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“Yes,” Nikandr said, blushing and looking down. “I don’t know why. I just…get off on him humiliating me like that. And when Jorgen and Hati both use me, and when they make Kliment watch and tell me he’s going to think I’m a whore.”
My mouth twitched into a smile. It reminded me of Jace and the way he called Peter and some of the other Sons whores.
“I play along,” Kliment admitted. “It’s really hot. I don’t actually think badly of Nikky for it, though.” He reached across the table and took Nikandr’s hand. “I love him.”
The two of them grinned at each other, obviously in love. They definitely reminded me of Magnus and Peter and Neil.
But thinking about Magnus reminded me that I had a lot of information still to wheedle out of Kliment and Nikandr.
“Why were you trying to explain yourself to someone from Yacovissi?” I asked, continuing to eat as if that was all that mattered. “Were you actually in the city?”
“Around midsummer,” Kliment said with a nod, still holding Nikandr’s hand as he finished eating his breakfast. “Although we weren’t actually in the city. We were doing what we’d been doing when we met you outside of Yakutsk,” he said, nodding to Avenel. “Jorgen was assessing the strengths and weaknesses of Yacovissi and Mayskova, trying to determine how tightly Good Port controls them.”
Avenel sent me a quick glance. It was no more than a flicker of his eyes, but I had the feeling he understood how important the things Kliment was saying were. We’d spent some time together the day before, not saying much but getting to know each other a little. I thought now that maybe he felt we were on the same side of the momentous things taking place on the frontier. How he felt about Kliment’s and Nikandr’s position in relation to that was still unclear.
“I suppose they’re interested in Yacovissi and Mayskova because Gerald and Avraam have decided to make their settlements part of the Wolf River Kingdom,” I said, reaching for another piece of toast.
“Exactly,” Nikandr said, completely unaware of the information he was giving me. “Jorgen is strong, and Duke Laasko in Inverhaus really does bow to him these days, but the north has always had a problem with supplies, especially food. It’s just not a hospitable climate.”
“I don’t know,” Kliment said with a smirk. “I’ve found the north to be very welcoming.”
The two all but giggled over some sort of inside joke. I actually thought it was sweet that the two of them were in love with each other as well as being happy with Jorgen and Hati. They really did remind me of Peter and Neil, though not as experienced or intelligent as either of them. Sometimes I took for granted how brilliant Peter was, and Neil too, because I’d been friends with them for so long. Kliment and Nikandr didn’t have the same sort of ambition that either Peter or Neil had. They truly were satisfied to be pups.
“Does Inverhaus still have any contact with the Old Realm?” I asked, still trying to keep my questions casual.
Avenel had flushed a little during the conversation, and now he stood to take some of the empty dishes to the counter, clearly trying to conceal that he knew why I was asking things.
“I think they did at first,” Kliment said with a thoughtful look, mopping up the last of his egg yolk with a piece of toast. “I was still in Seymchan at the time, but I’ve heard people talk about how the new king tried to keep Inverhaus loyal to the Old Realm by promising to send soldiers to help protect them from the wolves.”
“They shouldn’t have bothered,” Nikandr added. “The wolves have actually worked with Inverhaus for years now. Inverhaus hasn’t reviled them the way the other cities have. I think it’s because the people of Inverhaus are actually pretty rough themselves.”
Katrina was from Inverhaus, and she was one of the toughest people I knew. Yuri hadn’t thought much of Inverhaus and its people, though. He and Bela and Nikolai had made fun of them as often as not.
It dawned on me that Yuri’s single-minded obsession with finding me after Katrina had rescued me might actually have helped Jorgen and Hati to make friends with Inverhaus and to make whatever overtures the Old Realm made unnecessary. Without doing anything at all, I’d removed a major threat from the north so that the remaining entities there could work together.
“Gennadi? Are you okay?” Kliment asked, shaking me out of my thoughts.
I sat a little straighter and rubbed a hand over my face. “Yeah, I was just remembering something from…from the time I spent with Yuri. Bad memories.”
I hated to use my nightmare as a way to prevent questions I didn’t want to answer, but the sympathetic looks Kliment and Nikandr sent me made it pretty clear they weren’t going to press me for more.
“So the Old Realm tried to take over Inverhaus and failed because Jorgen and Hati had already made an alliance with Duke Laasko, and the terms were better than whatever the new king offered them,” I said, standing and helping Avenel clear the table. “And your northern kingdom is worried about survival, so Jorgen and Hati have been investigating the cities that might stand in the way of trade routes.”
Kliment and Nikandr stood as well, helping us clean up.
“I never really thought of it like that,” Nikandr said, exchanging a look with Kliment. “But it makes sense.”
“Jorgen really likes King Magnus, though,” Kliment said, as if he were trying to reassure me, as he joined me at the sink where I’d started to rinse dishes. “He’s always spoken highly of King Magnus, right from the beginning. He came close to joining the Wolf River Kingdom when he heard Magnus had been chosen to be king, but he’d already made his alliance with Inverhaus by then. But I think Jorgen and Hati have been friends with Magnus for ages. They respect him a lot.”
I could have laughed. Kliment had just given me all of the information I needed without me having to ask any further questions. Magnus would be able to forge whatever alliance with the north that he needed, no matter what sort of posturing Jorgen and Hati engaged in. Which meant, assuming Olympus could convince Good Port to become part of that alliance, the entire western half of the frontier, from the swamps south of Good Port to the frozen mountains north of Inverhaus, would be one united front. Sai would be an idiot if he didn’t join that alliance, even if he had to drag the backward-thinking city-dwellers into it kicking and screaming.
That just left the small packs and lone wolves of the eastern forest, and Boris and Yates and the cities they controlled, Tesladom and Neander, to contend with. And honestly, they might be just the buffer that our alliance needed against the Old Realm, if they decided to invade. Which I still wasn’t convinced they would do. As we’d talked about the night before, the Old Realm was hurting as much as the frontier. I wished I could speak to Conrad to find out exactly how much. I wished I could talk to Anton to find out what the mood in the eastern forests was.
We finished tidying the kitchen and moved to the main room. I’d forgotten to ask Jace whether everyone would be coming back to the cottage for lunch or if they wouldn’t be home until that evening, but either way, for the time being, the four of us didn’t need to do anything but get to know each other better.
“Gennadi, are you new to being Jace’s pup too, like Avenel is new with Sebald?” Kliment asked once we were all seated.
I made a face and tilted my head to the side. “I’ve actually been with Jace for a year. I only just decided to officially be his pup last night, though.”
