Chains of Moonlight Chapter Five

Despite, the little valkyrie’s vulgarity, Veremund had absolutely meant his parting words to her when they had arrived. While he’d hoped otherwise, he’d known exactly what was going to happen when he reached Selene with her. His efforts to convince their father that the valkyrie should stay under his jurisdiction since he’d been the one to catch her in the first place had fallen on deaf ears.

When didn’t anything Veremund said to his father?

Oh, he’d been placated with the excuses that he was too important to waste his time on her, but he knew what it really was. A punishment for not getting the princess in the first place.

Or punishment for daring not to die.

Again.

If Veremund was being charitable to his father, he had been kept plenty busy with his duties as the crown prince since the second he set foot back in this cursed palace weeks before.

He got to deal with catching up on all the reports that had piled up on his desk from their generals in his time away. And if that wasn’t enough, he also had to deal with the banal concerns of their nobles. It was a shame because both he and the nobles would much prefer it if Emmerich was the one they were dealing with, which was exactly why their father had Veremund doing it instead. Emmerich would either acquiesce to their petty problems and frivolous requests, or, worse, he might finally have enough sense to learn how to say the word no to a pair of pretty eyes, and then they might not be so fond of him anymore.

Anyone not being fond of Emmerich might as well be a death sentence in their father’s eyes.

No. Veremund had the great honor of being the villain to everyone else. So, unfortunately, for his little valkyrie, she was out of his hands and in the hands of his little brother.

Although, considering the valkyries’ natural inclination for combat, he supposed it was entirely possible she was better suited to withstand Emmerich’s tactics to get her to speak, than she would be Veremund’s. If she had her choice, she might have picked Emmerich anyway.

Her tolerance for pain might be higher than her tolerance for Veremund’s more subtle manipulations, especially since she’d proven clever enough to catch his little mistake.

Veremund threw himself into his work regardless. She wasn’t his problem, so thinking of how he would break her and drag the information out of the pieces of her that remained wouldn’t do him any good or her any harm. He had other responsibilities.

There were decisions to be made about troops, recruitment, and casualties, and tracking the celestial calendar. Thankfully right now his biggest concern was ensuring they avoided battles or attacks from the Sun Elves on nights with the new moon. There were no immediate eclipses but he could not also forget about impending lunar eclipses. He couldn’t just think about the soonest ones, a normal eclipse was bad enough, but if their astronomers were right, there would be a total lunar eclipse, specifically a blood moon, in seven years.

Presuming the war wasn’t over by then, Veremund would have to build a defensive strategy to ensure the Sun Elves couldn’t use it to their advantage.

Since this war was older than Veremund himself, he highly doubted it was going to be won within the next five years, much less the next ten or twenty. No matter how hard he tried, so long as his father breathed, Veremund didn’t believe the conflict would end. And if the valkyries got further involved, it was only going to get bloodier.

He closed his eyes and the screams of the elves he’d lost echoed in his head. Fragmented images of red soaked ground and blades piercing chests rushed to the forefront of his mind. The horrifying gale of wind as wings beat the air above him ripped the air out of his lungs. He’d looked up to see the monstrous creature descending upon him with a deafening screech, and that had been the last thing many of his men had seen.

It had almost been the last thing he’d seen.

His sword colliding with the spear thrown his way had saved him and then his moonlight magic had landed true and taken her out of the sky by decimating her wings. But it had been far too close.

Veremund knew, of course, which of the elves in this kingdom were going to die in greater numbers first. It certainly wasn’t going to be those with pure silver hair and pure blood.

While Veremund wasn’t permitted to have any soldiers who didn’t have pure silver hair in his squads, that was the exception to the rule. It wouldn’t do for Veremund to be surrounded by anyone who might actually like him enough to want to keep him alive. He’d been tracking the numbers ever since he’d been old enough to take part in this war. It was his elves with black in their hair who died en masse, in far greater numbers than those with pure blood and pure silver.

It was the middle of the night, getting close to when he would normally have a tray sent up to him. He was drafting a response to one of his generals to the make a strategic move to avoid a skirmish with the Sun Elves during the next new moon phase when a knock sounded on his door.

Before he could even call out, the door was swinging open and Emmerich was striding into his room. “You’ve been back for three weeks now and I’ve hardly seen you.”

Veremund looked up from his letter and raised an eyebrow. “And that gives you cause to just strut into my room because…”

Emmerich threw himself into the plush chair on the other side of Veremund’s desk. “I’m here to spend some quality time with you.”

Veremund couldn’t help the soft snort he gave as he set his quill to the side and leaned forward. “Your definition of quality time always includes an ulterior motive.”

“That’s not true!”

Veremund simply shot his brother a stern look.

Emmerich sat up with a slight pout. “Maybe I’m changing my ways and finally appreciating my incredibly intelligent older brother who will one day be my king.”

“Oh, you must have a serious dilemma if you’re going to be laying on the flattery this thick.” Veremund couldn’t help his amusement seeping into his voice. It didn’t hurt that the flattery helped. It was always good to hear Emmerich so plainly state the inevitably of Veremund becoming king. “Please, do tell, what do you need my help with now?”

