Page 39 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

“Steady, lass,” Nordred said, appearing by my side, beaming at the crowds, but shooting me a warning look when his eyes slid my way. “Let them have this moment. It’s as important to them as the sight of those Reavers turning tail and fleeing.”

I’d always followed his advice, so I wasn’t about to go changing that now. I just stared at the people here, trying to smile, nod, put on a gracious mask that befitted their accolades and stuff my guilt down.

“Come on,” Axe said finally as Jarvis ushered us over to the high table.

“Highness,” he said to Dane, pulling out the chair at the head of the table, but he shook his head, looking to me. Axe brought me over and sat me down in the chair, my elbows going to the table for support. “You must tell us what happened,” the steward said, his eyes bright as they flicked from one of us to the next. “One minute it seemed defeat was certain and then—”

I fidgeted then, feeling a kind of discomfort I hadn’t felt since sitting at my father’s table and Dane took note.

“I understand your curiosity, Master Jarvis,” Dane said in a smooth voice. “But I fear we don’t have the answers that you seek. It was as if the gods themselves reached out and touched us…”

Jarvis blinked, then nodded, a more solemn expression replacing his keen interest.

“Of course. Let us all thank the gods for allowing us to prevail today,” he said, clasping his hands under his chin, everyone moving to do the same. But when I did, I heard that rustle, that flutter as I did so. And did I smell the sickly sweet stench of death coming in through the windows? It was difficult to say. All I knew was that my gut roiled as I closed my eyes in prayer, wondering at what else was to come.

20

Last night we’d eaten a subdued meal, our table curiously quiet even as everyone else seemed to have a raucous good time, enjoying the fact that they still lived and breathed. We’d made conversation, drank toasts when they were made, but there was something quiet and still about us, a mood that grew more prominent when we returned to the room we’d been assigned.

I’d fallen into bed, unwashed and still dressed and the others followed me down, curling around me, that familiar pulse of energy working hard now to refuel me. Because I’d tapped reserves I didn’t know I’d had, something warned me, and they needed time to replenish.

I dreamed again of Reavers and ravens, hearing the Morrigan’s harsh caw as we settled down in a tree to stare down at the forest. Reavers sat there en masse but in far worse condition. My eyes drank in every wound, every injury, the gory sight somehow balm for my soul, because I knew we had left those marks. But the commander, he looked up, finding us in the trees with unerring accuracy, then performing a strange little movement with his fingers, which seemed to banish us. I dropped down, deeper and deeper, into a place beyond dreams.

When I woke up, we went and found Nordred.

“So what the hell is going on?” Dane asked my teacher the following morning.

“What specifically did you want to discuss?” Nordred replied, setting down his mug of coffee and fixing his eyes on me. “You look better today, lass.”

“Don’t play coy,” Weyland snapped. He bristled with irritation until I set my hand on his forearm. His eyes slid back to me and I saw some of the tension ease in him. “You know what we’re asking.”

“About Darcy,” Nordred said, then he nodded slowly. “Always about Darcy. What has Pepin told you so far?”

Everyone’s focus shifted to me then. I took a seat at the trestle table and the others did the same.

“That she’s the Maiden,” I said bluntly.

“What?” Axe jerked back as if slapped. “That can’t be. She’s a canny little thing, got her fingers in too many pies. She has to be working a scam.”

“She’s the Maiden,” I reiterated. “I’ve seen it with my own eyes. She said that yesterday was a test for me. I’d either succeed and prove myself to be the queen you’ve been waiting for or… There are other girls in Grania who have the queen’s blood. Perhaps if you’d met one of them first, you’d have felt—”

“No,” Gael said, stopping the conversation cold. “Just you, Darcy. Just you.”

I nodded in response, then surged on.

“She wouldn’t tell me how or why, just that I had to ‘show that I was worthy’ or something,” I said, my teeth gritting. When I looked around the table, I saw my mates looked similarly unhappy. “It was a trial by fire, but for what and why?”

“I couldn’t train you for exactly this scenario,” Nordred replied. “I couldn’t find Reavers to set you against, so you knew exactly what to do. Your father hampered my efforts beyond measure as it was. Because of him, I couldn’t even set you against someone, to see what real fighting was like.”

“But we left my father’s keep,” I replied as I straightened up, fixing the man with my gaze. “We left some time ago.”

“And you were recovering from being beaten within an inch of your life. From striking back against those that sought to hurt you.” I flinched then, seeing Linnea as she slammed into the wall, my father as I turned his hands into a broken mess, never to be repaired. “And how was I to prepare you for this, Darcy? What could I tell you? Would knowing what was to come have helped you on your ride over here? Would it have strengthened your arm?”

“It might’ve helped us prepare for every eventuality,” Dane said in a tight voice. “A test implies a situation that could be passed or failed. What would happen if we failed? We could’ve died yesterday, correct? Don’t you think we deserved to go into a situation knowing that?”

“But you did,” Nordred shot back, his eyes shining bright in a way I’d never seen before. “You ignored that fact in the way all soldiers do, otherwise they’d be unable to do their job. You go into a fight, you’ll either emerge unscathed, hurt or dead. That’s the same for you, that’s the same for everyone who went to fight. I hid nothing in that regard.”

But then he seemed to master himself, slumping back in his chair and when he looked at me, I saw real pain there.

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