“Status,” she said.
“The wolves are already in the small dining hall. You have eight new reports waiting on your desk. How shall we proceed?”
“I’ll breakfast with them and give them a tour of Daruvar. Late morning, you’ll need to take over to give me a chance to work. Can you cobble together some quick entertainment? This rebellion won’t run itself.”
A deep male voice asked, “Is it a rebellion, though? To an outsider, it looks more like a civil war.”
Thanks to years of training, Thalia didn’t startle as Raff glided out of the shadows of an alcove near the little salon. “Is skulking a wolf specialty or a talent particular to you?”
“Six of one, half dozen of the other?” But he was smiling, unoffended by the tartness of her reply.
If she let him, he’d draw her out and make her reveal…something. She had no intention of being diverted or charmed. “Regardless, since you’ve separated from the pack, please do tell Lileth what your people would find entertaining.”
“A hunt,” he said immediately.
“Would it be enough to flush out your prey and not kill it?” Lileth asked.
From the other woman’s tone, Thalia could tell she thought their guests were barbarians. Raff was nodding. “I’m sure you’ve no intention to starve us, so we won’t ask our hosts to slaughter the wildlife.”
“Perhaps one of the drones could be turned to this purpose?” Thalia cut in. “With a prize to the one who finds it first.”
Raff nodded. “I like the sound of that.”
“Go on ahead, I’ll notify Gavriel, so he can start the arrangements.” Lileth hurried off as Thalia fell into step with Raff, who offered his arm.
“Shall I escort you in?”
It felt…momentous, somehow, to curl her fingertips against his arm. “Certainly.”
His muscles were harder than she’d expected. He didn’t look bulky in his clothes, but his forearms felt different than an Eldritch male and his body heat penetrated even through his layers of shirt and jacket. Thankfully her composure held until they reached the table, where everyone else was already assembled.
“Good morning, Lady Versai.”
The head of security glared at her. “Stuff your formality. It’s Magda. Or Mags.”
Her mouth tightened. Etiquette existed for a reason, and it was rude to insist that someone use your first name if that relationship had yet to be established. Thalia well knew that she’d only end up looking like a hateful witch if she protested, so she kept her mouth shut and smoothed her napkin across her lap.
“I trust everyone slept well?” She made polite eye contact with the four wolf guards, who seemed ill at ease.
A chorus of ‘yes, thank you’ came in response as the meal began. At least some of them knew how to play the game. She’d memorized their names last night, so she tested herself mentally. The youngest is Tavros. The oldest is Janek. Bracketed between the male guards were two female scouts, Bibi and Skylett. While she wasn’t ready to use their first names, it was courteous to recall them.
“If everyone’s eaten their fill,” she said eventually, “then why don’t I show you around? Daruvar is not a place where it’s safe to get lost.”
The tour took over an hour.
Daruvar was a sprawling place with hallways that doubled back or ended suddenly in a wall of rubble. Some of the stones were loose and the paths precarious. Raff tried to remember each twist and turn, but Thalia hadn’t been joking when she said it was a perilous place to lose your way. He was awed by the sheer age of this structure, but at the same time, he couldn’t wait to shift and run on the hunt they’d promised later in the day.
Probably he shouldn’t reveal how impatient he was this soon, but he wished they could skip straight to the negotiations. That wasn’t the Eldritch way, and if he couldn’t last long enough for the marriage talks to begin, he might as well go home. Still, as Lileth started yet another story regarding the founding of Daruvar, he sighed.
“You look pissed,” Mags whispered.
Raff shook his head. They shouldn’t talk shit right in front of their hosts, who were trying their best despite this sudden imposition. “Have you learned anything?”
She dropped her voice lower still, so he had to lean close, even with sensitive hearing. “Too soon, I think. The Eldritch are secretive, even when it comes to shit we’d consider common knowledge. Took me damn near ten minutes this morning to get the staff to tell me where the fucking bathhouse is.”
“Your room doesn’t have private facilities?” he asked, surprised.
They dropped a little behind the main group, dawdling to converse. It seemed like they might be retracing their steps toward the courtyard, where their Rovers were iced lightly with dew that had frozen, now melting in the late-morning light. The steps leading down had crumbled at the edges, pebbles rolling underfoot. It would be easy to stumble here in the dark.
“It’s got a toilet that looks like it’s a hundred years old and a sink with broken tiles. How am I supposed to wash up like that?”
He grinned. “Go cat and groom yourself.”
That earned him a punch in the shoulder that nearly knocked him down, and Mags was laughing as she did it. Probably a good thing I never bedded her. She might’ve killed me.
Thalia shot him a hooded look from the front of the group as she stepped into the greensward. “That ends our tour. Please feel free to rest, join our soldiers on the training grounds, or continue your explorations, carefully. It’s not safe outside these walls for obvious reasons so venture out at your own risk.”
Her aide added, “We will be hunting an hour past luncheon, so if you’re feeling restless, look forward to that.”
Janek executed a neat bow to the older Eldritch woman. “We’re worn enough from recent events and our trip here that
