As everyone did, she looked at my legs, then she shrugged. From what I could see of hers — and it was a lot — she had me beat there too. “Pleasure to meet you,” she purred. Then turned to Lynx and licked his lips before giving him a wet, messy kiss. It was meant for me to see and we all knew it. Then she pressed herself against him and whispered, “I’m going to have a bath and return to my tent. You’re welcome to join me, if this doesn’t take long.” With that she pulled away from him and slinked over to me. She gave me a sour look as she ducked a little to give me a good long sniff. She grinned, a feral thing showing me her teeth, and whispered, “He’s mine.” Then she veered into a cat form — a small hunting cat with tan fur, roughly as large as a medium-sized dog — as she trotted out of the tent.
She’d done everything but pee on him to mark her territory.
I raised a brow. “She’s… something.”
“Sorry about that. She’s a little possessive.”
You don’t say?
He sighed. “Why are you here, Legs?” He said it in an exasperated way. I had the feeling I’d gotten him in trouble with his lover and he knew he’d be paying for it later.
“I’m here about the war,” I said, voice hushed. I didn’t want anyone to overhear us.
It was his turn to raise a brow. “Maverick is sending us troops now? You’re a long way from home. Why is Maverick House so concerned with what’s happening up here?”
I grew grim. “Lynx, everyone should be concerned with what’s happening ‘up here,’” I said. “This isn’t right. It needs to stop, and I was hoping I could talk to an old… friend who might have some pull here.”
He scoffed. “Then you’re in the wrong place. I have as much pull as a… mouse pulling a hay wagon. If you could hear the way Lord War was just putting me in my place, you’d know that.”
“Lord War?” I said, curious. I’d assumed the other man talking in the meeting had been the leader of Panther House, Lord Jaguar. I had to wrack my memory for this new name.
“Oh yes. He’s up from the capital. Arepresentativeof the Royal House here tooverseethings.” The way he said those two words made it clear the man wasn’t overseeing so much as commanding. “Lord Jaguar is furious that he’s not the one in control, but it seems there is more going on here than even we are privy to.” He sighed heavily, shaking his head. He sought a chair and sat, slumping.
I recalled the name now. It had been the mention of the Royal House. Lord War was the Field Marshal of the entire army of Elista, the highest-ranking officer. It was said he was a mean and vicious man who couldn’t abide the ongoing peace Elista had with its neighbors. His presence here made perfect sense.
“We were doing well enough on our own the last three years,” Lynx said. “Then he showed up and took control. I think he means to fully invade Vauphan. That’s just crazy… isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.” My tone was sour. But something else he’d said was curious. “You said something about ‘the last three years’? That’s how long you’ve been here?” I’d heard as much from Alvere, but wanted to hear confirmation from an Elistan source.
Lynx looked up at me blinking. “Yeah, doesn’t everyone know how long we’ve been up here?”
“No, Lynx, no one knows. This war has been kept secret.”
“Well… Maverick is in the South, so—”
“I was in Miraline just last year and I’d not heard anything about this.” Miraline being the largest city in the North of Elista.
He cocked his head to one side. “Truly?”
It seems those here are doing a good job at keeping their own troops misinformed. Everyone here thinks the nation knows and those back home only found out recently as it’s slowly coming out. This is… I can’t fathom the work needed to keep all of this so… contained.Auwei seemed shocked and baffled.
I had to agree.
I moved to sit in a chair next to him. “No one knows what’s going on here, Lynx.” This was my chance, I spoke quickly, whispering, hoping to get through to him. “This war, this invasion, whatever it is, it was kept a secret from the rest of the nation. No one knew. I don’t know how such a thing would be possible, but someone on our side wanted to claim these lands in secret. It’s the entire reason the Vauphani army is sitting out there. They have no clue why we took their lands and think we want more. Do we want more?” I asked, curious if he knew.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m still only a low-level Noble in Panther House. But I have a good head for tactics so I came here right after I was chosen for Panther.” He too spoke quietly, perhaps a bit caught up in my tale of secrecy. “We were told that Vauphan was planning an invasion.” His volume dropped even more. “Not just of Elista, but… that they wanted to claim the Mists!”
That shocked me, and I started. “Truly?”
Oh, that is interesting indeed. That rumor would certainly worry many Nobles.I got the sense Auwei had hit on something, but if so, she wasn’t sharing it yet.
“Yes. We were told their provinces near the border were crawling with spies and scouts and a large force was on its way, though it would take time for it to get here, and that the only way to confirm we held the Mists was to take the northern Vauphani provinces first, before they were swarming with troops. So… we did.”
I blinked. I knew that story — or the story Lynx and the Panthers had been told about impending war with Vauphan — wasn’t true. I didn’t want to say anything. I couldn’t give away I knew more about Vauphan than I should. But still the question remained… why? Why would Elista spin such a tale of impending invasion to prompt our own invasion? I didn’t think Lynx would know, but I had to ask.
“Why, Lynx?” I whispered. “It must be clear to you now, since it took the Vauphani army some time to get here, that that story was… just a story. So why would we want to invade their lands?”
He shook his head, and when he spoke his voice was hard to hear. It was clear he was afraid of speaking about this. “I don’t know, and I don’t want to ask. Others have asked and those that were too insistent… Legs, they disappeared.”
