7.
Two days after the attack, Raff had rallied more than Thalia would’ve thought possible.
She’d seen some of that Animari resilience in the aftermath of the attack on Ash Valley, but it was still a relief. For the last forty-eight hours, she had coordinated the war effort from his bedside. Now that he was ambulatory, she could relax a bit.
“Message for you, Your Highness.” A young page cut into her reverie, offering a handheld with a deep bow.
The communication was already queued up, so she plugged in her headset and hit play. Ruark Gilbraith’s pale, narrow face appeared on screen. Thalia had never liked or trusted him; he tended to take credit for things he hadn’t achieved and eliminate rivals who might dispute those claims. Not quite a Tycho Vega, but the seeds were there, along with excess arrogance and avarice.
“Good day, Lady Talfayen.” That was a slight straightaway, tacit refusal to acknowledge her royal claim. “It has reached my ears that you are experiencing some difficulty uniting the other houses. By now, House Manwaring will have declared against you. I will give you one opportunity to make good the promise your father made to mine.”
She set her jaw, glaring at the message unit. I’ll marry you when all the seas freeze, and I can walk across them.
“If you choose to break our old bonds of allyship, I will take it…poorly. Manwaring will come to me, and I’ve already sent enticements to House Vesavis. I doubt your little resistance can stand against the collective might of all three houses. I will give you one day to decide, so choose wisely, lest you drive your own people to extinction through delusions of grandeur. You are no queen, but you could be my consort. Think well.”
A cold shudder crawled down her spine, and she controlled the urge to fling the comm pad against the far wall. For long moments, she controlled her breathing along with the fury racing like wildfire in her veins. Sometimes she wanted to scream until her throat ached, until she couldn’t breathe for the uncontained fervor.
“Bad news?” Raff asked quietly.
She hadn’t realized he was awake. This morning, he looked much better, good color in his cheeks, eyes bright as chips of golden agate framed by truly disarming dark lashes. His skin was burnished brown against the pale gauze wrapping his shoulder. His restless hands tapped endlessly against the white sheets, as if he were searching for something. With a whimsy quite unlike her, Thalia wondered what that might be.
“More of a nuisance.” She hesitated. Ordinarily, she would delete the message and share the worry with no one, but for the duration of their marital contract, her enemies would become his, so he should be fully informed. “See for yourself.”
At the end of the playback, Raff tossed the unit onto the foot of his bed. “What an ass. Should I kill him?”
That casual tone almost made her laugh, but the wolf lord’s expression suggested that he might not be joking. “Are you serious?”
“He’s threatening you. I have a zero-tolerance policy for aggression against my own.”
“Am I, though?”
“What?”
“Your own.”
“We’ve come to terms. Unless you change your mind, yes. That means if you say the word, he’s done.”
Thalia tried not to show the ripple of pleasure she felt at that simple statement. “You make yourself sound like a sword in my hand. I aim, you strike.”
“That’s not a bad description, Lady Silver. Your grasp of the big picture is likely better than mine. My old man called me a hotheaded fool more than once, and…” Here, his words trailed off, his eyes going distant.
“And?” she prompted, curious what might make him look so.
“I only lead Pine Ridge because my older brother died young.”
“I thought rulership wasn’t dynastic among your people.”
Raff shrugged. “We say it’s not, but it takes some damn serious incompetence to get passed over, once a family takes power.”
“We always strive to keep what we hold. This is true among my people, too.”
“Then maybe you know how much it sucks having a legacy to live up to.”
Thalia considered. “Not as such. I’d already destroyed all my father’s hopes for me, long before he turned traitor.”
“Can’t have been easy.” Such a gentle tone, as if he cared.
She couldn’t let herself get pulled into his charm. From what she’d seen at Ash Valley, Raff offered that same warmth indiscriminately. To him, women were like a field of wildflowers waiting for the sun. It would be a severe tactical error to mistake his charisma for personal interest.
Time to change the subject.
“While you were sleeping, the clerk brought the transcription of our conditions. Would you like to look them over?”
“I trust you,” he said at once.
That…was odd. He didn’t even want to glance at the documents? Mentally, Thalia shrugged.
“Then we just need to sign and get ready for the ceremony. Under the circumstances, it seems best to hold a simple wedding and then get down to business.”
Raff smiled. “The business of crushing your enemies?”
“I wouldn’t have put it quite that way, but…yes.” Even to her own ears, she sounded prim. “If the doctor allows it, I think you can leave the infirmary this afternoon. You must have preparations to make.”
