A: Ch. 11.2

I am officially rewriting this entire story. Consider this a 'first draft' of sorts. The most updated version is on Wattpad, here. I may or may not be updating here. Sorry!

Kya curled up close to the fire with her knees tucked under her chin. Hilt had been gone for hours. He stormed off to ‘find some real food’ before Kya had said any more. The snow was swirling harder and the cold was sinking in.

She had never told anyone about her Uncle before, not like this. A few people knew because they were there, but most of her country believed her substitute to be the true princess. Admitting this to the Third General seemed reckless and dangerous, but she felt an odd sense of relief. It was no longer a secret, no longer the darkest shadow in her soul.

Her legs ached and her stomach twisted into painful knots. Their journey had hardly begun, and this trail would be considered paradise once they hit the Rachi Mountains, she knew this. She didn’t fear the journey this time, though she knew should.

“This will have to do,” Hilt grunted, tossing down over half a dozen rabbits. They were skinned, gutted, and ready to be cooked. Kya flinched. She hadn’t even noticed his return.

“I can help,” Kya offered, emerging from her cocoon of blankets.

Hilt snapped a horrified look before pulling the rabbits away from her reach. “No,” he insisted, dutifully cutting up the meat.

Her eyes narrowed. She couldn’t hurt the food that badly.

They fell into an awkward silence for nearly an hour as the General skewered and roasted the small rodents. He didn’t seem to know what to say. Kya couldn’t blame him; she didn’t either. Her sense of relief morphed into nagging anxiety dipped in a coating of suspicion. What would Hilt do with this information?

“Listen, I—“

Hilt interrupted her, “I just have to ask one thing.”

Kya swallowed hard.

“It wasn’t…” His face looked pained, as if the words alone might sear his flesh. “It wasn’t… that… idiot knight, was it?”

Kya blinked in confusion.

“Your husband,” he clarified. “It wasn’t that Cress boy?”

“Oh!” Kya said, slightly confused. “No. It wasn’t. My husband died.” Her fingers tingled and she couldn’t help the words that came out of her mouth next. “You did meet him before he died, though.”

Hilt looked at her with curious eyes. “How could I have? Those crones on your council tried to arrange a marriage between us. I didn’t know you prior.”

“They tried to arrange a marriage between Kya and Damien, not the Princess,” Kya corrected, “and you did meet my husband before me. You were the one who killed him,” she said, a strange sense of pride and resentment in her voice. She’d been itching to confront him with this for months.

“You want me to guess?” Hilt asked, raising a brow. “I’ve killed many men in my time.”

Kya’s throat clamped shut. She didn’t want to know how many men he had killed.

“Go on, then,” Hilt said, gnawing on a piece of screwed hare. “Tell me who he was.”

“Lorant,” Kya said quietly. “Sir Lorant, the assassin prior to myself, the knight you executed the night I first met you.”

Hilt paused, mid-chew. He finally swallowed and looked her over. Kya hated it when she stared at him, she always felt like a piece of meat.

“I’m sorry,” Hilt said softly. Was his voice sincere? She met his eye and felt the air catch in her throat. The creases at the corners of his eyes softened and his shoulders were slumped. He looked smaller, much like a child being punished. She hadn’t expected this; he was supposed to snicker and make some cruel joke about how he deserved it. But he didn’t.

“I—“

“I wasn’t the one who executed him,” Hilt said quickly. He stumbled over his words, as if he had to justify it. “I was never the one who actually executed the assassins.”

“Could he be alive, then?” Kya asked, hopeful.

“No. He rotted away in the mines. None survived.”

Kya bit her lip. Since they were all about secrets tonight… “That’s not true.”

Hilt’s head perked up and he gave her a queer look. “Yes it is. None have escaped the mines, and all of your idiotic assassins ended up there.” His voice was harsh and Kya flinched.

Hilt noticed and looked away.

“The one before Lorant, his name was—“

“Lehnin,” Hilt interrupted, his eyes narrowing.

“—yes, Lehnin. He somehow made it back to Elivagar two weeks after Lorant was sent in his place. He couldn’t tell us how he escaped, but he told us about you, about the offer that you made, how you needed a guide.”

Kya saw the recognition spark in his eyes.

“The old shit told you about the deal.” Hilt almost looked impressed.

“He died two days after he arrived in The Capital. But it was with that information that we created a new plan. Someone would go and accept your plan and lead you to a trap. You already know how… successful we were.”

Hilt snorted, his eyes dancing. “I should have known. It’s rather clever. Unfortunately, you didn’t realize that I’m a Lycaon, and my body metabolizes sleeping salts at a much more rapid pace.” He snickered and chewed on a leg bone.

 Hilt offered her some of the freshly cooked meat, but she refused it. Her stomach wasn’t sitting well with her.

After his sixth rabbit, Hilt finally seemed full. The uneasy silence blanketed them once more, growing thicker with each minute. Hilt obviously had more questions; Kya decided to answer them before he asked.

“I didn’t have the child,” she whispered. He stayed silent. “When he learned that I was pregnant, he brought in my ‘surrogate’. He knew people would grow suspicious if they found the Princess was with child and my husband nowhere to be found. She had dark auburn hair as she is rumored to be a bastard child of the royal family somehow, so she would pass as the Princess and I then became Kya. Yaro assumed I would see this as a grave insult, but I reveled in the freedom it granted me. I could escape him for the first time since my father passed.”

“So that girl has been your substitute for over a decade. No wonder she acts so entitled,” Hilt snorted.

“She was my dearest friend. She was there when I had the child. It never took its first breath. My body was too young to have its first child and rejected it two months early. Yaro was furious. He thought I had done something to kill the child. He beat me and locked me in my room for a week without food or water with the corpse of my small child.”

Hilt grew tense again. She watched as his fingers gripped at his waist, itching for his sword.

She tried to give him a small smile. “He never touched me afterwards. He had already missed his chance at producing this great ruler the Spirits had promised him.”

“After all that happened, after all your uncle did to you,” Hilt growled, “you still believe those Spirits are protecting you?”

Kya gasped, hurt. “They gave me the strength to—“

“They allowed this to happen to you. Why would you pray to deities who relish the pain and suffering of the world?”

Tears prickled at her eyes and Kya quickly blinked them away. Why was he attacking her like this?

“All religions are the same. They prey on fear of the unknown and promise answers that they then refuse to give. They are parasites. They sap a community dry before moving on, all the while promising a better world and a beautiful afterlife. It’s disgusting,” he spat.

“I—“

“Just shut up,” Hilt snapped. He glared at her with a strange intensity.

Kya swallowed and obeyed.

“It’s going to be a cold night. I’m going to go get firewood.” Hilt quickly got to his feet and stormed out of the cave for the second time that night.

This time, he didn’t return until morning. 

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