The tension in the command tent was palpable under the flickering torchlight.
A map of the borderlands was sprawled across the table, pinned down by Emerson's slender fingers and Lord Kaldric's fist.
"The rumors are centered here," Emerson said, tapping a small trading town nestled in the valley.
"Greenville. It's a hive of rebels. But if we march in with the King's banners, the rats will simply retreat further into the walls. We need ears, Kaldric. Soft ears."
Emerson's eyes slid toward me, a slow, calculating smile spreading across his face.
"Ardelle here knows the way of the streets. Women in the markets, at the wells, they will spill the truth between gossip to one of their own."
My heart gave a nervous leap. A chance to be useful. A chance to show my Lord I was not a burden. That I could help.
"No," Lord Kaldric growled, fury filling his face, "Absolutely not."
A familiar sting of his rejection made me shoulder flinch but I refused to step back and surrender. I stepped forward, my hands clasping together to hide their tremble.
"My Lord, I can do this. I know how to be a shadow. I know how to listen without being seen." His eyes hardened but I continued hopefully.
"Kindly,do not think of me so incompetent that I cannot walk through a market square."
Kaldric didn't look at me. His gaze was locked on Emerson, his jaw clenched, "It is not a matter of competence, Ardelle. It is a matter of the mission."
"I had survived on my own after my mother's demise. I-I can be useful,"
"And now how has it been?" Emerson asked.
"I.. I don't know. I was…" I tried to count on my fingers, "Seven."
"And now? How old are you?" Emerson smirked, leaning towards me.
I began to count again but My Lord held my wrist, "Her age is irrelevant. Older or younger, Ardelle will not endanger herself. She does not have to."
"Oh? Does she? She is the commander's bride." Emerson challenged, leaning back and crossing his arms.
He looked at Kaldric with a piercing, dark amusement.
"Or are you compromising the Crown for the sake of your wife, Kaldric? Is the Commander putting his personal... attachments... above the King's need for intel?"
The silence that followed was deafening. Kaldric stiffened as if Emerson had hit him where it hurts the most, probably to witness his downfall.
His hand twitched. For a heartbeat, the Commander looked truly shaken, caught between the oath he had sworn and the unyielding fear written in the tightness of his shoulders.
He realized what he was doing. He realized he was showing the very weakness Emerson was hunting for.
"I do not compromise," Kaldric snapped, his voice suddenly cold and official, though he still refused to meet my eyes.
"If the Earl believes this is the most efficient path to the traitor, then so be it. You will go, Ardelle."
"Great. I must go and prepare for the Lady's departure." Emerson smirked darkly and walked out, leaving us alone in the tent.
"Thank you, My Lord," I whispered and was about to turn, the victory no longer feeling satisfactory only got stopped when he held my arm.
"But," he added, finally turning to me. His silver eyes were turbulent, a storm of suppressed emotion behind a mask of stone.
"You will be watched. Every shadow in that town will belong to my scouts."
"Why? I survived the rebels twice, I can–"
"The women," He hesitated, holding my elbow in a soft grip, a strange emotion shining in his eyes, "They envy you. Every town, every banquet. Everywhere."
I tilted my head in confusion. Where was he leading this?
"When we met, back in your town, you were being chased. They hurt you. You are under my protection. I… wish that never happens again." He confessed, bringing a scarlet shade to my cheek when his knuckles rested there.
"Beware of the women… and the men's gaze. If you feel a single threat, scream my name. I will be there, I promise." He whispered.
"I… I understand," I whispered, barely able to control my smile.
I never imagined a day like this would arrive where he would be so protective of me.
He turned back to the map, his movements abrupt. He was agreeing, he was letting me go, but I could see the way his hand hovered near his sword hilt.
He wasn't worried that I would fail the King, he was terrified that the world would take me away before he could bring me home.
"Prepare her," Kaldric barked at Aldwin, who was standing by the tent flap, sending a glare towards the Earl.
