Page 12 of Faeling (Monstrous World #4)

Over the next three days, Ravenna’s already tiny room, as well as the very walls of her already compact world, began to shrink. Although she never saw the lord commander, she felt his presence everywhere she went.

Whenever she left the violated, false safety of her chamber, it was under obvious surveillance.

A guard didn’t necessarily dog her steps, but one followed several paces behind wherever she went.

To eat, to walk. When she tried to slip out to her favorite bazaar, one of the guards actually intercepted her.

“Best to stay within the citadel for now, kone .”

A polite way to say she was under house arrest.

Ravenna bristled at the constraints, skin crawling with all the eyes on her. It wasn’t just the guards. The staff looked at her askance now, when otherwise they might not have even noticed her walk past. Round every corner, in every room, all eyes darted to her, full of suspicion.

No doubt just what the lord commander wanted.

He intended to make her slip up.

Well, Ravenna hadn’t come this far to lose to a worm like Ulrich. She made herself as unnoteworthy as possible, quiet and meek. She kept mostly to her room, despite Oberon’s pleas for her to leave and come join the herd.

Ravenna even started sleeping in her disguise.

She couldn’t be sure she kept it in her sleep, but until she drifted off, she kept the glamour in place.

It was exhausting, but she didn’t dare let it slip.

She couldn’t even chance going down to the baths, and so in her small, overwarm room, Ravenna slowly cooked herself in her temper.

She blamed her exhaustion and smelliness for barking at whoever dared knock on her door one afternoon.

“What is it?”

The door, already open a crack since no one had bothered to come fix the lock, creaked as it opened wider.

Into her room stepped King Vallek’s elder sister, Lady Eydis.

Dressed as she usually was in smart robes with crisp draping folds, her belt jangling with keys and pouches, and her hair swept behind her pointed ears into a neat plait that fell down the length of her back, she was far too elegant for Ravenna’s small cell.

Although never ostentatious, Lady Eydis still exuded dignity and affluence, several golden hoops glittering from both ears, a ceremonial gorget displaying her rank laying on her chest, and silver threads gleaming along the hems of her robes.

The sight of her here was so surprising, Ravenna forgot what she was meant to do for a full moment.

Finally gaining her feet, Ravenna bowed. “Forgive me, my lady, I wasn’t expecting you.”

“Quite all right.” Eydis looked around the room, her keen gaze landing on the broken door. “There’s a good story to this, I assume?”

Ravenna bit the inside of her cheek. She liked the king’s sisters, clever Eydis and lively Asta, but wasn’t sure where she stood anymore within Vallek’s household.

His sisters were just as loyal to him as Ulrich, if not more so, and Ravenna couldn’t help but worry that the lord commander’s sudden tightening of the screws were on direct order of their king.

If so, she couldn’t count his elder sister as an ally.

Still, her confusion over the broken door seemed genuine.

Choosing her words carefully, Ravenna said, “The lord commander thought it the most expedient way of searching my room a few nights ago.”

Lady Eydis’s lips thinned. “I see.” Looking over the door more critically, she said, “Some of the other staff have mentioned the greater…attention he’s been paying you.”

Ravenna just held onto her snort of derision. “It’s hard to miss. I’m not sure what the lord commander hopes to find.” A lie, of course, but Ravenna didn’t care. If she could turn someone against Ulrich, she would.

“Ulrich is…” Lady Eydis sighed. “He’s a determined man. He’s actually why I’m here.”

Ravenna’s shoulders tensed, her folded wings trembling against her back.

“The lord commander has requested both of us for a meeting.”

“Now?”

“It would seem so.”

Trying not to pull a face, Ravenna nodded and took up her cloak. She couldn’t hide her grimace as easily as she slipped on the heavy fabric and drew the cowl over her lank hair. The garment was stifling, but it helped with her disguise and hopefully masked some of her smell.

Perhaps not enough, though, as Lady Eydis couldn’t hide her expression when Ravenna followed her out of the room.

“Forgive me, kone, but…have you not been shown to our baths? The ones beneath the citadel are open to all staff.”

Ravenna’s cheeks burned even through the glamour. Clearing her throat, she muttered, “I haven’t felt comfortable going to the baths with the lord commander paying me so much attention.”

Lady Eydis’s brows snapped down into a forbidding frown. “That won’t do.” Stepping further out into the corridor, she called, “Bryn?”

After a moment, one of the older housekeepers appeared from her room.

Brynhíl was the king’s own housekeeper and oversaw all staff who served him and his family directly.

