“Finn, the last person they’ll want to see there is me!”
He grinned and waggled his eyebrows. “You’d be surprised. Are you willing to try?”
“Can I say no?”
“You could,” he said slowly, “but then Imightcall Griff to throw you over his shoulder and drag you down there.”
“Griff knows about this plan? Not the throw me over his shoulder part, you fool.” I swatted at him as he opened his mouth. “But the rest of it?”
“He does. And he approved. Does it matter?”
I really hated that it did. But I wasn’t about to admit any of that to Finn.
“Nope,” I said instead.
He held the door for me, and as we stepped out of the library, several guards peeled away from the walls and approached.
The lead guard was a man of presumably middling age, although here you never knew someone’s actual age. He certainly held himself like a warrior, and while his hair was speckled with gray, he still moved with grace. “Your highness, I am Zane Donovan.” He bowed, hand over his heart.
I looked at him, confused for a moment, before I whirled on Finn. “Guards? Really?”
“Did I not mention that?” he asked sheepishly. “It was Griff’s condition. He isn’t available to come with us today.”
I whipped back to the guards. “No offense to you or your men, Zane, but I do not need guards.”
Zane gave me an apologetic smile but held firm. “The Champion said you’d say that. And I was to inform you that while my men and I will protect you with our lives, we do not answer to you. We answer to the Champion.” His voice had a hint of hesitation.
This soldier didn’t know me, but he was right to be worried about my reaction. Except I would never take it out on the poor man sent to do the Champion’s bidding.
Oh no, the Champion himself would be on the receiving end of my temper.
Fuck. Him.
Did he really think so little of me that I neededfourguards?
I swept out of the castle with Finn at my side, the guards following respectfully behind us. I pulled my coat tightly around me. There was still a bit of a chill to the air as winter was holding on, determined to eke out a few more days. And yet Blathaine was only two weeks away.
Finn being Finn, he chatted about everything and nothing. I think he was trying to calm my nerves, or his. In what seemed like no time at all, we arrived at the temple, the guards still trailing along behind me. As we entered the temple, they wordlessly spread out, guarding the various exits.
I gritted my teeth.Seriously, Griff?Fourof them?
I took in the significant progress that had been made in the last several months. The temple was dimmer now, with the shattered stained glass still boarded up, like a wound that had yet to heal, although Finn had told me a new one was to arrive any day now. Joining the ancient furnishings were newer pieces. Replacements for the benches that had been destroyed were noticeable with the bright colors next to their faded brethren. The scorch marks had surprisingly been left untouched, as though the battle had now become part of the unbroken history of the temple.
As I looked around, I was torn between an overwhelming sense of relief that this ancient place of worship was being restored and an equally strong sense of guilt that I was the reason it had to be restored.
We were met by a younger acolyte, dressed in robes of off-white, her hood pulled up to cover her hair.
“We’re here to meet with the high priestess of Solais,” Finn told her respectfully.
She disappeared without a word through a door that blended into the wall.
“That leads to the convent,” Finn explained.
I liked to pride myself on being observant, but apparently, there was a whole building I had missed.
We weren’t waiting long before a priestess appeared, dressed in the gold of Solais. I remembered her from the last time I was here. She had been one of the seven priestesses that had helped me defeat the hufen. Her gold hood was pulled up over her hair, bright eyes peering out from the shadow.
“We meet again, your highness.”
