Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 6)

Gaius dipped his head and began the trek upstairs. "The trophy room is mostly hunting trophies," he told her. "I believe we have a stuffed mountain cat and a couple other creatures of interest, but I haven't been in there in awhile. It's an acquired taste."

“Did Venr start it?”


“So…” Pratik took a deep breath and threw himself on one of the sofas in a sitting room that usually stayed unlocked. “Aleth.”

“So, Aleth,” Zander agreed with a sigh, sitting down on the one opposite him. Then he looked at Emery, deciding there was no reason to beat around the bush. “I know anything I say is going straight back to Gaius. Anyone else? I like to know who my words are likely to reach before I say them.”

"No, it came about perhaps two centuries ago."

"Gaius will most likely discuss it with Sara and Sera, and probably General Zander and Captain Bay if it's of military import," Emery replied. "I think that's it."

“Oh,” Ky said. “Does everyone have to add to it when you become Lord or just if you wanna?”


“Alright…” Zander nodded, considering his options. “I thank you for your honesty.”

"As I said, it's an acquired taste. There are gaps between Lords who've contributed and Lords who haven't. I mostly see hunting as a source of food and fur, so I haven't contributed anything. It's cluttered anyway."

Emery dipped his head.

Ky nodded. "Tarr-- Lord Tarr," she corrected, not sure if she could get away with dropping the title and not wanting to push her luck. "Seems quite proud of his."


Zander nodded to him, then looked back at Pratik. "You expected it."

"This was not my fault." Pratik put a finger up.

"I'm not blaming you." Zander waved it away. "But out in the courtyard -- you said Aleth tried to hire you for it?"

Pratik nodded. "I turned him down, obviously."

"Obviously," Zander agreed. "Thankfully."

There was a moment of silence as they each contemplated having had to go up against the other. It wasn't a thought either of them relished, and they both generally tried to make sure they sided with the right person in a fight, to minimize the possibility of their goals conflicting.

"I don't kill half-grown girls for funsies," Pratik scoffed, deciding to focus on that instead.

"I never said you did," Zander said. "But Nyler does. Did."

"You take him out?" Pratik asked.

Zander nodded. "Him and Jae. Gaius took out Wyl."

"Hunting is part of Tarr tradition," Gaius replied. "Always has been. And with all that masculine energy of his, I say he's better off hunting than using it for other things." He thought of Lyra. She'd spoken to him a few times on the journey and was more open than she'd been the entire time he'd seen her at Caracal Keep. He hoped a change of scenery and some voluntary time away from her parents would do her some good. Tomhas, at least. He was a well-meaning father, but he could be like an insistent fly sometimes, touching down and flitting off, then coming back and pestering you some more. Gaius was going to do his best to give Lyra some space to think and heal.

(Omgggg I just wrote up a LONG response and YWS logged me out and deleted the entire thing when I was submitting it. Ugh.)

Ky cringed. She had no idea the full extent of what Tarr had done to Lyra, but it was clear as day he was cruel to her. But her mind’s eye rested on Aleth. “Yeah… he beat Aleth. It was…” Horrifying. Terrifying. Sickening. “… something… to watch.” She shivered. She’d absolutely been imagining him turning towards her next. Not that there was a reason to expect that. Aside from the memory of what Aleth had done to her. And the discomfort at the thought of having been next in line for a beating if she’d been sent up to soy as well.

Gods, she was glad that plan had changed. She would have folded immediately if he’d grilled her without Tomhas as a shield, and then he would have killed them all. She didn’t want to think about it.


“Gods, you think they would have been smarter than that,” Pratik scoffed, shaking his head. “Trying in front of you.”

“They didn’t expect me to be there,” Zander said. “And they didn’t know my connection to Ky.” He gave him a look.

“I was telling the truth,” Pratik said. “I’m not going to run my mouth. It’d put a target- and even bigger target - on her back. And she doesn’t deserve it. She’s a good kid. At this point I wish I would have taken Aleth’s offer so the threat would have died with him. But I didn’t think of it.”

Zander nodded. He wished that, too, but there was no point kicking him when he was down. “Who else is coming?”

“I don’t know.” Pratik shook his head. “I would have expected one of them. Not all three at once. That seems excessive.

“They still didn’t manage it,” Zander pointed out, forcing himself not to think about how differently it might have ended if he wasn’t there.

“Yeah… hopefully that means that’s all there was,” Pratik said. “There’s no chance Ky would have existed without you all being there to protect her.” He hesitated, wondering if Zander would take offense. But Zander only sighed and nodded. Pratik continued, “So I can’t imagine him having a back up plan. The only people you’d need to find is whoever is holding the money to pay them, and I imagine he’s offered someone else an even larger sum of money to pay the first, to motivate them to actually follow through and not just pocket it for themselves.”

Zander nodded. “Any ideas where to start?”

Pratik shook his head.

“… I already told Gaius about the brothers,” Zander said. “Any ideas on where to start looking for them instead?”

“Well…” Pratik scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Your boyfriend is right where you left him.”

“He is not my boyfriend,” Zander snapped.

Pratik smirked, pleased to have gotten under his skin. “You sure bicker like an old married couple.”

“He is not my boyfriend,” Zander repeated, glaring. Best friend, sure. And that’s why that rumor put both of them in danger, lest someone try to hurt one of them to get to the other. He looked at Emery, hoping to god the rumor would die with him, while knowing it was going straight back to Gaius regardless. Still, he had to try. “He is not my boyfriend.”

