Page 93 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

“I saw them with my own two eyes,” Callum said. “I drew the map so I think the veracity of the information has been proved.”

“Brother…” Eleanor said with a shake of her head.

“Don’t ‘brother’ me, Eleanor!” The two of them stiffened instinctively. They were in the queen’s private dining room, but still. To use the queen’s full name was an unacceptable familiarity, something only her mates could claim. “My apologies. The ships are numerous and at the rate that they were arriving in the bay, many more are to come. Port Langdale has been taken. The people, your people, who have lived there for generations…”

Eleanor stiffened, staring into her brother’s eyes as he delivered his message.

“They have been enslaved, despite your… advisor’s attempts to ‘talk’ to the interlopers.”

Callum’s hands dug into the back of the chair he stood before, the nails becoming claws, then nails again.

“They said they were here for trade only,” Nordred said. “Of that I can be sure.”

“Well, they lied.” Callum stabbed a finger at the piece of paper. “This makes that apparent. The only thing now is how we respond to this incursion. There’s a meeting with the generals in half an hour. Be there to throw your support behind our move against our enemy.” He looked at Nordred, then his sister so intently Eleanor feared he knew exactly what bond the two of them shared. “Or don’t. But we march on Langdale either way.”

“Without the queen’s permission?” There was none of her lover in Nordred right now. Instead, it was the icy eyed advisor that had stood at her right hand since she had ascended to the throne. “You overstep.”

“I step up, I think you mean to say, and I do so only because she won’t.” Callum shook his head. “Grandmother warned me that you would need… support during your reign, but this? Sister, surely you have no quarrel with me about protecting your own people.”

“Callum won’t like the way history remembers him,” Weyland said with a shake of his head. “He’s little more than a footnote in books. The queen ordered the army down to the port and took it back in a rousing victory. Imperial ships burned in the bay for days. Songs were sung about the way the humans screamed as they drowned, their naval forces somehow never taught to swim.”

“But that didn’t stop the invasion?” I said, knowing the answer but asking the question anyway.

“It was just the start of things,” Dane said. “The Empire took the defeat with little grace. It was as if it was their country that they were driven out of.”

“Because they felt entitled to it,” Gael replied. “That was certainly been my experience growing up in Grania. The gods themselves gave them our country. They brought with them enlightenment, the true word of the gods—”

“Disease. They damn near killed us when the pox raged through the country. They might have built up an immunity to the blasted thing with their lack of attention to personal hygiene, but not us,” Axe said grimly. “Half the reason why their invasion succeeded was down to that.”

“And the other half was the queen,” I said with a frown. “Why? She was in love with Nordred, probably was bearing his child. She was…” I swallowed, the words feeling somewhat sacrilegious to say but I said them anyway. “She was a weak queen, but if her brother was proficient, then surely the wargen would have succeeded.”

“Wargen?” Dane’s eyebrow shot up. “I haven’t heard you call any of us that for some time.”

“I… I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry.” I stared down the road, studied the hills and fields that surrounded us on either side, looking for signs of something. As I did, I saw the dark shapes of birds flying above us. “But I can’t help but wonder, how did the love of two people lead to all of us ending up here?”

47

We arrived at the battlefield to find another army waiting for us, and they didn’t belong to Prince Callum.

“Now’s your chance to ask the man himself,” Axe remarked as the king approached the host positioned at the edge of the battlefield, stiff legged as a territorial dog. But Nordred peeled off from the masses of men sitting around tents and campfires, approaching his king with an appropriately humble bow. We watched the two of them talk, noting the way the king’s body language relaxed by increments. Of course, he did. A man of near mythical status had brought Ulfric an army to supplement his.

“He brought you an army,” Gael observed, casting me a sidelong look. “His daughter in every way but the simplest biology.”

“Don’t go saying that aloud anywhere else,” Dane hissed. “One breath of that to Father—”

“And he’ll what? Set men onto us who owe the other half of their soul to our mate?” Axe shot back.

“Lady Darcy.” A very uncomfortable looking lord approached. His armour was so heavily reinforced it looked like he’d be lucky to be able to swing a sword. His horse was floundering under all that additional weight. “King Ulfric bids you to join His Majesty and Lord Nordred.”

“Wants you to work your magic on his behalf again more like,” Gael muttered, but Dane hushed him with one look.

Of course, Gael was right. We all knew it, only he dared give voice to it. We slid off our horses’ backs, retrieving what bags and weapons we’d need, squires coming and leading them away, only for us to be waved forward.

“Nordred truly is the hero bards sing of,” Ulfric said, full of good humour right now. I guess receiving the gift of having twice as many men to go to war with would do that. I scanned the number of them, spread all across the field as far as the eye could see. “He has brought an impressive force to join ours. Not as well trained or outfitted, of course.”

I snorted internally at that. No man that served under Nordred would ever be called poorly trained, though I guess even he would struggle to turn them into warriors born in the short time since I’d seen him.

“But he tells me he needs the Lady Darcy’s assistance to perform the last bit of preparation.”

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