I Swore to Kill the Prince I Guard novel · Chapter 19 of 24
Chapter 19: The Oath
The seventeen lie in the chapel yard under the north wall of Highmere, where the Crown buried them eight years ago at its own cost.
It was the first thing Evander had ever thanked Basil Thorngate for.
He and Florian came on the eve of the Spring Crowning, at dusk, on foot, with no guard and Piers keeping the gate.
The snow had begun to go.
It lay in grey crusts between the stones, and water ran under it with a small sound Evander had not heard since autumn.
The priest of the chapel had lit seventeen candles along the wall and gone away without a word.
They had burned there every year for six years, all of them paid for by one hand.
Evander had always thought that hand was the Chancellor's.
He stopped in front of the last stone.
MAREN RASK, said the carving.
She had been seventeen.
Florian stood a step behind him with his hands inside his sleeves.
He had not said a word since the gate.
Evander got down on his knees in the wet.
He was a big man, and the ground took him with a squelch, and the cold went up through the cloth.
"I swore to you here," he said to the stone.
"You weren't around to tell me not to.
"I said I'd kill the hand that signed it.
"I said it before the first thaw.
"I said it with your ashes on my boots, and I told the wrong man, and he made a knife of me."
His voice broke, and he let it.
"I found the hand.
"It belongs to a boy who was fifteen and read nothing, and who has said your name every morning for six years.
"He's ink to the elbows, and he can't hold a sword, and he made a whole council weep.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of I Swore to Kill the Prince I Guard are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend