Page 121 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

I’d heard this before, in another dream, another time, and I remembered what came after. My lips started moving, reciting the words before she did.

“I didn’t want this for you, Darcy. I begged, pleaded with her for another way, but… You’ll know when it comes, my love, and when it does, know that I love you. I will always love you.”

My eyes flicked open then, just in time to hear the far off howl.

“They’re here,” Gael said, as he crouched down beside me. I reached out and he pulled me clear of a still sleeping Axe. I washed up quickly in the basin full of water on the washstand, longing for a proper bath, but unsure of when I’d get one. Then I let out a low hiss.

“You’ve been doing that a lot,” he said, glancing down, then placing his hand over my stomach. I felt the sharp prickle of his power when he did so, the pain rising so sharply I was forced to pull away. “What did Ulfric do to you?”

“Nothing.” I shrugged out of the clothes I’d worn for days and replaced them with fresh ones that had been laid out for us, my armour going over them. I shoved my knives into my boots, strapped my swords around my hips and then bent to bind my hair back. He snorted when my hands went to my now cropped hair, grabbing a piece of leather and used it to tie me the world’s shortest horsetail. “It's probably just cramps. My menses were uncommonly short. Perhaps the goddess seeks to bless me with two moon flows this month.”

I heard a sharp ruffle of feathers at that.

“Whatever it is, it’ll have to wait,” I continued. “They’re here. They must be here.”

And as if in response, a harsh blast of a horn, then the further off ring of the warning bells, told us just what was happening. The rest of my mates jerked awake and that’s when the day really seemed to start.

We strode down the corridor, ready to ride down to the wall, when the door to Del and Jan’s room was yanked open.

“They’re here?” Del asked, pale as milk.

“We’re just going to find out, lad,” Axe told him.

“I’ll come. I can fight. I can—”

I silenced him by unbuckling one of my swords and handing it to him.

“You will, here.” This wasn’t what parents were supposed to do, I was sure, but in my defence, I wondered how many parents were forced to go and fight another damn battle, with all of the small and vulnerable locked up behind a stone wall that seemed far too fragile now. “If something happens… If the Reavers get past the drawbridge…”

Del stared up at me now, then nodded, taking the sword and going to strap it around his waist, even if the tip of the scabbard would drag on the ground.

“You’ll fight for Jan, for yourself.”

Jan appeared in the doorway, clinging to a doll I’d not seen before, but I was glad she had it. She watched all of us with eyes too big for her tiny face, right up until I pressed a kiss to her forehead and then to her brother’s. My pack moved in, dropping down to give each of them hugs and Del permitted it, just. His body wouldn’t go loose or surrender into their embrace, and when we pulled away, his spine was ramrod straight.

“We’ll be back,” I promised, an idea I clung to, right up until we reached the wall.

As soon as I was off Arden’s back, I shimmied up the ladder to the top of the wall and stared down.

“Can’t see much of them yet, milady,” a man said, peering at the tree line down the slope, “but…”

I saw what he alluded to. Out in the trees, small points of light flickered. I thought of the stick wrapped in fabric I’d used to set Nordred’s pyre afire yesterday and realised what they were.

“Torches.”

“That’s what we’re thinking,” another man said, “and a lot of them.”

I looked up, seeing the sky was awash with red as the sun began to set. It was a suitably hellish atmosphere, heralding what was to come. But not dark enough to warrant the need of torches.

“My queen!”

I slid down the ladder to see Rath and several other generals approaching.

“They’re bringing torches with them and it’s still daylight,” Gael said.

“So they intend to try and burn the gate down.” Rath eyed the tall, reinforced wooden structure balefully. “I guess we can be glad the beasts don’t have siege machines.”

“Because they don’t intend for the attack to last that long.” The words were out of my lips without thinking, but everyone gave them undue attention. “That’s just an observation, not a goddess-delivered prophecy.”

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