The stone box coffin wasn’t decorated, and nothing adorned the room or said the first King lay there. Lumi’s boots pounded the stone flooring as he headed for the coffin. He didn’t dare to stop to look behind him as he heard someone following.
His hands shook as he yanked the Crown from the pack and dropped it. He nearly tripped as he stepped up onto the dais. Tivar wasn’t going to let either live. If he broke Jaki and forced him to breed, he’d be killed once a son was born. Lumi would be used in some way to force Jaki to do what was wanted.
Whatever happened, they’d be dead in the end if a boy were born.
Lumi shoved aside the top of the box. The stone grated as the bones inside were revealed. Rinder had been laid to rest on his back with his arms at his sides. If he’d been wrapped in a shroud or dressed in anything, it was long gone.
A small bed of white roses cradled his skull, and they were fresh as if they’d just bloomed despite the lack of light and water.
“Let him go in. He knows if he gets too stupid, we can end Lumi in a second. They've cornered themselves.”
Lumi dared to glance behind him. Shit. Words might be meant only to be pretty, and nothing else. Jaki had come in, and judging by the blood on his sword, he’d killed the nearest man before racing in.
The other winged men had flown down and were blocking the door. Those who couldn’t fly would be hurrying down the ladder. A few stepped in, and Jaki backed up toward Lumi with his blade ready.
Nothing was happening.
He’d end up back in the room. He could barely get the Crown around the skull and resting on the white roses with his trembling hands. Once it was on, he gripped the edge of the box, afraid his legs might collapse.
The eye sockets of the skull stared upward. The Crown had a lovely sheen. Even in death, it responded to Rinder. Surely, the land would come back now that it rested on the bed of white roses, and it had been returned to its rightful owner.
But still, nothing happened. Lumi’s last, feeble hope had been for nothing, and he stared at the side where the bone cracked, and he could see white roses must have filled part of the skull inside.
The words were only words and not a threat. A command that couldn’t be enforced. The small quake had meant nothing either.
How many cycles of light would he have to see? How long until it faded for good, and he knew nothing? How long did Jaki have before Tivar got a damn son? All he could see was the skylight above, dim with the promise of another sunset. The final one for both him and Jaki.
What if Tivar found a way to get to their daughter?
“Lumi.”
The stone returned under his hands as he dragged in a breath. “I’m not g-going back. You can’t let him take you either.”
He’d rather die than lose Jaki.
“We’ll fight,” Jaki whispered.
“If we have to hurt you, we can keep you alive until you give me what I fucking need,” snarled Tivar. “I’ll let Lumi live as long as you do what I say. You’ve cornered yourself. It’s over. Drop your fucking sword, put your hands behind your head, and come over here. Now.”
“You won’t let either of us l-live,” Lumi said as Jaki tugged on his arm and pulled him around the coffin.
Lord Smith sighed as if this was all such a bother. The rest of the men kept their eyes trained on their quarry.
Lumi had bought them a few seconds. Tivar and the rest didn’t immediately attack, and a few of the men looked rather unsure. They’d clearly been ordered to take both alive, but if things got a little too nasty in the heat of the moment…
Perhaps Tivar wanted to wear them down with fear. He needed his new baby maker alive, not hacked to pieces because he resisted.
Facing the rest, Jaki blocked Lumi’s body with his own, and lightning crackled around his free hand. “If you take us, or even one of us, and try to leave, my men outside will kill you.”
Tivar smiled enough to show the tips of his fangs. “Your unaware men?”
“At the very least, you’ll lose a few. Maybe you’ll lose your life.”
“I doubt it. A few arrows will send them into a panic. I’m sure they’re sitting on their arses around a little fire and hoping you hurry the fuck up. They'll be easy enough to deal with. Get them. Now. I’m tired of waiting.”
Lumi summoned fire to his hand as the men stepped forward. “Even if you have a son from Jaki or me, you won’t have the Crown. You can’t rule Iceland without it if you can’t coronate a son, and you’re the fake heir, so you can’t do shit. Iceland’s so far gone at this point, you won’t be able to unite it either. Evenif you did, you’d be a fake King over the tattered remains while whoever is left slowly starves.”
Tivar curled his lip. “The Crown is right there.”
