Kinslaying is a very worrying trait in a family

"Lady Raina the Poop Eater," Theara greeted her with a triumphant smile. She half sat and half lay on a daybed. Willy lay there with her, his head resting on Theara's bosom.

Raina ignored the insult. It stung but there was nothing she could do about it. She took a step closer. A white bandage encircled Willy's abdomen. Theara's silky hair fell in waves on his chest. His expression was one of quiet contentment. Theara cradled his head like a delicate egg against her chest and had one bare leg gently rubbing against his thighs.

Willy tried to rise but Theara dissuaded him. "You shouldn't move, darling. Can't heal if you keep doing that," the woman said in the sultriest of tones while caressing Willy's head with one hand and his chest with the other.

Raina stood in a room that was larger than it had any right to be. She knew this section of the inn was made of tiny cubicles partitioned with plywood but all those partitions had been knocked down to create a large open space.

Instead of mud and ale and sweaty travelers, it smelled of flowers and incense. Colorful drapes adorned the windows and plush rugs littered the floor. Multicolored fish swam sedately in a glass aquarium in one corner of the room while captive songbirds sang their hearts out inside a cage in another corner.

This was no longer a barebones inn in a dusty market town where any traveler could count on getting a straw mattress for a few coins. Theara had transformed it into something truly extraordinary. Even Raina's room wasn't furnished this tastefully. Or extravagantly.

The room looked like how Raina imagined the boudoirs of temptresses from the stories looked like. It made her feel like she was failing at being a woman. The room knocked the wind out of Raina's lungs and the prepared speech out of her head. Theara watched her with a malevolent smile, running her long fingers through Willy's hair and massaging his scalp. Willy lay back against her, closed his eyes, and sighed. Raina felt a sharp stabbing pain in her heart.

"Have you come for your punishment, little girl?" Theara asked.

Raina didn't answer. "You should hang her," Theara suggested. "That's the only fitting punishment. You would hang me if I tried something like that."

"Let's not get carried away," Willy said. He focused his gaze on Raina, his expression neutral. "What brings you here, my dear?"

A dumbfounded Raina couldn't think of a response quickly enough. She dropped to her knees and took one of Willy's feet in her hand. "My lord—" she started.

"Don't dare touch him," Theara hissed.

Raina released her husband's foot but she knew what she had to do. She had found the right words. She had never said them herself but she had heard them countless times. She had seen men drop to their knees and recite them to her father and Willy. She had seen her father drop to his knees and say them to the chancellor. Now it was her turn to say them. Raina recited the old words of the oath of fealty in as clear a voice as she could manage:

If you will have me, Willarn Nylarnus, 

I vow to serve you and yours until the end of my days

To submit to your word and your will 

To be your sword and your shield

Friend to your friends and foe to your foes 

To live and die at your command 

To rise and sleep as you will it 

To obey you in all matters

Great and small 

Temporal and spiritual

In this life and in the next

Until you release me from my vows

I swear by the Almighty Aephyr,

Guardian of my immortal soul,

That I will uphold my oath. 

I swear by Aeduia and Aembaur,

The earth and the sky. 

I swear Aemlilon and Ameia, 

The sun and the moon

Theara watched Raina with open shock but Willy seemed amused. He sat up. "I will have you, Raina Nylarnus," he accepted the oath. Then he recited the old response:

Me and mine vow to serve you and yours 

As loyally as you serve us. 

You will find our words soft and our will fair

We too shall be your sword and your shield 

Your friends will be our friends 

And your foes shall be ours

You shall live as long as we can help it

Willy stopped abruptly and broke into laughter. Deep belly-shaking laughter. He laughed until snot shot out of his nose and tears leaked from his eyes. Willy laughed until red stained the bandage around his belly. Only then did he stop. As he laughed, Raina squirmed on the floor. She prayed for the ground to swallow her but no such thing happened.

"You ripped your sutures," a worried Theara scolded Willy while twisting his ear. "Why would you laugh like that?"

"It's just so funny," Willy guffawed. "Did you see her face?"

"I did," Theara said. "But you can't laugh like that. Not yet. You need to heal." She got up and busied herself with finding new bandages while Willy kept glancing at Raina and tittering.

Raina sunk as low into the floor as she could but there was nowhere farther to go. She averted her gaze toward the floor and periodically glanced at Theara as she gathered medical supplies. Willy's lover wore a sheer silk negligee that started too late and ended too early, exposing half her breasts and three quarters of her thighs. Theara was unbothered, wearing the scandalous outfit as confidently as other women wore their ankle-length gowns to a temple service.

