23
Ilinca
The Council session opened with a formality I'd grown almost accustomed to over the past weeks, thirty Voivodes and their retainers settling into the same grand chamber where I'd once nearly lost control of my own wolf in front of half of them, and I found, taking a seat beside Kason with his hand briefly warm over mine before the session's business began, a steadiness I hadn't expected to feel given everything the previous night had cost me.
Halmar opened with a summary of the security situation — Costin Drell's confirmed approach, the mole investigation's slow progress, the proposal for a controlled encounter that might finally end the immediate threat.
I listened carefully, watching for the careful evasions I'd learned to recognize over seven weeks of court intrigue, and found, as the briefing continued, a detail mentioned almost in passing that stopped my breath entirely.
"—and the diversionary measure authorized under emergency protocol three days ago has, I'm pleased to report, achieved its intended effect," Halmar was saying, consulting a report in his hand with the specific unbothered efficiency of a man discussing routine business.
"Sources within the Unbound's own network confirm Ossendrei's forces now believe the wardsmith may be sheltering within the Sorrowmarket itself, considerably reducing the immediate pressure on this castle while we finalize a more permanent solution. "
The room continued around that statement as though it were nothing, one detail among many in a long briefing, and I felt my whole body go cold and still, understanding, with a clarity that arrived far faster than my ability to voice it, exactly what he'd just admitted to.
"You told the Unbound I was hiding in the Sorrowmarket." My voice came out low, steady despite the fury building fast beneath it. "Three days ago. Under emergency authority, without informing me, without informing Kason fully, apparently, given the surprise currently visible on his face beside me."
Halmar's composure faltered, just slightly, registering the room's attention shifting fully toward the exchange.
"It was a tactical decision, made under time pressure, intended to draw the immediate threat away from this castle's walls while a more comprehensive plan could be developed.
I don't apologize for the strategy, wardsmith.
It's achieved exactly what it was designed to achieve. "
"It's achieved exactly what it was designed to achieve by pointing an active, dangerous threat directly at a town full of people who have absolutely nothing to do with any of this — people I know by name, people who have no guard, no warning, no idea that a man like Costin Drell might currently believe I'm hiding somewhere among them.
" My voice had risen despite my best efforts to hold it steady, the particular fury of six years spent protecting the ordinary people of that market town rising hard against a Council that had treated its safety as an acceptable cost for my own.
"Dobrin. Marta. An entire town of people who've never once been part of this Council's calculations, and you've made them a target without a single one of them knowing it. "
"The measure was designed to draw Costin Drell's attention, not necessarily his forces in strength," Halmar said, though something in his voice had gone considerably less certain than his earlier confidence. "We calculated the risk to the town as minimal."
"You calculated. Without asking anyone who actually lives there, without asking me, the one person who might have told you exactly how poorly a market town holds up against a man capable of what Costin Drell has already done to captured wolves along the eastern border.
" I turned to Kason, needing to know, immediately, the shape of what he'd known and hadn't. "Did you know about this?"
"No." His voice carried genuine shock, and I believed him, watching the same cold understanding I currently felt moving plainly across his own face.
"I asked Teodor this morning to investigate everything Halmar had authorized under emergency power.
I hadn't received an answer before this session began. "
I believed that too, and found, even believing it, that the belief did nothing to ease the horror currently sitting cold in my chest. Whatever Kason had or hadn't known, the decision had already been made, already executed, already carried three days into motion before any of us in this room had the chance to stop it or warn the people it endangered.
King Aurelian rose from his seat at the chamber's head, and the room stilled the way it always did the instant he chose to speak.
"Halmar. You had emergency authority for security measures.
You didn't have authority to endanger an entire civilian population without this Council's knowledge, regardless of the tactical justification you've constructed for it after the fact.
That's precisely the kind of unchecked power this Council exists to prevent, in myself as much as in you. "
"Your Majesty, the threat required immediate action—"
"The threat required honesty, much more than it required a clever tactic executed in secret.
" My father's voice had gone hard, the specific authority I rarely heard from him outside genuine crisis.
"You'll answer to this full Council for the scope of what you authorized, once the immediate danger to the Sorrowmarket has been addressed.
That's not optional, Halmar, whatever service you believe you've rendered this kingdom in the meantime. "
Halmar's composure had fully cracked by then, something like genuine fear moving beneath the political calculation. "I acted to protect this throne, Your Majesty. I still believe the strategy was sound, whatever its costs."
"Sound strategy doesn't require deceiving the very people it endangers.
" I found my own voice again, steadier now that the King's authority had shifted the room's attention away from raw panic and toward something closer to accountability.
"I understand you believed you were protecting this kingdom, Voivode Halmar.
I don't believe that belief excuses what it's already cost, or what it may yet cost, before we reach that town. "
"I need to warn them," I said, rising from my seat before I'd fully decided to, the chamber's attention fully on me now, Halmar's careful composure, Kason's stricken face, thirty Voivodes watching a crisis unfold in real time.
