The arrival of about a hundred armed men led by David Feleke caused instant panic amongst the new group of werewolves. Pierre, Gertrude, Rémy, and Leon transformed without bothering to take off their clothes first. Greg almost did, too, as Pierre in his terror forgot that he wanted Greg to talk to his family for the pack. At the sight of a dozen frightened, growling and yapping wolves, the duke’s entourage lost their cool, too, forming a line and lowering their guns at the werewolves.

Greg was almost certain that they hadn’t loaded silver bullets, but it still wouldn’t be a good start if someone got shot. He stepped forwards, uncertain how he might prevent that outcome, when David drawled:

“Hold your fire, soldiers. Get back in formation. It’s quite all right.”

He rode around the men with the guns, right into their line of fire. He had his crossbow at his back, loaded with silver, but he didn’t reach for the weapon. He jumped out of the saddle instead and turned to Eyal, who had just hurried over.

“Mr. Levi, good evening. I do apologize for not sending a word of warning.”

“Lord Feleke,” Eyal bowed. “Your Highness. This is quite a surprise.”

“Soldiers! I said back in formation!” David yelled over his shoulder. “The next man to point a gun at a werewolf will have his rum rations docked!”

Greg had no idea how David had even known that the men in his back had aimed their guns again. Maybe from the nervous reaction of the werewolves? There was something different about his oldest brother: David had never been a military man, certainly not an officer. He used to hate crowds. But he looked comfortably in command when he turned back to Eyal.

“Again, I apologize. It was a last-minute decision to accompany the reinforcements. Word has reached Deva of what happened here and His Highness wished to see the damages with his own eyes.”

Greg wanted to go and greet his brother, but before he could, the ensign in charge came to stand beside Eyal. The boy – young man – looked like he was about to bow to David as well, but then he saluted instead.

“Ensign Nitt, my Lord.” He faltered, then pulled himself up even more and added: “Acting commander of this camp. I welcome you, on behalf of Lieutenant Hugh as well.”

“Very good. Report to Lieutenant Sears to get the men settled, and have someone show His Highness around.” David turned around again. “Lieutenant Sears!”

He was acting as if there wasn’t a single werewolf in sight, much less a dozen of them, all of them too scared to turn their backs on him. Greg felt a little hurt that David didn’t even look in his direction, until he realized that his brother was intentionally ignoring the werewolves. Instead, he watched on as the officers gave orders and the soldiers began to settle down. Greg didn’t know if it was the fact that David was completely unfazed or his threat of docking rations, but the men didn’t so much as look sideways at the pack.

Duke George Louis on the other hand put as much distance between himself and the wolves as was possible in the small camp, keeping an entourage of six men and dragging the soldier tasked with showing him around with himself.

“Has he talked to you yet?”

Greg jumped when Andrew and Nathan appeared next to him. “No, he’s pretending we aren’t here. I think it’s working, actually.”

Either that or Ragna’s lack of reaction was calming Pierre down. Or both.

Once all the soldiers were busy unloading, tending to the animals, or pitching tents, David looked around, and finally approached his brothers. He pulled Greg into a hug, and before he could pull away, Nathan and Andrew piled in, hitting David on the shoulder excitedly.

“Look at you, all stiff and important,” Nathan japed. “How’s Deva treating you?”

Greg caught the flash of emotion that ran over David’s face as they all hugged, exhaustion, pain, and something he couldn’t place.

“It’s fine,” David said.

That was obviously a lie, but Greg kept his mouth shut. This wasn’t the moment.

“I hope you guys are doing all right?” David went on. “Want to introduce me, Greg, or should we wait?”

Greg looked around until he caught Pierre’s gaze. The elder’s hackles were raised, but Greg thought he had mostly gotten over the first shock. “Come,” he said out loud. “But, uh, maybe not all of you.”

Nathan chuckled, and Andrew said: “We’ll stand back.”

Greg had to take a second to collect himself when David moved to follow him. Annabelle especially was putting pressure on him not to come closer.

“We can wait,” David said quietly when Greg paused. “I can meet them later.”

Greg shook his head. “I would rather get it over with.”

He set his jaw and moved forwards. Annabelle tugged her tail in and retreated when she realized that she couldn’t stop him. Estelle followed, as did three of the wolves not from Pierre’s pack. Laurent stayed.

“This is Pierre,” Greg introduced his pack leader. “I told you about him before. Pierre, this is my brother David.”

Yes, I know. Pierre sounded wry and wary at the same time, and he moved even more stiffly than usual. But he was no longer on the brink of running or attacking.

“I hope you will be willing to talk face to face later,” David said. “Possibly after full moon?”

The elder nodded slowly.

“Thank you,” David said. He listened as Greg named the other wolves, and then claimed that he needed to check on his men again. He invited Greg to come with him, though, which made Greg suspect that it was only a polite way of giving the werewolves more space.

As soon as they rounded the main hall, George Louis approached them in long strides and demanded to know: “Are you sure this camp is quite safe? These walls are soft as wax and holey as cheese, and that pack did not look tame!”

“There is no such thing as a tame werewolf,” David confirmed. “But these are still perfectly safe to be around. I would wager they were simply scared to see me?”

“Yes,” Greg said when David looked at him. “If we had known you were coming, they might have been calmer.”

“As I said, just the normal reaction of a werewolf to seeing me,” David repeated.

Greg wondered what subtext he was missing when George Louis glared at him, then back at David. “Whatever,” the duke grumbled and turned to his guide: “I want to talk to the engineers and then visit the construction site. We’ll stay no longer than strictly necessary.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” the soldier replied. “All the engineers are inside the hall, two of their numbers were severely injured. If you will follow me?”