(Noooo I hate when that happens!!)

"Not your boyfriend, got it." Emery gave him a thumbs up. "Loud and clear."

"He's the one who did that?" Gaius's eyebrows shot up. "And Aleth let him?" At least the brat had done one thing good in his life, even if he didn't realize it. That didn't even begin to make up for what he'd done to Lyra, and perhaps to Ada as well.

“I’m surprised he let him, too,” Ky said. “Aleth never gets personally involved… got… but he didn’t expect for it to be as bad as it was. He managed to hit him once, and it made him angry, so it went from fun to angry, I think… and they’d just seen what he’d done to me the night before — not Tarr — but Tomhas and I think he might have told the Ladies Barraster, so they didn’t stop him until Aleth was almost dead.”


“Good.” Zander turned back towards Pratik. “Prick.”

His smirk grew.

“Who else?”

“Have you talked to… her?”

Guild Master.

Pratik should not be talking about her in front of an audience.

“No,” Zander said. “I’ve been with Ky since it happened.”

“You should.”

“I will.”

Gaius blinked and looked away. He wouldn't have expected Tomhas to put up with that sort of thing. "What did he do?" he asked after a pause. It had to have been very, very bad for Tomhas to let Tarr go mad like that.

Shit.

She shouldn’t have mentioned it at all. Of course this would be a natural follow up.

Then again. Why shouldn’t she malign Aleth. There were no consequences now.

“Aleth was mad that we had to go ourselves… I was supposed to come too.” She glanced up at Gaius, flushing a bit, worried he’d be upset by that revelation, but too scared to linger so she continued on, looking away, “All three of us were. So he wanted me to debrief, what I’d noticed, you know. Like normal. But he needed to get some frustration out, and I mean, I was the one there. And I think I was more gratifying anyway because I’m easier to hurt than Tadaaki, so it, I don’t know.”

She was doing a classic Ky ramble. But she couldn’t stop herself.

“He went a bit harder than he meant to, I think, and accidentally dislocated my shoulder. But, like, it wasn’t that bad. So I was going… I don’t remember. I think I was supposed to be going to the library. And I ran into Tomhas in the stairs in the stairs and he noticed. I don’t know how. Aleth always made sure none of it was visible. I guess I must have been favoring my shoulder even though I didn’t realize it. I don’t know how he knew. But then I had to tell Aleth, obviously, so he could do damage control. But then he was mad at me of course because I shouldn’t have been letting it show, I was usually better at hiding it. But anyway, yeah, it was always worse when I actually deserved it instead of just stress relief so he did it again but I don’t know if Tomhas figured that out and I don’t know if it made him mad… actually I’m sure he must have, since I know him now, but he didn’t let it show and was super nice to me.”

She took a deep breath, rushing through the end.

“But then we were all supposed to just eat a little so we got skinnier to sell it.l she cringed at that, embarrassed to be telling him their plan. “But Aleth was hungry so he took most of it and I was giving Tadaaki as much as he’d take of what was left. He’s a lot bigger than me and needs it more, you know? But it was okay. It wasn’t a big deal and I didn’t mind. But one night my stomach hurt kind of a lot so I went to get some water to see if that helped and I ran into Tomhas in the hall and was having a hard time being good because I was a bit lightheaded and he could tell I didn’t feel good and asked what had happened and I had to tell him because you can’t lie to a Lord and he got mad — but pretended he wasn’t but I could tell he wasn’t happy — or maybe he just felt bad, I don’t know. But he was going to take me to the kitchen to get food because he felt bad for me and is very nice but I almost passed out because I… well, walking was a little hard. So he went to get food for us — I was mortified he was fetching something for me, but he did.”

She was talking very fast at this point.

“And I couldn’t do anything about it so I just sat down and I was wondering if my stomach was still badly bruised and accidentally didn’t pay attention and Tomhas saw…” She hesitated, looking away. “… the scars… and then he was really mad and told me he wasn’t going to let Aleth keep me and told Aleth he was keeping me for leverage but said he wouldn’t keep me as a slave that I could go or I could stay with him. And I think he was mad at Aleth. Very mad. And so he took me back with him and I kept trying to let him be his servant and he wouldn’t, he just kept calling me a guest, so that’s what I thought that’s what I was but then you said he was going to adopt me but I didn’t know that but… I’m glad it was true.” She smiled a bit at that, glancing up at Gaius to see his reaction.

Gaius took all this in quietly, lost in thought. Tomhas hadn't gone into too much detail when he explained, but this sounded worse than even what he'd said. Gaius might have let Tarr kill Aleth and then gotten another lackey, but Tomhas was too good for that. Tomhas's actions puzzled him, though; this seemed like something he himself might do. It was too cruel for Tomhas--starving a young girl alongside her master, sending his own daughter off to marry that beast of a man...had he scared his brother so much? Were these events really his fault?
"I see," he mused. "I'm very glad he's dead and you're free, then."

“Me too,” Ky agreed with a nod. “I was a little scared of him… it’s nice to not be with him anymore.”

(Ky, continuing with understatements off the century)

(Oh my sweet summer child)

"I can imagine." They reached the top of the stairs. "I almost regret that I didn't find out what he was immediately. He wouldn't have attended that meeting, certainly." Gaius's brow furrowed. "Tell me about Lyra, Ky."