5 Days Left

Minul cleared her throat and nodded, “Yes, they were,” she slowly stepped around the corpses. After what she’d seen in the past few hours she hadn’t thought a little more blood and gore would touch her, but she still felt her gorge rise at the sight. So she kept her attention on Hildrid.

The master was clearly feeling a little unhinged an unhealthy fire in her eyes as she glared at the corpses of the men. It reminded the Queen that Hildrid hadn’t been trained for war. At the academy you were so steeped in sparring and violence that it usually stopped students from getting into such a state. At least, they rarely became like so after their powers had fully developed.

Hildrid did not have that training, nor did she have the experience of a soldier. She hadn’t even really been trained to advance her Disciplines. That had all been a function of her own work, her own study, and her own ideas. And she was potentially the strongest elusrian tethered.

“Thank you,” Minul said as approached the woman. “I didn’t think I could’ve escaped on my own.”

“Who are they?”

Minul shook her head, she didn’t want to delve too deeply with Hildrid. They still had an antagonistic relationship. “I have my suspicions, but I need to get back to mansion.”

Hildrid reluctantly looked away from the corpses. Her lips drawn into a thin line, jaw muscles clearly tensing in what little light reached them as she slowly nodded. Minul could feel her power flaring and for a moment she worried she was going to have to fight the older woman.

“Let’s go then.”

They returned to the mansion in silence, though, Minul was quickly swarmed by servants, tethered, and nobles once people realized where she was. Sighing, she forced her way through the throng of scared and unsure people, finding a small sitting room. It took physical work for her guards—who’d found her along with the others, she’d been damn fool to not bring any with her into the gardens—to keep the others out of the room as Minul sequestered herself.

The cries and shouts of the people permeated the walls as Minul slumped into a chair. Hildrid reached to pull out a chair only to wince as her finger-stumps twitched. With a queasy look on her face that drained much of her wrath, Hildrid pulled her chair out with her other hand. She deflated the moment she sat down, all the energy seeming to leave her.

Minul could see her fighting off the tears before she burrowed her head in her hand, clutching her wounded one to her chest. Svad—who’d made her way over to Minul alongside the guards—stepped forwards.

“Your Majesty,” she whispered. “What do you desire?”

The Queen pinched the bridge of her nose and bit the inside of her cheek. Hard. The pain gave a little shot of energy and she forced herself to straighten and look at her servant, “I want a pair of guards to search the garden. Towards the north-eastern quadrant they should find the corpses of a group of men. I want them to note their uniforms and search their body for any items of note.”

Svadr nodded, “Anything else?”

“If the guard captain is outside bring him in as well.”

“Immediately,” Svadr bowed, her loose hairs following the motion in a delayed wave before she turned and left.

“Who were they?” Hildrid asked lifting her head to look at the Queen with blood-shot eyes.

Minul turned to the other woman as Svadr left through the door. For a moment, the murmurs and yells intensified before realizing it was just a servant. Minul gave the older woman a long searching look. Her hair was frazzled, gray strands standing in every direction from her hastily assembled bun. Blood stained her cheeks and clothes, both fresh and old. There was a clearly new spatter on her ruined dress, from where she’d clutched her hand to her chest.

And she shook. Visible even from across the room, Minul could clearly see the shivers running up and down the older woman’s frame. The Queen licked her lips before turning her gaze down to look at her hands, also stained with fresh and old blood. The corpses had spattered when Hildrid killed them.

“Traitors,” Minul said. “I have a few suspects of who they work for.”

Hildrid opened her mouth to say something but the door opened again and Grom, the captain of her guard stepped inside. He carried a small envelope with him, as he stood in the doorway.

“Your Majesty,” he said. “You called for me,” then he bowed at the hip.

“Thank you, Gorm. Is that a report from Orolf?” She asked gesturing to the letter in his hand.

The guardsman nodded crossing the room in three long strides and deposited the letter before her on the table. This close she could feel his scabbard humming with that familiar power before he stepped away again.

“Have you read it?” She asked opening the letter as the captain nodded. She wasn’t an expert on military maneuvers, she couldn’t even reliably guess how long it took a military force of a certain size to mobilize. It always took way longer than she thought it should. That was why she’d left Ragnar back at the academy, though, and it was why she’d brought people like Svenar and even Gorm along. She was just thankful Orulf was both competent and battle-hardened enough to take up the old man’s task.

Scanning, the letter quickly she handed it to Gorm, “What’s your assessment?” From what she could tell they still needed the better part of an hour before they were ready.

“Forty minutes, twenty if you only want the important ones,” Gorm said.

Minul’s eyebrows shot up, “Really? Only twenty?”

Gorm cleared his throat, “This isn’t a full uproot of camp, your Majesty, we’re just gathering a smaller force.”