Emmerich leaned forward, bracing his palms on the shimmering lunabark desk. “Fine, if you insist on not even having the appearance of a friendly conversation where I ask you how you’re doing, what’s going on in your life, are any ladies who’ve caught your eye this time to where you’ll finally get married so Lady Irma can stop talking about it, then we can skip all of that. It’s about your little valkyrie.”

Veremund had suspected that was why Emmerich was darkening his doorstep, but he contained himself enough to reply only with a simple, “Oh? What about her?”

Emmerich’s gaze darkened as his voice rose “That infuriating pigeon is driving me up the wall! I have tried everything I know, and I have not gotten a single word out of her.”

Not a single word for his brother?

Emmerich got up, waving his hand in the air wildly. “Not even a plea for mercy. Not even a simple ‘no, please stop.’ No matter what I throw at her, she’s been dead silent.”

Impressive. But Veremund didn’t let it show, keeping a cool façade up.

At Veremund’s silence, Emmerich paused, huffed and dropped his hand. His voice lowered. “Are you certain she’s not mute?”

Granted, that would actually be rather clever of her to pretend to be. Too bad she’d already revealed otherwise.

“Oh, no, I’m certain she’s not.” Every inflection and minute shift in his expression was all perfectly controlled. He let just a little smug superiority seep into his tone, just enough to dig into Emmerich’s skin. “I’m afraid you don’t have the same skills I do to where I got her talking for me.”

“You got her to speak?” Emmerich’s eyes widened. “It’s been three weeks! Why are you only just now revealing that?”

“It’s been three weeks. You didn’t ask.” Veremund’s lips twitched before he smothered the mirth while Emmerich clenched his jaw so hard it looked about ready to shatter.

Emmerich slowly unclenched his jaw, drawing the words out slowly. “Never mind. Did she give you anything to work with?”

She hadn’t given him much, but what little she had, Veremund certainly wasn’t going to just hand over to Emmerich and let him benefit from the fruits of Veremund’s work.

“Nothing that would help us drag her princess’ secrets out of her.”

Emmerich then dropped back into his chair and gestured to the reports sitting on Veremund’s desk. “Then at least tell me you have something useful in there from our spies about her princess or her that we could use, or even gloriously better, our spies found out everything we want to know about her princess’ visit so I can just go ahead and get rid of the pigeon.”

Veremund pursed his lips. Easy for Emmerich to say. Veremund hadn’t gone to all this trouble, lost all those men, and nearly died himself just to end her life the second Emmerich was tired of dealing with her.

“The only information I’ve received about the princess is that she did arrive safely and is amongst the Sun Elves. The why to her visit has not yet been made clear so until then, we need the valkyrie alive. As for any information about herself, only confirmation of her identity. She is Captain Aesira, the head of the princess’ guard. She has an older brother in the king’s personal guard, and no other living relatives.”

No word on any romantic entanglements that could be used against her.

Emmerich slumped back in his chair in a most unbecoming fashion for a prince. His pure silver hair glimmered in the moonlight filling Veremund’s study. “You don’t have anything else? That’s it? Come on, there’s nothing useful you found out?”

Nothing that could be useful for Emmerich. Even if there was, Veremund would be keeping that card for himself. Emmerich didn’t have the finesse needed to be able to wield any information Veremund did have with the surgical precision it would require to break someone like Captain Aesira.

Most creatures would have broken already with three weeks under Emmerich thumb. Veremund couldn’t help but be a little proud of her that she hadn’t. Even though he knew he didn’t really have a right to be, considering she wasn’t really his little valkyrie, despite what he had insinuated when he told her she was a trophy.

The badge in his desk drawer was the real trophy.

“Unfortunately, Emmerich, there are some things I’m not going to be able to do for you. You wanted the valkyrie, you got her. Now she’s your problem to solve.” Veremund shrugged. “If you don’t think you’re up for the task, feel free to tell Father, and make sure I’m present for that conversation. I’d so dearly love to see it.”

Emmerich narrowed his eyes as he sat up straighter. “Don’t tell me you’re being difficult about this because you wanted to handle her?”

Emmerich would never understand why Veremund was being “difficult.”

“I hate to break it to you, little brother, but just because I’m not bending over backwards to help you with the responsibility you insisted on taking on doesn’t mean I’m being difficult. Despite how you behave most days, I know better than to believe the act that you put on. You’re not that stupid that you surely can’t figure out how to get one measly valkyrie to spill the details of a trip that never even concerned her in the first place in order to save herself.”

Emmerich pushed himself out of his seat, glaring at Veremund. “Fine. If you insist on making me do it myself, I will. I’ll have her spill her guts so I can finally stop doing it for her.”

Veremund waved him away, turning back to his work.

But even after Emmerich slammed the door shut behind him, the words on the page in front of him didn’t register to Veremund. All he could see was his little valkyrie standing on the other side of the bars, glaring at him.

Knowing Emmerich…

His stomach turned and he gritted his teeth.

The fact she’d lasted so long was impressive. How much more could she take?

How tough was this valkyrie?

* * *

Thanks for reading Chapter Five of Chains of Moonlight!

Find all the chapters here!