“Kaptein Ulfar is an incompetent fool,” snapped Jonas, then closed his eyes in regret.
He braced himself for a reprimand, but was met instead with soft laughter. “Aye, but he is,” said the queen. “I had him flayed and left for the wolves.” She sipped her wine casually, as though she hadn’t just uttered the most hair-raising thing Jonas had ever heard. The queen’s eyes locked onto his, sending a jolt straight through him. “Do you know howhardit is to find competent people?”
Jonas wasn’t certain if he was meant to answer. He held the queen’s gaze, and for the first time in years, he felt faint traces of fear.
The queen continued, unperturbed. “I’ve been thinking, Jonas,that perhaps in my anger, I was rash to dismiss you. What say you to that?”
Jonas swallowed. “I would say you are a wise and humble queen.”
“Humble?” The queen laughed. “It might be the first time I’ve ever been called such a thing. Drink, Jonas.” Signe nodded at his goblet.
Jonas took a large, nerve-calming gulp.
“Tell me, warrior, do you truly know her?” The queen’s gaze had an eager edge to it. “Eisa Volsik.”
The wine in Jonas’s stomach soured at the name. “I thought I did.”
Signe’s white-gold brows rose as she leaned forward in her chair. “Tell me everything.”
Jonas hesitated, reaching for his wine. Some part of him knew he stood on a threshold; that he could walk away from this meeting and find an opportunity to escape. Jonas could put this all behind him. Start fresh. But the pendant hung heavily beneath his collar, his grandfather’s words ringing loudly in his ears.
Family, respect, duty.
And so, after a long draught of his wine, Jonas began. He told the queen a brief version of it all, starting with the woman who’d climbed into the Bloodaxe Crew’s wagon. He paused to collect himself as he detailed her role in his brother’s death, and finally, Jonas ended with the avalanche that had nearly taken his life.
By the time he was done, the queen’s eyes had sharpened to deadly points. “She cost you your brother.” The queen unexpectedly leaned forward, taking Jonas’s hand in hers. “Youunderstand.” She paused for a moment. “I lost my Yrsa to Saga Volsik.”
Jonas squeezed the queen’s hand in gentle reassurance. Of all the people in Íseldur he might feel a sense of kinship with, Queen Signe was the last he’d guess. “I do understand.”
The queen slipped her hand back, then got to her feet. Her black skirts swished on marble as she paced back and forth. “The Volsik sisters are heartlessmonsters.”
“Aye, but they are.”
“So…kind andcaringon the surface,” continued Signe. “But it’s only a ruse. Beneath it, they are cold, selfish beasts who take and take andtake.They think of no one but themselves.”
Jonas had been numb for so long that the anger licking in his chest was disorienting. “Exactly.”
The queen paused as her gaze met his. “I know we’ve just met, Jonas, but I feel a sort of kinship with you—we have so much in common. Can I trust you?”
“Aye.”
“This must not leave this room.”
“It won’t.”
The queen licked her lips. “There are those in Íseldur who support the Volsik sisters. These supporters are like weeds, growing in each corner of the kingdom. But they do not know how many hands I have to pluck them.” A malevolent smile curled Signe’s lips. “Eisa is in Kopa, trying to rally the jarls of the north against my husband. But she does not know I have a spy in her midst, reporting her every pitiful attempt.”
Jonas’s heart thumped in his chest as excitement churned through his blood.
But the queen’s smile fell. “Eisa is slippery as an eel, as you’ve discovered. Already, she’s escaped three attempts on her life. Tell me, Jonas. Tell me what you know of her. Give us some edge that we might use against her.”
Jonas reached for his goblet and took a hearty drink. And then he told the queen everything he knew.
Chapter 36
Kovograd, Zagadka
The night Saga soothed Kassandr’s beast was the first in a stretch of many. By day, Kassandr pushed himself to his limits on the battlefield, giving, as he said, “too much to his beast.” This meant that by night, he was trapped in his beast form, dangerous and impossible to control. The thought of abandoning him was abhorrent at best, and so Saga came to soothe him. They lay on the bed and she tapped his shoulder, singing softly until he fell into slumber, or shifted back into human form.
