Most refused to look at me, but one particularly angry face was impossible to miss as we passed.
“Don’t think that one likes you very much,” Sigrid whispered, earning a scowl of her own.
I jerked to a halt when I met the tentative smile of a younger guard. He was the spitting image of Wulfstan, and in an instant, I knew exactly who he was.
“Arnulf, I’ll be damned. You were only a boy when I saw you last. Now you’re a man grown,” I said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. “And already a knight of the realm” I said, nodding to the insignia on his shoulder.
His smile grew. “Aye, my lord. It’s good to have you back.”
Even if he couldn’t possibly mean it, I appreciated the effort he was making for his father’s sake. If I was to find allies, perhaps this was a start.
“Your father must be proud.”
His smile faltered, but he straightened his back. “My father has gone to God, my lord. Six months ago.”
I choked in a breath, feeling like I’d been punched in the stomach. Wulfstan was a bear of a man, a warrior even Sigrid would’ve admired. He’d always seemed indestructible in a way that made it hard to fathom a world in which he no longer existed.
“How?” I rasped, not trusting myself to speak.
Arnulf’s eyes shifted nervously. “Bandits called the Shrikes, my lord. He and my mother were accompanying a supply train through the Shepherd’s Pass to visit our family in the country, but they never made it through. It’s said that the Shrike King added them to the mound of skulls he uses as a throne.” His expression turned bleak. “We could only bury the parts we found impaled.”
Wulfstan’s wife, Udela, had been a maternal figure through my childhood. She could hardly be called warm, but she was loving in her own austere way. That she’d met such an end…
“‘I’m sorry I wasn’t here,” I said, not fighting the emotion that flooded my voice. He deserved to hear my pain for their loss.
“He wouldn’t have blamed you,” Arnulf said, swallowing his own feelings. “But he’d be glad you’ve returned.”
Where had I been six months ago when they were slain? Taking some meaningless prize, reveling in my freedom when I should’ve been here defending them. Now I could only hope to avenge them.
“Who are these Shrikes?” Sigrid asked, saying the name like she was offended by it.
Arnulf opened his mouth to respond, then snapped it shut and stood at attention abruptly.
Captain Elric strode towards us too casually. He was another nightmare from my childhood: a noble’s son who’d always resented my royalty, so he’d made my life hell. His constant bullying was encouraged by my father, who saw my complaints about it as weakness. In some ways, he was right. Elric drove me to get stronger and faster, and he helped me to grow a thicker skin.
We’d fought the night I left, and I’d almost killed him. From the eager look on his face, he’d waited all this time to have his revenge.
“Remove the prince’s weapons,” he drawled to Arnulf.
Arnulf shuffled uncomfortably, knowing it was against protocol to disarm a royal. I didn’t like the idea of going into the banquet unarmed when I didn’t know what Sigrid might do, but Elric was doing it to get a rise out of me, to undermine me in front of these men to whom I was an outsider now. Sigrid took it all in with her hawk eyes and a slight smirk, no doubt instantly attuned to the posturing undercurrent.
“It’s fine,” I said with an easy smile, removing my sword belt for Arnulf to follow his orders. “We’ll talk more in the sparring ring later.”
Arnulf took the weapons I handed him, then gave me a wink. “Don’t think we’ll go easy on you, my lord.”
I patted him on the shoulder. “You all heard the lad. When he’s on his arse, you’ll know he gave it his best.”
The guards within earshot chuckled, looking more relaxed. I made eye contact with each, remembering names and noting the faces of those I needed to meet. These soldiers deserved more from me.
Elric’s plan had backfired because I’d been calm and reasonable, and from the sneer on his face, he knew it.
I nodded to Sigrid that we should keep going, but as soon as we started to move, Elric barked, “Stop.” He moved to block our path. “We need to check the new princess for weapons.”
Searching a royal lady was unheard of, and it was disrespectful of him to suggest it. Not only was it considered a violation to touch another man’s wife, but he was publicly implying I couldn’t keep my wife in line.
I couldn’t, but that was another matter.
“I give you my word she has no weapons on her.” For all I knew, she did, but I could address that with her privately.