“I do feel like I’m growing moss,” he admitted with a roguish grin. “But…not sure what you mean by preparations?”
“There’s no one you want to invite from Pine Ridge?”
“I wish Korin could be here, but she shouldn’t leave the hold while I’m away, unless it’s an absolute emergency.”
“Korin is your second. Is she…special to you?” Thalia couldn’t believe she’d asked the question. It just sort of popped out.
How humiliating.
Raff cocked his head, all wolfish curiosity. “What does that mean?”
“Never mind.”
“Korin’s my second. I’m not sure how else to explain who she is to me, so I’ll say this. When I was a pup, my father dragged her in and said, ‘this girl will save your ass someday, boy. She’s as clever as you are stupid, so keep her close.’”
That information was both blunt and startling. She hadn’t much liked her own father, but even so, he had never denigrated her. Well. Not until she stood against him. After that, they stopped talking entirely and he had her confined to Riverwind under heavy guard ‘until she saw reason’. She had heard of the things he said about her, however.
“You’re not stupid,” she said.
“That’s sweet, Lady Silver, but you don’t know me. In time, you’ll wish you could eat those words.”
She narrowed her eyes, controlling the impulse to smack him, and wrapped herself in poise as if it was a cloak. “I find that statement offensive. My acumen is excellent. My father told others that I was a worthless, brainless brat, more than once. Does that make it true?” Outrage swelled in her head, so much that her skull almost couldn’t hold it.
“Easy. I won’t insult your judgment again. If you’ve agreed to take me, I must be top drawer, right?”
A week ago, she might’ve said that their alliance was pure expedience, but that was before they fought together, and she witnessed firsthand his extraordinary valor. Maybe the elder Pineda had wanted a tactician for a son, one who studied old tomes and memorized battle tactics. Instead, he’d gotten a bit of a clown with a smile warm enough to melt the heart of winter.
“Precisely.”
Briskly, she rose to find Dr. Wyeth, who pronounced the patient well enough to go about his business. The medical procedures eased the strange atmosphere, so things felt normal by the time Raff got dressed. She walked with him back to his quarters.
“Is tomorrow too soon to hold the wedding?” she asked.
“I’m up to it. Seems like you should ask your people, though, not me. They’re the ones who will have to scramble all night to get it done.”
“The service and decorations will be simple. Don’t expect too much.” On some level, that bothered her. This shouldn’t be rushed, promises made haphazardly, under duress.
“I never do,” he said softly.
For some reason, hearing that hurt her heart.
The first thing Raff did was call his people to his quarters. Tavros turned up first, then Skylett and Bibi, and finally Janek. Magda didn’t answer to him, so he didn’t expect her obedience.
“We thought you were going to die,” Tavros said.
“I have a lot to do yet,” Raff said.
“That didn’t save Beren,” Janek pointed out.
While that might be true, such pessimism didn’t help. “Come in, all of you. I need to brief you.” Once everyone was settled, he filled them in on his decision. “I’ll send word to Pine Ridge shortly regarding allocation of soldiers and technology. I intend to stay here for the next three months to fulfill my part of the bargain.”
“I have mixed feelings,” Bibi said.
Since she looked so young, most would pay no heed to her words, but she was also the youngest Seer in pack history, so he had to ask. “What troubles you?”
“The portents are dark down this path. I see betrayal and shadows in your near future and I could not find a glimpse of you emerging from that darkness.”
Skylett shivered, wrapping her hands around her arms. “You know she wouldn’t make such a revelation lightly. Perhaps—”
“I should go back on my word because two crows flew past your window at daybreak? It’s not that I don’t believe in your gifts, Bibi, but my options are limited. In times like these, fortune favors the bold.”
“Then you’re determined to move forward?” Janek asked.
“I’d all but made up my mind before we arrived, and nothing I’ve seen here makes me want to withdraw. The time for considering input has passed.”
“Understood,” Tavros said. “When is the grand event?”
“Tomorrow, provided her people are up to the task. The place will be bustling. Janek, will you stand beside me in place of family?” In truth, they were only distant cousins on his father’s side, but it was better than nothing. Sky was closer to him in terms of friendship, as she was like a younger sibling, but she wasn’t an actual blood relation and that probably mattered for Eldritch ceremonies.
“I’m honored.”
He ignored that; it was the sort of thing the elder wolf said, even if he didn’t mean it. Old school manners had no modern equivalent.
“I’m not sure what the ceremony will be like, but please be tolerant, even if it seems strange.”
