Page 26 of Wilds of Wonder
“What in the bloody frost happened this morning?” Gungar stepped forward, nose wrinkling as he glared at my clothes while straightening his blue robe, one that all historians and scholars wore to signify our connection to the academy. I wore the robe when I taught but otherwise preferred my own clothing, much to the chagrin of all the elders, so used to their traditions, so stuck in their ways. “I’m told you went against the queen’s orders and brought a criminalto the academy for questioning? What were you thinking, Von Lucas?”
He raised a brow, and I straightened my shoulders, rolling them back. “I was thinking that you’d want me to bring the woman here so I could question her about this chest she carried with significant artifacts inside.”
His eyes widened as he took in the chest sitting on my desk, craggy eyebrows raising and making all the wrinkles on his forehead more pronounced. “What in the world was she doing with that?”
I wouldn’t reveal her identity. I had far too much respect for the white rabbit to do so.
I grabbed my long black coat off the hook behind him and shrugged it over my shoulders. “I don’t know. But now it belongs to the academy, which should make the queen happy. Quite a few new additions for the museum.”
His face turned red, and he snatched my arm. “And you let this woman escape? She’s clearly a threat to the academy. To the queen. She kept these items for herself instead of turning them over. She could be hiding pieces of history from us, finding out information the queen might not want anyone to know.”
I snorted. He was starting to sound like the frost queen, so afraid of information getting out, like that wasn’t our job as historians.
“Well, you could always chase after her yourself instead of making me your errand boy.”
Professor Gungar narrowed his gaze. “Watch it, Von Lucas. I’ve been here for fifty years. You’ve been here for six.”
I tugged on the lapels of my coat. “Yet I believe I’m the one who’s the queen’s historical advisor. Not you. And maybe if you and the others listened to me, you’d realize that times are changing. That our methods need to change as well.”
He scoffed. “Who was this woman? She needs to be brought to justice.”
“Lady Emory Growley.” Her name. Emory. It tasted as sweet as I’d expected.
“The ambassador’s wife?” He raised a hand to his chest. “Spirits below. That does make sense.” He stopped abruptly, gaze slowly raisingto meet mine. “Do you know why the queen wanted her for questioning?”
“I assume because of all the valuables she was carrying in that damn chest.” I pointed to it, still sitting on my desk. If the queen had taken Emory in for questioning, she’d have figured out her identity as the white rabbit sooner or later, and then Emory would be in deep, deep trouble. Thank the spirits she’d escaped.
“No,” Gungar said. “That’s not why the queen wanted her.”
I leaned against my desk. “Since you seem to know, please, don’t keep me waiting in such suspense.”
“Emory’s husband, Lord Growley, was found murdered in his home this morning. Believed to have been killed by his wife.”
Husband. I’d been so wrapped up in my discovery of the white rabbit’s identity, in knowing her name, I’d somehow forgotten the rest of it. She was married. That was a punch to the gut that I hadn’t expected. And—had he just said...
“Murder?” I asked, brain still unable to keep up.
“Early this morning.” Gungar’s chin wobbled. “Servants found him dead in the cellar after a clear struggle. His wife nowhere to be found.”
All the breath left my lungs, and suddenly, it made sense: why she was wearing nothing but a nightgown, why she’d been running in the first place. It wasn’t because the guards thought she was a thief. It was because they thought she was a murderer. And I’d been stupid enough to let her escape. All because of my connection to her, because I’d actually thought at one point that there was a world where the white rabbit and I could... Married. She’d been married the entire time she’d been the white rabbit. Our last meeting suddenly made far more sense. I suddenly felt very, very stupid.
I pounded a fist on the desk.
Gungar raked a hand through his thinning white hair and glanced behind me at my packed satchel. “What’s done is done. Emory Growley is now the frost queen’s concern. Not ours. Not yours. Are you ready for this mission?”
The mission. I suspected Gungar was sending me with the hope that I didn’t return. I might’ve been the favorite of the queen—and many students—but Gungar still ran this academy, was still the ArchHistorian, and that meant he had the power to send me on assignments.
“We’re getting more and more reports of this white wolf stalking the Glacier Mountains. A wolf like no one has ever seen before. Huge with fangs as big as my fingers, standing near as tall as a fully grown man.”
I waved away his words. “Yes, yes I’ve been briefed. Though I’m not sure why you’re sending a historian to trek after this creature and not a hunter.” I raised a brow.
Gungar shifted on his feet. “Because the queen wants him in her custody.”
Just another obsession of the frost queen’s I didn’t understand. She cared far more about this wolf than she should have.
“We need someone who can analyze the creature,” Gungar was saying, “tell us how it evolved, where it might have come from. Not just some brute who will barge in and kill it. We need some answers about this thing. It’s terrorizing small villages on the outskirts of the mountains. It’s eating livestock. We’re worried the villagers are next.”
I shuddered at that and swept my arms around the room. “Well, as you can see, I was on my way out before you barged in. Hastings is taking over my class until I return.”
