The Runaway King (The Ascendance Series, Book 2)

My shirt was already in rags, so it was an easy thing for them to tear the rest of it away. Devlin remained in his chair where he could watch me, but Agor held the whip and I could tell by the fierceness of his expression that he relished the opportunity to use it.

“Who are you to make me look like such a fool?” he sneered.

I thought the answer to that had been more than adequately covered, so I didn’t bother to respond.

“You may have defeated Devlin, but in a real fight I could still beat you,” Agor said.

That was unlikely. Agor was too predictable to be very dangerous. But telling him that would only make him angrier than he already was, and since he held the whip, I opted for silence.

With my shirt off, Agor walked a full circle around me, surveying exactly where he wanted to begin. I took deep breaths and tried to prepare for what was coming. It hadn’t been that long since Mott and Cregan whipped me in Conner’s dungeon. And as horrible as that had been, Conner’s strap had been thick, intended to bruise me rather than to leave the deep cuts Agor’s whip would inflict. Mott’s whipping had come as a punishment, and I’d known the torture would end if I just endured it. But Agor wanted something from me. He’d continue until I gave them the location of the cave, or until I was dead.

“Come see him,” Agor said to Devlin, still looking at me. “This is not the body you’d expect of a king.”

Irritated at being treated like a show exhibit, I rolled my eyes, but again I held my tongue. If nothing else, it bought me another minute or two.

Curious, Devlin rose from his chair and walked behind me as well. From where he’d sat, he would already have seen the slash across my stomach from Erick’s thief, and the cut from Roden on my arm. But I was far too thin for someone who was literally given the king’s feast each meal. I was also covered in bruises from my sword match with Agor, I had numerous scrapes from my fight with the pirates just now, and I had the two scars on my back from Farthenwood.

Devlin walked back to face me, but I couldn’t read his expression. It wasn’t quite a look of respect, but it wasn’t anger either.

“I thought you were from a civilized country,” he said. “How have you come to look more like Carthya’s whipping boy than its king?”

“I have a habit of irritating some of our less civilized people,” I answered. “But you seem like a civilized . . . pirate. I’d much prefer it if you didn’t have me whipped.”

“And why shouldn’t I?”

With some effort, I forced a smile to my face. “Because it will hurt.”

“I hope so.” Devlin held his shoulder as he returned to his chair. “You’ll get enough lashes to learn some humility, then we’ll have a talk about that cave.”

“That’s a waste of your time,” I said. “It’s not in me to become humble, nor to reveal secrets to my enemies.”

Agor unwound his whip and snapped it once in the air. I cringed when I heard it and gritted my teeth together. It would be impossible to keep myself from crying out, even to save Imogen from hearing, and a part of me worried that no matter what I had said, eventually I would give in to anything Devlin wanted.

Agor grunted as he reared his arm back in his first move to strike me, only the whip didn’t fly.

“What?” Agor looked behind him, confused.

I looked as well. Roden was standing at the edge of the crowd of pirates who had gathered to watch. In his hand was the end of the whip. He’d wound it around his wrist and continued to wind it, pulling it from Agor’s grip. In all that time, he never took his eyes off me. I could almost feel them boring into me.

Roden had stopped my whipping for now — which I greatly appreciated, but there was a total lack of sympathy in his expression, and that concerned me.

“How dare you,” Agor said.

“Roden! What’s the meaning of this?” Devlin asked.

Roden finished winding the whip and then tossed it to the ground. Addressing me, he said, “A message came ordering me back early. It said that a boy named Sage was with the pirates, promising some sort of treasure. But I told myself it couldn’t be you.”

“It’s not the first time you’ve been wrong about me,” I said.

Roden raised his voice. “Devlin, you promised that any action involving the king of Carthya would be my privilege.”

“That all changed when your king got himself made one of my pirates.”

Roden turned to me, genuinely surprised. He noticed the branding on my forearm and his mouth dropped open. Our eyes met again and I smiled, a little embarrassed at how stupid it sounded when Devlin said it aloud.

“Him?” Roden shook his head fiercely as if the movement would help his understanding. “The king of Carthya is a pirate?”

“We didn’t know who he really was.”

“You should have known!” Roden’s face darkened. “I told you about him. I warned you.”

Even bound and ready to be whipped, I couldn’t help but feel a little honored that the pirates had to be warned about me.

“You told us about Jaron,” Devlin said. “The name of Sage was never mentioned.”

