Once RuArk’s Noman guards were cut down, there weren’t enough combatants in the observatory to fight, so the remaining warriors streamed out of the building to take out the creatures who patrolled the streets and manned the walls.
Rhia went after Rehn. He’d slipped through one of the observatory doors and was making for the nearest exit. He was a competent fighter, but he obviously had no intention of continuing to fight a battle for his now-deposed father.
“Not so fast.”
He was cut off on his right by a fuming Rhia, as an even angrier RuArk came up on the left.
“Hold, Rhia!” She didn’t miss the edge to RuArk’s tone, and she acknowledged him without ever taking her eyes off of Rehn.
“Oh come now, Rhia, does this mean you don’t wish to have children together now?” Rehn smirked, playing for time to figure out how to either get around Rhia or get around RuArk. “I felt you shiver when my teeth were on your neck. Come closer, sweet. Let me taste you again.”
She took a step forward with every intention of running him through, but caught herself. This was exactly what he wanted. He expected her to be ruled by her emotions and do something stupid. And she really, really wanted to.
Instead, she shut her feelings away and put on her stoic warrior’s face.
“You look so upset, Rhia. Is it because you will not have the pleasure of wrapping those strong thighs around my waist as I take you?”
This time Rehn’s words rolled off her. And he knew it as she set herself into an offensive stance oblivious to everything except RuArk.
“Rhia, do you wish to challenge him?” RuArk asked, his voice hard, with no inflection, no emotion, as if he were himself made of steel.
She started to say that she absolutely wanted to challenge Rehn. But they’d been here before. She knew that this was RuArk’s way of asking if she trusted him enough to regain her honor, as well as his own.
She loved this man with all her soul. In this moment, she would give him whatever he wanted.
“No. I give my right of challenge over to you.” With that, she stood down, not quite lowering her sword as she edged toward the closest exit, leaving her husband to his business.
* * * * *
Back in the Council Chamber, the High Counsel closed in on a semi-conscious Collaidh as he lay sprawled on the floor with his robes tangled around his ankles. He became fully aware and cringed as Grey Greysomne, renowned leader of the Society of War, picked him up by the scruff of his neck and slammed him into one of the chairs at the council table. Taking the very chains that had held RuArk, the High Counsel twisted them tightly around Collaidh’s body.
“It was Rehn! It was him! He did everything!”
“Shut. Up. Save it for when my daughter and the rest of the Council gather to judge you,” Grey snapped.
The High Counsel kept guard over Rama Collaidh until the fighting was done. He would not let this maggot wriggle away. No, Grey Greysomne would be the rock that crushed this spineless worm once and for all.