Granted, they were in a private space but still… Raina would never dare wear such a thing. Even in the privacy of her own rooms. The gods were always watching. But Theara didn't seem to mind, and for that fact neither was Willy, whose eyes followed the voluptuous woman across the room. Theara seemed to be aware of his gaze, wiggling her hips more than she had to when she walked and flashing him periodic smiles.

Theara returned a while later with a basin of warm water, some herbs, potions, and fresh bandages. When she knelt in front of Willy and leaned back on her haunches, her hair brushed the floor. "You won't get better if you keep doing this," she grumbled as she undid the bandage encircling Willy's abdomen.

All Willy did was smile and caress her face. That seemed to calm Theara down. She leaned into the touch and smiled back. To these two, it was like Raina wasn't even there and that hurt worse than the laughter.

Theara finally undid the bandage and Raina got her first glimpse of Willy's wound. An angry eight-inch red gash extended from the center of his upper abdomen to the side. Raina tried not to look at her handiwork— a product of rage that could cost her everything she had.

The gash was bleeding slightly. Theara dabbed away the blood, cleaned the gash with a potion, and packed it full of herbs while Willy winced. "That's what you get for reopening your wound," Theara scolded.

"I've been wounded before, you know," he said.

"Never like this." Then Theara turned to Raina. "Don't dare look away, you pigeon poop eater. Look at what you have done. Look!"

So Raina looked at the gash again. She couldn't tell how deep it was but it was bad. It was the largest wound she had ever seen, not that she had seen many. "I am sorry," she apologized.

"What's your sorry supposed to do?" Theara asked. "Can it heal him?"

Raina shook her head.

"Perhaps I should open your belly too," Theara suggested. Then she picked up a knife lying on the stack of bandages. "Don't worry, I'll apologize. My sorry will make everything alright," Theara said as a terrified Raina backed away.

"Theara," Willy said. "There's no need for that. I asked for this. I told you."

"You wanted to be maimed?" Theara asked.

"No," Willy said. "I just wanted to see if she had it in her. I thought I could dodge. I'm accustomed to fighting men who know how to fight, not amateurs who have never held a sword before in their lives. I was expecting her to thrust but she just fell forward with all her weight on the sword. Couldn't get away quickly enough."

Willy turned to Raina. "Never do that on the battlefield, by the way. Or anywhere else for that matter. If you lose your footing, you're dead. You thrust with one arm or you thrust with both but you never thrust with your whole body. You have to maintain your footing. Fall flat on your face in front of a man less chivalrous than me, and you will never rise again."

Raina nodded along, confused at the direction the conversation was taking. "You're not angry at me, my lord?" she asked.

"Why would I be? I asked you to stab me and taunted you until you did. One would say I got exactly what I wanted."

"Why?" Raina asked.

"I wanted to know what it feels like to be stabbed by a woman."

A moment later Willy cried out as Theara pinched him. "Now is not the time for your silly jokes," she scolded as she wrapped a fresh bandage around his abdomen.

"I have a wise one," Willy said with a roguish smile. "Want to hear it?"

"Don't test me, Willarn," Theara warned.

Willy shrugged and turned to Raina. "I have decided to renounce my inheritance. I will give you an annulment and return home, where I will spend my days as I've always wanted to: killing Vaechians and fucking Theara."

Theara blushed and Raina frowned. "You can't," Raina blurted.

"My dear, I am giving you everything you've always wanted. It's not a joke. You're my heir anyway. You can have it all— except the sword. I'll give it back after I kill somebody with it. Marry whoever you want. Try to be happy. Or don't. That's your future husband's problem."

He looked serious. Raina didn't know what to tell him. How to tell him. She needed him, or more specifically his army, his father's army, and his reputation as a warrior. For men to flock to the Lamanbhurg army, Willy would have to be at its helm. Either that or go groveling to Laman. And she would die first before she did that. Raina handed Willy the letter.

Willy frowned at the rolled parchment. "Did you eat the seal?" he asked.

"I'm sorry. We opened it," Raina apologized.

Willy frowned some more, unrolled the parchment, and read the letter. Theara nestled up against his chest and read it with him. Willy looked up after he was done, his expression inscrutable. "It's a family feud. Leave it to them," Theara advised. "This is not your war. Let them kill each other, the cursed kinslayers."