George Louis looked less than thrilled at the prospect of visiting the wounded, but he rallied quickly. “Did the healers say if we can bother their patients? I wouldn’t want to interrupt anyone’s recovery.”

David grimaced as he looked after the duke.

“Are you going to stay longer?” Greg asked him, just as Nathan and Andrew caught up with them again.

“As long as necessary for your new friends to get comfortable around me. I’d like them to come to Deva. I’ve already spoken to Desmarais about it.”

“Can I come, too?”

David raised his eyebrows. “You don’t want to go back to the cubs? Mum complains in every letter she sends me that I’m keeping you away from your girls.”

Greg ducked his head in embarrassment. “I – kind of got tangled up with the pack,” he admitted. “It’s hard to imagine leaving them right now.”

David tugged at one of his braids. “Well, perhaps Morgulon would be willing to move to the house at Deva. It would help to have Lane closer, too, if only to stop all the other ladies from proposing. She and this Pierre, do you think they would get along?”

“I think so, yes,” Greg said. “It’ll be like two kings in the same palace, but – do you really think Desmarais would be willing to let all of us into the city?”

“He was all in favour. With all that trouble in the south, it's smart to have the city well secured, especially with these Rot-queens defeated. I haven’t asked George Louis yet,” David added, with a thin smile. “He’ll throw a fit, of course. But the danger has passed around here, hasn’t it? So there’s no reason to have a pack that large and powerful out here, once they have fixed the walls. Do you have any idea how many queens exist?”

Greg took a deep breath. “We’re safe here, yes,” he said. “Though there are more Rot-queens for sure. Every major river will have one at its source, the Savre and the Man will likely have more than one. The sites of large battles will have one each, though they might have moved elsewhere.”

“What about the Stour?” David asked. “Would Rust be able –“

Greg shook his head. “Ragna would have been in serious trouble. If it had only been the smaller of two queens, she might have been able to hold her own, but that’s the thing about them, they can raise whole armies of Rot straight out of the ground. And Rust would never be able to keep the younger wolves with him safe.”

“So how much trouble is Rust in?”

“Not too much,” Greg said. “Oh, come with me! I gotta show you something!”

David looked bemused and Nathan sniggered, but his brothers followed Greg to the room where the engineers usually had their meetings. He rummaged around until he found their maps. He picked one from the stack and spread it over the blueprints on the big table in the middle of the room.

“Here, this one has all the rivers, see? Here’s where we are, right at the Savre, between these two little sidearms. Here are the Fronthills, here would be Slopes, though it’s not marked. And here is the Stour’s source. You see? It’s less than thirty miles, directly to the west from here.”

“That’s all very interesting, Greg,” David said, a tired smile on his face. “But I don’t quite see what you’re trying to say with all this?”

“I’m saying we probably just killed the Stour’s queen. Morgulon did, in any case. I think. I’m pretty sure.”

His brothers suddenly looked at the map with a lot more interest.

“They were down here,” David said slowly, pointing at the stretch of the Stour north of Northwold. “Rust and his group, I mean. back when you guys sent word that Neville had sensed something. Easily twice as far as this camp.”

Greg nodded excitedly. “Pierre doesn’t want to say it was the Stour’s queen yet for certain,” he admitted, “but it fits! Either the snowmelt or Rust and his group woke it up – or both – but they were much further away than the werewolves of the railway! So it came here.”

“If you are correct we got this close to losing Slopes,” David said, following the line from the Stour’s well to where they were at with his index finger, then hitting the city with his thumb. “Can you imagine – which queen was the Stour’s, the dryad or the werewolf? Can you imagine what would have happened if a Rot-werewolf had raided a town like Slopes?”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Thanks for showing me this. Please, don’t tell anyone else.”

Greg shook his head. “Pierre can imagine, too. That’s why we raced to make it here before – before that happened. We crossed the Stour only a few miles below the source, and Pierre said that he couldn’t feel the queen there.”

“Some good news at last,” David said. He stared at the map some more. “Good news indeed. Mithras knows we need some.”

Greg hesitated. “Um, about the not telling anyone thing...”

David let his head fall forward, looking tired. “What happened?”

“Nothing yet. But, well, there’re a couple of journalists in the camp, and they asked to interview the werewolves. So far, they talked to Rémy, Gertrude, and Pierre, and also Rhuad and Oli. They did agree to let me see everything they write beforehand, so I can veto parts of what was said, but I think it might help if you could confirm that I’m like, officially tasked to do so? Because there are parts in Oli’s interview, where he talks about how the Rot-queen called him out of the camp, that, well, I don’t think that’ll help with making people trust us.”

“Oh. I can do that, sure.” He stared at the map a little longer. “Actually, can you note down your theory and anything else Pierre said about Rot-queens, to pass on to the scientists? I’ll check on George Louis, and then we can go talk to the press?”

“Sure. I’ll go talk to Audenne,” Greg said. “He already talked to Pierre.”

“All the better.”

Andrew stepped forward as David straightened. “Did my letter happen to reach you before you left Deva?”

David paused in surprise. He looked around the small, somewhat chaotic room, and pulled himself a chair up. “No. Only the telegrams. Close the door, Greg, will you?”

Andrew took a seat himself, and Nathan. Greg closed the door since he was closest, and then joined them at the table. Andrew summarized Eyal’s request.

When he was done, David frowned. “They want this place?” he asked, but before Andrew could explain, he answered himself: “No, I get it. They’ll have a guaranteed railway connection, the river will get cleansed sooner or later, and they already got started on clearing the forest.” He ran a hand over his braids. “I’ll talk to George Louis about this, yes. Anything else I should know? Actually, while we sit down like this, what the hell happened here?”