My notable Houses included Ravenscroft, Lazarus, Sinclair, Drakkar and Ulfr. The outside faction’s of note included Njord, Roar, Andreas and Viggo. These were of Lunwyn and didn’t include the Middlelandian crew, all of the heads I had met at the Gales (and all of them had feigned respect and friendliness while they were plotting my and/or my husband’s deaths) and all of whom felt their head should now assume the “throne of the united Lunwyn”.
The good news was, with Baldur still in Korwahk with a good deal of the country’s soldiers, the Middleland Houses were weak and the Lunwyn Houses were not the most powerful of the northern land. The other good news was, the infighting was causing disarray and skirmishes against my men were diminishing as they skirmished against each other. The further good news was, when rescued and taken from the highly fortified castle of the House of Roar that Broderick had chosen as his stronghold in Lunwyn, Lavinia and Valentine had regained their magic which they were using for healing as well as protection, cloaking of our troops and gathering (or “sensing”) information about our enemy. And the last good news was Oleg, Lund, Ruben, Max and Skylar had emerged unscathed from the attack on Frey’s lodge. Stephan was wounded superficially and had already recovered enough to join the rest of us. And Bess and Jocelyn had also not been wounded.
The bad news was Orion, Gunner, Annar and Thad had all taken arrows as had Esther and Alyssa. In rating the news, Orion, Gunner, Annar and Esther also had relatively superficial wounds and it was reported they would eventually recover, though it would take longer than Stephan so I was considering this good-ish news. The definitely bad news was that Alyssa had sustained critical injuries and, I was informed, Thad had moved to protect Jocelyn (and succeeded in this) and also sustained multiple injuries of which not one but two were critical. When Stephan arrived, he explained that Bess and Jocelyn were staying behind to assist the physicians, healers and witches in Kellshorn who were seeing to them as well as taking care of Skylar but it did not look good for either Thad or Alyssa.
Further, Ruben informed me, unbeknownst to me but another indication my husband would do all he could for my safety, Frey had hired a woman named Agnes, the witch I met the first night I arrived, and charged her with protecting me with her magic. This failed and the attack on Frey’s lodge could go ahead because Broderick’s men found her and killed her thus her protection magic died with her. Therefore the woman with the cranberry cloak who could jump from the second story of a building and had a face lined in a way where I knew she laughed much through her life was also no longer of this world.
Although my mind often moved to what occurred in the prince’s quarters and the blood on my hands and my heart turned over at the memories as my mouth filled with saliva when these memories reminded me I was a woman capable of those actions, receiving all this news made this phenomenon much less distressing.
The other bad news was that Aurora remained captive in the stronghold of Njord and the witch that wielded the sacred relics and magical implements had not been found by soldiers or through Lavinia trying to sense her. Although now that they were no longer in Broderick’s clutch and she no longer had hold over Lavinia and Valentine, her being at large was not a good thing for my side or the other who, spies informed us, were also scurrying to find her so they could attempt to control her.
And last, the wildcard news was that Kell had disappeared. No one knew where he was, no word, no sighting. He had gone to Sudvic to prepare for Frey’s fleet to leave but he had not been seen or heard from since the rebellion started and Balthazar and Quincy had both ridden to Sudvic and various other places in search of him. Balthazar had returned two days ago with zero information and Quincy just that morning with the same.
Valentine, with her magic back in her control, could have returned home but surprisingly she didn’t. She also didn’t share why she didn’t and, although she worked with me, Lavinia, the physicians and healers who saw to our wounded and she did this with her usual calm, cool composure that bordered on indifference, I knew she felt remorse for meddling between Frey and me.
I would need to discuss this with her and let her off the hook. I just had not had the time and on the infrequent occasion I did, she was not exactly approachable.
She shouldn’t have done what she did, this was true but it was me who said the things I said so that was on me. It was on me that the final words Frey heard from me were shrieked accusations and the absolute last thing he ever heard from my mouth was me telling him he didn’t love me.
That was on me.
All of it on me.