Page 26 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

He shook his head slowly.

“We can’t solve the problems of the past by following the same processes. At least not Father’s.” His fingers worried the edges of the map. “We also have a more immediate problem. One that will become a very real threat for all of Strelae.”

Of course there was. I let out a breath, steeling myself for what was to come.

“While the nobility remains myopically focussed on the capital,” he said, “the people who provide us with the food and fibres we need to eat and clothe ourselves with remain unprotected.”

I felt a cold sensation wash over me.

“Reavers are destroying farmland now, not just small holdings. The generals have been trying to get my father to mobilise the troops, to begin the defence of our country, to secure our food supply.”

I just stared at him as he spoke all those bloodless words. Food supply, small holdings, mobilise troops. They were all abstract concepts, things that didn’t live and breathe, but people did. I saw past the words immediately and then realised now why Dane was locked away here.

“People are going to starve.” My eyes flicked to the partially uneaten food on his plate, and part of me wanted to squirrel that away somewhere, save what remained. Then I thought about the embarrassment of riches that had been spread out over every table in the dining hall. “We need to cut back. People can eat bread and porridge, perhaps some vegetable stew to go with it. What?”

He smiled up at me, then shook his head slightly.

“You understand the problems we face, just as I thought you would, but before you put the citadel on half rations, I need to show you something.”

He leaned over, sorting through the papers before drawing one forward, but my attention wasn’t on the paperwork. It was on the way his body was forced to lean into mine, hard and unrelenting. But when he passed me a sheet of paper, he looked at me expectantly.

At first I struggled to work out what I was looking at. It was a tally sheet of sorts and the numbers there… I’d never seen so many zeros in the one place. But as I scanned the list, I saw familiar names. Root vegetables, pumpkins, wheat, barley, lentils, beans… When I forced my eyes up, when I stared into his eyes I saw something both impossibly strong yet fragile there.

“Dane…”

I gasped his name because while nothing on this list was an especially romantic gesture, it was a gift, a tremendous gift.

“These are food stores. Your food stores,” I said in a low voice.

“The people’s food stores,” he said and there was a stiffness about his voice then, but real emotion vibrated there. “If my fucking father won’t secure things for our people, I will. It’s all stored in here. I’ll show you where tomorrow, but…”

I lost track of his words as a sudden realisation hit me. I glanced around the room as if seeing it for the first time, the old mortared stones having been here for so long, countless chamberlains and consorts having sat exactly where he was now, working on the nation’s finances. But somehow, for some reason, this castle had been abandoned and a new one had been built, where his father sat on the throne. But…

“You’ve created another seat of power…” I was still testing the idea in my head, but when I looked at him, his grin was quick and unstudied, one of the few spontaneous expressions he allowed himself. “You’re not going to challenge your father. You’re going to undermine him completely.”

“For you.”

He stared at me openly then, willing me to see it, and I did. I really did. I watched his lips move, heard his words, but I felt like I’d been dropped headfirst into an ice cold mountain stream when I did.

“You’re a queen, Darcy, one from a long lineage that ruled this country justly, saw our people grow strong. One who will weld us together so we can beat back anything that seeks to threaten us. Your strength will become our strength.”

Well, if that was Dane’s master plan, it was all for naught. I was glad he’d seen to take measures to secure food for the people. The thought of children starving, of people watching their loved ones wasting away made my breath catch in my chest, but the rest? To make this a power base… for me?

I slipped off his lap then, even as he tried to stop me, but my feet needed to move. I paced back and forth, back and forth, my boots making a sharp little sound at each step. But it wasn’t enough, not to quell what was inside me.

I was born to take over the domestic management of a keep. Father and Linnea had seen that I received a suitable education to do just that, to become some lordling’s wife, so I had a working knowledge of history, geography, of household economics, as well as the more womanly pursuits such as embroidery and dancing. But this… I shook my head and once I started, I couldn’t stop.

“Darcy…”

I shied away, knowing where he was by instinct and jerking back before he could grab me. His face fell as his hands did and I watched that cool, calm mask re-situate itself.

“That’s what you’ve based all of this on? The survival of Strelae?” I asked, my voice a quavery mess. “On… me? You have to know what madness that is.”

“I don’t know that. I don’t know that at all,” he replied much more evenly. “The queen would return, that’s what we were all told. Father always asserted it was an old wives’ tale, one to try and reassure us that the glory days of Strelae were not over, but I…”

He swallowed hard, then straightened up, it feeling like he loomed over me.

“But I saw you, Darcy. In my dreams, in visions. A queen who would ascend to the throne and bring us back to glory and I would be by her side.”

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