"Whatever this Council decides to do about Costin Drell, an entire town currently has no idea it's been made a target, and I'm not willing to sit in this chamber deliberating strategy while people I care about remain unwarned. "
"That's not safe," Kason said, rising with me, his hand reaching for mine. "Ilinca, if Costin Drell believes you're already there, riding toward the Sorrowmarket yourself is walking directly into the danger this entire measure was designed around."
"Then send guards. Send the entire Iron-Guard, if that's what it takes.
But someone needs to warn that town today, not after this Council finishes debating the most politically convenient way to manage the damage.
" I held his gaze, understanding, even in the middle of my own fury, that I wasn't accusing him of this particular failure — only refusing, absolutely, to let bureaucratic caution cost people their lives while more careful plans were drafted.
"I grew up in that market, Kason. I know every street, every hiding place, every person who'd shelter a stranger without asking questions.
If anyone can move through that town quickly enough to warn people before Costin Drell's forces arrive, it's me, with proper protection, not a formal Council delegation that takes three more days to authorize. "
"Let me organize a proper escort. Please. Give me that much, at least, before you ride anywhere."
I saw the fear in his face, understood it, and found, even understanding it, that I could not simply sit still while Dobrin and Marta and an entire town's worth of ordinary people remained unwarned for even one more hour than absolutely necessary.
Six years of practiced smallness had taught me many things.
It had also taught me, without either of us fully naming it, exactly how quickly a threat could arrive for people who had no warning it was coming.
"Organize it quickly, then," I said. "Because I'm riding within the hour, Kason, with or without a proper escort assembled in time to accompany me."
I left the chamber with the Council's stunned silence trailing behind me, understanding, walking fast toward the stables with a resolve I hadn't fully examined yet, that whatever came next, I intended to face it the way I'd faced every genuine danger in my life before Castle Ironmoor ever entered it — on my own two feet, making my own choice, rather than waiting for someone else's careful, complete plan to finally decide it for me.
Kason found me in the stables less than twenty minutes later, considerably faster than I'd expected, a dozen of the Iron-Guard already assembling behind him with the efficient speed of men who'd clearly been given an order that brooked no delay.
"You didn't have to organize it this quickly," I said, watching him check the girth on a horse being readied for my own use, his hands moving with the particular focused urgency of a man channeling fear into useful action rather than letting it paralyze him.
"I told you I'd give you a proper escort within the hour. I intend to keep every promise I make you from this point forward, starting with the small ones." He straightened, meeting my eyes with an intensity that had nothing careful or managed left in it. "I'm coming with you."
"Kason—"
"I'm coming with you, Ilinca. Not to manage the decision, not to override your choice — you've made it plainly, and I understand why, and I respect it significantly more than I respect Halmar's calculated risk to a town he's never once set foot in.
I'm coming because I refuse to let you ride into potential danger while I stay safely behind castle walls telling myself that's somehow the wiser strategy.
" Something raw moved behind his composed authority, the honesty I'd come to recognize as costing him more than any careful political calculation ever did.
"If Costin Drell's forces are moving on that town, I want my own wolf standing between them and the people you love, not simply a report reaching me after the fact of whatever happened while I stayed behind managing the crisis from a safe distance. "
I studied him a long moment, something easing in my chest despite the fear still hammering through it. "Then let's ride. Every minute we spend arguing about who's coming is a minute Dobrin doesn't have."
He swung up onto his own horse without further argument, the Iron-Guard falling into formation around us with the practiced speed of soldiers who'd trained for exactly this kind of urgent departure, and I felt, riding out through Castle Ironmoor's gates with Kason at my side and a dozen armed guards at our backs, a fierce, frightened determination that had nothing left of six years of careful smallness in it at all.
Yeva caught us at the gate, breathless from running, a satchel in her hands she pressed into mine before I could protest.
"Provisions, and a message for Marta, in case you reach her before Dobrin," she said, quick and urgent. "Be careful. Both of you. I intend to have considerably more to say to my father and to Halmar once you're safely back, but that conversation can wait until you've done what needs doing first."
"Thank you." I took the satchel, grateful beyond what I currently had words to properly express. "Watch the castle. Whoever this mole turns out to be, I don't like leaving that particular danger unresolved behind us."
"I'll watch it," she said, already stepping back to let us pass. "Go. Every minute counts, and you've already spent several of them reassuring me instead of riding."
We rode hard through the afternoon, the mountain road unspooling fast beneath us, my wolf restless and alert in a way it hadn't been since the very first days of learning what danger genuinely felt like, and I found myself, somewhere in the second hour of hard riding, grateful in a way I hadn't expected for Kason's presence at my side — not because I needed managing, not because I couldn't have made this ride alone if circumstances had required it, but because facing genuine danger beside someone who'd finally, truly chosen to stand with me rather than around me felt like something noticeably closer to the partnership I'd wanted all along, however imperfectly either of us had managed to reach it until now.
That choice was about to be tested more thoroughly than I currently had any way to imagine.