Roden looked at me and his eyes narrowed. “Whatever his name, I’m here now and he’s mine. Release him.”

Devlin shook his head. “He just bargained away his life to me, saving a girl named Imogen.”

Roden shot a glare at me. This time I looked away. I didn’t want any questions about her involvement here.

Roden turned back to Devlin. “You’ve already made a bargain with me.”

Devlin had begun to bleed through the bandage on his shoulder, yet he still made the effort to stand and face Roden. “We agreed that when the pirates attacked Carthya, you would have the king as your reward. But this is different. Jaron came here on his own.”

Roden stepped closer to Devlin, clearly angry. “The plan was just to kill Jaron, and let Avenia take both the blame and the spoils. If you kill him here, Carthya will want revenge on us.”

“I’ve heard his reputation,” Devlin said. “Carthya won’t fight for him.”

“Yes, they will,” Roden said firmly. “If he’s the boy I knew at Farthenwood, then his people will follow him to the devil’s lair and back.”

I cocked my head at that. Was I still the boy Roden had known at Farthenwood? I wished I could talk with him in private. There was so much anger in Roden’s eyes, but was that because of me or Devlin?

Roden folded his arms. “So what are your intentions with him?”

“Somewhere in Carthya is a cave full of the wealth of the royals. I’ll do whatever it takes until he reveals that location, then it’ll be my decision what to do with him after that.”

“No,” Roden insisted. “I want him. Now.”

Devlin ignored Roden. “Agor, give Roden’s king twenty lashes to start, then we’ll ask him about the cave.” To Roden he said, “I’ll make you this deal. After I have Carthya’s treasure, you can take whatever’s left of Jaron. I don’t wish to deprive you of your revenge.”

My head snapped up then. Roden wanted revenge because I had taken the throne of Carthya and he had not. But he’d already given me a rather painful cut on the arm. We were more than even. Despite the disadvantage of my current position, I felt justifiably angry.

“This bargaining will stop at once!” I yelled. “Devlin, you’re a coward and a pig. Give me whatever punishment you want. I will never, never reveal the location of that cave. And, Roden, you know my name. You know that throne always belonged to me. Nothing you can do will ever change that fact. It will only make you a traitor, a lower form of life than Devlin, if that’s possible.”

Without waiting for an order, Agor grabbed the whip and moved to strike me with it. I had closed my eyes in anticipation of the sting, so I didn’t see the speed of Roden’s movement. All I knew was that before the whip touched me, Agor’s angry cry turned to a grunt of pain and he fell to the ground. When I looked, Roden stood behind him, his sword red with blood.

“Stop him,” Devlin shouted.

Just as he had with my vigils at the castle, Roden cut through the pirates like they were little more than soft butter. It didn’t take long before the rest of them backed away. And once they saw where he was going, they stopped fighting him entirely.

Devlin stood behind the rest of his men, not because they were protecting him but because he was using them to hide. He had withdrawn his sword but held it limply in his good arm.

“I am the king of these pirates,” Devlin said. “Roden, you have violated the oath —”

“And you violated our bargain,” Roden said. “Drop your sword.”

“Never.” Devlin raised his sword to attack, but in a single move, Roden deflected his thrust and stabbed Devlin just below the chest. Devlin was dead the instant he hit the ground.

There was a long moment while everyone stared at their king’s body, as if it was impossible that after so many years he could be gone so quickly, and with surprisingly little effort on Roden’s part.

Roden stared at him too. Of course, Devlin had made the first strike, but I didn’t think Roden had intended to kill him. Now that he had, Roden was more than just a pirate here. And he knew it.

“You have a new king,” Roden announced. “You will follow my orders now.” The others looked up at him, not sure what to expect next. Then he nodded at me. “Get Jaron down from there and someone find him a shirt. Put him in the jail until I decide what to do with him next.”

“My traitorous captain of the guard is in the jail,” I said. “One of us is bound to kill the other in there, so if you want access to us both, I’d suggest taking me elsewhere.”

Roden glanced at a pirate next to me who said, “I’ll put him with a boy we just locked away. I think they came here together.”

“Is it secure?” Roden asked.

“Probably more so than the jail. Nobody’s ever escaped it.”

“Fine.”

The ropes were cut away from my hands and pirates grabbed me on either side. Roden never looked up as they led me away. I said nothing to him either, mostly because I didn’t know the words. Roden hadn’t saved me from the pirates. He’d only delayed what now seemed inevitable.