Swordpoint Diplomacy 15

CHAPTER 15

“I cannot believe you.” Etienne said under his breath. His tone was vexed, but you wouldn’t have known it from his blandly pleasant facial expression. “I thought that you were in danger.”

‘What does he mean by that? I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?’

Rose raised an eyebrow in question, but he let out a heavy sigh and leaned in closer without elaborating. “I forget the etiquette for taking political prisoners,” he murmured into her ear. “It seems like the type of speech that you paid attention to in class.”

She perked up. That was one of the more interesting bits of etiquette. “Gentlemen,” Rose said. Her tone was just the right side of formal, not stuffy or smug. “I take you as my hostage. Please remand your weapons into the Lady LaMott’s custody.” She gestured at the woman in question, although context made things clear enough already.

For a moment, she thought that they really might have to fight anyway.

Slowly and sullenly, the Prince gave the order. Willame was the last to hand over his weapon. It seemed to nearly pain him.

Right then. The next thing was to ask- “Who should I notify?”

There was a deep silence.

Rose waited.

“Are you quoting the book?” Willame asked, sounding helpless and small.

She felt for him, really she did. It must be difficult to be so large and not allowed to smash things. Rose nodded gently. “Who should I notify?” she repeated. This time, she looked at Prince Marcel.

His lips flattened into a line. “No one,” he said.

That suited her just fine. “Very well, let’s depart.” She borrowed a weapon and started down the staircase. It was not necessary in her borrowed gown, but muscle memory had her lifting the hem of her dress to avoid a stumble.

“Princess,” Lady LaMott said. She sounded a bit flustered. “I think we do need to notify someone that we’ve taken the enemy’s Crown Prince captive.”

“Yes,” Rose agreed, “before any negotiations. But we’d also need to notify if there will be a wedding. I haven’t decided what to write just yet.” She made a careless little wave with her hand, over her shoulder. It could go either way, really. Prince Marcel seemed somewhat sincere, but it was hard to really know a person.

Someone made a choking sound behind her.

Rose turned with a frown, feeling the lines pressed into the space between her eyebrows. She gave Prince Marcel a questioning look. He seemed to have been the person who made that ungainly sound.

Whatever his expression was supposed to convey was a mystery to her. His eyes were large, but there was a line in his forehead and his mouth was slightly open. He didn’t look scared, angry, or happy, and that was about the extent of emotional complexity that Rose was up to assessing at the moment.

Eh.

She turned back around and focused on where she was going. “Did anyone encounter the Castellan?”

“No, your highness.”

Rose nodded briskly at Lady LaMott’s answer. “I see. Perhaps she’s at the wall.” She considered trying to look at the prisoners’ expressions for a hint, but she heard something ahead and focused on it.

“Perhaps she’s downstairs,” Willame muttered dolefully. “Having noticed that there’s a bloody battalion in her castle.”

“There’s 40 of us,” Lady LaMott cheerfully corrected. “We didn’t need so many to ransack your city and hear the lamentations of your children.”

Rose blinked. “Are we ransacking?” Her tone went up. “That was hardly my plan.”

Etienne sighed again. “We are not ransacking,” he corrected dryly. There was rustling and clanking behind as he forced his way to the front of the group to keep pace with Rose. “We are finishing up a targeted raid.”

They really did need the Castellan, if they could get her. Rose’s lips thinned out into a displeased line.

‘Things could very easily turn back around and we could lose our prisoners. We should be behind the lines of any defense, and there should be hardly any fighters here when the wall is under attack. But I’m hardly comfortable with the way that things are.’

She made uneasy eye contact with her brother.

"We need to make sure the city falls, not just slink back out with our hostages," Etienne said quietly.

Rose nodded in agreement and felt her stomach twist.

'Realistically, we should kill all the hostages except the Prince and perhaps Willame. Taking them out will tie up too much of our manpower. If I wasn't injured I'd go by myself to sabotage the wall defense, but as is I'm not much better than useless.'

Anger threatened to bubble up and ruin her ability to plan. She had to take a few deep breaths to press down the self-loathing.

The obvious next solution was that Etienne should do it instead of her. The thought did not sit well with her.

Part of it was that she felt protective of him, despite their lack of age difference. He'd always felt like her little brother. He was always behind her in weapon and martial training.

'I can't suggest that he isn't capable,' Rose told herself firmly. It would undermine and humiliate Etienne.

