They Counted Me Like Cargo, So I Took the War novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Two Crowns

They had pitched the pavilion on the gravel bar in the middle of the ford, half black silk and half green, so neither king had to cross the river to the other.

Inside, the two halves had been pushed together into one long table.

King Lucan sat at the head of it, and Aldric sat at his right hand.

They were sharing a jug.

When Seren and Corvus came in under the flap, Aldric was laughing at something the king had said, with his hand on the king's sleeve.

Corvus stopped so suddenly that Seren walked into his back.

Then Corvus went forward and knelt on the wet canvas floor in front of his king.

"Majesty."

Lucan let him stay down.

The king was a thin man, pale, with oiled black hair and very long fingers, and he turned his cup in them slowly.

"My general," he said. "I heard the men singing as I rode in. About a farrier's son."

"They sing about everything, Majesty."

"Not about me."

He said it lightly, and smiled, and all the Varran lords along the table laughed.

Corvus's back didn't move.

"Get up," Lucan said at last. "And bring me your Caerwen bride."

There were twenty lords at the table, ten of each.

All of them looked at Seren.

He was in Varran black with a Varran knife on his belt, and his brother looked at him.

"Little brother," Aldric said warmly. "You look well. The general's whore suits you."

The Caerwen side laughed.

"They tell me you were counted very carefully," he went on. "Item by item."

He raised his cup to Seren.

"I hope he got his money's worth."

The laughter got louder.

Under the table, Corvus's hand found the back of Seren's belt and held it, hard, as if to stop himself standing up.

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