Kim Fielding - Brute by Kim Fielding

Author:Kim Fielding [Fielding, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

MASTER SIGHARD’S mood was as gray as this morning’s sky. The

weather bothered his arthritis, making him hobble more painfully than usual and causing him to wield his stick against wayward students even more freely. Quoen didn’t get hit, but her distraction earned a tonguelashing that made her cry, and then it was Aric’s turn to glare at the schoolmaster instead of the other way around.

Everyone was relieved when the day’s lessons adjourned early. Over in the kitchens, even Alys was missing her usual sunny mood. She’d been beaming ever since her man, Cearl, returned from the sea. He’d brought back enough money to start his own carting business, and Alys had made sure he was awarded a contract to deliver to the palace. They were planning a spring wedding, and lately her conversation had been full of talk about the house Cearl had bought not far from the palace itself, and how they were going to fix it up, and how if you stood on the balcony and angled your head just right, you could view the sea. But today she was dour as she handed Aric his lunch. “It’s never going to be spring,” she said. “It’s going to be winter forever and ever, and my feet will always be cold.”

He bent down and kissed the top of her head. “Spring will come. The sun will return and the flowers will bloom and you’ll have a lovely wedding.”

She tried to frown and smile at the same time before she pushed him away. “Go. You wouldn’t want to miss slogging through the mud with the guards.” She’d decided several weeks earlier that he must have cast his eye on one of the guards, which in her mind explained why he liked working himself half to death with them no matter the weather. She’d been pestering him to name the man and was getting very frustrated by his refusals.

In any case, he didn’t join the guards today. Instead, he trudged through the drizzle to the West Tower. The guards on duty at the entrance knew him well by now, and although they raised their eyebrows slightly at his intention to enter this particular building, they didn’t stop him.

Without anyone to guide him, he got lost twice and had to ask directions. Eventually, however, he was standing outside Lord Maudit’s rooms, trying to convince the round man who was there that he should be permitted inside.

“His Excellency has not summoned you, and you do not have an appointment,” the man said, not bothering to look up from his ledger. “But I need to see him.”

“You may make an appointment.”

“Great! When?”

A chubby finger ran down the page. “Three weeks from tomorrow. Seven o’clock in the morning.” Aric didn’t know how much advance notice Gray’s dreams provided, but three weeks was almost certainly too long. “I can’t wait. I have to see him today.”

“That is not possible.”

A few deep breaths helped Aric maintain his calm. Barely. “But it’s about Gr—about the prisoner’s dream.” That was finally enough to make the man’s head snap up, so quickly that his double chin quivered.

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