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she’d get bloody revenge for them. She just needed to find Goldie, Grimm, and Minsetta and find out what the hell was going on.
     
    ***
    Goldie awoke with blood in his hair and trickling down his arm. The arrow was still deep in his flesh and he winced with pain as a woman put her hand on it, looking to pull it out. Goldie just shook his head. “Don’t fucking think about it. That would just make it bleed more.”
    He sat in the courtyard of the Keep and all around were bodies. They lay on top of each other and he looked from face to face. People he knew and liked, but luckily not his little sister. No little redhead among the bodies, that was good, now he could avoid killing the king himself. He was stood up by a guard and the king approached him. His young face was flushed with vigor and pride. He’d clearly enjoyed himself.
    “So they got you too, where were you going? My guard said you were found near the gates,” the king said.
    “I wanted to ensure my lads realized it was none of our concern,” he said back calmly.
    “And that’s how you feel? None of your concern,” the king asked, looking at him hard like he could spot a lie.
    “The only part I don’t like is that I have no idea why you would do this. I don’t like being left in the dark,” he said. Goldie was truly puzzled and it was a feeling he hated. Why would the king do this, except, of course, because he was crazy?
    “But I didn’t do it. The duke of Twin Plains did. He and his men, they killed the Duchess Elizebetha, burned her Keep down and then got beaten by you Red Bastards,” he said slowly, as if to a child. Goldie now understood. The king needed a good reason for going hard against Twin Plains and this atrocity was it. Still he had enjoyed it too much for simple strategy. He was actually angry at the Lady, that was clear.
    “Surely that wasn’t the only reason. Why burn books, and I’m assuming, kill her yourself?” he asked.
    “None of your business, that’s what. Now get those stolen Twin Plain uniforms you’ve collected and start marching home, but there are some stops along the way,” he said.
    “What stops?”
    “Others like her. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to eat that dinner she prepared. I’m suddenly peckish.”
    The young king walked back into the Keep, seemingly oblivious to the mountain of bodies all around him.
    Goldie looked at the arrow in his arm. Stellos, where was she now? As he looked among the bodies, he saw one he really didn’t want to see. The eyes of the king’s guards were on him. Goldie looked to one and, walking up to him, whispered in his ear. “Mind if I search him? He owes me money.” The guard laughed and just nodded.
    Goldie walked to the body of Dagosh. He was face down on the stone. Goldie gently turned him over. His face was as it had ever been in life. Stern and fierce. Goldie whispered to him as he pretended to search his pockets.
    “You’re a brave old fool, Dagosh. Much too sentimental for a mercenary. Look at yourself now.”
    He had a few coins in his pocket that Goldie ignored and took the whip that hung swung at his side. He’d had it the first day he’d said yes to Seth’s crazy scheme and been told it had been used on him many times, in his own days as a slave. “Only man I know with a whip. Just goes to show you never needed to use it. That was you, my friend, you’ll be missed.”
    Goldie limped away from the body of Dagosh, and holding his hand to his arrow wound he walked out of the camp. He knew the Reds would be gathering and wondering what happened. He knew he had to convince them to march on Twin Plains, in disguise, but that wouldn’t be half as hard as convincing them to betray the king of the realm.

Chapter Eight.
     
    “You sure she’ll be here?” Minsetta asked Grimm.
     
    They stood in the near dark of the blood-wine cellar. He could feel the cold starting to soak into her bones and she shivered at the sounds of battle above. They had been