Page 117 of A Vow of Blood and Tears

A prickle ran down my spine at the thought of a bloody messenger appearing on our doorstep, with news of the worst kind—a not-uncommon occurrence before the Forian king signed a writ of peace and put an ‘end’ to the war. “The usual, no doubt.”

“Either way, I still don’t like it. It’s easy enough to keep you here in the keep, but I want to send out extra patrols, put more guards in the eastern villages.” Visca glanced up at me, long enough for me to read the worry hidden in her eyes.

“Done. Yours is the final word on that front.”

“That means fewer knights in the keep,” she reminded me, and it was my turn to chuckle.

“If I, and those things Wyn made, can’t stop a warg from getting in, a few extra legions won’t make the difference. Send them out. Better the Rift-kin have their protection than us.”

Visca nodded shortly, but she was still scowling at the misty valley before us. “I still don’t like it. Something is up, and we’re blind to it.”

“Most likely. Has Hakkon ever given us a surprise we enjoyed? All we can do is send out the extra legions. Arm the villagers, the women and any child old enough to fight. With the mines open, the walls will be rebuilt before winter. We’ve two fiends in residence—we have no need of the extra guards.”

She made atchksound with her teeth. “And what if the plan is to empty the keep of the guards? That’s what I hate, this uncertainty. This could be a plan, or it could simply be more of Hakkon’s random uncertainty that he likes to spreadaround. That man was always good at making us second-guess ourselves.”

“Then don’t second-guess yourself.” I put a hand on her shoulder and she patted it absently. “Send our people out to keep watch. There is nothing Hakkon can send to us that Wroth and I can’t handle alone.”

“I’m going with them,” Visca said. “I’ll miss Bloodrain again, and Wyn will probably unspool my guts for missing another one of her functions, but I can’t send the untried boys out alone.”

“You know she’ll understand.”

We watched the mist roil in silence for several minutes, and I debated offering myself up, to make the journey alone. I could cover the ground of the Rift far faster on all fours than the legions could with their weapons and supply wagons, but… I couldn’t stand the idea of leaving Cirri, even if every room in the keep was packed with knights.

Not when I’d heard, from a warg’s own mouth, that she was to be eaten by them.

She sighed again, blowing her lips out. “Well, to hell with it, then. I’ll get them moving. Keep an eye on Wyn, would you? You know she starts some questionable shit when no one’s around to tell her it's a bad idea.”

I winced, remembering a time Visca had brought the legions south, and in the span of that week Wyn had created a self-replicating blood sigil that propagated via flesh. Everyone had gone hungry for a while after that, as the entire convict population had been affected, and most of them had bled out through their pores after being infested.

“Both eyes,” I promised her fervently.

“There’s my lad.” Visca turned away from the forest, stepping up onto the wall and dropping down into the inner courtyard with feline elegance.

I turned back to the forest once more, giving it a last, long look before I followed.

Whatever Hakkon was planning, he would have no luck trying to get to Cirri through me.

I finally found my wife,who was in precisely the last place I’d checked that she hadn’t been: my tower, curled up in the bed with the ritual book of the vampires open before her, scowling at her journal.

“I’ve been looking for you.” I closed the door behind me, mostly to keep her trapped in here. I didn’t fancy searching the keep from top to bottom again.

Cirri looked up, the scowl fading, but for a brief second a different expression crossed her face before it melted away—and it was not the usual, bright-eyed happiness I’d come to expect. It was something almost wary.

But then she was smiling at me, her hands moving:I was with Wyn. I decided to give her and Visca a little privacy.

She moved her hands a little more slowly so I could follow, and I nodded. “Visca is taking the legions out into the Rift. She won’t be here for Bloodrain.”

Why?

She looked so wide-eyed and curious, and I told myself I imagined that wary look. She was just tired, and Kajarin had clearly been in the library with her. That would make anyone tired and irritable.

“The wargs,” I started to say, and cut myself off. I didn’t want to give her any cause to worry.

Cirri stared at me patiently. To hell with it; she was the Lady of my hold. The only things that grew in the dark were mushrooms.

“The wargs haven’t been coming,” I said, shedding the constriction of my shirt and climbing onto the bed. “For months—years, really—we haven’t gone longer than a day without a sign of them. For them to just up and quit entirely… we think Hakkon is planning something. The only question is what.”

Cirri considered that, carefully closing the ritual book and putting it on the nightstand. Instead of signing, she turned to paper.

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