The Heart of Alchemy by James Wisher (e book reading free TXT) 📕

lord. Stephan wants to be baron. That hissing harpy spends every spare second whispering in his ear. When the snows come and everyone’s locked up together for five months, heaven knows what might happen. Only a miracle will see both your father and brother alive come spring. In truth, I don’t know who to put my gold on.”

That was even worse than Otto had feared. “If Father falls, you and any of the guards that wish to leave will have a place with me in Garen. You remember Franken Manor?”

“It’s a hard place to forget.”

“Come to the gate and tell them who you are. You can bunk with Axel and his scouts in our barracks.”

“That’s very generous, my lord. I—”

“There’s a price. Whatever happens this winter, I want you to keep Mother safe. I will make the consequences clear to Stephan, but if he’s in one of his rages, rational thought might be out of the question. Protect her, bring her to the capital if you must, and your future, along with any guard that comes with you, is assured. If she dies, then it had better be after you’ve already been killed. If it’s otherwise, you’ll wish Stephan had gotten a hold of you. Clear?”

“Perfectly.” Graves actually looked vaguely offended that Otto felt the need to threaten him. Maybe he hadn’t needed to, but some habits were hard to break. “We all love Lady Shenk. There isn’t a guard here, new or old, that wouldn’t lay down his life for her.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear. Now, let’s see if I can’t talk some sense into my father and brother.”

Graves walked as far as the keep door with him, pulled it open, and stepped aside to allow Otto to enter. A fire burned in the great hearth and Father’s hounds lounged in front of it. One dog lifted his head, snorted at him, and lay back down. Once he was inside, the door closed behind him with an ominous thunk.

No running away now.

Otto straightened. He wasn’t some weakling to be pushed around anymore. Let Stephan try. It would make his life immensely easier if he had an excuse to burn the life out of the madman.

Now that he thought about it, Otto could kill Stephan in his sleep easily enough, but then he’d lose Axel to the barony and that didn’t suit him at all. Having a soldier as skilled as Axel sitting in a rural barony overseeing the apple harvest was beyond a waste.

Besides, Mother wouldn’t appreciate it if he did anything to Stephan. Angels bless her, she still loved the lunatic.

Stretching out with the ether, he quickly located Father downstairs in the treasury. Brooding over his gold no doubt. Stephan was upstairs with his family and the servants were scattered around the keep probably in hopes of staying as far as possible from either their current or future master. His home had become a fine mess, that was certain.

He turned toward the basement stairs. Best to talk to Father first. No need to threaten him though. Otto just wanted to hear firsthand how everything had gone so wrong.

A guard stood at the top of the basement stairs. The man wore a mail shirt inside the keep when there was no threat from outside forces. That told Otto a great deal about just how serious matters were.

The guard moved quickly to block Otto’s path. “Your father doesn’t wish to be disturbed.”

“I need to talk to him. If he doesn’t want to talk to me as his son, he will talk to me as a Crown representative.”

The guard winced and looked all around as if afraid someone might overhear him. “He doesn’t trust anyone besides Graves and some of the other veterans. Most days he stays holed up with that huge chest of gold. In some ways, he’s gone as mad as Lord Stephan.”

“Mother’s on her way home. He needs to pull himself together before she gets here. Let me talk to him.”

The guard weighed his options, which amounted to moving or having Otto move him. Finally, he shuffled a few feet to the right. Otto nodded and descended the narrow stone steps.

At the bottom, a pair of Lux crystals cast dull, yellow light across a fifteen-by-fifteen-foot room. A shelf held small coffers filled with taxes collected from the many little villages that dotted the barony. In the center of the room sat the enormous chest filled with gold double eagles that served as the dowry that secured Otto’s wedding.

Father sat on the chest, his double-edged sword resting on his knees. He wore a full coat of mail along with his usual leather and fur. His beard hadn’t been trimmed or his hair washed in weeks at least. Bloodshot eyes glared at Otto from dark, hollow sockets.

“What are you doing here, boy? I thought you had a soft place in the capital far away from us.”

Considering everything Otto had been through since leaving for Garen, he’d hardly call it a soft life. Aside from the quality of his bed, there was little soft about it.

“Mother’s on her way home and I wanted to see what she was returning to. From everything I’ve seen, calling it a mess would be generous. What happened?”

Father rubbed his eyes and let out a long, exhausted sigh. “Your brother came back from Markane even more hungry for power than when he left. It started out calmly enough. He suggested hiring more guards and getting everyone better equipment.”

“But you refused,” Otto guessed.

“Of course I refused! We have no enemies at the moment; there hasn’t even been a bandit attack this summer. You don’t hire extra soldiers just to have them sitting around collecting pay with no one to fight.”

“Then why did Stephan want to hire them?”

“I’m not sure he did. It was a test to find out if I’d let him make a decision of even minor importance. I would have, you know, if only he made a good one. It went from one thing