She had to be smarter, then. Rose thought furiously, remembering everything that she knew about the layout of this place.

If it was up to her, she would have gone alone. Etienne or Kian or someone like that would have been good as backup, but she wouldn't bother with a squad. If the wall was already under a full assault, just a couple of people unexpectedly behind enemy lines could do a lot of damage to their ability to rebuff attackers.

They just didn't have enough people.

'We need to leave as many of the hostages as possible here,' Rose realized. She looked at her brother again and wondered if he'd already come to the same conclusion. He must have. He was the smart one. 'It would be pretty damn impolitic to kill them after taking them hostage, and it would make Prince Marcel a lot less amenable. But. We could tie them up or lock them in somewhere in the castle on our way out.'

"Should we keep Marcel's knight as leverage?" Rose asked Etienne, so quietly that no one else should have heard it.

Her brother hummed. "It's a risk," Etienne murmured back. "But yes. You and… how many of the soldiers, to be sure?"

Rose bit her lip and thought it over. She had to assume that both Marcel and Willame were very competent. But they were also unarmed, and the Castellan would be a helpless hostage... "Three," she decided quietly. "I don't think you and I would overcome those odds in their shoes."

No matter how good they were, they weren't twice as good as an armed warrior.

'I wish we had restraints. I really wouldn't want to wrestle Willame.'

He gave her a very fond look and nodded. "There's a solar on the first floor," Etienne said in exchange. "I noticed a lock on the door."

So that was it, then. Etienne was going to sabotage the wall defense while she scurried away with their prisoners. It felt wrong.

Rose reached out and elbowed her brother, hoping the touch would convey everything that she couldn't say. Understood. Good luck. I love you. Be safe. Kill many men.

Despite the noise that Rose had heard, they encountered no one at all upon exiting the spiral stairwell. When they came to the solar, Etienne cleared his throat. He and Rose turned neatly on their heels at the same time.

Marcel nearly walked into Etienne.

"There has been a change of plans," Rose announced cheerfully. She eyed their four prisoners.

"In you go." Etienne leaned around Marcel to open the door and beckon to the two guards. One stepped forward hesitantly. "Yes, you. If I don't know your Mother's name, you're no longer my hostage."

"Bit elitist, that," Willame said, and tried to duck past him into the room.

Etienne clucked his tongue and stopped the big man with a hand on his chest. "Her name's Elizabet," he said apologetically. "She seems lovely. Alright. That's everyone, have a good day, thank you for walking us down."

"It was lovely to meet you," Rose said, the phrase made cheerful through rote repetition.

The lock made a schluck sound as it clicked into place. Etienne patted the wood frame as he started walking again.

"They're going to howl," Lady LaMott said ruefully.

Rose nodded and picked up her pace. "Did you come in where I expected to?" She asked. She'd had a rough street plan and projected where the dry riverbed would let her in, but it was hard to know for sure.

Lady LaMott looked at Etienne for the answer.

"Yes." He seemed to be walking faster now. Rose automatically picked up her pace to keep even.

She wanted to ask him where exactly they needed to go from here so that they could split. But it wasn't wise. Rose gritted her teeth, irritated by how useless she was. If she was at her best, she wouldn't care about giving the captives more time to think. If she was at her best, she wouldn't have to send Etienne off to do what should have been her task.

She tried not to wallow in how childishly she'd failed and just put one foot in front of the other aching foot.

Ch 16 preview

When they finally separated, Etienne reached down deep for patience and reminded himself that Rose did not intend to be an ass. The easy way that she'd taken command of his unit and everyone had deferred to her had his hackles up. It hadn't even occurred to her that she shouldn't be leading, when she was the only one present who didn't know the route and had an injured leg to boot. It didn't appear to have occurred to anyone else either.

Utterly ridiculous.

'Even odds as to whether she really even remembers the injury,' he thought wryly. Years of practice helped him smooth his frustration away into serenity. There was no use to getting upset. It changed nothing.

She was frustrating, but she was only what her Father's favoritism had made her. He could hardly begrudge her for that when he'd have done anything to be the favorite.

"I'm being a melancholy bastard," he murmured to himself. His lips twisted in a scowl. That was all long passed. These days, Rose loved him more than she wanted Father's approval.

And here was his chance to finally get some of that approval for himself. How novel.