Steel and Sorrow: Rise of the Mercenary king - Chapter 853

Chapter 853: Trembling dog(4)

Like a newborn pup fumbling for its legs, Cain staggered across the chamber, his limbs betraying him at every step. His slave scrambled to steady him, her small hands pressing at his side, but her strength was no match for the weight of his ruin. He waved her off at last, breath ragged, and pointed toward the cane lying abandoned near the wall. She darted to fetch it without a word, returning it to him at last.

Blake sat on the edge of his bed, saying nothing, only watching. His face carved from stone. Inside, though, the old hag’s words echoed like a curse, unwanted.

Lost in the dark, feet unsteady, destined to collapse at last by his own failed grip.

The cane steadied him, barely, but the golden pendant at his throat swung wildly with each motion. The trinket caught the light, flashing reminders of what their father had once believed in.

Every brother had one.

A mark given only when Father had judged them worthy. Malor had earned his the day he sank a harpoon into a shark’s skull. Vanir, when he stood bloodied and grinning after his first raid. Blake’s own had come on the eve of Rock Bottom, when Father deemed him ready to lead men into slaughter.

And Cain? Cain’s had been tossed into his palm the day he outwitted their father in a dice game. A jest, which he had won by cheating.

Fitting for him…

Blake remembered well the brother Cain had been, dangling the pendant before him, grinning with crooked teeth, as if that chain of gold made him king of the shore. Blake had burned with envy then. He had hated him for it.

Now, he watched that same chain flash as his brother toppled again, hitting the marble floor with a grunt before clawing his way back upright, shaking, stubborn, broken, yet still climbing.

He wondered if all the envy he had that day was now in his brother’s eyes as he saw Blake become a hero of his own people.

“I thought all you wanted was to get away from me,” Blake rasped, “You even rescinded our blood to soar with your new wings. Fall yet to the ground, big brother?”

Cain’s jaw tensed at the barb, but he forced himself to stand tall, cane shaking beneath his palm.

“I made a fine voyage,thanks you…” Cain replied, chest rising with stubborn pride. “I nearly died once, I saw the fall of an empire’s capital. What’s there to regret? I got my taste of freedom. Now—” his eyes flared, almost feverish—”I want to be of use.”

Blake leaned forward slightly, surprised despite himself. “Use?”

Cain nodded. In his eye, the image of the tar-black hound flared, the twin daggers buried in its back, the child’s hand pressing them deeper. Betrayal, coming like the tide. One, he already knew where. The second, he dared not yet name.

But he couldn’t tell Blake that. Not yet.

“Since I came here, all you’ve wanted was to send me home,” Cain pressed, voice rising, words spilling before silence crushed him. “All you saw was a cripple. But look around you,half a millennium of riches lies in our hands, because I played my part. Do your eyes still see just a cripple?”

Blake’s face remained carved from stone. No flicker of approval, no twitch of acknowledgment. Just silence.

Cain’s heart thudded. He pushed on, words spilling faster. “You can’t deny my contribution. I can be useful. Your warriors, yes, they’re fierce. But bring them before a wall and they’ll smash their axes blind until their arms give out. They’re good for slaughter, not to prepare you for that.” His hand trembled as he jabbed his cane toward Blake. “You need more than blood and steel. You know it. I know it. Let me help you. Brother with brother once more.”

The silence stretched. Blake’s eyes were pits, dark and unreadable. Cain felt himself sliding into irrelevance. Desperation clawed at him. He needed to dangle something brighter.

With a grunt, he struck the cane hard against his lame leg. Agony burst from thigh to neck, white and blinding, but he held the cry down. His lips twisted instead into something resembling a smile.

“I’ll bet this old, broken limb,” he said through clenched teeth, “that you are thoroughly fucked and yet you know it not.”

Blake rose from his seat in an instant, the weight of his anger thickening the air.

“Fucked?” he repeated, voice low, seething.

Instead of backing away, Cain lurched forward, closing the space between them.

The dog chewing at the hand bearing gold, he hoped he saw it true.

“You want that crown, don’t you?” Cain said

Blake froze. For the first time Cain could remember, his brother looked… astonished.

“Are you as mad as they say?”

“Don’t deny it,” Cain pressed, leaning on his cane, spit and blood shining on his lip. “I know you crave it. And if you mean to reach it, you’ll need me. You cannot do otherwise.”

Blake narrowed his eyes, curiosity creeping through his fury. “Need you?” He let the words linger, his tone almost mocking, then tilted his head as though he had forgotten he had just denied the ambition Cain had struck at. “Tell me then, cripple, what can you provide me, that no strong man can?”