Minul nodded and leaned back in her chair, “I guess you’re right,” she dry-washed her hands as she thought. Gorm started to leave just as Svadr re-entered the room, this time with two smaller wash basins.

“I’ve sent the guards out, Your Majesty,” She said with a bow, depositing one basin in front of Hildrid and moved around the table to Minul, “We’ll know shortly.”

Minul nodded and thanked her head-servant, “This horrible night should soon be over, then we can finally get some rest,” Svadr nodded and retreated to a corner where she sat down in a plush servant’s chair.

Minul started washing her hands when the table jumped from impact, “Enough!” Hildrid hissed, half-standing from her seat breathing rapidly, bloodshot eyes furious. “Tell me what the fuck is going on!”

Minul was still embracing the pressure and reflexively drew from the knife on her hip, her tether flaring. In response, Hildrid’s eyes widened aggressively and Minul felt her power flare to its full height causing some of the people on the other side of the wall to cry out and fall back obviously sensing it as well.

Hastily, Minul dropped the energy again completely leaving her power as she carefully placed both hands on the table, palms down. As a tethered you never pointed your hands or fingers towards someone you were trying to calm down.

“Take a deep breath,” Minul said staring intently into the older woman’s eyes. From the corner of her eye the Queen could see Svadr cowering in the corner. “Hildrid, please. I will tell you, just take a deep breath and sit back down.”

She’d played this poorly. The woman wasn’t used to being left out of the loop and Minul had been too tired to realize that was what she was doing when she took the report from Gorm without telling her. Too tired to realize that in not telling her the exact suspicions of the men who attacked her, she’d left out the older woman. “Sit down and we’ll talk.”

Hildrid glared at her, blood seeping out from the bandages around her injured hand and Minul winced again, seeing the small basin for washing her fingers and realizing the older woman couldn’t do that either.

“Have you found Saif?” Minul asked briefly turning to Svadr, who shook her head. Minul sighed but turned back to Hildrid, she’d really preferred if the Triplet Master had been there to stop the old widower from taking her head off on impulse. “Very well, I guess I’ll start with easy one. I think the men were working for Inaaya al-Bacchus.”

Hildrid narrowed her eyes, “Because she’s here to take your throne?”

Minul nodded, “I assume you were approached?”

Hildrid stared at her, jaw working silently, “Indirectly,” slowly she sank down into her chair. “And the report? Troop movements?”

Minul nodded, “I’m going to be rooting out a bunch of Inaaya’s backers while I have the chance. That will by necessity involve removing a significant portion of their guards as well.”

Hildrid flew up from her chair again, this toppling it as her powers flared visibly around obsidian dust swirling in a cloud, “Was that what happened with Saleema? You took out opposition from within the Masters’ Council?”

Minul made a deliberate effort to not move fast or aggressively as she rubbed a hand over her face, her own temper flaring at the inane old woman’s attempt at logic, “Why yes, Hildrid. I decided that I was going to cut Elusria’s tethered forces off at the knees, then hamstring our academy while I was at it. How fucking brilliant of me.”

“But you did plan something!” the older woman insisted.

Minul leaned back in her chair her heart racing in her chest. She rolled her eyes and gave Hildrid a droll look she really wasn’t feeling at that moment, “No, I’m in fact not the Queen of our country. I’m just some hapless farmer. Of course, I was planning something,” she threw her hands in the air before crossing them over her chest. “In fact, yes. I did have a deal with Saleema and did plan to use her against a select number of tethered, but if your thoughts didn’t echo so loudly in your skull you would realize that I lost many of my best today! Svenar’s dead, Ayvir’s down an arm, one of our only other warp masters are dead. Our only space master is dead! We have a dozen tethered who’re in an uncertain state mentally, maybe they’ll recover, maybe not.”

Hildrid grit her teeth but slowly she turned and pulled her chair up and sat down again.

“Honestly, your ice is less clear than most of the academy students. And that’s after they haven’t been getting laid for most of the year,” Minul shook her head.

“Would I have been there?” Hildrid asked a dangerous gleam in her eye.

Minul snorted and got up from her seat, “No. You think you’re some rival or my enemy, but Hildrid… You’re not. You’re not clever, you’re not competent, you’re not even good at your job. Councilor or Head Mistress. You’re just powerful. The most compelling traits were your relation to Master Svenar and that I had to deal with you.”

Minul shook her head and waved for Svadr to follow her. She forced herself to take slow measured strides as she left room, half expecting a spike of obsidian to blow her chest into a gaping hole.

Instead, the door closed behind her silently and she left the master sitting in the room, “Keep a watch on Hildrid,” Minul said noticing that much of the crowd had dispersed, likely from the old woman’s outbursts, “If she leaves I will know about it. If she goes anywhere I will know about it.”