He raises his palms in a placating gesture. “Mathilda and I!” he quickly responds. “Look, I said we should get your consent first,” he begins, but the door swings open, and Mathilda walks in.
“But I told him you were actively bleeding out and unconscious, so we weren’t getting you to wake up before your body pieced itself back together,” she says as she crosses her arms over her chest and levels him with an annoyed look.
“What’re you doing here?” My voice cracks at seeing her here, alive and well. She huffs before sitting on the bed at my side and stroking her hand down my unbound hair.
“I couldn’t stay behind with those murderers while my future queen was fighting for her life with this tosser,” she says, as she jerks her thumb towards Lachlan. He rolls his eyes, but a smile quirks his lips.
Commotion outside the open door draws our attention. “Who else is here?”
Mathilda chuckles. “The usual suspects.” She ticks off her fingers. “Tane is in the kitchen, Evander is guarding the front, Mina, the back. Oh, and Elowen is on the roof. She showed up late since she had to grab a pack full of supplies that hero over here forgot to grab.”
She sticks her tongue out at Lachlan.
Amusement swells at the affection between them. I have friends. Amazing friends who are willing to risk their lives for me.
Tane shoulders his way into the room with a plate of food. “Oi, glad to see you’re alive,” he says. “Hungry?”
My smile stretches the split on my lip, and it burns, but it doesn’t deter me the slightest bit as I smile even wider, “You’re my new favorite person,” I tell him and reach out gently for the plate. It’s piled with cold meat, cheeses, and lingonberries.
Tane waggles his brows at Mathilda as he passes. “See, someone likes me.” She huffs at him but doesn’t respond. I begin stuffing my face with food, and the three of them watch me intently.
I pause with a portion of cheese in my mouth. “Uh, what’s up?”
Lachlan clears his throat. “You’re the queen. Ye give the orders.”
I glance around at them, realizing they are, in fact, waiting for me to tell them what to do. I swallow the piece of cheese before sitting up straighter. “I’m gonna need all of you to help with that, because I didn’t really know what was happening until they tried to kill me.”
Mathilda raises her hand. “I’ll go first!” I giggle but nod for her to go ahead.
“They’ve been actively trying to keep us from preparing for the Great War by shutting down the training grounds, closing weapon shops, and not allowing the citizens and children to be taught the signs of the approaching war.”
Tane interjects, “And they’ve been blatantly ignoring the warning signs that have happened.” We all nod in agreement.
Mathilda continues, “So I think our first course of action is to start preparing for war and trying to find a way to get you back on your throne.” I take a breath, knowing that was the obvious direction she was heading in, but for some reason, I did not want to admit it to myself.
“To prepare for war and take the throne, we’re going to need a lot more people,” I voice aloud.
The three of them share a look before Lachlan steps up. “About that.” He pauses as if he’s not sure how to continue. “There have been quite a few people who have disagreed with the way Odessa had started doing things.” He grimaces a bit. “Most have relocated to Olundy to continue training there.” The name of the island tugs at me.
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” I ask to understand his reluctance.
“Aye, it is.” He nods with the words. “But they don’t really, uh, like ye,” he finishes before holding his breath and waiting for my reaction.
“They don’t like me?” I screech. The wound on my ribs pulls.
“It’s not that they don’t like you.” Mathilda glares at Lachlan. “They just don’t know you,” she offers. “You weren’t raised here, and they kinda didn’t know you even existed.”
“Yeah, once they meet you, they’ll see that you’re not so bad,” Tane adds.
Mathilda whips her head to him and mouths, “Not so bad?”
But he only shrugs, a look of innocence on his face.
“Great, I guess I’ll deal with that when we get there, but first, we need someone to stay here and recruit more people to our side,” I order. Lachlan recoils in surprise, but pride radiates from Mathilda, and Tane dips his chin.
“More people?” Lachlan asks. “Ye don’t even ken how many people we already ha’ there.”
I bite my lip and wince at the pain. “Yes, but if my memory serves correctly, only one council member has been absent from meetings. We need to get more of the councilors on our side to recruit from their districts if we really want to change public opinion so I can take back my throne without too much bloodshed.” I look around at the three of them. “So, who would be the most inconspicuous?”
