Magic Binds (Kate Daniels #9)(15)

Curran crouched by the sitting man. “What happened?”

“There was a compound five miles to the south,” the man said, his words ragged. “Some kind of religious group. Roland wanted the land. He didn’t say why. He offered to buy it, but they wouldn’t sell it to him. Something they told him must’ve pissed him off, because he ordered me to take my people and clear it out. He said he wanted them buried off the land, somewhere else. I told him I was a soldier. I wouldn’t order my people to butcher unarmed civilians.”

“And if Hugh told you to do it?” Curran asked.

The Iron Dog faced him, his eyes clear. “He wouldn’t.”

Yeah, right. “I find that hard to believe,” I said.

“I’m a soldier,” the Iron Dog said. “Not a Ripper. Soldiers fight other soldiers.”

“He’s telling the truth,” Julie said behind me. “When Hugh needed a massacre, he’d use the Rippers. Most of them are dead now.”

Don’t explode. Nothing good ever came from exploding.

I turned to her.

“The Iron Dogs have six cohorts,” Julie said. “The first five cohorts have four hundred and eighty soldiers per cohort, broken into six centuries of eighty soldiers each. The Sixth Cohort had two hundred and forty people and was known as the Rippers, the shock troops. Each cohort had a captain. Hibla was the captain of the Rippers. This man is Stoyan Iliev, captain of the First Cohort. He was the first captain Hugh recruited himself.”

Great. I’d rescued Hugh’s bestie.

Stoyan turned to me. “I was in the Swan Palace. I saw you kill Hibla. If you’re going to kill me, give me a sword first.”

“Settle down,” Derek told him. “You can’t hold a sword. You can’t even keep water down. She didn’t pull you off a cross so she could kill you.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” the Iron Dog said. “If it weren’t that, it would’ve been something else. Of the six cohorts, the Rippers are completely gone and the rest are at less than fifty percent of their capacity. Roland is purging the ranks. Anyone loyal to Hugh has been killed or run off, and the Legatus of the Golden Legion openly hunts people Roland exiles. If you’re not going to kill me, what are you going to do with me?”

Curran looked at me. “He’s yours. It’s your call.”

I sighed. “We’ll take you to the Guild medic. The magic is up and our medmage is good. You have twenty-four hours to get on your feet. Don’t be in the city when the sun rises tomorrow.”

“I won’t,” he said.

“Good. Load him up.” Curran rose and walked over to me. “Come talk to me.”

I followed him down the road.

He dipped his head and looked at me. “What happened?”

“He crucified families, Curran. I could smell their rotting bodies. And then he had the audacity to tell me that this is what happens to people who disobey him. Disobey. Like I’m one of his flunkies who stare at him with adoration and throw themselves off a cliff because he frowned at them. I can’t take it anymore. He sits there and taunts me. I have to protect my land.”

“When did it become ‘my land’?” he asked quietly. “It was ‘the city’ just a few months ago.”

“It became my land when I claimed it. Nobody else wanted to step up and defend it from him.”

“What about them?” He nodded slightly toward the mercs arranging Stoyan in a vehicle. “Did they not step up? Did I not step up?”

I wanted to hit him.

Full stop.

I took a deep breath and blew the air out.

Where did that come from? I loved him.

“Barabas is a friend,” Curran said.

“And?”

“You seem to have forgotten that. I’m reminding you.”

I didn’t like the way he was looking at me. Like he was trying to figure out if there was something wrong with me.

“Roland’s grooming Julie to become his next Warlord. She’s still talking to him and there is nothing I can do to stop it.”

“I’ll speak to her,” Curran said.

“It won’t do any good. We both talked this into the ground. He’s got his claws into her and I don’t know how to pry her loose.”

“We’ll fight for her,” he said. “To the very end. But she’s her own person, Kate.”

“She’s a kid! He’s thousands of years old.”

“She’s sixteen and it’s an old sixteen. She loves you and me. I’m not worried. He tried his shit on me, he tried it on you, and we’re both still here. We didn’t run off to join his crazy parade. Julie is our child. She bucks against authority. I don’t think it’s as bad as you think. But there will come a point when she’ll make a decision you don’t like and you’ll be powerless to stop it.”

But I wasn’t powerless. I could order her and she wouldn’t be able to refuse my command. And then I would become my father.

“I’m going to the office,” I told him. I was done talking. I needed space and time to sort myself out.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll drop by later, after I’m done at the Guild.”

“If you want.” Okay, I was being a total ass now. “I’d like to see you.”