It was like the words weren’t real, like this moment didn’t exist. Like Ella was, for an instant, in another room, another mountain, another life.
“How long?” she asked, her voice sounding flimsy, far away. “Have you known this?”
She was leaning toward Jule, almost as if begging her to say, I only learned it just today, perhaps an hour past — but Jule grimaced again, and gave a slow shake of her head. “Yesterday morning,” she said. “Alfred’s men caught up with him the night before that, and he sent out the call for the war council at once, and turned around within the hour. He should be here by sunrise.”
Dear gods in heaven. They’d known Alfred was coming,yesterday, and he would be heretomorrow, this had to be a dream, it had to be…
“And Alfred’s — his men?” Ella heard herself ask. “They’re still here?”
Jule grimaced, and nodded. “Two of them are still camped in the forest, two of them are riding back with him, and the other one’s gone north to Khandor, where Alfred’s called for his war-council to meet — in my cousin Otto’s jurisdiction. It even sounds like Otto’s planning to attend, the slimy bastard. Playing both sides at once, as usual.”
Genuine anger was flashing in her eyes, and Ella’s stilted brain fought to follow, to pull that together. If Alfred and his father had new allies in Preia and Dunburg, and then gained Otto back to their side, with all Otto’s forces in Sakkin and Salven and Yarwood — that was nearly half the realm’s provinces. Ready to wage a newwaragainst the orcs.
“And what will youdo?” Ella’s wavering voice asked. “What happens next?”
Jule made a face, and frowned down at the table. “That’s the question, isn’t it?” she said. “But we know Tlaxca’s very short on funds right now — and already deeply in debt to Preia — so Alfred needs to get either Otto or a few of the realm’s northern provinces on side before he can actually afford to start fighting again. And believe me, Grimarr’s doing everything he can to prevent that — and Grimarr almostalwaysgets what he wants.”
She flashed Ella a wry smile that was probably meant to be comforting, but it abjectly failed, and Ella gripped her sweaty hands tight together. Alfred would be heretomorrow. And had Natt known that, hecouldn’thave…
“And you’re saying Nattknewabout all this?” Ella heard herself ask, her voice even fainter than before. “Because there must be some mistake. He would” — she gulped for air — “he would havetoldme. I spoke truth to him, just last night, he’d have spoken it to me. Hebelievesin truth.”
But it wasn’t working, the room was still here, still wrong. Still with Jule looking at Ella like this, with unease and perhaps even sympathy rising in her eyes — and across the table there was a distinctive sound from Kesst, rather like a snort.
“Oh, Nattfarr believes in truth, all right,” he said dryly. “And the more convenient it is to his cause, the better. A good match for Grim, really, Jules.”
Jule gave Kesst an unmistakable kick under the table, and then lurched to her feet, reaching to grasp for her lamp. “You’re probably right, and there’s just some mistake,” she said firmly. “Come on, Ella. Let’s go find Nattfarr, and he can straighten this out with you himself.”
Ella numbly went, casting an uneasy look behind her, toward John and Kesst still sitting at the table. John with a considering expression, and Kesst with something that might have been pity.
Ella’s heart was beating erratically, and she could scarcely seem to walk, suddenly, tripping over even the slightest indentations in the smooth stone below her feet. Yes, she’d known Alfred might be returning, but nottomorrow, not already calling forwar. If that were true, Natt would have told her.SurelyNatt would have told her. They’d been together all this time, they’d taken that impossible pleasure together. They’d spoken truth.
But the whispering nagging misery only grew deeper, stronger, as Jule led Ella up and up, back into the Ash-Kai wing. Where they found Grimarr and Baldr and Drafli huddled together, conferring in black-tongue, with no one else to be seen.
“Looking for Nattfarr?” Baldr asked, raising his head, and giving a careful sniff. “He’s gone to the Grisk training-room, I believe.”
Ella’s scattered thoughts could barely skirt at the impressiveness of that as Jule said a sincere thank-you, and then drew her away again. Taking her toward the Grisk wing, and then into the training-room — where, indeed, the light of Jule’s lamp revealed the sudden, oddly painful sight of Natt’s familiar muscled body, grappling with another orc on the floor. WithDammarr.
Natt and Dammarr were growling and grabbing and swinging at each other, while Thrak and Thrain circled around above them, casually pointing out when various hits were made, and kicking at an arm or leg that had perhaps gone awry. It was clearly only practice of some kind, but Ella’s heart was still clanging in her chest — and then plunging at the sight of Natt pinning Dammarr’s muscled body to the floor, their hips thrust tightly together. While Dammarr purposely glanced sideways at Ella, his black eyes narrowing — and then he deliberately bucked his hips up under Natt, and gave a slow, provocative lick of his lips with his long black tongue.
“Un-necessary,” Jule hissed beside Ella, but thank the gods Natt had already leapt up and away, snapping a harsh word toward Dammarr before whirling around to face them. And something in Ella’s chest was clamping too tight, so tight it was difficult to breathe, while the compulsion to move, to leave, kept rising and shouting in her thoughts. She should go, run, run —
But Jule’s hand was gripped firmly to hers, and Natt was still standing there looking at them, and he was — Ella took an unconscious step backwards —wrong. His jaw tight, his eyes dark and narrow, his lip curling as he again snapped something at Dammarr, and then stalked toward her.
The urge to run was shouting again, loud enough that Ella yanked away from Jule, and backed into the hallway — but Natt was here, suddenly, striding straight into her, dragging her close into his scent and his warmth. And then — despite everything, Ella’s eyes had closed, her breath heaving out her chest — he ducked his face into her neck, andsmelledher.
His deep, dragging inhale was its own kind of truth, a solid strength in the madness, and Ella clung to it, to him. Even as he finally raised his head, and those eyes — wrong,wrong— fixed on Jule beside them. And then on Grimarr, who’d somehow appeared out of nowhere to stand behind Jule, his huge clawed hand spreading wide against her swollen belly.
“I leave my lass forone morning,” Natt hissed, his voice low, dangerous, “with the Ash-Kai, and” — he ducked his head, inhaled again — “the Ka-esh, who both claim to be Grisk’sallies— and you bring her back to mereekingof such fear and despair? What have you done to her?!”
He looked surprisingly furious, his claws out, his eyes flashing with rage — but Jule crossed her arms over her chest, and glared back at Natt with deep disapproval. “If you don’t want your m — yourfriendto be upset,” she snapped, “perhaps you could begin by not allowing yourbrotherto taunt her like that. And, perhaps you could also tell her crucial information that directly affects her, before she hears it elsewhere!”
Natt’s replying growl sounded almost feral, his teeth bared, his clawed hands thrusting Ella behind him. “You have told her this?!” he nearly shouted. “You said you should not speak to her of this, until I had done so!”
He was glaring at Grimarr, Ella realized, rather than at Jule, and even though Grimarr’s claws were out too, his body behind Jule’s was very still, his black eyes steady on Natt’s face. “Ach, and I did not,” he said, his deep voice even. “But I cannot speak for my mate. She speaks for herself.”
Natt’s growl turned toward Jule, rising and rising, while she took an uneasy step closer toward Grimarr behind her. And without thinking, Ella darted around, thrusting herself between Natt and Jule, and glaring up at Natt’s wrong, wrong eyes.
“Jule didn’t do anything,” she said firmly. “She was only looking out for me. And surely, Natt, if you truly have known about this fordays, you could have found a moment to tell me before now?!”