"Honor demands—"

"She's never wanted you, Willy. She's never made a secret of that. She's spent the past year making you miserable. She tried to kill you. Now she comes groveling when she needs help and you're going to give it to her? Would she be here if her position wasn't under threat? Would she care whether you lived or died?"

Raina had no counter. How could she dispute flawless logic? "I can't just abandon her," Willy argued.

"Let her flee to exile. A downgrade in lifestyle has never killed anyone. Frankly, she needs a lesson in humility. Why do you have to fight her battles? What do you think will happen after you save her from her cousin? She'll go right back to hating you and wishing you dead."

"Theara—"

"You promised me, Willy. You promised we will be together," Theara insisted. "I don't like this place and I don't like these people. I don't like their assassinations and their poisonings and their kinslayings. I don't want you mixed up in it. They will come for you. After you kill her cousin for her, all the little bitch has to do is kill you. It could be a year, it could be ten, but she will rid herself of you eventually. She will poison your food or cut your throat in your sleep. You have to see that. Her father killed his cousin and that cousin killed her father and now he's coming to kill her. If you stop him, she'll kill you in due time. It's in her blood."

"Would you do that?" Willy asked Raina.

Theara spoke up before Raina could answer. "The bitch is an ingrate, Willy. You restored her family's honor. You reconquered all the lands her fool of a father lost but she was still determined to hate you.

"And she opens your letters. If that letter hadn't contained bad news for her she wouldn't have brought it to you. You would never have seen it and the men you have in Lamania would be slaughtered. She will use you and discard you when she no longer needs you. You have to see that, Willy. This family is cursed. I don't want that curse spreading to you. I can't bear losing you."

Willy's eyes went from Theara and focused on Raina, unwavering gray orbs boring into hers. He was turning Theara's advice over in his mind. "She makes some good points," Willy said. "Kinslaying is a very worrying trait in a family."

"It was Laman who killed my father," Raina argued. "He was your father too. You swore the oath. You're duty-bound to avenge him."

"Laman killed your father for killing his father. I consider his vengeance justified even if his methods are beyond despicable."

"My father didn't—"

"He did, Raina," Willy said flatly. "I investigated. After the funeral. Sherhor was a grasping bastard who deserved to die but your father should have waited for the tide of battle to decide the man's fate. Instead, Nylarn gave select archers orders to shoot Sherhor full of arrows and then had the men's throats slit afterward to prevent the tale from spreading. That seemed to work until a throat slitter blabbed while drunk. Nylarn had the man killed and the other six fled out of fear that he would order their deaths too. They're the ones who spread the tale."

"How do you know that?" Raina asked.

"I talked to one just this morning. He has been in hiding for 25 years. He only returned to his family after he heard your father was dead. You could argue that killing Sherhor Lamanbhurg was a necessary act, but it doesn't change the fact that your father ordered his cousin's death. That's kinslaying. We're the offspring of a kinslayer. You by birth, me by adoption. Make your peace with Laman if you can. If you can't, take all the gold you can carry and go as far away as you can. I can lend you some of my men if you don't trust yours. They'll escort you wherever you want to go."

Raina wanted to weep. Willy had made up his mind. She couldn't change it. she could see it. She was a kinslayer's daughter. Her blood was tainted with the curse. For all of Willy's justifications, Raina knew the real reason: he couldn't bring himself to trust her. Theara had made certain of that.

It was a little thing in the codes of honor that Raina had never thought would ever affect her. Aeduianism allowed killing, as long as you did it openly and told everyone about it. Kill in secret, however, and it became a death penalty offense. Raina remembered the old saying: If you can't kill a man with the sun shining where everybody can see you, that man doesn't deserve to die.

Kinslaying was considered even worse than secret killings. It also had the additional burden of making your offspring outcasts. If Raina had been a peasant, she would have been banished for her father's sins. Now she just had to banish herself or risk Laman killing her.

Noise from the street outside interrupted Raina's contemplation of her doom. It was the sound of a dozen musical instruments playing a rhythmless song. "What's that noise?" Theara asked, more out of anger than curiosity.

"Sounds like a band," Willy said. "A very bad band. Someone needs to teach them the difference between music and noise."

Then Raina heard another set of sounds: screams. These seemed to come from inside the inn itself instead of the street outside. Screams punctuated by the clang of swords and the thrum of bowstrings. "MY LORD!" Markhor roared. "ASSASSINS!"