"And Emerson? If a single harm reaches her, I will forget the King's peace and settle our 'brotherhood' once and for all."
"Hah, don't say that to me. Our score is two-to-zero. I am the one who saved your bride twice. So your warning doesn't suit me after all."
He merely laughed mockingly in return which soon converted into a dark expression..
Then, he said something strange which clearly infuriated Kaldric.
"As long as she is your bride, she is under my complete protection and of course… Attention."
Why?
That was the moment I realised that Emerson didn't interact with me due to his intrigue. He did it because I was Lord Kaldric's bride.
He sought his weakness.
But, since there was nothing I could do about that ordeal, I quietly walked away.
I was in the tent, about to change but he entered with his gaze lowered, "Ardelle, grab my pouch from the trunk. Take the coins to buy anything you need,"
I nodded and found two pouches, I picked the smallest one which felt quite empty, "I think this one's empty, My Lord." I said, opening it without a second thought, ignoring the hand he extended to stop me.
"No–"
Only to find… crushed blackened petals in that.
"What… What is that?" I made a confused face, watching his hand mid-air, an unforeseen dismal etched on his stoic face that made me smirk and crush them between my fingers to blow them gracefully towards him.
"Oh? Call me a witch but it seems like you're the one doing witchcraft. Shall I tell His Majesty about your sorcery, how you did with me or not?"
I teased him but he frowned, not amused at all, and snatched the pouch from me, picking the slight fallen dust of petals I blew.
"Do not pick what you are not supposed to. Grab the coins. Not my flower." He muttered.
Taken aback at the reverence, I stepped, baffled by what lies in those crushed petals.
"My Lord?" I stopped before his face, "Are they important?"
"Yes. They are, Ardelle."
"Who gave it to you?" I furrowed my brows, though I doubt it could be another woman. My stone-like man had taken an oath, and the existence of a woman was highly unlikely.
He stopped, stared intensely in my eyes while placing it back on the trunk securely, stepping into my space, hitching my breaths.
"Just a girl who was swindled and bought it for two coins instead of one."
My cheeks flushed, eyes widened with complete shock. My heart fluttered unstoppably at the thought of him keeping what I present with my purest affection.
"You… you kept it? But, you crushed it… And you said… then why?"
I was at a loss for words. Glancing at the trunk and back at him, confused.
"I did, but then," He smirked, "It had been quite a while since I was given a rose. I thought about keeping it."
He shrugged nonchalantly, placing the pouch in my hand and walking out as I stood bewildered.
First, tell me, how in heaven he was given roses? And who did it? Huff, I would ask him after.
I left out to prepare, leaving the two men in the heavy competitive stare.
I wanted to prove to him that I was strong, but as I looked back, I saw Kaldric staring at the map, his hand trembling just enough to betray the consolation he was telling himself.
'She will be alright this time,' I will be, I promise. I won't trouble you this time. I smiled and left for the town.
Greenville.
The scent was a sharp reminder of my past.
Damp earth, roasting grain, and the low, persistent hum of people who lived by the mercy of the seasons rather than the whim of a King.
I had shed my dress for a simple, travel-worn kirtle of undyed wool– Which was still a hundred times better than what I had in muds.
I was invisible again, an apparition in a sea of commoners.
The town square was bustling, but the energy was strange. It wasn't the frantic fear of the coup; it was the focused preparation of a tradition.
Garlands of different flowers being strung across the houses and the main fountain where I found the women moving with grace.
I approached a group near the fountain, my eyes cast down, my posture miming the exhaustion of a long journey, keeping my face hiding but under the bright sunlight, it was impossible to conceal.
"Blessing, sisters," I greeted, causing them all to stagger. They thoroughly checked me out, covering their mouths.
"Good heavens… you're ethereal. Are you an angel, girl?"
I smiled, playing along, "Thank you but I am not."
One of the older women looked up, her eyes narrowing, "You're a traveler. A beauty like you? Alone? In these times?"
