When she laughed harder, he smiled. Then she sobered. “Estrella has already given me her report. She said the weather mages were all dead, and that the attacking party was so large because they had been the focal point for the weather mages. The mages would split away from the main group to cast their spells and then meet up with them again afterward. That’s what I know. What else do you have?”
“Your priestesses did well. After comparing accounts from several different prisoners with our own head count, I’m pretty certain we either captured or killed everyone in their group, which was what I was hoping for.” After a brief pause, he added, “They’re Guerlan, of course.”
“Of course,” she muttered. She shoved her plate of food over to him, and he ate hungrily. Shredding a heel of bread with restless fingers, she said, “Anything more?”
There was no way to make the next part easier. “From what we can gather, word was sent to Varian as soon as the first weather mages fell. He’ll know soon enough that Calles was involved. They fought so hard to take your party before it got back to you because they didn’t want Calles to know it was them.”
“Everything he’s done, he’s tried to do in an underhanded way.” Her mouth tightened.
“Yes,” he said. “He’s tried to take gold that wasn’t his, and then he killed my brother in an attempt to cover it up. He’s spread rumors about me and my troops, and killed people and set fire to their homesteads to create terror and resistance in every land we’ve passed through. He’s poisoned my troops to slow us down and tried to assasinate me, and the weather mages were meant to either finish us off or drive us back to Braugne to wait out the winter.”
Brushing aside the shredded crumbs of bread, she murmured, “He’s working hard avoid meeting you on the battlefield.”
“That’s because he’ll lose,” he said flatly. There was not a shred of doubt in Wulf’s soul about that. “Varian’s living on borrowed time, and I think he knows it. Enough about him for now. I want to talk about you.”
The wary look came back into her eyes. She said, “All riiiiiigght. What do you want to talk about?”
“Winter solstice is only a few days away now.” Capturing one of her hands, he played with her fingers. “My men have marched across a continent. They’ve fought off magical attacks and poison, and they need a break, with something to look forward to. Does Calles celebrate the Masque?”
“We do,” she told him, smiling. “In fact, there would already be decorations out in the streets except everyone evacuated to the abbey. Why, would you like to celebrate the Masque with us?”
Let Varian stew for a few days over the disappearance of his mages and troops. In the meantime, Wulf wanted to conduct another campaign that was of the utmost importance.
He returned her smile. “Yes, I would.”
11
In many ways, it had been a grim day, but sparring with Wulf had made Lily feel a little bit better.
That evening, he escorted her back to the abbey despite her insistence that it was not necessary and that the half a dozen people who accompanied her were more than enough of an escort.
Halfway across the frozen strait, his gloved hand reached out and took hers. They walked the rest of the way hand in hand.
Once they arrived at the bottom of the stairs at the dock, he tugged her around to face him and kissed her. And kissed her.
And kissed her.
As he pulled her hood up around them, it gave them a sense of privacy that simply wasn’t real, but she did appreciate the gesture.
His lips were so warm, and she knew them so well. She had kissed them in a thousand dreams.
As he drew back, she whispered, “If this is another advance communique to disseminate a new policy to a populace, I might smack you.”
He gave her a shadowed grin. “No, love. This is me flirting again. Sleep well. I’ll see you soon.”
With reluctance obvious in his body language, he finally let her go and headed back across the strait. She watched his strong, solitary figure for a while, then peeked around the edge of her hood at the Defenders who guarded the open doors.
They stared straight ahead, expressions rigid. One particular Defender’s eyes bulged slightly, clearly from some kind of internalized pressure, while his psyche rolled around and laughed.
Facing Margot had been difficult enough. Deciding she didn’t have to emerge from the depths of her hood if she didn’t want to, Lily hid from curious gazes as she hurried up to her tower where she slept like the dead the entire night.
The next morning, before Lily’d had a chance to drink her first cup of tea, Gennita found her and said she and her husband had decided to stay. While the older woman was awkward, Lily could see that Gennita’s psyche had softened significantly, so she accepted the news gladly.
A few hours later, after interviewing Dulcinda and Evie, she appointed Dulcinda as her second secretary, dumped the budget into her hands, and said, “Please come back to me with this pared down to the bare essentials. We’re going to hold on to as much coin as we can in case we need to buy more food before the next harvest.”
“I’d be delighted to, your grace.”
After delegating the budget to someone else, Lily felt like such a renegade she scooped up the rest of the requests for priestesses and put those on Prem’s desk.
“I want your best recommendations for these,” she told Prem.
“Yes, your grace!” Beaming at her, Prem got to work.
Your grace. It made her feel so old. Just as she turned away, Estrella strode into the outer office. While the captain of the Defenders wore an entirely appropriate expression, her psyche was tinged red with anger as it glared at Lily.
“Good morning, your grace,” Estrella said. “Your invader is here.”
“My… invader.” With an effort, Lily forced herself to stop staring at the area over Estrella’s head.
“Yes, your grace. You know, the one who killed his brother and burned farms and murdered families, then marched his army unasked onto our land and started kissing you. That one.”
Breathing deeply, Lily rubbed her face. Calm, be calm.
She told Estrella, “He didn’t kill his brother. The king of Guerlan did. He didn’t do any of the other things either. Well, he did march his army unasked onto our land, and… he did start kissing me. But the rest of it isn’t true.”
Some of the anger in Estrella’s psyche faded. Frowning, she asked, “Are you sure?”
“You know how good my truthsense is. Yes, I am.” She looked over her fingers at the captain. “What does he want?”
“He has requested an audience with you. After yesterday, none of the Defenders are entirely sure how we’re supposed to respond to his presence. He walked across from the mainland by himself, so he doesn’t pose an immediate threat—”
“Captain, he’s not a threat to us, not unless we do something stupid like endanger him or any of his men, and we’re not going to do that.” She drummed her fingers. “I have invited him to stay through winter solstice. The Braugnes are to be treated with courtesy and welcomed to our Masque. Please tell the townsfolk they are still welcome to stay at the abbey, but those who wish to return home may do so with my blessing.”