“Princess Thalia appears to be thorough,” Tavros said. “She will strive for something that honors both Animari and Eldritch ways.”
“That’s true enough,” he said, pleased that one of his people didn’t hate this prospect.
Thalia’s time in Pine Ridge would be a lonely nightmare if people didn’t warm up to her. He could well imagine the whispers, sideways glances, and the subtle exclusion from pack socialization. Just because three months was a flicker of light to her, that was no reason for her to suffer.
“Do you have other news?” Bibi asked.
“For now, I need you to focus on the issue of defending her lands and defeating her enemies.”
“As you wish.” Her flat tone said she wasn’t thrilled with the assignment or having her warning disregarded.
I already knew this wouldn’t be easy. Doesn’t take a Seer to know that.
He turned to Tavros. “Get with the guards and see if you can find anything out about House Gilbraith. I need to know what kind of numbers they can field, how much sway they have over the other two, Manwaring and Vesavis. Learn what you can about them, too.”
“I can help in terms of historical house power, if not current military standing,” Janek said.
Right, that’s why I brought him. Of all the pack, he knows the most about Eldritch doings.
“Stick around and have a drink with me, old wolf. The rest of you are dismissed.”
The three young ones bowed and hurried off, leaving Raff to pour a drink for Janek. Handing over the tumbler, he said, “My attention span isn’t long, so try to make this a teacup history lesson.”
“As best I can. Vesavis is the least of the houses, politically insignificant and eternally hungry. They’re known for treachery and would not hesitate to make a deal and then break if they saw advantage elsewhere. On several occasions, they’ve nearly been wiped from existence when some intrigue imploded. I would not depend on them for support.”
“Noted. And Manwaring?”
“Informally, they’re known among the Eldritch as the Gray.”
“What does that mean?”
“They put up a pretext of neutrality while secretly working toward their own ends. The fact that they’ve come out against the princess so early in the game is quite disturbing.”
Times like this, Raff would’ve traded a year of his life for a quick brain like Korin’s. “Spell it out for me.”
“It means they don’t see her as a true threat. If they feared her reprisal, they wouldn’t have acted so fast. In my opinion, this heralds a power shift. You should prepare yourself for the other three houses to align with Gilbraith.”
“Tell me about them.”
“They have been vying with House Talfayen for centuries, and they have a sprinkling of royal blood in their lineage. Not a direct declination like Princess Thalia, but enough through a distaff family connection that it has been impossible for anyone in either family to take the throne.”
“Do you think her decision to ally with me will ultimately hurt her cause?”
Janek hesitated.
“Don’t swallow it. Tell me the truth!”
“Likely, yes. The Eldritch will see it as weakness and desperation instead of a wise strategic maneuver.”
Raff showed his teeth; it did not qualify as a smile. “Then we’ll prove them wrong, old wolf. Give me something I can use.”
“Since Vesavis is known to be untrustworthy, we could work to weaken the cohesion of those allied against us.”
“You mean, make Gilbraith and Manwaring think that Vesavis is hedging its bets, ready to flip if things look good for Thalia?”
“It’s probably not even that far from the truth,” Janek said. “We’d only be hastening that conclusion.”
“Divide and conquer, works for me. Put together a concrete plan and tell me what resources you need to get it done. Thalia will want to know, as soon as you’re ready.”
“As you say.” Taking that as dismissal, Janek drained his drink and rose. “She will help us, won’t she? When the time comes.”
Raff couldn’t even blame the old wolf for his doubts. It was hard not to fear the worst since historically, wolves had no close ties to the Eldritch. If she was like the assholes in House Vesavis, she might take their help and then later, let Pine Ridge burn when Tycho’s forces hit the border.
It’s not like she loves me, or my people. But…
“If I’m good at anything, it’s reading people’s hearts. And I’m betting my life that she keeps her promises,” he said.
“That’s good enough for me.”
Raff walked Janek to the door and was startled to find Thalia frozen, her hand suspended as if she’d been about to knock. The old wolf greeted her like a courtier in passing by. Heat flooded Raff’s cheeks, blazing worse than any fever.
Dammit all, she caught me being sincere.
“Did you mean it?” she asked.
No pretense that she hadn’t overheard.
This, this was why he thought that. While she might be good at scheming and intrigue, with him, she was as straightforward as an arrow to the heart.
He answered in a gruff tone, wishing she’d go away. “I’m not in the habit of saying shit I don’t mean.”
“Neither am I, Lord Wolf. But then, you seem to know that quite well already.” To his astonishment, she kissed his cheek before rushing away.