"A traveler, yes," I replied, forcing a weary smile, shifting my head towards the entrance with fake sorrow.
"My husband and his younger brothers are... woodcutters. Strong men, but we were caught in the chaos of the mountain pass."
"Oh, how horrible. What happened?" One of them asked.
"We were separated during the trouble—the coup, they call it—but I am sure I can reunite with him. He is a man who always finds his way back to me." I whispered, mesmerized.
And then a chuckle escaped me, all the times I had bumped into him accidentally flashing in my mind.
"And even if he won't, I will definitely bump into him,"
"Poor soul. But, the Almighty had listened to your plea." The women exchanged looks of pity.
"Why?"
"You've arrived on the Eve of the Vow. We fast today for the wellbeing of our men,"
"I too would love to fast for my husband's wellbeing," I said, my heart giving a small, painful thud as I thought of Kaldric.
"It is the least a wife can do for a man who carries a hefty weight on his shoulders."
"The Vow requires the husband to be near by sundown to give the Token of Appreciation. Without the token, the fast is just hunger."
They explained and the token made me go silent. Will My Lord give me a token? In fact, how will he get one in the first place?
"Then what are you going to do if your husband is not here?" another woman asked, her voice suspicious.
"He is near," I said, my voice gaining a sudden, quiet strength.
"He is closer than you think. I will find him. I am sure of it."
"Ah, I see," the elder woman nodded, her expression softening.
"Well, sit. The men who stir the trouble in the north often stop at the town across the way before the festival begins." they began their chatter.
"They talk loud when they think no one is listening but the 'hungry wives'."
I sat among them, picking up a bundle of laurel to help with the weaving. My stomach was already hollow, but the fast felt right.
I kept my ears open, filtering through the talk of grain prices and lost sheep, waiting for the one name that would link Greenville to the traitors.
And all the while, I wondered—if I finished this fast, would Kaldric even know what a 'Token' was? Or would he just see it as another distraction from his duty?
The two days in Greenville had been an eternity of hollow stomachs and sharp ears.
I moved through the market like a wraith, my skin growing sallow from the fast, but my mind sharpened by the necessity of survival.
I sat with the women, nodding as they whispered about 'The Arrival' coming to the kingdom and how the 'True King' would reward those who held the hearth.
By the second afternoon, I heard it. The whisper that made the blood pump and indicated what I needed to learn was here.
"He comes tonight with everyone. Our Warriors are returning to rest. For the feast. Keep an eye out for the King's Banner."
The leader of the coup.
I didn't wait. I couldn't. My body felt light, almost buoyant with exhaustion, but I forced my legs to move.
I slipped through the back alleys, dodging the festive marigold chains, and sprinted toward the treeline where I knew the extraction point lay.
Every breath was a struggle, the fast had taken its toll, and the two days of constant vigilance had drained my spirit.
I was deep in the forest and found Lord Kaldric instead of the two soldiers he posted for my watch.
"Ardelle!"
He wasn't in his gleaming plate armor, he was dressed in dark, rough leathers, his face smeared with charcoal, his silver eyes burning with a terrifying intensity.
He looked as if he hadn't slept a single second since I had left.
He gripped my shoulders, his hands trembling, a movement I never thought I would see from the Commander.
"You've been gone too long. What have you been doing? I told Emerson if you weren't back by sunset—"
"Kaldric," I whispered. I clutched at his leathers, my fingers numb and shaking.
He pulled me closer, his breath hot against my forehead. "You're freezing. What have they done to you? Why are you panting? You look drained."
"The leader..." I whispered, the words barely finding the strength to leave my lips.
"He comes... tonight. To the weaver's house... the festival is the cover..."
"Shhh," Kaldric urged, holding me with all his might, "Enough. You've done enough."
"I kept... the fast," I murmured, my eyes fluttering shut as the world started to tilt into darkness, "I waited for... the token..."
"Ardelle?"
His voice sounded far away before my mind could comprehend, my head throbbing and before I could speak further, I had passed out.