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Kliment and Nikandr immediately moved to kneel on the flagstones beside Jorgen’s and Hati’s chairs, Kliment by Jorgen and Nikandr by Hati. The two men stroked a hand over their pups’ heads in a way that made me think it was an automatic gesture.
“We have several extraordinarily talented carpenters in the Wolf River Kingdom,” Magnus carried on the conversation without batting an eyelash at the interaction of pups and masters, even though Peter was as stiff as a nail as he sat in the chair to Magnus’s right, Neil sitting on his left. “All of them were trained in the cities, naturally, but as we’ve been engaged in so many construction projects, I’ve encouraged them all to take apprentices.”
Jace glanced to me with a grin that was clearly part dare, then crossed the patio to take a seat between Olympus and Katrina. I followed him and accepted the dare, sinking gracefully to kneel beside his chair the way Kliment and Nikandr were kneeling.
Peter’s jaw hardened to the point where I thought it was going to snap, but he didn’t look directly at me.
Magnus didn’t look directly at me either, or at Peter, but he rested a hand on Peter’s knee.
“I haven’t been anywhere near the Wolf River in years,” Jorgen said with a greater degree of seriousness. “What does your infrastructure look like these days?”
My insides jumped a bit. They were back to having a real meeting.
“We’ve done a lot of work since your last visit,” Magnus said, speaking as if he knew the last time Jorgen had been in our part of the forest. “Gravlock has expanded on the south side of the river to five times the size it was last time you were there. Our farms and orchards are extensive on that side of the river as well. Meadowbrook and Aromel have doubled in size, and every other settlement has grown at least a bit. And we’ve begun construction on a new king’s city, where the seat of our government will be located.”
He was clearly telling Jorgen and Hati—and Olympus too—what the production capabilities of the Wolf River Kingdom were.
“Not in Gravlock?” Hati asked, seeming genuinely surprised.
Magnus smiled. “It wouldn’t be fitting, seeing as I only agreed to become King of the Wolf River Kingdom for a year.”
Now he was revealing our kingdom’s new form of government. Magnus was a diplomatic genius.
“You know you’re not going to step down after a year, Magnus,” Jace said. I couldn’t quite tell if he was teasing or if he wanted to be the one to share that information with Jorgen and Hati, thus making himself not only seem important, but also like he could be a future king.
“I will step down eventually,” Magnus said, eyes slightly narrowed. He glanced to Jorgen and Hati and said, “I agreed to one year. For practical reasons, it will likely be two or three. But it is my hope that the kingship of the Wolf River Kingdom will alternate between the leaders of the various settlements so that no one man becomes a tyrant.”
“So not a true monarchy, then,” Jorgen said, scratching his chin and leaning back in his chair. I was surprised that he didn’t mock or question what could be seen as a lack of ambition on Magnus’s part, though if he thought Magnus lacked ambition, he was very wrong. “How do you expect to maintain continuity and command with that sort of rotating kingship? How will you prevent your kingdom from falling apart?”
Magnus shrugged. “My intention is for the kingdom to be stronger this way because every settlement will see themselves as the potential provider of the next king. If any man could be elected to the position, then all men will be motivated to take part in building the kingdom up as a whole.”
Jorgen and Hati exchanged looks and nodded. I was impressed too. I hadn’t heard Magnus state his reasonings quite like that before, but it made perfect sense. Every citizen of the Wolf River Kingdom would be invested in the success of the whole kingdom.
“Our territory isn’t as diverse or as spread out as yours,” Jorgen said. “One king will be sufficient for now. Inverhaus is wary of allowing themselves to be ruled by a wolf, but Duke Laasko and I have come to an understanding.”
Now Jorgen was playing the same information game as Magnus. He looked like he wanted to say more, and honestly, I wanted to hear more, but Lefric came out of Sebald’s house a moment later, Sebald right behind him, Avenel and a woman with a baby following them. I didn’t need to see the look of intrigue on Lefric’s face as he glanced to Olympus to know there was a story behind the woman and the baby.
Magnus immediately stood to greet the woman, and when he did, the rest of us did as well. Even Jorgen and Hati, which surprised me a little.
“Ah, Sebald. Who is your lovely friend?” Magnus asked. Everything about his manner and tone was soft and cordial, but I sensed the hint of reservation about bringing someone new into our group within him all the same. We knew there were spies in Hedeon, and Magnus must have felt like a woman with a baby was potentially a spy as well.
Sebald smiled, as he gestured for the woman to come forward, but he looked utterly exhausted and a little haunted.
“May I introduce you to an old friend of mine from Yakutsk,” he said, gesturing for the woman to step forward. He rested a hand on the small of her back and said, “This is Premila. She…well, we were betrothed before I was sold into the forest.” He hesitated, glanced to the woman, and when she nodded, he sighed and went on with, “Premila ended up marrying my friend Barthold instead. This is their son, Yasha.” He hesitated again, then said, “There has been some trouble, and…and I’m responsible for Premila now.”
I started to see things I hadn’t noticed at first. The woman, Premila, had bruises around her wrists where they stuck out from her sleeves, and her face was a little too red on one side. I recognized signs of abuse when I saw them, because I’d worn those signs before myself. The baby was restless and fussy, and when she shuffled him in her arms, I saw that half his face was covered with a bandage. They’d both been hurt, which infuriated me.
It seemed to infuriate everyone else too.
“Come over here and sit with us,” Ox said, alarm making her eyes wide and her cheeks very pink.
Instead of moving, Premila hugged her baby closer and glanced up at Sebald. I could see now that the poor woman was so terrified she was shaking. I wondered why Sebald had dragged her into a large group of strangers.
“You can go with Ox,” Sebald told Premila, smiling gently. “She and Katrina will look out for you.”
Maybe that was why. He wanted his friend to know she had other women to protect her, if she wanted. He walked her through all of us to Ox and Katrina.
“We certainly will,” Katrina said, a growl in her voice. “And if you need us to, we’ll throttle whoever did this to you.”
