Lynx let his hand linger for a moment and then shrugged. It was time to get practical. "Letters home? Surely they'll be read? Isn't that what you and Uncle Bear always say, that Felix checks your mail?"
Her father nodded. "Over the years, Bear and I have worked out a code, of sorts. Thus far, it seems to have gotten past Felix."
Lord Felix Avanov, Mott's brother, was in charge of empire security. As an Avanov, he was one of the few people in the empire who could read.
"I don't want you writing compromising letters. Whatever you find out, tell Bear. He will find a way to relay the information to me."
Lynx picked at the strings of her fiddle. How easy would it be, finding this information? It was unlikely to be lying in the open, waiting for her to stumble upon it. That meant she would have to ask questions, calling attention to her quest. But if she didn't take risks to learn their secrets and the Chenayans attacked again, how would she forgive herself? The image of Hare's butchered body floated before her mind's eye, making her shiver-and steeling her resolve. That would never happen again, not while she drew breath.
She looked up at her father. "I am bound so tight by oaths that I feel like a fly in a spider's web. All I can do is use every resource I have before the spider strikes."
Chapter 6
General Axel Avanov strode across the expansive balcony of his command pavilion, gripped the mahogany railing, and glared out across the parade ground.
The carriage carrying the Norin princesses was late.
He kicked the wooden balustrade rhythmically with his knee-high black boot. He'd already wasted a month of his precious time here at Tanamre, preparing a suitable welcoming party for them. Welcoming party-that was one way of describing a regiment of bloodthirsty imperial guardsmen.
He cracked his crooked smile too sardonic to be considered attractive. Not that his looks mattered. He'd never needed his powerful body or striking face to open doors for him. As Emperor Mott's nephew, birth alone had done that, catapulting him to third in line for the throne.
Third place.
Axel rubbed the gemstone embedded next to his right eye. Rare as the ruby was, it would always be second to the diamonds worn by Mott and his sons. He dropped his hand from his eye to the railing, his fingers tapping out the same rhythm as his boot. Regardless of the gemstone, everyone who mattered knew he'd be the true power behind the throne when Lukan became emperor. He could live with that.
Even his few decriers admitted that it wasn't just his arrogance talking either. He was only twenty-four, but he'd already proved to be a daring military strategist. Some said, one of the best Chenaya had ever sired. No small achievement, given he was up against four hundred years of stiff competition. In a world where military prowess was worshiped, many considered him a god.
He was more disparaging about both the gods and himself.
The rasp of boots across the polished wooden floor made him turn. "Ah, Colonel Zarot, you have news about our elusive princesses?"
The officer bowed, then saluted. "My outriders report that they'll reach us in about five minutes, General." Even in the midday sun, the emerald next to Zarot's eye looked dull against his olive skin. Still, its message was clear: Stefan Zarot came from a high-born Chenayan family that had supported the Avanovs for generations.
Axel sighed. "You can always rely on women to be late." He locked eyes onto four soldiers in the center of the pavilion. They were poring over a large wooden table spread with a map used to display troop movements. "Dismissed."
The guardsmen dropped their plotters and pencils, bowed low, and then saluted him and the colonel. Boots pounding on the wooden floor, they marched to the steps.
Axel turned to Stefan. "You do realize that, thanks to Norin inability to keep to a simple schedule, your replacement will arrive about the same time as they do? Not good, not good at all. King Thorn is undoubtedly hoping to use this opportunity to get his raiders to do some intelligence scouting."
"The timing is awkward, General," Stefan replied, face as inscrutable as his voice, "but at least it will give me an opportunity to brief him in person before I leave my regiment to accompany you and the princesses to Cian."
"You instructed him to break up this camp and to redeploy to Treven as I commanded?"
"Of course, sir. That was in my original brief to him."
The guardsmen clomped down the stairs.
When the sound of their leaving faded, the colonel slouched against the railing. "Axel, I still don't feel right about it, though."
This wasn't news to Axel. "Stefan, despite the Unity, Thorn made it clear when he and Lynx were in Cian that he wouldn't easily give up his precious princess to our illustrious crown prince. That's why Mott insisted we attack the Norin camp. A not-so-subtle warning of what will happen if Lynx and her sister don't pitch up here today."
Axel scowled. Emperor Mott's decision to sacrifice fifteen guardsmen by sending them into the Norin camp infuriated him. It was a waste of human life and did nothing to build confidence in Avanov leadership amongst his men.
Nor did it do much for Chenayan – Norin relationships, always fragile at best.
Axel had argued to send in fifty troops. Fifteen men to precision-kill the equivalent number of Norin raiders-not servers, and certainly not children-as a warning to King Thorn. The remainder of the men would watch their backs. With his troops' enhanced fighting skills, both Chenayan and Norin casualties would have been minimal.
Mad Mott had overruled him. The result had been a bloodbath for both Chenaya and Norin.
Axel had been tempted to disobey the order, but he was planning another, more important, rebellion and didn't want to risk the emperor's ire unless it served his overall battle strategy. Still, squandering troops in ill-planned military adventures went against everything he believed.
In his musings, Axel noticed Stefan's eyebrow twitch. Axel grunted; he understood the colonel well enough to recognize it as a frown. He and Stefan had been friends for years, having grown up together at the palace in Cian.
"Now what?" Axel demanded. "You do know I'm supposed to be the general here, the one giving the orders?"
"Yes, but you always listen to your men. It's part of what makes you great."
Axel didn't deny it. He'd never believed in throwing his weight around to get things done. His men obeyed him because he was the best, not because he was royalty.
Stefan's dark eyes flitted across the parade ground to where hundreds of his troops drilled. "What's to prevent the Norin finding out we redeployed the regiment after the train leaves? With no troops left here to attack them, Thorn and his raiders could sabotage it to rescue the princesses."
"That would lead to war, the last thing we need now. That is precisely why I don't want raiders hanging about here." Axel walked to the map on the table. He picked up a pushing stick and nudged a block representing the regiment stationed at Tanamre west to Treven.
Until a month ago, when Emperor Mott invaded the country, Treven had been one of the Free Nations that skirted the empire. The emperor tolerated the existence of these disjointed nations as long as they didn't get in the way of Avanov objectives, the way Treven had.
"The sooner this regiment gets to Treven, the better."
Colonel Zarot's eyebrows twitched again. "So it's true?" he whispered. "The invasion hasn't gone so well?"
"Don't bother whispering. Why do you think I'm so disgruntled today? I got a message from Mott this morning burning my ear off about the Treven campaign. Like it's my fault he and my father chose that idiot Azan to lead the invasion."
"You said yourself, the emperor believes getting the princesses to Cian the more critical task."
Axel frowned at Stefan. "In Mad Mott's mind, yes. But since when is babysitting silly girls more important than protecting the lives of thousands of men in Treven?" He took a swipe at the table leg with his boot, making it rock. "If the number of casualties ever leaks out, the whole empire will know a regiment of Chenayan grunts was virtually annihilated by the psychotic King Chad."
Axel slapped his hand on the map, making the blocks jump. "If I'd been in charge, it never would have happened. Clean precision, that's how I would have handled it. Chad and his heirs would be dead, and their ice crystal mines ours."
"But we both know the truth about casualties will never leak out."