Page 157 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

“Why did I see it in Ulv Islet a few weeks ago?”

He shortly glanced at me and then our surroundings. “The Highwall Canes,” he explained. “Till the witch worked her way around them some time ago. The veil over the prison disguised the beast’s scent.”

Of course.

“Snowlin,” Demir called, jogging to me. “There you are.”

Damn it.

I shot Renick a look and he greeted Demir before backing away into the courts.

The odd general gave me a curious look. “Are you and Renick close?”

Pointing my chin at the training courts I said, “He used to make me bleed all over those floors.”

He cringed. “A grudge then?”

“I don’t worry myself with grudges, Demir.” Were they even grudges if I’d made him weep and bleed and sworn off his life to me?

He waved a hand for me to follow him. “Come meet the team.”

A pack of buff men stood in a separate hall, laughing and joking with one another. There was a strangeness to them, and I didn’t know how to explain it. Their heartbeats were too quiet for that of a human.

They all turned in unison when Demir and I approached, their noses wrinkling and expressions souring. Was this Melanthe’s experimental batch? Had they all fed in the beast’s blood?

The closer I got the more my senses roused. My skin prickled at the whiff of their magic staining the cold air with a smell of a rotten corpse. It was enough to confirm my every doubt.

“Snowlin was Captain before, she will join and maintain her title as such in our team.” He clasped my shoulder, his thumbs drawing circles. “I finally get to work with you, Princess.”

Chapter twenty-three

Galanthus

Snowlin

Demir was an exhausting man. For three days straight he had dragged me all along Tenebrose without the attempt to even step near the gates let alone leave its walls. I knew that was not his normal route because half of the time he had no idea where in Tenebrose we were and even got lost several times during our city guard duties which a captain and no less a general normally ever had.

Father was doing it to test me, so I obliged to every rotten demand Demir gave me. Get a cat down from a tree, which I did. Separate a bunch of wailing children who poked their eyes playing snowballs, which I again did, but with deep reluctance because tearful screaming children amused me. How their faces twisted and how loud they wailed from the light prickle of pain, it was entertaining. But Demir didn’t think so.

Today was the first day he had called a meeting with his captains, and I allowed myself to get half excited. The meeting chamber was filled with dozens of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Captains, Renick, the northern lords and a particularly unfamiliar one I’d never seen but heard of before, were in attendance.

The woman wore the three circlets on her breast pocket, her emerald attention stone cold on a document she was reading. There was a deep, old rosy scar that started from the middle of her shaved head and down to her forehead—a scar I’d seen before. Ulv Islet. Father’s little loyal toy was from his personal dungeons. The person single handedly dealing with all matters of the sceptre was a criminal who my father had tortured before?

As if noticing my attention on her, she cocked her head to the side and gave me a leary look before bowing her head in greeting.

Moregan. Ulv Islet. The war camps. The beast. This was starting to feel too easy. Morgan was the beast? Well, there was a way to find out. Ask her. And where better to do so than surrounded by my father’s court.

I leaned in on the table and batted my lashes innocently. “Have we met before?”

The odd general glanced at the room, aware of the attention before meeting my gaze again. “No, I would not think so, Your Highness.” Her voice was gravel and ice. Probably from all the screaming time I remember she did back on Ulv Islet.

Narrowing my eyes, I said, “You look oddly familiar.”

Her brow quirked up a little. “I am very recognisable, Princess, someone must have described me in passing.”

“No, I’m sure I’ve seen you before. Somewhere resembling a very dingy, dark dungeon far at sea.”

Her breathing picked up a little, signalling me that she was uncomfortable with any of the information coming out in front of those in attendance.