Ivy peers around the room, noticing the sudden hush. “Does that mean something?”
Bannog waits for me to explain, but when I pull my cowl down further, he sighs, doing me the honour instead. “Sweetheart, that silver-eyed raven… That was King Corvis. It’s why his court’s sigil is a raven. He’s a shapeshifter. Fae. Just like us.”
Ivy shivers, and her teacup rattles upon its saucer. “I…thought so...”
Now silence, except for Ivy’s rattling and shaking. I just want to reach across and put her at ease, but I don’t want to give Bannog any more ammunition. He's teased me enough already.
“And the wolf? Was that him, too?”
Bannog taps his chin. “A wolf? I don’t think so. Have you had another strange encounter with an animal that doesn’t seem quite of this world?”
“Y-yes. It chased me all the way to the north, the biggest wolf I’d seen. It had silver eyes, too. It would have killed me if it weren’t for my horse…”
She trails off, losing herself in the memory, and I know the day well. It was the day I found her at the mercy of that kelpie.
“It coulda been one of the guards sent to sniff her out,” Stannog chimes in, and so kind of him to join.
“The king’s guard has already come snooping around me tavern, anyway. Relax, I didn’t tell them nothin.'”
He looks at me pointedly once he spies the hate spilling from my eyes, and I draw my claws, making Ivy tense.
My heart pounds, drowning out all sound. "Who?”
All the faces from Stannog’s tavern rush through my mind. Whoever they are, they’re dead.
Stannog swigs his spiked tea. “The culprit has already been dealt with.”
It doesn’t look as if I’ll be getting any more information from him, yet my bets are on the puka. I saw the way it looked at Ivy that night.
Now I regard Stannog curiously. Maybe he does have a heart deep down. For all his talk of hating humans, he seems eager to keep this one alive, and I wonder… He even saved her from Lord Valent, telling me to get her home.
I startle once Ivy slams her fist onto the table, and that crying, shivering girl has long gone now. “Whyis he doing this? I was just a baby when he dethroned my father. A man I never even met. I was raised by a healer and a blacksmith, for goodness’ sake!”
Her shouting bounces off the walls, and it’s a good thing Bannog already shut the window. None of us know what to say.
King Corvis already has everything he could ever want. He has a throne and an entire court at his disposal.
Unless he thinks she is after his throne. It is her birthright, after all.
But if he deems her such a threat, then why didn’t he kill her when he found her in the woods? Perhaps he was just seeing what he was up against.
Still, it’s best we don’t take any chances. We can’t let him lull us into a false sense of security.
Now we have to figure out how to get her back to the mountain. Luckily for us, Bannog has an idea.
28
Tegwyn
“What?”
Bannog beams from ear to ear. “That’s right. Aglamour…My, you really do need to clean those ears out.”
He titters,and I mutter obscenities under my breath, stealing a quick glance at Ivy.
Her green-blue eyes sparkle beneath the light of Bannog’s crystal chandelier. “What do you mean by glamour?”
The ogre’s eyes give a mischievous glint, and he rises from his wingback chair, plodding towards a stack of boxes.