She was as dignified as she was strong, her arms thick with muscle and her dark mane woven with streaks of silver.

Kind brown eyes took the both of them in as she approached.

Bobbing her head in deference, Brynhíl asked, “My lady?”

Lady Eydis nodded at Ravenna’s door. “Please see that this is fixed by tonight. And send for a hipbath to be put in her room and filled.” Turning to Ravenna, she said, “It won’t be warm, but it will be a bath.”

Ravenna shook her head. “No, my lady, it’s perfect. Thank you! You’re too generous.”

The orcess grinned ruefully. “I’m not, you just stink.”

“I’m afraid to say you do,” agreed Brynhíl.

A laugh burst from Ravenna, and although her flush of embarrassment only deepened, she didn’t mind the teasing. As much as she’d never forget Ulrich’s violation, she’d also never forget the orcesses’ kindness.

“Thank you, still. I might never get out once I’m in.”

They bid farewell to Brynhíl, on her way to find the citadel’s locksmith, and instead turned to climb to one of the higher levels.

With every step, Ravenna lost her good humor. She chewed on her cheek and whether to ask if Lady Eydis knew what exactly this meeting was about.

Instead, the king’s sister asked, “Do you mean to tell Vallek about all this?”

Ravenna sucked in a breath, considering. “No,” she said finally, “not yet.” She wasn’t a helpless damsel, running off to plead for help at the first sign of trouble. She wasn’t defenseless and intended to stand her ground.

And there wasn’t an insignificant chance that Vallek had himself ordered it.

“I would consider it if this continues,” Lady Eydis advised her. “Of course, I support keeping my brother safe, but you’ve given us no reason to doubt you. If Ulrich continues to be heavy-handed, tell the king.”

“Wouldn’t he already know?” Ravenna asked quietly.

Without hesitation, the orcess answered, “I doubt it. If Vallek has suspicions or doubts, he tends to meet them head on. Subterfuge isn’t his way.”

Well, that gave Ravenna a little heart. She didn’t know if she believed it, for Ulrich didn’t strike her as the type to do anything without the king’s permission. He was too loyal, too obedient.

As if her mind had gone down the same path, Lady Eydis added, “I will say, though, to not make an enemy of Ulrich. He will protect my brother at all costs. If he finds a threat, he gets rid of it.”

Ravenna could only nod. She didn’t intend to heed Lady Eydis’s warning, for she suspected she and the lord commander were already far beyond that line. Ulrich considered her a threat and hunted for evidence to prove it. Ravenna waited for a moment to exact revenge.

In the meantime, she would be patient. There was nothing for him to find.

Probably.

Her mother’s grimoire was the only thing she could think of that might have the smallest scent of the suspicious. She knew it’d been a risk to bring with her, but the memories and knowledge it held were too great a value to leave behind.

The grimoire was written mostly in Eirean, the language of her mother. However, there were plenty of fae words peppered throughout. Ravenna could only hope that the lord commander wouldn’t know the difference.

Vallek’s curiosity over the request for a meeting with his lord commander only grew when his sister walked through the small council chamber door—with the soothsayer behind him. Ulrich didn’t have to bother calling a meeting; if he had something to tell Vallek, he usually just did.

Standing up from his seat, Vallek exchanged puzzled looks with Eydis. It seemed she didn’t know what this was about, either.

He didn’t miss how the soothsayer stayed near the door. She was in her usual cloak and cowl, and although she’d always been markedly shorter than him and all other orcs, something about the way her wary gaze bounced between him, Ulrich, and Eydis made her look so much smaller. Reduced.

Vallek’s curiosity bled into suspicion, which he preferred to focus on rather than the niggle of guilt nipping at his chest. He’d learned long ago that as a chieftain who aspired to kingship, he couldn’t afford guilt. Not outwardly, at least.

“Is this all of us?” asked Eydis, her tone mild but her eyes sharp on Ulrich.

“Indeed, my lady.” Striding around the great table where Vallek’s council met every week to discuss the business of the city and kingdom, Ulrich stared down the soothsayer as he closed the distance between them. Without looking away, he locked the door, barring any quick escape.

“This is highly unusual, lord commander,” Eydis complained.

“It’s necessary,” said Ulrich.

From a satchel slung across his shoulder he retrieved—a book. Placing it on the table, he opened the old, battered thing, revealing pages of browned ink. What looked like lists, songs, and sketches took up every bit of available space, the pages paying no heed to organization or margins.