NICHOLAS
Sitting at my desk in my study, I swirled a glass of wine. Thinking of Ornella made my mind race with excitement. I hated
leaving her this morning, but duty called just before dawn. Percy continued to pace the room back and forth as he mumbled
to himself, words of anger it would seem. I still hadn’t asked him what he was going on about. I wanted to let him stew
more.
Lady Nora stood with her arms crossed, leaning against one of the wooden support beams, with her sword strapped tightly
to her waist. A fresh cut ran down her cheek since last we spoke. She could put fear into my own heart by the way her brown
eyes appeared almost black. Her short black hair covered with a bandana made her face appear sharper and told more than
what her words were saying.
“Well, out with it then. What has happened?” I finally spoke, putting my glass down and leaning back into my chair, resting
my legs up onto my desk.
Percy stopped in his tracks. Sweat beaded on his forehead as his hands rubbed together, something he did when he had a lot
on his mind. Nora didn’t seem at all bothered by his nerves which made me relax. Perhaps it wasn’t as big as Percy was
making out whatever it was to be.
“Nora?” I addressed her and her eyes returned to their shades of brown oak trees.
Standing up tall, she walked to the desk and pulled something from her back pocket and threw it at me to catch. It was a
piece of blood-stained fabric and on it was Ornella’s family crest. A bright sun with swallows in flight around it.
“I cut that from a man who managed to do this to me,” she pointed at the slash down her cheek.
“When?”
“Last night.”
“Where?”
I’d now moved from my relaxed position to sitting upright and looked at the fabric. Knowing Nora, she would have killed
every witness so no one could tell the tale. But worry lurked in the back of my mind, how close were they.
“A tavern in the dock district. I killed everyone who saw what happened.” She picked at the dirt under her fingernails as
Percy stood next to her wiping sweat with a handkerchief.
“How long do we have?”
“A month at best, sire. Maybe sooner. I have sent a party to the border to see just how vast their army is. We have the
element of surprise as they don’t know we will be prepared for their arrival.”
Nodding at her words, I felt confident. Nora never led my father astray and I knew she wouldn’t do that with me either. She
came to my family as a nobody, a lost Fae with great skills, and offered herself in oath to my family. I owed her my life many
