I straightened in my chair, letting my despair fade into the void around us. “Hanne says we need more men if we’re to win this war. I dismissed her at first, but her reasoning is sound. Fifteen hundred against two hundred is not a battle, but a slaughter.”
A slow smile moved over her lips. “And how does she propose this?”
“She asked what else lives in the Depths, and I mentioned the goblins. I know we’ve crossed paths in the past. What can you tell me?”
“I’ve never spoken to them. Neither did your father. Your grandfather is the one who engaged with them.”
“And what was said?”
“I don’t know. He was on a scouting mission when he came across them. All I know was that the interaction wasn’t hostile. There was no bloodshed or threats. Both parties continued on their way afterward.”
I wanted more than that.
“Your father told me his father kept a journal. Your father would read it after he angered your grandfather to know if he still loved him, despite his transgressions.”
“Did he?”
She smiled. “He did. Your father was an ornery child.”
“I guess I know where I get it from.”
“No,” she said with a chuckle. “Even when you were a boy, you were a man. Had to grow up faster than previous generations. Perhaps we can find his journal when we return to Stonework. I doubt those fiends had any use for it.”
When I arrived at the Gathering, I knew something was wrong.
Caius stood over a chunk of ash he seemed to have pulled out of the fire. He kicked it with his boot and turned it over. Liam and Hanne were there too, talking in quiet voices, the rest of the onlookers staring like something had transpired.
I walked over, and they lifted their heads from the ash. “What’s happened?”
Hanne’s eyes didn’t glow like they had last night in the cabin. It seemed like that joy had never happened. “Someone burned the bow.”
Caius lifted his boot and stomped down on what remained, splitting it in two.
“What?”
“And they destroyed Hanne’s garden.” Caius kicked the debris aside, back toward the fire. “We’ll have to start over now.”
My eyes shifted among all of them, trying to make sense of what they’d. But who would do that when it violated their own best interests? “Who?”
“It’s gotta be Krull,” Caius said. “Maybe Allegra…”
“Why would either of them do this?” Jealousy wasn’t a strong enough reason to do something that hurt the entire tribe as well as themselves.
“We heard…sounds…from Hanne’s cabin last night,” Liam said. “And we know you were in there.”
I shifted my gaze to Hanne.
She didn’t look the least bit embarrassed.
“I noticed Allegra leave like she was crying,” Caius said.
“And I know Krull was around,” Liam said. “I don’t remember his reaction, but he was there too.”
I looked at the broken and burned bow that Caius kicked aside, and I released a frustrated sigh. As if I didn’t have enough problems to handle…
Hanne released a sigh. “Guess we should have been more discreet.”
“We don’t have to be anything.” I wouldn’t hide my relationship with Hanne just because some asshole didn’t like it. “Help Hanne rebuild the garden. That’s the priority. We’ll work on the bows afterward, and we’ll store them in my cabin.”
