Chapter 32.1

"Now that we're away from the fort," Fang said with a playful grin, "can I just say that the two of you were adorable? The way the two of you clung to each other yesterday at the market and afterwards, and how he held you in your sleep. Much to his detriment. You can't fool me, Red, I can see you didn't catch enough sleep."

Red sat at the campfire, rolling his eyes while heating water. They were making their way up the mountains towards the snowline and things already were feeling rather cold here. They already had travelled for two hours today, so it was high time for a break. Eirwen sat next to him, watching him work. He had declined her offer to help, of course, insisting on spoiling her.

Fang's face turned more serious. "Now that there's nobody near, and trust me, we all checked, care to tell what that was all about?" Of course she had caught on. Eirwen had already seen that in her eyes, the way their guide had studied them while Red had been mentally following the knight to Lord Blacktree. But she had waited with indulging her curiosity until they could be sure nobody could overhear them.

Eirwen rolled her eyes performatively. "Are all mountain guides this overly curious, Mo Cuishle, or did you just go and find me the worst of them?"

"Be nice, Mo Stór. And no, they're not. But Fang isn't that curious normally, most customers like their privacy. Even when she, and others, asked about my love life, she was never pushy about it. But she now finally got to put a face to the name, which likely is why she is this interested."

"I can tell the two of you are changing the subject." Fang was actually pouting. An act, of course, but still amusing. "You don't have to tell, of course, but it did worry me." She wasn't the only curious one, everyone else was listening with great attention.

Red looked at Eirwen with a question in his eyes, which she answered with a nod. He sighed and started. "I could tell Snow was having a hard time last night, what with sleeping with so many people in a room. So I helped stave off her nightmares."

Oath looked at him, studying his eyes. "You really are relatively exhausted. How many did she have?" The healer suppressed the sound of concern, but not enough to hide it. She worried more about Eirwen's mental state than her physical these days.

"I stopped three as soon as they started, and prevented eight dreams that were threatening to become one. Given how this was her first night in open quarters in over two years, I expected as much." Oath cursed at that, while Eirwen blinked. Of course he knew even that much.

Fang raised a questioning eyebrow, which Eirwen answered just before Red was about to. "A military retreat, there was no time to find a safe building to stay at, so I slept in a wagon back then. It was the last time my advisors let me anywhere near the front." She looked at him. "I suppose you did that deliberately back then?"

He shrugged, but his eyes betrayed his guilt. "I knew my father was considering sending people after you, which would have caused a lot of bloodshed for both sides. So yes, I made sure we got close enough to spook your side. I had Darragh lead the pursuit, to make sure of that, without causing our troops to fall into an ambush."

Light shook her head. "You really were a manipulative piece of trash back then. I loathed every time I was assigned to the same area as you, fearing you were going to capture me again. Never understood the fools that tried repeatedly. If it wasn't for miss Snow here, entire families would have been bankrupted by that stubbornness."

"Oh yeah, I knew that. I actually told two of them off for it once, asking them if they felt no shame, being such a burden to their Duchess. They just shouted they'd kill me, so I cut through their swords. Having a Verglassed edge on their throats finally got some sense in them, they kept away from me after that."

It felt weird, how many Verglas knights chuckled at that. You'd expect the subject to be more painful to them, given how much damage the Blade of the West had done to them. But even those he had captured, seemed to no longer carry any real grudge about that.

Eirwen broke the cozy feeling with the second answer, her serious tone immediatelt putting all at attention. "We met Cormac Dorcha yesterday. It seems almost his entire family moved to Bealach na Caisteal, except for the few he sent off to the Doirinne territory. Probably intending to help with public security in these regions."

Red supplemented her explanation. "Sir Mathan Doire recognised us at the market yesterday." Of course he knew the man's name. "The bloody fool almost knelt to greet me, I barely managed to prevent that. He reported back, so I took the chance to tell them all off."

"Oh, is that how you call it?" She smiled at him. "An interesting way to describe implying you'd kill them for treason if they continued treating you as their Duke."

While he stammered, she thought about the name. "Now that you mention his name, I think I remember your notes. One of Dorcha's most loyal knights, weak to gut punches, incapacitate if getting Dorcha to fall in line, kill otherwise as his loyalty means he'd never stop being a threat?"

The amount of shocked sounds betrayed her mistake. Her own already had known about his reports on them, but Iceheart hadn't. And not even all of Verglas had truly understood how much effort he had put into analysing the weaknesses of his own side as well.

Red broke the tension with a laugh. "I have to say, I'm impressed. I wrote that all down because I couldn't fully remember the details of hundreds of relevant people, yet here you easily recall what I had written down about him. You're right, that's the one. The man often served under me directly. Cormac rotated who he sent to the front, always sending me half of his most loyal knights. He wanted to make sure that my father had no room to claim he wasn't supporting the war, but kept enough in his own territory to secure our borders."

"You praise my memory, but tell me honestly, was there anyone yesterday that you didn't know the name of?" Eirwen was actually curious about that.

"Two of the servants? I didn't observe them physically, maybe I would have recognised their appearance, but they didn't strike me as really familiar. I did recognise the other staff from the few times I had visited." He didn't even bother joking, as if it was plain obvious he could recognise them all simply through his senses.

Fang released her breath in a tense sigh. "I'm used to people keeping secrets, but I'm still surprised just how competent you were all this time. So that's how you caught on to betrayal so quickly in the past? Here I was thinking you had just seen them from the corner of your eyes before, but you actually can recognise people that easily just by sensing them? Looks like miss Snow isn't the only one getting to know you better."

She looked at the others. "No wonder all of you seem loyal to him as well. You must have seen his competence on the battlefield. I can tell that you all are extremely happy to have him by your side."

Several nodded at that. Rook spoke up. "That I am. But when you say betrayal, do you mean people trying to rob you, or actually trying to kill you?"

"Both. It happens from time to time, normally folks who get desperate or greedy. But sometimes they plan it in advance, set things up. If caught, they'll be driven out of the mountains, or killed, so they know not to leave witnesses. Which also means people suspect any case in which one group kills another, making witnesses or an investigation very useful."

She looked at Red and for once, her characteristic teasing look was nowhere to be found. She was grateful. "There were a few times back then where we were backstabbed and we only somewhat saw it coming. Red stepped in admirably, taking hits to make sure nobody else would. He saved some lives, or at least helped prevent grievous injuries. Scored him a few scars in turn, but hey, nothing wrong with a few well-earned battlemarks."

She turned to Eirwen now, her eyes more serious than ever. "And yes, he did murder people, miss Snow. Because once a blade is turned on us, we cannot trust that to not happen again. So we execute our enemies, and unlike many visitors, he did that admirably. Neither bloodlust nor revenge drove him, he simply killed them in cold blood. He can be a merciless killer, which is why anyone who wondered if he were the Marquis, assumed he wasn't after the war reports came in. Because we all knew that if Red put his mind to it, he would have crushed Verglas. So there was no way Aodhán and Red could be the same person."

Eirwen nodded. "In a way, he wasn't. But those experiences here helped define him. Thank you for sharing that with me. I suspected it was the case, but I am glad to hear I was right."

A slight bow in turn. "You're welcome, milady. Alright, enough of that! Red, is the tea ready now or what? Not all of us have a lovely someone by our side to share body heat with."

"Here you go." As he poured everyone tea, Eirwen could tell. This conversation had helped take at least some of the burden off him. Still plenty of guilt left, but it helped.