing, a let heat flush my eyes. Kamryn’s bearded, weathered face fell into hues of blue as my retina guard darkened my sclera. He pulled back, withdrawing farther into Ciarán’s chest.

“You aren’t mountain people. You’re from the Frozen God’s domain,” he hissed.

“Do you fear the Frozen God?” I asked.

“I don’t need to,” the man sneered. “Now that he’s out of that glacier, the Baron is going to kill him along with the rest of your northerners.”