I was relieved the attention was off me as the group discussed logistics.
The queen held out her hand and an attendant presented a letter on a silver tray. It was little more than a scrap, not a proper scroll at all. “Fortunately for us, Issa managed to pass along a message.”
She unwound the scrap, cleared her throat, and began to read.
“Not much time to write. Have been successful in turning the bandits to your side. Very well-endowed group here—in military skills, certainly, dear sister. The single holdout is the Dark Mage’s apprentice who went on ahead. She’s tall. Never took her helmet off in front of me, but I could see the black ends of her hair. Everyone’s scared of her, even her own soldiers. They call her Bee.”
Oh dear. I startled. Ariana shot me a glance. Across the table, Ironclaw hadn’t flinched like I had. He had gone still.
“Our group will hold fast to your cause,” the queen continued to read. “When you attack the Dark Mage, we will turn from the inside. Now, I must do a physical inspection of your new troops. Your lovely sister, Issa.”
The queen passed a second crumpled sheet around. “Issa also included a sketched map of what she’d been told of Spectral Peak. How does this match our records? Do we think the information she’s getting is genuine?”
Discussion drew the others in. Everyone but Ironclaw. His eyes were on the hastily written letter cast upon the table, but they were unfocused, unseeing.
Bee.
That’s what he called his sister.
Chapter Eight: A Sea of Melancholy
Night had fallen whilewe—mostly the others—strategized how to progress in the morning. Lord Parable advocated for a circuitous route to the shore, but Jerrald and Ariana were aligned in pressing forward most directly. Others seemed to feel strongly as well, but twice Parable was successful in resetting the conversation and we had to review the same points again.
I was quiet to begin with and grew anxious as the night progressed. I wasn’t the only one. Ironclaw was less vocal than usual. It was unclear if anyone else noticed—was there knowledge in the queen’s eyes or was she simply swept up in the campaign planning?
When we were finally released, outside the torchlight of the generals’ tent I walked without seeing.
Ironclaw knew. He finally knew that the sister he had spent the past two years searching for was in front of him the whole time as the Dark Mage’s apprentice. She was known across the queendom as a brutal, relentless enemy of the crown—his own fiancée.
I paused as the thought struck me anew, the first time I was able to take in how very personal that must feel for Ironclaw. It wasn’t simply his family member had gone dark. She was actively trying to kill the person he planned to marry. For all her secrecy about her identity, Ironclaw was well-known as the brazen hero of Landsome. How much would his sister have to hate Queen Elthra to go against him like that? How could he imagine it possible to turn her back to the side of peace?
Yet he must hold enough hope. He would act, I was certain of it. A brother will always believe a sister could be redeemed.
The question now was whether that letter was enough to give him the idea to trade his cousin for his sister, or did something else have to happen to push him to it?
Should I confront Ironclaw myself, try to impress upon him how changed Bianca was? Or would that be the very thing that pushed him to action?
