Ruined (Ruined, #1)(17)

“Would people actually volunteer to hunt down and kill Ruined?”

“Not many, which is why the position is used as a punishment instead of prison.” She rubbed a few fingers across her chin. “What criminals want is irrelevant. We need hunters. The king had heard rumblings about them organizing, but clearly we need to start taking them more seriously. He hasn’t given up any others yet, but he must have had help. We’ll find them. In the meantime, we still have plenty of hunters making multiple Ruined kills every day.”

They were being hunted down and murdered, so yes, they defended themselves often. Mary’s words ran through his brain for the hundredth time since she’d said them. He’d never heard anyone even come close to defending the Ruined. No one used the word murdered. They were eliminated or killed or disposed of. Mary’s word hung in the air, taunting him.

“Do you ever wonder whether it was the right decision, to kill all the Ruined?” he asked slowly.

Jovita’s eyebrows shot almost to her hairline. “No.”

“Are they really all bad? Every single one of them?”

“Yes, every single one of them,” Jovita said, a hint of exasperation in her tone. She’d only been an adviser to the king for a year, but she always acted like she knew more than Cas. “The Ruined ruled over us for centuries without an ounce of compassion. We’re returning the favor.”

“True,” Cas said quietly. He hadn’t been alive to see the days when the Ruined enslaved humans and killed them for sport, and neither had his father. His grandfather had driven them out of Lera, but the Ruined had lost their hold on humans years before, after their powers weakened. Punishment from the ancestors for misuse of them, his grandfather used to tell him.

The ancestors had nothing to do with the Ruined losing their power, Cas’s father had said with a roll of his eyes. He was never the type of man to believe in things he couldn’t see. The Ruined will rise again. Unless we stop them.

The Ruined will rise again used to send a chill down Cas’s spine. Now he felt nothing but the weight of those lost lives. For all the Ruined’s power, they couldn’t rise from the dead.

Jovita stood. “The warriors from Olso arrive in two days. Will you be well enough to attend the dinner?”

“I’m sure I will be. I’m not going to miss the warriors’ first visit to Lera in two generations.”

“Good. Try not to get stabbed at that event too. We don’t want the warriors thinking we need someone from Vallos to save our prince.” She said Vallos as if it were distasteful, but a smile crept onto her face.

“The horror. Almost as embarrassing as getting beaten by their princess in the Union Battle.”

She glared at him, and he laughed as he sank down farther into his pillows.

“I wasn’t planning to poison you before, but now I definitely am,” she said as she threw open the door. “Watch your back, Prince Casimir.”

He grinned at her. “I have Mary to do that for me.”

“Why is it always sunny?” Aren looked up at the sky in disgust, shielding his face with his hand. “Even their weather is mocking me.”

Em followed his gaze to the clear blue sky. The air was fresh and cool, the birds soaring in the direction of the ocean. The castle gardens bloomed with red, yellow, and pink flowers, and various citrus fruits hung from trees. It really was disgustingly beautiful in Lera.

“The ancestors blessed them,” she said with a mock-serious expression.

Aren rolled his eyes. “If I have to hear that one more time, I’m going to kill someone. Don’t be surprised if you see one of their heads just suddenly separate from their body.”

She glanced over her shoulder, at the empty path behind them. “Say that a little louder. I don’t think they heard you on the other side of the gardens.”

“Sorry.” He lowered his voice. “My mother used to tell me the ancestors had blessed me. I don’t like hearing it out of their mouths.”

“I know,” Em said softly.

“Maybe the ancestors didn’t bless anyone. Maybe they never even existed,” Aren said, his voice wobbling. His mother had been the castle priest, and his words weighed heavy on Em’s heart. He never would have dreamed of saying those words a year ago.

She reached over and squeezed his hand briefly. He squeezed it back.

The castle wall came into view as they reached the edge of the gardens. A wide swath of grass stretched between the wall and the gardens, making sure that anyone who jumped it would be in plain view of the guards.

“There’s one guard in that tower,” Em said without looking back at it. The tower was on the east side of the castle, stretching higher than the rest of the building. A perfect spot to watch the entire wall.

“Maybe two,” Aren said. “And did you see that watch post when we came in? From where it’s positioned, the guard would also have an excellent view of the entire castle grounds.”

“I couldn’t see anything in that stupid carriage.”

“It’s in the trees, not far from the main castle gate.”

“Find out how those shifts are assigned. I want to know if it’s always the same few people, or if they rotate.”

“Got it.”

She touched the wall. Stone. It was very tall, but there was a tree near the wall ahead that could easily be climbed, though it would be quite a jump to the other side.