The Grey Ones
The Open Cage: XV

RICHMOND

“The whole city is laughing at you!” Richmond shouted at his guards, but they all kept their gazes forwards. “Every fucking Free City is laughing at you! No, they’re laughing at me for ever trusting incompetent idiots like you!” He had to breathe for a short moment before he bellowed, “It’s one little girl, and you can’t even replace one trace of her?”

The Duke feared to admit it, but the situation was getting rather dire. Lord Cornwall and his son were furious about Juniper’s escape and threatened to withdraw their promise to aid against the invaders. Richmond tried to convince them that she had not escaped, but had been abducted. His obedient daughter, he said, would never run from an obligation this important. She was a good, Edredian woman, and she would obey.

Lord Cornwall was inclined to believe it, but his son was more reluctant to do so. He said he believed her capable of such treason; she was a vicious creature, a vixen—pretty enough to be his wife and bed warmer, but he would not hesitate to flog her. Richmond didn’t disagree. In fact, he told the young little shit that he believed flogging was the only way to control them, womenfolk.

But, Juniper was meek and shy. She would be a good wife, and her good breeding and upbringing had made her dutiful and obedient. Of course, as her father, he knew that wasn’t strictly true. She was sweet-natured, indeed, but could be a difficult woman with foul mood swings and irrational thoughts and hysteria—she had definitely escaped on her own accord. But as long as Lord Cornwall believed that she was a compliant girl and that she had been abducted by one scoundrel or another, he might still support them in their endeavours to drive the Grey Ones away.

To prove such a thing, however, he would have to replace his daughter first. The town sweep had thus far been fruitless—not even the Kamani, the only ones dense enough to house a High Noblewoman on the run, had her. How the girl could have eluded the City Guard so easily, had been beyond him at first. Now, he knew they were all idiots.

“Milord,” said the captain, Wiltbourne. “There is one place we have yet to search.”

The Duke prayed to the Builder that he would not say—

“The harbour, milord. She could’ve been taken by the Grey Ones.”

Richmond sighed heavily, his teeth gritted. “And how do you suppose they would have infiltrated my castle unnoticed? They are more than seven feet tall and grey!”

“We’ve heard news, milord, that riffraff from the lower districts are joining them. It could’ve been a kitchen wench, or a stable boy.”

“So now I have traitors in my midst?” Richmond spat. “Brilliant!” He paced the hall, his anger almost too great to bear. Then, as he felt like he was about to explode, he strode up to the captain and bellowed, “Find my daughter!” He took a step back, still furious. “Pressure the beasts if you must. Just replace her!”

“But milord,” said Wiltbourne, “the Grey Ones have made it clear that anyone who steps into their territory will be attacked.”

“Their territory?” the Duke hissed. “This is my fucking city! Do what you must, but bring her back!”

“Yes, milord.”

The Duke watched the guards leave, but he had very little confidence that they would succeed. Instead, he called for Garret and ordered him to gather the City Guard and prepare for a negotiation. If Juniper indeed had been so foolish as to run to the enemy, it could be used to his advantage. A damsel in distress was always a good motivation for pious fools.