Page 9 of Anton

“I’m still convinced,” Ludvig said in a faint, panting voice.

I hadn’t realized Ludvig was still awake or cogent enough to take part in the conversation. He had drifted off to sleep again as everyone had repositioned on the deck and after Constantine had stripped him out of his clothes. He looked almost peaceful now as he lay with several pillows that had been brought up from the cabins under his head.

“Ludvig, you shouldn’t strain yourself,” I said, handing my water off to Lefric and scrambling across the deck to sit by his side. “You need to rest and heal.”

“Something tells me I’ll have plenty of time for that in the next few days,” Ludvig said, patting my hand when I rested it on his bandaged side. He glanced to Magnus and said, “There are more wild wolves in the eastern forest than we thought, but they are all in disarray. Many of the groups we spoke to were cautious but willing to consider moving within our boundaries. Mostly so they could be guaranteed a source of food this winter. Anton was right when he said it’s feast or famine in the forest.”

He winced as a wave of pain struck him.

“Don’t try to talk, Ludvig,” I urged him. “You need to rest.”

Ludvig nodded and relaxed against his pillows, possibly swooning.

“But the disarray of the wild wolves could work to our advantage, couldn’t it?” Jace asked. “Those wolves might think themselves tough, but they wouldn’t stand a chance against an organized army.”

“True,” Magnus nodded slowly. “But organizing an army is the very last thing I wish to do right now, in spite of everything Jorgen and I agreed to in the last few days.”

“So Jorgen Iceblade really was at this meeting of yours?” I asked, amazed that the rumors I’d heard after escaping Seymchan were true.

Magnus nodded. “Sebald arranged it,” he said, grinning at Sebald.

For some reason, Sebald looked embarrassed by the acknowledgement. “It was an accident,” he said.

“But a happy one,” Magnus told him. “One that has borne fruit.”

“You’ll have to tell me all about it,” I said.

“After you finish your tale,” Magnus said with a kind smile for me.

All eyes turned to me, but I didn’t know what to say. So many of the wild wolves we’d come across blended together in my mind. Those men were getting by, but they didn’t have the sort of lives we had in the Wolf River Kingdom. I couldn’t imagine living as they’d been living for as long as they’d been doing it. Not without falling ill or dying of starvation. Or being killed in a skirmish with other wolves or General Rufus’s soldiers.

“How did you run into Dmitri?” Jace asked in a cold voice as I floundered for how to continue the story.

I glanced to Ludvig with a weary look, but he’d closed his eyes again and didn’t see my gentle plea for help. Which felt about right, as far as the last few months went. Once again, I had to get myself out of my own mess.

“Like I said, he was at the settlement right up against the base of the mountains that Ludvig and I visited about three weeks after we set out. He was with a crew of men who had just returned from constructing the new mountain pass. That’s how I know he’s not lying about knowing the location of the pass. There were men with him who Ludvig knows and says he trusts.”

“Leo is with them now,” Ludvig said, his eyes still shut. “And Ferris Red Beard.”

Magnus hummed as if he knew who Ludvig was talking about and considered them reliable men. He scowled as I went on to talk about Dmitri, though.

“I didn’t realize who Dmitri was at first,” I said. “I thought it was Mikal, that somehow he’d made it all the way to the mountains. Then I remembered that Mikal lost a hand in the Battle of the Coronation. I knew who Dmitri was then. I would have walked away and left him to himself then and there, at the stall selling roasted meat. I’d already spoken to him though and called him Mikal, so he knew that I at least knew of his brother.

“I tried to walk away, but it was a crowded market day, or what passes for a market day in that part of the forest. I couldn’t dodge around the various carts fast enough, and Ludvig had spotted those other friends and was talking to them. Dmitri caught my arm before I could blend into the crowd. He demanded to know who I was and how I knew Mikal.”

I paused, feeling guilty for what happened next. More than guilty, I wished I hadn’t said anything. If I could have gone back and just run away from Dmitri, I would have.

“I gave him my name and Ludvig’s, and I told him how I knew Mikal,” I went on. “I didn’t realize that Dmitri has been keeping track of not only Mikal, but Peter too.”

Magnus tensed at that, his scowl deepening. “He will not go anywhere near my Peter. I do not care what information he believes he has, if he so much as looks at Peter in a way that displeases me, I will kill him myself.”

I remembered the story of how he had killed Bela. Magnus wasn’t exaggerating his threat.

“As soon as Dmitri learned I was Peter’s friend, he wouldn’t leave me and Ludvig alone,” I said.

“It isn’t Anton’s fault,” Ludvig defended me quietly, his eyes still closed. “Dmitri is a snake. A clever one, but a snake all the same. He has it in his head that he can gain Peter’s forgiveness, or at least that he can wring some sort of admission out of him that he wasn’t at fault for…what happened.”

“That will never happen,” Magnus said, as cold as ice. He left the topic there, though, and asked, “Does he know anything else or is his chief bargaining chip the location of the new passage through the mountains?”

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