The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter (Riyria Chronicles #4)(105)

Royce gave Hadrian a puzzled look. “That’s so odd.”

“What?”

“Here we are, fighting brambles and slick, muddy slopes while trying to find a madman before he massacres hundreds, and your thoughts are focused on how unfair it is for the people having a grand time at a festival?”

“Why is that odd?”

“Why wouldn’t you think about us struggling in this heat against these thorny vines while breathing in these tiny black flies? Isn’t that unfair? Why can’t we be eating pork and dancing with ladies on such a fine day?”

Hadrian chuckled.

“What? Why is that funny?”

“It isn’t. It’s just I have this image in my head of you dancing. Can’t get past it.”

Royce frowned. “I’m just saying it’s strange that you feel sorry for them rather than us.”

“Well, I do feel sorry for you, if that makes it better.”

Royce clapped his hands together before his face, trying to kill some of the swarm that plagued him. “Why?”

“Because you can’t understand why it is I would feel sorry for them. Makes me think your world is very small.”

“Oh,” Royce said, sounding disappointed. “I thought you were going to say something else.”

“Really, what?”

Royce made a pfft sound, spitting as if the flies had invaded his mouth. He stepped back from the brambles, waving his hands before his face as he retreated. “Miserable little horrors. Why do they do that? Fly right into our mouth, eyes, and nose. It makes no sense. They can’t like it; I certainly don’t. There’s no benefit to be had, and yet into my mouth they go.”

“What was it you thought I was going to say?”

“Oh.” Royce washed a hand over his face. “I thought you might be on the verge of apologizing for volunteering to be a martyr last night.”

“Apologize? Are you kidding? I saved us.”

“Is that how you see it?”

“Is there another way?”

“You put me in a very unpleasant position.”

Hadrian sat up to face him. “Oh, I’m sorry. Were you the one tied up all night while a dwarf played with a knife, reminding you about his intention to slit your throat? ’Cuz I thought that was me.”

Royce was struggling, trying to extract something from his tongue with two fingers, a fly no doubt. He got something, peered at it in disgust, and gave it a flick. “You’re supposed to be learning from me. You can’t do that if you don’t listen.”

“Learn from you?” Hadrian said. “I think you’ve got that backward, pal. Arcadius teamed us up so I could teach you.”

Royce, who had moved on to cleaning his eyes, paused. “Did you just call me pal?”

“Yeah. It means friend—literally brother.”

“I know what it means.”

“So it’s just your hearing that’s going? If you want to talk about odd, that would certainly qualify. You have the most disturbingly acute ears of anyone I’ve ever met. Seriously, I don’t know how you sleep at night. The crickets must drive you insane.”

“It’s not the crickets . . . it’s definitely not the crickets.”

Hadrian smirked. “I would think that this job would have convinced you of the virtues of being a decent human being. Look at Roland. My friendship with him has helped us, not just once but twice. Being respectful to Evelyn has reaped huge rewards. And we lived last night because a long time ago I acted honorably.”

“Was that the same night you helped slaughter a town?” Royce asked. “And it wasn’t that long ago, was it? You’re not that old.”

“Because of nights like that, I feel old.”

“So, which was it?” Royce asked. “Were you saved because of a kindness extended to a girl? Or were you in jeopardy in the first place because you and your compatriots killed most, but not all, of the people during that battle?”

“It’s because I protected Seton.”

“Are you sure? What would you have protected her from if the town hadn’t been sacked? And if you hadn’t been so proficient with your sword, the other soldiers might not have granted her to you. Which makes me wonder, what actually made the difference, your kindness or your cruelty?”

“Why is it you choose to see the darkness in everything?”

“Because it’s there, and ignoring that fact invites peril.”

“But light is also there, and recognizing it allows happiness.”

“What good is being happy if you’re dead?”

“What good is being alive if you’re miserable?”

Royce paused, and for a moment Hadrian was certain he had won. Royce was stumped, but then he tilted his head.

“What’s up, boy?” Hadrian asked. “You hear something?”

“Wasn’t funny the first time,” Royce said.

A moment later a woman’s scream came from up the hill.





I’m not just going to kill her. Villar realized this with the perfect clarity that accompanied every mistake he had made while the noble cow hid to the side of the door. She had plotted to lock him in. He imagined her literally as a bovine with black and white spots. In his mind’s eye, he saw her standing on her back legs; a massive tongue licking the broad pink nostrils of her nose, waiting with hooves up and together, like a begging dog, hoping he would fall for the bait. The moment he opened the door, the second he rushed in so blindly, focused on her decoy of blankets and straw, was the same second she slipped out.