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As if it were some kind of omen, the entire boat lurched. I was so done in from our flight from Seymchan that, as I’d worried I might, I toppled over. It felt so good to sprawl on the deck that I closed my eyes, and for a moment I thought about not opening them again. Ever.
“Anton,” Magnus spoke my name softly, hauling me up to sit against him. It wasn’t even close to a lover’s embrace, but the way he propped me up with his body was kind and tender. “We need more information, and you need food and water, then you can sleep.”
I nodded, or at least I thought I nodded, then asked, “Is Ludvig going to live?” Before anyone could answer, I blabbered on with, “I don’t love him, I tried, but I just don’t, but that doesn’t mean I want him to die. I like him. I like him so much. He’s like an uncle to me, a…a father, and if he dies because of my foolishness, because he had to protect me, I don’t know what I’d do.”
The words gushed out of me, like blood had spilled from Ludvig after he’d been stabbed. I couldn’t stop them, and it wasn’t until I started to sob wordlessly that I fully recognized how crazy I felt.
“There, there,” Magnus said, holding me against his chest and turning my head to rest on his shoulder.
Peter and Neil would be furious. That was the only thing I could think as Magnus held me like a child. Magnus was theirs, but here he was, holding me like he cared about me. Peter and Neil wouldn’t like it.
But sometime later—it could have been a few seconds or a few minutes, for all I was aware, I heard Neil’s voice above me say, “Peter is asking for you, Magnus. He came out of the seizure well enough, but he’s terrified of having Dmitri onboard.”
“Dmitri is the one who should be terrified,” Magnus said in a dark voice that was in complete contrast to the way his body felt as he held me. “I’ll come to Peter as soon as I am assured Ludvig will recover, but you can tell Peter now that Dmitri will be dealt with swiftly and justly.”
I forced my head up and looked at Magnus. “You can’t kill him. I made a deal. To save Ludvig. He…he says he knows things. Things Ludvig and I couldn’t find out. He said he’ll take those things to the grave if I go back on my deal. We need that information. And I said I would do everything I could to stop you from killing him.”
“And as I said,” Magnus muttered, “whether Dmitri lives or dies is not a promise you had the authority to make.”
“But he knows things, Magnus,” I insisted with as much energy as I could muster. “He really does. He’s been living in the eastern forest for over a year, through the Dying Winter and everything. The wild wolves respect him, and King Julius’s soldiers are afraid of him.”
I could tell that bit of information surprised Magnus and intrigued him. I hope it intrigued him enough to save Dmitri’s life. Or, at least, to save it for as long as it took for Dmitri to feel like I’d fulfilled my promise and for him to spill everything he knew.
I would worry about agreeing to be his pup and how I would have to live up to that promise if he survived later.
Before either Magnus or I could say anything else, I noticed two things. First, the riverbank was moving. Or rather, the boat had pushed away from its mooring at the dock in Hedeon and was now well on its way downstream at a surprisingly fast pace. Second, the healer had cut Ludvig’s shirt and the bandage off entirely, someone had brought him water and a healer’s kit, and he was carefully cleaning Ludvig’s sword wound.
“How bad is it?” Magnus asked.
I tried to wriggle away from him, but he held me firmly. I wasn’t sure if it was for comfort or because he didn’t trust someone who insisted Dmitri be left alive.
“The young man was right,” the healer said. “Whatever blow wounded this man, it failed to slice through his stomach or intestines. The blade either wasn’t that long, or the stab wasn’t particularly deep.”
“Ludvig dodged a lot while he and the soldier were fighting,” I said.
“Soldier?” Neil asked. I was too bleary to have realized he was still there and that he hadn’t gone back to Peter. “A soldier from the Old Realm?”
I nodded weakly. “They’re all over the eastern forest. Their headquarters are in Tesladom. Boris and Igor are in charge there, and Yates Rivers has taken over Neander, but all three of them take orders from General Rufus, and it is rumored that General Rufus takes orders from King Julius directly.”
“I suspected as much, after the bits and pieces of information we’ve been hearing for the past few weeks,” Magnus said.
My eyes went wide in spite of my exhaustion. “So you know about the invasion of the frontier and how Boris, Igor, and Yates helped General Rufus’s army get over the mountains?”
It was Magnus and the others’ turn to look surprised.
“So it’s a full invasion, then?” Lefric asked, stepping forward from where he and his friend had been watching from the side. “Has the Old Realm actually declared war on us?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know about that. I just know that there are soldiers everywhere, Boris, Igor, and Yates are helping them, and General Rufus somehow gets orders directly from King Julius.”
“That book you showed me,” Lefric’s friend said. “The one with the names of all the spies. Several were listed for Tesladom and Neander. Some were listed as located in the eastern forest as well.”
“Spies?” I asked, confused. It felt as though a lot had happened since Ludvig and I had left Meadowbrook two months ago. I needed to catch up to everything that was going on. Starting with Lefric’s friend. “Who are you?” I asked.
“This is Olympus Hakobyan,” Lefric introduced the man with a wide smile that felt out of place, considering everything going on around us. “We’re together,” he said, which explained his smile.
“What about Radulph?” I asked.
“Olympus bought me from Radulph,” Lefric said. “But then he set me free. Magnus sent us on a diplomatic mission to Good Port, but Radulph was rubbish at diplomacy. He was forced to sell me to Olympus, but I don’t mind at all.”
