Secrets of the Swords, Book 1

Chapter 19: Past Transgressions

"I knew that lock wasn't enough to stop you."

Saer Lon was by the window across the room, hip propped against the sill and a bottle of liquor in her hand. She didn't even look Ulsper's way as he slid into the room and closed the door behind him with a soft click.

"Then why did you even bother with it?" Ulsper answered, voice low. He stuck to the shadows by the wall, cautious of anyone who might be able to see into the window from outside. From his vantage point, it looked like there was only one building with a window on the second floor facing them, but its curtains were closed.

Saer Lon shrugged, still looking out at the early-morning activities in the street below. She took a swig from her bottle, then let it dangle from her fingertips, her index and middle finger on either side of the ceramic neck.

Ulsper moved forward along the wall, glancing around at the state of the room, with its worn furniture standing dusty and laundry strewn over the back of a lone wooden chair. It looked as though it hadn't been cleaned in weeks.

"You've changed a lot since I last saw you," he said, cautiously. "I was surprised to learn that you run this place. I hadn't realized you'd left the King's Guard."

Saer Lon flashed him a dark look before quickly averting her gaze again. "I had a change of heart," she said, bringing up a finger to trace a shape on one of the glass windowpanes. "After seeing what they did to my brother. Besides, I discovered this place was selling for cheap, and it gave me an easy out." She gestured to the messy, unlit room around them, the bottle swinging in her hand. "Isn't it wonderful?" She ended the question on a short, mocking laugh.

Ulsper didn't smile. "I need to know if I can trust you," he urged. "Your sister-in-law seems to, but she doesn't know—"

"I want to forget it, Ulsper," Saer Lon interrupted, taking another drink before pushing away from the window. "I hope she never finds out. I intend to make sure she doesn't ever have to."

She staggered toward the chair in the middle of the room, and pushed some clothes off the seat before collapsing on top of it. "You're safe here."

"You'll have to convince me," Ulsper replied. This bereft woman was completely different from the self-assured guard he had met three years earlier, proud and sure in her actions. He had disagreed with her convictions, but her outlook had always been for the best. It was a shock for him to see her so grim and hopeless now.

Ulsper slowly stepped out of the shadows, and gently took the ceramic bottle from Saer Lon's grasp, setting it on a side table wordlessly. She grabbed his wrist before he could turn away.

"Ulsper, if I had known, I never would have—"

She broke off her whispered plea when Ulsper looked down to meet her desperate gaze.

"Why did you do it?" he asked, voice flat and cold.

She let her hand drop to her lap. "There are rumors...when Yun Sao killed the royal family, they had a difficult time locating the body of the youngest prince. It's more likely he was just mistaken for one of the slain children of the oldest prince's concubines, and so was never identified properly."

"So you betrayed those people because the king thought the youngest prince might still be alive." Ulsper grit out. "Seventeen years later. Just because they were as old as the prince would have been, you sent them to their deaths."

"Yun Sao doesn't want to risk anyone with Lanfu blood trying to reclaim the throne," Saer Lon explained. "Back then I was foolish enough to believe his empty words and wanted to support him. To create a better Andilir. Could you blame me? A life where my mother didn't have to sell herself in exchange for food and shelter, and my sister and I didn't have to kill for a living. I've always been jealous of the noble ladies who just get to sit and look pretty. Only now do I realize how abominable it was, to send a group of young men to a terrible fate because of my own selfishness. If you hadn't intervened—"