Page 36 of With Fangs and Claws (The Wolf Queen 1)

He was an even grumpierprick in the middle of the night, apparently.

“What on earth brings you to our door at this time of night?” he spluttered.

We’d been met at the locked gate by a lowly acolyte, then admitted into the inner sanctum by another minor member of the clergy until Father Gerald or another ordained minister could be produced.

“A matter of great urgency, Father,” Kris said.

I was trying to take all of this in, still wavering on my feet, Magnus putting a hand on my shoulder to steady me, but it didn’t do anything to clear my head. People were talking so damn loudly, and my guts roiled in response.

“Lady Darcy has been bartered off like a bale of wool to the heathen wolves, sacrificed to appease the martial ambitions of our king,” Kris said. “This is an affront to the gods themselves. I have spent my life patrolling the borders between the gods’ own country and that of the dreaded wargen. I have engaged in countless skirmishes with the beasts, turning them away from our fields, our towns and our women, and now I’m being expected to stand by and allow them to take the rose of Elverston Keep into the heathen lands? To be debauched by a quad of beasts?”

“Of course, you bloody are,” Father Gerald snapped. “Come, Kristoff, you’re not a boy anymore. You have always been a devout member of the congregation, a light that leads others to the faith, but we are also men, having to deal with the practicalities of the world. The girl is to… marry the four wargen princes, but to be blunt, she could be sent over the border to wash dishes or serve up the raw meat and viscera they no doubt eat, and she would go if that got us access to the Strelan’s iron ore. Grania is facing increased… incursions on our other borders, so there comes a time when an enemy must become a friend of sorts, if he has what we need to protect ourselves.”

“But Father—”

“What’s all this noise?” another waspish male voice asked. My head swung drunkenly in his direction to see a tall, thin man with glasses perched on the end of his nose peering blearily at the rest of us. “I thought we were to travel to the keep for the marriage, but if the duke has decided to bring his daughter here, I am much happier. The roads over to the keep are still in a deplorable condition.”

“The duke’s daughter is here, but not her grooms, Father Francis,” Gerald said. “Sir Kristoff appears to have staged a midnight rescue to save the girl from the clutches of the heathen savages.”

His sarcasm was palpable. Francis’ gaze was equally as withering as he sized the three of us up.

“Prideful, this is,” he tutted. “As a sworn knight of His Grace, this is how you repay him?”

“But Father, this is—”

“You fancied yourself as a knight of old,” Francis continued, his voice getting louder as he got warmed up, just as he did on worship days. “Father Gerald, I’ll be betting he has a copy of The Chivalrous Tales of Sir Kenneth tucked in his jerkin somewhere.”

“I’m betting he does too, Father Francis. Thought you were Sir Kenneth, whisking away Lady Fleur from the dreaded Black Knight, only to fall head over heels for the maiden, forsaking his oath to the king?” Gerald shook his head slowly. “I’ve told the king many a time that we should outlaw the damn book. Fills these idiots’ heads with rubbish. Which brings us to you, my lady.”

He said the words like they weren’t my title, but an admonition.

“Where did a good and just knight like Sir Kristoff here get the idea to stage a daring rescue, hmm?” Gerald and Francis fixed me with their beady eyes. “I understand that he’s idealistic and a hothead and that would make him perfect clay to shape in your feminine hands.”

“Women are the root of all evil, Father Gerald,” Francis said. “I know there is dispute about the words in the Book of Halgroth, but I think it is clear. Their reckless, emotion-driven natures make them prone to such things.”

“Yes, yes,” Gerald said with a wave of his hand. “A debate of the finer points of the Book will need to happen at a more decent time. We’ll need to rouse the others. If we’re up now, we may as well return the girl to her father, before the heathen beasts discover her gone.” He sighed, his hand going to his back. “I had hoped to get a good ten hours sleep before I was set on the road to the keep, but the gods send us these trials to test us.”

“His Grace will need time to discipline the girl as well,” Francis said, looking me over very closely. “She’s always been an unrepentant hoyden and I’ve brought this up with the duke many times. We reap the harvest of ignorance tenfold.”

“Amen, Father. Now, girl, what do you have to say for yourself? Your little games have fallen to nought, let me tell you. Well? Speak up. Speak up!”

“What the hell is going on?” I said, swaying wildly, then my hand went to my mouth as a giant burp erupted. “Oh gods, I think I’m gonna be sick.”

I was,in a hastily provided receptacle, something that had the priests screwing up their faces in disgust. Then, when all eight were woken and piled into the carriages that would take us back to the keep, I was sick again, outside the monastery’s gilded doors.

“This is unbearable,” Father Mars said, a big bulky priest of the war god. “Put the girl up with the driver. The fresh air will do her good.”

“She’s just as likely to leap off the stoop in her attempts to thwart her father’s will,” Gerald said. “A wilful creature. Thought she’d have us marry her off to Sir Kristoff to escape her fate.”

“Simply Kristoff now, if this missive is to be believed,” the slender priest of the storm god said, reading a small scroll of paper. “He’s lost his title and his lands.”

Everyone looked out the window now, to a forlorn looking Kris and Magnus, just standing there, looking so small and lost. Kris’ face, a kaleidoscope of bruises across most of it, the way one eye was swollen shut, was clearer now in the lamplight.

“We’ll use that in a sermon next worship day,” Gerald said with a smile. “A perfect illustration of the sins of hubris and pride. The whole town will be talking about it, so we’ll have their full attention.”

I just stared and stared. Whatever drug I’d been given, it muted everything and everyone until all that was left was a soft grey background noise, one I closed my eyes to try and shut out.

“We’re here now,girl, and it appears it's time to face the music.”

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