The Great Organizer Of Train Wrecks

Rainier tried to shake him one more time, and then- reluctantly- he opened his hand and let the dagger clatter to the floor. Leander released him to snatch it, and by the time he’d scrambled up, Rainier was on his feet too.

They faced each other, chests heaving, standing over the bed where Emauri lay.

Rainier spoke first. “You know who he is.”

Leander didn’t bother denying it. “Yes.”

“You know what he’s done.”

“Yes.”

“Why won’t you let me kill him, then?”

“Look at him.” Leander gestured to Emauri’s still, pale form. “He’s half dead already.”

“Then it would be a mercy.” Rainier spoke with clenched teeth. “A mercy he doesn’t deserve. You know what he and his father did. To you. To me. To Abril!” His voice was getting louder. “How dare you, Leander? How dare you bring him here? How dare you bring him anywhere near my wife when he’s part of the reason she wakes up screaming at night?”

“It was Baron Antonin that hurt her, Rainier.”

“And that little snake stood by and watched! And laughed! Laughed, while his father tortured a woman who had done nothing to them!” Rainier stepped around the bed, grasping Leander by the shoulders. His eyes were filled with real concern, mixed with the anger. “The Tarasques were almost your death. They took me, they took Abril, they hurt us to get you to surrender. They would have given you to the king in chains. You would have been killed, Leander, and not quickly. Not like I’m going to kill him.”

“But they didn’t.” Leander reached up with his free hand to close it over Rainier’s. “You got Abril out and got to me in time. The king is dead and I am alive and he’s paid for it, Rainier, he’s paid. You didn’t- you didn’t see the gaol.” He turned away, closing his eyes as the memory of the dark cell floated up before him like a ghost.

Rainier threw another glance to the pitiful sight on the bed. “How long?”

“I think almost since the last battle. Seven years. Years, certainly, if not all seven.” Leander clenched his fist. “They had him in the lower cells. There’s hardly any light down there. It’s dark and it’s wet and it’s cold and he was chained and he’s sick and I-I couldn’t leave him.”

Rainier was silent.

“Part of me wanted to. Part of me said it was justice. The road to where we are now was such a hard one to walk. You know it, Rainier, you walked it with me. But nothing I went through is worth a man dying slowly for seven years.”

“Is what Abril went through worth that?” Rainier challenged.

Leander shook his head. “I can’t answer that. I don’t think you can, either. Tell Abril. You’re my captains. If both of you can’t stand it, I’ll send him away.”

“Back to prison?”

“I- I can’t, Rainier. I’m tearing the old gaol down.”

“We have other prisons.”

“He’d die. He might die even now. But another prison would kill him for sure.”

Rainier jerked a shoulder in a way that very clearly meant And?

“I’ll send him somewhere far away.”

“That’s worse.” Rainier shook his head, his ginger ponytail flicking back over his shoulder. “I don’t want to be wondering when he’ll sneak back in the night. Friends close but enemies closer, right? Does that door lock?”

“Yes,” Leander answered. “I picked this room carefully.”

That didn’t stop Rainier. He moved all around the room, checking the windows to be sure they couldn’t open, looking over the furniture for sharp or heavy pieces, examining the lock on the door at a dozen different angles. When he straightened up, his eyes were hard, and Leander knew he was talking with Second Captain Velue, not his friend Rainier.

“I am posting a guard outside this room.” The words were cold and measured. “At all times. You, myself, and Abril may enter. No one else goes in, and no one else comes out.”

“He’ll need a healer,” Leander pointed out.

“I’ll speak with Master Brindle. After I speak with Abril.” Rainier looked over again at the still form on the bed. “And Leander- you don’t come in here alone.”

That had some of his friend in it, not just the captain of his guard. “He’s too weak to hurt me,” Leander said.

“I don’t care.” Rainier folded his arms across his chest. “I’m not going to give him the chance. You come here with me, or with Abril. If she decides she can stand to look at him.” His lip curled.

Leander sighed. “All right, Rainier.”

“One more thing.” Rainier glanced at Emauri again. “If he wakes, will he be able to leave that bed?”

“No. There’s something- his leg. And he’s not strong enough anyway.”

“I want to make sure of it. Even if he’s weak as a kitten, I’m having him chained.”

“Rainier, no. He can’t even stand, he doesn’t need-“

“I don’t care, Leander.” Captain Velue had melted away. He was Rainier again. Somehow that might have been worse. “I don’t care. I will not risk you, and I will not risk Abril. It’s shackles or the dagger, Leander. Choose your iron.”

Leander could have ordered him not to do either. He could have ordered him to stand down. He was the Lord Protector. He could have.

He did not.

Instead he let a sigh slither between his teeth, and gave in. “A chain, then. A light one. And on his good leg.”

Rainier answered that with a single nod. “Come on out. I’m locking him in while I wake Abril.”

Leander followed him out of the room, watching as Rainier locked the door and made doubly sure it had bolted. And then they were friends again, and Rainier clapped him on the shoulder before he went into his and Abril’s quarters, and Leander heard her shout grumpily and the distinct thud of something heavy and Rainier cursing her impeccable aim.

It did not make him feel any better.

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