“Again,” Stellen says.
For the next hour, I practice until I can leap safely onto Nara’s back from as few as three paces and as many as five. I suspect she’s helping me more than she should, adjusting her balance to counter any over or under shooting on my part, but I won’t complain about it.
Leaning down to rub her neck after what feels like my hundredth ascent, I wait for Stellen to tell me to get off and do it again, but he tilts his head and says, “Let’s go.”
He scoops up my cloak and hands it up to me.
I’m too warm to put it on, so I fold it in my lap, ready for when I have a hint of cold again.
When he slides onto Nara’s back behind me, I remain straight-backed and then allow myself to relax into him. My stomach and thigh muscles are already sore and the day is only beginning.
He slides his arms around me, pulling me even closer, and I accept the quiet support.
“Nara,” he calls. “Take us to the training grounds.”
The trip to the palace wall feels short today. Mere minutes to navigate through the maze of individual buildings.
“Will you signal your troops before you leave the palace?” I ask, thinking of the icy display he and Lilis created yesterday.
“I only use that signal when I’m about to pass through thecity,” he replies. “My troops know to expect me at any time. But you should also know that Lilis is the only soldier with permission to step foot inside the palace walls.”
Sure enough, Lilis waits for us inside the palace gate, dressed in armor and carrying a sword at her back. She’s on her wolf, both of them quietly waiting.
I can’t see the back of Lilis’s head, but her purple eyes are much brighter than they were yesterday. Her hair is tightly braided, and she sits upright and alert.
She bows to Stellen as we approach, giving me barely a glance. “Lord.”
As Nara draws level with them, Stellen merely says, “Report.”
“News from the towers is that the Iron Fae have pulled back from the boundary,” Lilis says. “Multiple fights were witnessed around the Iron towers—fights between Iron Fae, Lord, not between us and them—and then the towers went quiet.”
Stellen barely reacts to this news, but it fills me with dread. No doubt a power play is happening right now, a fact that is quickly confirmed when Lilis continues.
“Our spies report the Iron King has disappeared and a power struggle is now being fought between his youngest brother, Hadrian, and the Iron Fae still loyal to Antony, who apparently won’t accept that Antony’s disappearance means he has perished. As for Galla Vividari, her lords are all dead, she has no protection, and at this stage, it appears Hadrian has imprisoned her on Mount Vividari.”
As if he knows nothing about it, Stellen asks, “What proof is there of Antony’s death?”
I fight to keep my expression clean as the hollow in my heart expands again.
“None, Lord,” Lilis replies. “There are whispershe died in the bloodlands, but then…” Her focus flickers to me. “There are also whispers the Oracle died there too, and we know that isn’t true. Ultimately, our spies report there is no body and no planned funeral.”
No funeral.
If Antony’s sister, Cassia, were there… But she isn’t. She escaped. And Victor, who also loved his brother, has no power over his own destiny, let alone to demand a funeral even without a?—
A body.
As if that’s what Antony has been reduced to.
There won’t be a body if nobody retrieves it.
The Iron Fae won’t go looking for Antony because they won’t go into the bloodlands.
I fight the burn of tears behind my eyes.
I can’t betray any emotion in front of Lilis. She was physically vulnerable yesterday but not today. Around her, I must always stay alert and vigilant against a strike in my back.
Stellen’s silence makes it harder to keep my expression clean. The longer he takes to speak, the more my sadness could betray me.
