The Tales of the Wanderer Volume One: A Book of Underrealm (The Underrealm Volumes 4) by Garrett Robinson (elon musk reading list TXT) 📕

The king’s representative looked up at Ditra with a faint frown. “Rangatira, who under the sky is this man?”

Ditra ignored her. A flush crept up her neck into her cheeks as she stared at me. “How … how dare you—”

“How dare I?” I cried. I advanced to stand at the foot of the dais, and the king’s representative hastily gave way before me. “You have the gall to ask how dare I? You are the Rangatira! You serve the king of Calentin and the High King of Underrealm. And you wanted to let a murdering witch escape justice just because you used to share her bed!”

Ditra’s face went from crimson to nearly purple. She looked past me to Maia. “You allowed him in here? What were you thinking?”

I lifted my arm and dragged down my sleeve. The Telfer mark shone against my skin. Ditra stared at it for a moment, speechless. And then I saw recognition flash in her eyes as she looked upon my face. Emotions, one after another, played in her expression. Joy, I think, at seeing me again. Despair that I had discovered her secret. And then, slowly dominating the rest, a cold, mounting fury.

“You return here …” she said, the words grinding out of her like a blade on a whetstone. “You return after decades. Decades. You parade yourself in front of me, in plain sight but still skulking like a coward. And now you have the audacity to accuse me? Arrest them.”

The guards began to come forwards.

“We are not your enemies,” I said. “Kaita is. You know that, and yet you act to protect her. It is beneath you, Ditra.”

“I am the Lord Telfer,” she snapped, shooting to her feet. “Rangatira of Tokana and servant of the king of Calentin. You are nothing. You gave up any right to speak to me thus when you fled our home. And now you may sit in a cell until I figure out what to do with you.”

“That would be a poor idea,” said Mag, grip tightening on her spear.

I sagged. All my fury had flowed out of me in my outburst, and suddenly I was very tired. I lifted a hand towards Mag. “No. Do not harm her servants. They are only doing their duty.” I glowered up at Ditra again. “Which is more than might be said of some.”

While Ditra fumed, Mag spoke to me in a low voice. “Albern. I can keep us from going into a cell in the first place. But if she puts us there … no one can bend steel bars. Not even me.”

“Then do what you must,” I told her. “As for me, it seems I am going to be imprisoned.” I raised my wrists, ready for the manacles that one of the guards had already pulled from a pouch.

Mag rolled her eyes and did the same. But she smiled at the guards as they bound her. “You should enjoy yourselves. One day you will be able to brag to your children about capturing the Uncut Lady.”

Ditra now seemed to be trying to avoid looking at us. The king’s representative seemed almost amused. “Is this man your brother, Rangatira?” she said. “The one who—”

“Get out,” growled Ditra. “I will send for you when I require you.”

The representative looked affronted. “But we were discussing—”

“Get out!” roared Ditra. The representative jumped, and then she scurried out of the room like a chastised dog. The other councilors followed at her heels.

I had not looked away from Ditra, and just before her guards dragged us off, she met my gaze at last.

“We do not have endless time,” I said, all anger gone from my voice. “You have … we have both made mistakes. Speak with me again, so that we can fix them. Do not wait too long.”

Her scowl deepened, and she turned it upon the guards. “Take them away. Then go into the city and find that old man they came here with. He can join them in their cell.”

The guards spun us around and marched us from the room. Maia gave me a rueful smile just before they hauled me away.

“That was very foolish of you,” said Sun. “Walking in there like that.”

“It was,” said Albern sadly. “I was young, then, and youth comes with many poor ideas.”

“You were older than I am now!”

“Well, why do you think I keep such a careful eye on you?” When Sun scowled, he chuckled. “I am only joking. The truth is that it is easy to look back on our past actions—or the actions of others—and see how they were wrong. But we always think we are wise in the moment. No matter how old you get, you will always think you are smarter than you used to be. You will always look back at your younger years and marvel at what an idiot you were—but now, of course, you are wise, having learned so much more.”

Sun shoved his shoulder. “I am not an idiot.”

“And what about when you had seen only fifteen years?”

“Oh, sky above,” said Sun, rolling her eyes. “That was different. You would not believe some of the things I got up to.”

“And did you think you were a fool, then? Or did you think you were much wiser than you had been when you were ten?”

Sun opened her mouth to reply, but she could think of nothing to say. Her jaw snapped shut, and she glowered at him.

Albern shrugged. “I only tell you the truth as I know it. And I do not excuse myself. I can look back on the events I am telling you about and recognize what a hotheaded young fool I was. If I live another ten years, I am certain I will look back on today and feel the same way.”

“Enough idle philosophy,” said Sun grumpily. “Where are we going?”

They had