Ignoring me for a moment, she points to different groups of men and women. “You four, prepare for your tower rotation. And you four, prepare to travel northwest with your legions. I want reinforcements holding the line against the Northerners. The rest of you, get back to training!”
While the soldiers hurry to obey, Lilis pins me with her luminously sharp gaze. “Oracle, you will?—”
She takes another glance at Stellen’s arm, which he hasn’t lowered, then clears her throat and softens her voice. “Oracle, will you come with me?”
Stellen finally steps back, his focus moving to me. He doesn’t give me any indication about whether or not I should do as Lilis asks.
Her politeness is extremely unnerving.
But now that Stellen has turned the tables on her, I’m seeing what I couldn’t see before: her lackeys are no longer looking at me like I’m their prey.
At my nod, Lilis turns and calls for her wolf, but she remains on foot, the white beast padding along besideher.
I follow Lilis back toward the palace gate. Nara walks on my right and Stellen on my left.
There’s enough distance between us and Lilis that I murmur to Stellen, “You could have trained me yourself, but by having Lilis teach meandmaking it publicly known, you’ve ensured my safety. Yes?”
He inclines his head. “My soldiers saw you as a target. Not only the two who spoke back there. They were just the ones brazen enough to speak their thoughts aloud. But now, you’re under Lilis’s protection as well as mine.” He gives me an icy stare. “The soldiers won’t cross Lilis.”
I consider Stellen carefully, knowing the truth of it. Lilis single-handedly killed six of Iker’s warriors. So why do I get the feeling… “There’s more,” I say. “Isn’t there?”
Stellen takes a breath. “An additional necessity. By training with Lilis, you’ll learn her fighting style.”
That’s all he needs to say. I can figure out the unspoken parts for myself. At a basic level, I need every skill she has; how to use my body’s natural abilities to the fullest, my flexibility and agility and greater lightness than a male fae.
I need to know how to fight like a woman.
It’s the same reasoning Antony would have used when he wanted his sister to train me.
At a more complex level, I need to know how to fight likeLilis, who has survived the cruelties that the Frost Kingdom has thrown at her.
Stellen has given me this opportunity. Without endangering me.
We’ve passed the palace gate now and soon reach a complex of barracks. Passing along the left side of that, we stop only when we reach a separate walled compound. A small one, similar to the Rose Room.
Immediately inside the wall is an open area, again like the Rose Room, except this one is bare of statues. The path has nothing more than two patches of shallow snow on either side of it.
The two wolves separate from us, taking up positions near the door into the building.
Lilis gestures me forward, her jaw tight and expression unreadable. “Come.”
I follow her inside.
Stellen pauses at the door, his tall frame taking up most of the space within it.
Is he coming with me?
The question rises to my lips, but his whisper cuts across the air. “I’ll wait outside.”
I’m not sure that’s wise. His threat to Lilis carries weight, but I don’t think it will stop her trying to hurt me if she really wants to.
I’d love to believe I won’t need Stellen’s help, but the entire reason I’m undertaking training is because my defensive skills are basic. My best strength is my speed, which this confined space will hinder, just as I got stuck when Lilis assailed me on that first day.
I may not be able to ask Stellen for help as such, but I’m not too proud to admit to myself I might need it.
Before I can formulate a way to tell him that, he anticipates me.
“Nothing will stop me getting to you if you need me.”
