I nearly laughed. It was a good attempt by Fink to sound hateful toward me, but he didn’t pull it off well. Roden only shook his head at him. “Thanks, but I have my own plans for him.”
Which, unfortunately, I had already suspected.
Now Roden turned to me. “You ignored my threat last week.”
“Looks that way.”
“Did you think I wasn’t serious? That I couldn’t do everything I told you I would?”
“I knew you were serious,” I replied. “That’s why I had to come.”
“But you were looking for me before that. You sent Mott and Tobias all over Carthya to find me. Why?”
“I didn’t like the way things ended in that tunnel.” Roden and I had fought in a narrow passage beneath the castle on the night I returned there. If he had defeated me, he would have entered the castle and tried to claim the throne as Jaron. But it wouldn’t have worked. Roden never would’ve gotten far with Kerwyn and the fraud would have been exposed. At one point during our fight I had backed off when I could have killed Roden. There was a moment when I thought he had also backed off, though I had never been sure of that.
Roden chuckled. “You didn’t like how things ended? And how is that, with me alive?” His tone darkened. “I suppose you think you were merciful that night, allowing me to run. But you weren’t. You cursed me. Where else was I supposed to go to get away from you?”
“It would’ve been nice if you had chosen somewhere less dangerous,” I said. “You’re an even worse pirate than I am.”
In an instant, Roden’s face hardened and he backhanded me across the face. “We’re equals now, so you can’t talk to me like that. I’m as much of a king as you are.”
“Hardly,” I scoffed. “There’s no honor in being the king of the pirates. No glory, and no reward other than an eventual death at the hands of your own men.”
“Then I wonder why you’d take the trouble to come all this way and join us,” he said.
“You didn’t leave me much of a choice.”
“Or maybe you want to finish what we started in your gardens.” When I held my gaze on him he added, “I was there because you cheated before, that night you were crowned. You cheated to win that duel and cheated me out of the throne!”
When Roden and I fought that night, I had pretended to fall and lose my sword. But what I’d done wasn’t a cheat. It was a trick, yes, but Roden had no one to blame for falling for it except himself. Especially because I had warned him earlier it’s what I would do.
“Everything about you is a lie,” Roden said. “It always was. Do you know what it was like the next morning in Drylliad? Everywhere I turned, it was celebration and talk of a new day for Carthya, and all for who? You?”
“Yeah, it was for me. I am Jaron. Maybe you don’t like that fact, but nothing you can do will change it.”
“Whatever your name is, you don’t deserve the throne.” Roden’s voice grew louder, sharper. “It was supposed to be given to whoever won in that tunnel. It was supposed to be me!”
“Then give me a sword and we’ll fight again,” I suggested. “If you win, you have me for whatever revenge you want. And if I win, I get what I want.”
“Another sword fight is pointless because I already have you.” Roden’s eyes narrowed. “And I know what you want: You thought by coming here you could somehow stop the pirates from invading Carthya.”
I nodded. “That’s still my intention, by the way.”
“Well, I’m their king now. And you’re out of time to stop me from doing anything. Tonight I’ve ordered a feast in celebration of my becoming king. Afterward, in front of everyone, I’m going to be the one to end your life, to show what happens to anyone who crosses me. I’ll use your death to solidify my reign.”
He hadn’t intended to be funny, but I laughed at him anyway. “I’m very glad you said that. Because until hearing you speak just now, I had thought I was the most ridiculous ruler in these lands.”
Roden raised his hand to strike me again, but this time I would not flinch and he slowly lowered it.
“Let’s go,” he told the pirates with him. “There’s a lot to do before tonight.”
“You can’t leave him like this,” the larger of the pirates said. “You were the one who told us the stories about him.”
“He got out of rope before,” Roden said. “Not chains. He won’t get through these.”
Actually, I would. The pin Imogen had snuck to me was still in my boot. It’d easily pick the lock on these chains.
“But if he did get free, he could climb out that window.”