Cain grinned despite the blood drying on his lip. “For a change of pace? Someone who knows how to use a brain. Congratulations, Khairo has fallen. The captains and lords you brought are already itching to spend their silver. What’s your next move? Let them scatter home, call them next year for another raid, perhaps Romelia this time? Or will you give them a pretty speech and bid them name you king?”

The words hit their mark. Blake’s brow furrowed, astonishment flaring before he masked it.

“Gods,” Cain said realising he was right and chuckling bitterly, “you really thought that would work?”

Blake straightened, bristling. “Why would it not? I’m celebrated as a hero. I’ve given them the feat of a lifetime. I’ll call them, and they’ll answer. Why shouldn’t they?”

Cain sneered at his brother’s foolishness. “And once they set that crown on your head, what then? Feast and song? Wine pouring down the streets? Brother, we’ve lived two centuries without a king. You think they’ll break that for you?Just because you carry a pretty axe and a red name? They may love you as a hero, but they’ll never stomach you as their overlord. You’ll end with a dagger in your back while you dream of thrones.” He leaned forward on his cane. “Was this the counsel of your brawny friends, or did you conjure this brilliance all on your own?”

Blake’s lips tightened, but he didn’t strike back. Instead, he turned and sank onto the edge of the bed beneath the gilded arch, the mattress dipping under his weight.

“Let us say, for a moment, that you are right, and that you can be useful. What would you propose?”

Cain’s smile spread wide, sharp as a knife. He had interpreted the signs correctly. “You cannot let them go. You’d lose them forever. You must make them stay.”

Blake shook his head. “They’ve taken their riches. What would hold them?”

“More,” Cain answered without hesitation. “Promise them more. If we abandon Khair, another sultan will crawl from the sand within a year. But if we hold it, if we keep this place as our own, it will be a haven, ripe for the taking. Give them a speech, not of silver already earned, but of silver still waiting. Make them see a new frontier.”

Blake barked a short, humorless laugh. “You propose leaving warriors here? Deep in enemy land? And you think they’ll last? No, they’ll be swallowed whole.”

“They won’t,” Cain countered, eyes gleaming. “And that’s why you need the fleet whole. The royal army will hear of Khairo’s fall soon enough. They’ll march to raise a puppet sultan and retake the city. All we must do is break them once. Smash them at the gate, and the spine of their kingdom is gone. No central figure left to rally behind, just jackals tearing at each other’s throats.One will become many.

From then on, this coast will be ours. A raiding ground without end.”

Blake’s expression darkened. He leaned forward, elbows braced against his knees, voice low and edged like a drawn blade. “We may be kings of the seas. But on land? On land we’ll be slaughtered. Their armies will outnumber us, outmatch us in steel and horse, and they’ll be led by men bred for war, not plunder. Our strength lies in ships, in speed, in fire. Not in standing lines against a wall of shields.”

Cain’s lips curled, eyes alight with scorn. “Then how do you even dream of a crown if you quiver at the thought of land-dwellers? You boast of being their Red Angel, their hero of a lifetime,yet the moment you face an army, you whimper of numbers and horsemen? Where is your fire now, brother?”

Blake’s gaze snapped to him, sharp and furious. “Don’t teach me something you had no foot in!” He barked ”You don’t understand. Each band of men follows their own captain. That makes them fine for raiding,fast, brutal, relentless. But on a battlefield?” His voice spat like venom. “It’s chaos. No unity, no discipline. One push from a trained army, and they’ll crumble. The enemy will cut through them like wheat before the scythe.”

Cain’s answer came like steel striking flint. “Not if we choose the ground. Not if we bleed them where the earth itself fights for us. There is a chance to break them. Win there, and you won’t just have a rabble of raiders at your back. You’ll have an army, brother. Yours to command. Yours to crown with some maneuvers. Refuse it, and you’ve forfeited your life or your dream. The choice is simple. All that stands between you and a kingship is that army,and whether you dare to beat it.”

Blake sat motionless, though inside him, Cain’s words were already digging like worms. He had been so certain,conquer Khair, win the city, and the captains would call him king. Yet perhaps it had never been so simple. Perhaps this had always been the true test. Was it chance that Cain, broken, despised, unwanted saw what none of them could? He had been promised a crown, perhapse that was the road all along?

Blake cursed his brother silently for planting the thought, cursed himself for letting it take root. And yet, at the bottom of his soul, he felt it, the flicker of truth.

His jaw clenched. His voice came out steady, hard as stone.

“How,”he said at last, “would you propose we do that?”