Page 59 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

“We have to tell Dane…” I said, squeezing back.

And so we strode back into the palace, passing portraits of queens and their families over the years, as we made our way back to the familiar, gold-doored room. This time I stared intently at each portrait we passed. And there he was, in a modestly sized painting, just sitting there staring out at us.

“The fucking bastard…” Axe growled. “What the hell would a prince of the blood be doing leading Reavers?”

I blinked for a second, the only apparent reason quickly becoming clear.

“To finish the job he started,” I whispered. “To eradicate the Granians.”

29

“What is she doing here?”

Aurora had obviously caught wind of the meeting and had arrived sometime after we’d left. She gazed up at me with barely concealed dislike. My hands strayed to the hilts of my swords as I smiled back, enjoying the way her milky skin paled further.

“She’s my mate and Gael’s,” Weyland replied in a clipped tone. “Of course Darcy is present.”

“Yours…” The queen’s eyes narrowed as she scanned my neck, then Weyland’s, his hand sliding over to toy with my mark.

“Whoever the girl has claimed,” Ulfric said, cutting through the death stares, “she’s the only link we have to whatever force drives these Reavers.” His gaze came to settle on us and I didn’t like that at all. “What have you discovered?”

“The prince leads the Reavers,” Axe said bluntly. “Queen Eleanor’s brother.”

“He was killed in battle,” the king said with a frown.

“And maybe the Morrigan rescued him from that,” Axe said. I just stared at him as my mind whirled. Prince Callum should be hundreds of years old now, so what he said made perfect sense. It just hadn’t occurred to any of us. Axe smirked at me before turning back to the gathering. “He was intent on keeping the Granians out of Strelae”—little rumbles of approval came from around the table—“and the legends say he died in pursuit of that goal. Maybe Lady Death had other ideas.”

Like sending him over the Eaglefell ranges, to whatever lay beyond that. Somehow I could see a battered and worn Callum doing just that, kept moving solely by the fire that burned inside him and the relentless caws of the raven that accompanied him.

“And he’s back to finish the job?” Aurora asked in an arch tone. “Perhaps we should let him be, then. A few dead peasants is a reasonable price to pay for driving the usurpers out of our land.”

My eyes darted around the room as I saw a bunch of the men nodding and mumbling their agreement, and that sent chills up my spine. I might not have any time for Father or Linnea, but the keep…? Every single person who lived and worked there, torn apart as if by a fox in a hen house. Because that’s what they’d be. Fat, soft, clucking chooks, thinking they were safe behind their stone walls…

“But that’s not what will happen,” I said in a low voice. “Places like Wildeford and the other tiny hamlets. They tore through them, using that destruction to refuel themselves after their trek through the mountains. But Aramoor…”

“He needs more men,” the general said sharply. “He has an army, but he’ll need a much bigger one if he’s to drive out the Granians. We need more information on what turns a man into a Reaver, because I’m willing to bet that there’s something pertinent there.”

“Aramoor was a recruiting exercise, not a massacre in the making,” Dane said grimly.

“Both.” Everyone turned around at Gael’s input, the queen leaning forward, a retort on her lips, but the king held his hand up for quiet. He then nodded to his son. “Kill the women and children,” Gael said baldly. “The weak and infirm. Reduce everything Lord Walter and his people have built in that area to rubble, creating a tabula rasa on which to build a new Strelae.” He blinked, as if considering his words. “Or a very old one, depending on how you look at it. Then turn every able bodied man into a Reaver to add to his number.”

“He seeks to sweep through and decimate everything that has sprung up since,” Dane said in a hushed tone.

“Why?”

Everyone had been distracted, twittering to the person next to them about the various theories being tossed around the room, when the queen’s voice cut through the chatter. She stared at me balefully.

“It’s been several hundred years since the queen went across the border. Then we have an outlander come amongst our midst, bringing with her a man who asserts that he is Nordred, the famed advisor of the young queen. And now we’re to believe the old queen’s brother still lives and is seeking to scour both Strelae and Grania clean. Why? Why now? Why in this moment?”

And with that, everyone turned to stare at me, each set of eyes bringing with it their own baggage.

Some looked me over with suspicion, others with interest, but only two mattered to me. Dane’s, full of pride and some wonder. If I had suspicions that he already knew all of this, they were now set to rest. Then there was the king. There was some of Dane’s coolness in his gaze, but the king’s analytical stare went far beyond his son’s.

I’d felt both invisible and exposed since the moment I’d come to Strelae. I was just a girl in the Bayard market, then the prince’s companion. I was an obstacle to the queen’s plans and Malia and Leia’s when I came to court, but they never saw me. I was a nothing, not even worth a second thought as they moved to stomp right over me and get what they wanted. But in this moment, I felt seen in ways I did not appreciate, because those blue eyes seemed to delve deeper than his sons were prepared to go. They seemed to cut to the very core of me, right before he spared me a single nod.

What he was about to say? I’ll never know. The general leant forward then, commanding the attention of the table.

“What the Lady Darcy is may be up for conjecture, but I’ll say this. When she turned the tide for our men at Aramoor, she did more than draw on some unseen power. I’ve had men I’ve known for years find the other side of their soul.” Mutters started then as well as exclamations of surprise. “Men who’d shown no sign of being two-souled before this time.”

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