Page 148 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

My eyes shut tight from grief at her memory—I missed her so much. “She never told me,” I said, straightening, not wanting to seem affected by his words. She never had the chance to, because of him. He was the cause of all my trouble. “I want to return to your court, make me Captain again. If I spend one moment in my chambers and in this garden, I will begin stabbing everyone purely for entertainment.” He had to otherwise my return here would have been for nothing. I would have thrown down the drain precious time that I could have spent finding another way of procuring a sceptre piece. I could have even planned a raid of his castle to look for his own sceptre pieces, all those days of endless wall staring could have been spent another million ways.

He narrowed his eyes at my determined expression but nodded in the end. “Very well, but I will put a few conditions, some you might not like.”

“Get me out of the castle and I might even let you chain me to a watcher,” I said eagerly. This was my opportunity. His plans were now in the open to his council, whoever or whatever was helping him would be there and it would not matter what conditions he put.

His dark low laugh rumbled about the empty winter garden. “That won’t be necessary. See you at the meeting this evening,” he said, patting my shoulder before leaving.

And I might or might have not danced a cheery jig across the garden returning to my chambers.

Time had not ticked or went slower than it had the moments before the evening. I quickly made my way towards the meeting chambers. The corridors were cold and empty. More than usual. There was not a single servant I recognised, not a soldier either. Father had wiped the castle clean of anyone from before.

Something made me halt right in the middle of the corridor. A wind of a familiar chilling sensation brushed past me, one that made me bristle and had me reach for the dagger under my dress.

I searched the dim space, but it was entirely empty. A far window creaked behind me, the pane had blown open and brought heavy snow inside.

Maybe I was being paranoid.

The meeting had gathered when I arrived, all the spots on the table were filled with lords, generals, captains and all sorts. A few priests, too. What under Nubil’s skies?

I spotted the Lord of Arynth, Sebastian, and Celdric, who I’d left in charge of Brogmere, all my allies and a new face. She was young. Pretty and blonde. Prim and proper, buttoned and ironed like she was all ready for the first class in preparation school. Gara. The new Grasmere lady. And my loose oar.

The rest of the room turned to me, bowing their heads—except her. “I see Malena has raised her bitch well,” I hissed in her ear when I went past her, and she jerked a little.

Amongst them the trained pet Reuben sat anew, stuffed and pampered in a soldier’s uniform, sticking out like a sore thumb. The first time I had seen him present in a meeting. Strange considering the only blade he’d lifted was a butter knife.

“My, my, Reuben, did you finally squeeze a pair or did father strap them on?” I said, making my way to a seat.

There was another new face amongst the bunch. Dressed in a general’s uniform, three circlets above his breast pocket, olive skin, a scar across his dark eyebrow and over his dull green eye, his hair slightly curled at the crown as it came shorter on the sides. Extremely handsome by my previous standards had they not been overtaken by the silver eyed snake. He was probably Reuben's age—too young to hold his position as general in Isjord’s court of the usually wrinkled sandbags, and his presence radiated strongly of a different type of serpent from their breed. And something told me that my father had recruited him because of that.

He surveyed all of my movement with a smirk. And when I sat near my father’s chair which was next to him, his eyes were still following me. “You must be his daughter,” he said in a chilling deep voice.

I turned to study him. “And you must be his lover.”

He threw his head back, laughing, and the whole room took turns staring at us both. His amusement dropped from laughter to a wide smile. “Are my assumptions wrong?” His eyebrows cocked up as his eyes perused me some more—shamelessly.

“No, just very presumptive. I am myself before being his daughter. Snowlin, Princess, Your Highness. Though I would have preferred something along the lines of ‘you must be the most beautiful woman I have seen’,” I teased, batting my eyelashes.

He studied my features, his eyes fell to my lips before he answered, “You are one of them.”

I cocked an eyebrow up. In complete honesty I was half offended. “Why, is there another?”

My father came in as he was about to answer, we stood and bowed and when we sat back, he murmured close to my ear, “Yes.”

“Your mother?”

He howled with laughter once again and father turned to us with a scowl, an assessing look pinching in his face while he glanced at the two of us.

Schooling my features to the penance of grace, I bowed to him once again.

He cleared his throat and turned to the young general. “I see you have met my daughter, Demir.”

Demir leaned forward. “Yes, Your Majesty, the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,” he answered, and I turned to him wide eyed and surprised at his lack of fear or critique from my father. He winked at me and relaxed back in his chair while my father remained unusually quiet and passive.

The Winter court began discussing and reporting their usual sleep-inducing digits and issues, Celdric and Sebastian did the same—unusually well. I had chosen right with them. Hours passed and they had managed to almost lull me to sleep more times than I had done myself upon my return to Isjord. Maybe one of them should do that in my chambers at night.

“You will be under General Demir’s watch,” father said to me, and I shook awake. “He will dictate your position. I’m sure it will be valuable to all of us to have such a skilled soldier in his team.”

“Why are you allowing this, father? You have a thousand better trained soldiers to allow that one in your army. Again,” Rueben said spitefully, dragging everyone’s attention. Green was a good colour on him.