Page 74 of The Wolf Queen

I blinked, the little girl’s voice losing all trace of girlish fun and when I stared at her, Jan seemed… regal somehow. Her hair tumbled down around her shoulders, needing a good comb out and she was still in her dress, not the nightgown my grandfather had found for her, but somehow that seemed fitting. I joked about getting her a palace all the time, but now was the first time I could see her taking on the role of princess in reality.

Or queen.

I sucked in a breath then, wondering what kind of world she’d inherit if she did manage to fight her way onto the Strelan throne. Queen of nothing, that’s what she’d be right now, but I couldn’t tell her that.

“And what did you dream of back at home?” I asked her.

“Of you.” Her beautiful face split into a grin. “I didn’t know it then, because I couldn’t see you clearly. I thought it was my mummy, because you felt familiar. But it was you, Darcy. You picked me up and put me on a throne and made me queen.”

“You need to stop telling her stories, Darcy. You’ll just encourage her,” Del grumbled, an old man in a child’s body right now.

“Of course we’ll encourage her,” Weyland said with a wink. “She’ll be our queen one day and I will kneel at her feet and swear my allegiance.”

I moved to my knees right now, the movements slow and painful. As I went down I looked around for my sword and found it lying on a spindly chair. I pulled it free of its scabbard and set it before me, hilt up. The flames along the blade flickered lazily, detecting no real threat.

“I swear to spend my life fighting to make you Queen Jan, first of her name,” I said, not knowing if there had been one before her.

“Janila.” Del watched the two of us somewhat wistfully. “If she’s to be queen, she’ll be Queen Janila and I’ll be Prince Delvin.”

“Queen Janila and Prince Delvin,” I said, inclining my head to each one of them slowly, like a grand lady would do, the two of them bursting out laughing, killing the mood. “But even a queen and her prince must get some sleep. Who knows what the morning will bring? We’ll meet those challenges best when well rested. Let’s get you two in bed and you can tell me how Queen Janila’s coronation will go.”

Lyingdown on the children’s bed with them was just as fortifying as it was with my mates, but for different reasons. As we workshopped the ideas for the night’s story, everything else fell away. My worries, my exhaustion, everything but this. I couldn’t focus on Callum, not when Jan’s face lit up as she discussed the preparations for her fake coronation. Even Del’s frown he wore near constantly made me laugh, Jan’s smile growing wider. I told the story of her ascension to the throne, just as she wanted it, but eventually their eyelids grew heavy and their breaths came in slower and slower so I was forced to stop.

Did other mothers watch their children like this, sucking in every detail of their faces with a kind of rapt fascination, tracing the soft curves of Jan’s cheeks and the leaner ones of Del’s. Where did the scar come from that bisected his eyebrow? Did Jan’s real mother have a tiny beauty spot on her cheek, just like her daughter did? I’d never know because of the Reavers. I sighed. I’d enjoyed an hour or two of not thinking about them, but it was the threat they posed that had me moving now.

“When you are ready to find out how the Granians really won the war against the Strelans, then come and find me,” Bryson had said. Well, if there was some secret to it that hadn’t made it to the history books, I needed to know it. I turned down the lamps and crept out of the room and then walked down the hall.

The palace wasa rabbit’s warren of corridors and richly appointed rooms, which was perhaps why I ended up stumbling into here. I heard deep male voices, ones that spoke authoritatively, and when I came to the doorway, I recognised what this was. The room where the Royal Council met, though it was not a full sitting right now. My grandfather rose when he saw me at the door, as did Bryson and some of the northern lords. But beside them was Higgins and some of the wolf cultists.

“Darcy!” My grandfather said, rushing forward to take my hands in his. “You’re up and about.”

“Yes.” I gave his hands a squeeze before pulling away and consulting the table. A map of all of Strelae and Grania was set out across it. “And what’s this?”

“We’re trying to ascertain where Callum will strike first,” Bryson said, taking his seat again. “We were thinking he’d take possession of this bridge here—”

“No.” As I blinked, I saw it, heard Callum’s words, a part of the dream, no, nightmare I’d forgotten. I hadn’t remembered it until now. “Here.” I pressed my finger to the point on the map where my father’s keep was situated.

“But if he takes the bridge, he controls the movement of large numbers of troops across the border,” Lord Kendrick said.

“Don’t make the mistake of thinking logically,” I said, shaking my head. “Anything you learned about military strategy will be no use to you.”

“If this Reaver king is Prince Callum of yore, then he would’ve received training in strategy and the logistics of waging a war,” one of the other northern lords said. “He damn near won the war the first time.”

“But he’s not fighting a war.” As soon as I said the words, I knew them to be true. “It’s not about holding back the Empire this time, or protecting territory. It’s about…” It felt hopelessly egotistical to say this, but I had to. “It’s about me.”

One of the lords snorted at this, but Bryson silenced him with a sharp look.

“Because you are the one prophesied to come,” Higgins said, rising to his feet as he stared at me. It was always unnerving, because he didn’t seem to look at me like I was a person, seeing something else instead.

“Thank you, Higgins.” Bryson’s words were as polite a rebuke as they could be, though the cultist sat down in response. “Darcy.”

He turned to me, asked me to explain and didn’t try to interject anything of his own, making clear he was reserving his judgement until I was done. I nodded, clasping my hand around my other wrist and then telling them what I knew.

“I’m the reason why he’s here in the first place.” A small amount of muttering rose at that, but Bryson silenced them with a look. “That became clear when I confronted Callum.”

“You were talking to him, I saw that,” Bryson said, “but few of us were able to eavesdrop.”

“Those bloody Reavers…” Lord Kendrick muttered.

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