Page 103 of The Prince's Mage

“I know very little of her coalition’s forces, my commander.” His jaw clenched at the word ‘my.’ The satisfaction of getting a reaction out of him made her sit up a little straighter. “I can only tell you about Clan Desero’s and what I know of Montis’ from the marriage alliance discussions.”

“Then tell me that.”

She did as he ordered.

She liked it better than the silence from the night before. She didn’t get much of a chance to deviate from Gavril’s chosen topic, a dry accounting of a fraction of the forces in Hypatia’s army. They did have days of travel ahead of them even at their ruthless pace.

Well, as ruthless as her fragile body could handle. She knew she was tiring before the horses, but Gavril never acknowledged her weakness, slowing them slightly.

After she told him what she knew of Desero’s and Montis’ combined forces, she offered up the general knowledge she had about the other clans and their armies; even if she could not give specifics, it might be helpful.

He always cut her off when they stopped to rest. He refused to entertain any conversation with her that wasn’t about pure facts and strategy. It was starting to grate on her nerves. She was trying to be patient and understanding so she could give Gavril the time and space he needed for him to realize her love for him was real, but admittedly, it was not her strong suit.

And the longer the silences went on at night when they tried to rest, the more she stewed. She wasn’t the only one who had lied. She wasn’t the only one who had laid a trap for the other. His had succeeded.

And he had offered no explanation for his actions or apology for his deception. Did he want her to keep groveling at his feet like he was somehow blameless in this?

What did he want from her?

The third day, Marcella finished going through everything she knew about the armies and said, “There’s only one person you need to be worried about.”

Gavril nodded. “The one commanding them. The Desero demon.”

Marcella leaned forward in her saddle, but he still wouldn’t look at her. “You’ll want to call her Chiefess Hypatia when you meet her.”

“And her husband? What position does he hold?”

That was a little more complicated. Konstantin was acting chief of Montis and had been since shortly before he initiated the marriage alliance discussions, but until his father passed away, he wasn’t chief yet. And Hypatia’s letters…

“His father is still alive, barely, but he’s the heir and has been running Montis ever since his father started declining. Everyone already calls him chief. As far as I can tell, Hypatia is chiefess of Desero and Konstantin acting chief for Montis. Our clans are still functioning independently despite their marriage. Hypatia never signed a message as Montis, just Desero.”

Gavril’s jaw clenched and his eyes remained pointedly fixed ahead. “Strange… Hopefully he won’t be a problem. Tell me everything about her.”

Marcella had talked about her before, in passing small comments. She hadn’t dwelled on her because of how furious just the mention of her name made Gavril. But that had been back when he would hold her after her nightmares and trace his fingers over the scar Hypatia had put on her.

Now…

She took a deep breath and focused on the facts. “I’ve told you Hypatia… She is a woman the likes of which my clan hasn’t seen before—frankly, that this world hasn’t seen before and I don’t think will see again.”

“Go on. From the beginning.”

“I can tell you Hypatia is not a demon. She’s human—as human as any of us. Unfortunately for us, even humans can be capable of monstrous things,” Marcella said, reaching up and fiddling with the plain cloak that had replaced his until it covered her scars and she could see Gavril’s expression twitch at her action. She pressed on, “Hypatia is many things. A brilliant woman. A skilled mage. A strategic leader. A powerful seer. Blessed. Asentai’s hand has been on her life since the moment she took her first breath, and I have not seen it leave yet.”

“Seer… I still don’t quite fully understand that.”

Right. The Inimicus didn’t have them. They didn’t train mages with those blessings to develop them because they had no faith. They charted their own destinies. Their ideas were laughable sometimes.

“With the right runes, Hypatia can harness her Sight. Asentai blesses her with knowledge—sometimes a vision, other times a word, a sense, like a sound or a smell or taste, other times just a feeling. Uneasiness. Peace. That sort. She has not been so blessed to have Asentai speak through her in a prophecy, but that is rare indeed, especially at her age. Most times she gets nothing at all, but that is normal for seers as well.”

“So she could know anything?” Gavril’s brow furrowed, and she wanted to scream at him to just look at her. “She could know we’re on our way to her right now?”

If she didn’t respond, maybe he would.

As the silence stretched on, Gavril closed his eyes and his grip on his reins tightened. Marcella dug her teeth into her tongue, willing him to look at her.

But he opened his eyes, kept them on the road ahead, and said, “Soldier. Answer me.”

Marcella urged her horse faster to ride beside him. She’d been riding behind him, hoping that would force him to turn around and look at her but so far he hadn’t. Fine.

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