Stormcaster (Shattered Realms #3)(60)

“All I’m asking for is a few weeks to get the estates in order,” DeLacroix said, his tone suggesting that he was trying to reason with the unreasonable. “I don’t understand why you say we have the advantage when the king still holds our families hostage. We should attempt to negotiate their release before we—”

“Jarat is stalling,” Matelon growled. “We both know that. He wants to put us off until the marching season is over in the north so he can commit his full army to dealing with us. Better to go now, when his forces are divided.”

Bloody hell, Hal thought. I’m coming in on the wrong side already. Taking a deep breath, he pushed open the door.

There were a half dozen thanes in the room, and all heads turned as he entered. He recognized DeLacroix, young Lord Heresford, Lord Henri Tourant, and his father, huddled around a battered wooden table. Dirty cups and plates around them suggested they had been at it for a while.

Hal brought his fist to his chest in a salute. “Captain Halston Matelon, reporting as ordered, sir,” he said.

Wood scraped on wood as his father shoved his chair back and stood. He crossed the room and roughly embraced Hal, murmuring in his ear, “Good to have you home, Son.” Holding him out at arm’s length, he looked him up and down. “You need a shave,” he said.

“I know, sir,” Hal said. “But you said to come as soon as I was able.”

Sliding his arm around Hal, Matelon turned him to face the other thanes. “I believe you all know my son Captain Matelon,” he said. “He was taken prisoner in the fall of Delphi. By the grace of the Maker, he’s escaped and come back to us.”

They all stared at him. From the look on their faces, none of the others had been alerted to his recent resurrection. Which meant that his father didn’t trust any of them to know.

Finally, DeLacroix said, “I was told that you and everyone under your command were killed at Delphi.”

“A few of us were taken prisoner, sir,” Hal said.

“My son Armond was with you at Delphi,” Tourant said eagerly. “Was he captured as well?”

“I don’t know, sir,” Hal said. “I didn’t see him among the prisoners, but that doesn’t mean that he didn’t survive. There were thirty men being held in Delphi, but there may have been some prisoners held separately from me.”

“You didn’t even ask about the soldiers in your own command?” DeLacroix raised an eyebrow. DeLacroix, who’d managed to avoid any military service up to now.

Wrestling with his temper, Hal gritted his teeth. “I did ask, and I was told that there were few survivors,” he said. “I didn’t know whether to believe them or not. Then I was moved to Chalk Cliffs, where I was the only Ardenine prisoner.”

“And you’ve been a captive in the north for three months?” It was as if DeLacroix was suggesting that any soldier worth his salt would have escaped before now. As if Hal had taken advantage of the situation to enjoy a three-month vacation. “And now you’re the only one to escape.” The thane tapped his fingers together as if this was significant.

“Quit interrogating him,” Heresford said. “We should be welcoming him home, not grilling him about how he came to survive. We’re going to need him if it comes to a fight with Jarat.”

“It will come to a fight, Heresford, you know it will,” Matelon said. “I’ve seen nothing in the son that makes me think otherwise.”

“Half the boy king’s army will come over to us when they find out Captain Matelon is with us,” Heresford said, grinning.

Hal cleared his throat. “I have some news about events in the north that might have bearing on a decision about whether this is the right time to take the fight to King Jarat.”

Hal’s father raised both hands, giving Hal a warning look. “Gentlemen, we’ve been at it since early this morning,” he said. “This is a good time to break for the day, so we can all take a piss and have a bite and I can debrief my son about events in the north. We’ll reconvene tomorrow morning.”





24


KILLING THE MESSENGER


Hal knew going in that persuading his father to make peace with King Jarat in order to unite against a common enemy would be a hard sell. He hadn’t expected it to be impossible.

He booked a room at the inn where his father and Robert were staying. It seemed like his little brother had aged a year and grown an inch in three months. He kept staring at Hal as if he might disappear. Apparently, he’d blamed himself for being elsewhere when the city fell.

Over dinner, Hal relayed what had happened since the fall of Delphi. Well, not everything. Traitorous or not, he did not choose to share Captain Gray’s true identity, or dwell on the bond that had grown between them during his time in the north. That would make his motivations even more suspect than they already were.

His father asked few questions until Hal described his meeting with the wolf queen, and her hope that the death of King Gerard might signal a new opportunity to end the war between the Realms.

“If she wants peace, she should be sending word to the fledgling hawk in Ardenscourt,” his father said. “That’s how this whole thing started. After the fall of Delphi, I informed Gerard that I would not be spending more men and money to further his grudge match with the witch in the north. That’s when he took our families hostage.”