The flickering candlelight in the small guest chamber cast elongated, dancing shapes against the mortar, mirroring the restless energy vibrating beneath her skin.
"Are you wanting to hear any more about our home, milady?" Alina asked softly. The maid asked, setting down the comb after she organised Eris's hair with gentle maternal affection.
"Yes, of course," Eris replied, her jaw setting with a sharp, audible click. She forced her back into a rigid line of regal defiance. "You must tell me the truth and share all the information you have without withholding anything back. Do not protect my feelings, for I am a Princess of the Margay, and I need to know exactly what is happening to my people."
Alina hesitated, a flicker of uncertainty crossing her exhausted face. "It is becoming very difficult for us to hate the leader, Warrior Roy," she confessed, her voice trailing off into yet another high-pitched, inappropriate giggle that made Eris's stomach churn.
Eris stiffened as if she had been struck. "It is a sin to hate, and for that reason alone, we must strive to keep our hearts pure from such poison," she stated, her voice trembling with repressed fury. "We must not hate the bastards who have invaded our lands and shackled our future. However," she added, a sharp, clinical nod of approval punctuating her words, "we can thoroughly dislike them. We can despise their every breath, loathe their presence in our halls, and pray for the Goddess to cast them back into the dirt from where they came."
The maid nodded, though her expression remained deeply conflicted, her eyes downcast. "But even that is difficult to do," she wailed, her voice sounding as bleak and hollow as the gale-force winds battering the Shrine's exterior. "He called all of us together before him in the great hall. We were terrified, milady. We hid Otis in the back, behind the taller males, thinking that once the warrior saw him, he would be reminded of how Otis had boldly lied to his face about you being a twin. We expected blood. We expected the executioner's block or the dungeon."
Alina took a deep, shuddering breath, pressing a hand against her chest as if to keep her heart from leaping out. "And do you want to know what happened, milady? Warrior Roy didn't call for the executioner. He didn't even raise his hand. He called the meeting specifically to praise Otis for defending his mistress even in such dire circumstances. He told the entire keep that a male who risks his own life for his people is a male of supreme honour. The warrior asked him to kneel and give him a pledge of loyalty. He didn't demand it at the point of a sword or the threat of the lash. He asked!"
A heavy silence settled between them. Eris felt the air in the room grow thick and difficult to swallow.
"The warrior even helped Otis to his feet after the old male gave his oath," Alina continued, her eyes wide with a strange, burgeoning respect. "We were all muddled over his kindness. We all thought he would be wanting Otis's head on a spike to serve as a warning, not his loyalty."
"Well, who truly knows what that feral beast actually wants?" Eris said, shrugging with a nonchalance she was far from feeling. In the privacy of her mind, she saw him—the towering silhouette of the Black Panther, those piercing purple eyes that seemed to peel back her skin and read the secrets written on her bones.
Just the memory of his proximity made her face flush a vivid, betraying pink. She bit the inside of her cheek, wondering what on earth was wrong with her. Why did her pulse quicken at the mention of the man who had effectively ended her world as she knew it?
Pressing her thighs together, rubbing them in a nervous motion, she took a deep breath. 'No, calm yourself you fool. You are a princess, a dignified and well respected princess, you do not lust after a male like some slut,' she thought.
"Warrior Roy also never raises his voice," Alina chattered on, oblivious to her mistress's internal turmoil. "Clarise says it is because he is older and wiser, though certainly not as old as his friend, Warrior Hudson. Why, just yesterday, I was so flustered that I spilled a bowl of steaming hot stew right on Warrior Roy's boots! I closed my eyes and waited for the blow, for the roar of anger... but it never came. He didn't raise his hand, nor his voice. He just calmly moved to another spot at the table and continued his conversation with Warrior Hudson, waving me away as if I were nothing more than a stray breeze. He didn't even look annoyed."
Eris was growing weary of a long list of Roy's virtues. Every word was a testament to how effectively the warrior was winning over the hearts of those she was supposed to protect.
The brute might be devilishly handsome, with a voice like rolling thunder and a heart of tempered metal, but he was still the predator who had snatched her kingdom. She could not sit there and participate in her maid's enthusiastic admiration a moment longer.
In a desperate attempt to steer the conversation away from the Black Panther's supposed nobility, she asked, "And how is Warrior Hudson? Is he recovering well from the fever? Or is he still a drain on our resources?"
"Singing your praises, milady!" Alina answered, her eyes brightening with a fresh wave of gossip. "He told Warrior Roy that it was you who truly saved him. He told everyone that you were the one who sat by his side during the darkest nights when he was bedridden and raving with the sickness. He remembers you holding damp, cold cloths to his temples and offering him comfort when he thought he was at death's door."
"I did not offer him comfort," Eris interrupted, her voice emphatic and sharp. "I was merely performing a duty. The healers here are aged; they lack the stamina to sit through the night watches. I was already at my brother Timo's side in the infirmary, and I only added Hudson to my rounds because it was convenient. That is all. It was a matter of logistics, not kindness."
"Warrior Hudson has said time and time again that you have a heart of gold, mistress. Now, don't frown; it is the truth! He also tells everyone who will listen that you beat him fair and square—and remarkably fast—at chess, over and over again. He says your mind is sharper than any blade he's ever faced."
Eris couldn't suppress a small, bitter smile. "Hudson was bored. He was confined to a bed like a caged beast. We played chess to alleviate his boredom and keep him from harassing the healers. I played to aid the staff, not because I had any desire to entertain an invader."
"Warrior Hudson smiles whenever he speaks of you," Alina noted, her tone turning more somber. "However, he and Warrior Roy both turn fierce and scowling when they speak about your brother, Timo. Hudson told Roy about how your brother threw the tray of healing tonics at you in a fit of rage. Warrior Roy's face went dark as a winter storm when he heard that. He is a pure fright when he scowls, isn't he? It's enough to stop a man's heart."
"I didn't notice," Eris replied quickly, though the lie tasted like ash. She remembered the sheer gravity of Roy's presence, the way the room seemed to shrink when he was displeased.
"Neither of those warriors could possibly understand the torment Timo is going through," she whispered, her eyes clouding with a sudden, sharp grief. "They see a broken soldier; I see a brother who has lost his purpose. Now, please... tell me about Uri. How is my dear nephew?"
"Oh... right! About Uri..." Alina's smile was bittersweet, a mix of genuine affection and lingering worry. "Uri has been quite a handful, milady. He has taken to playing hide and seek now, running all through the keep on those sturdy little legs. He is growing so fast, it's a wonder to see. Another tooth looks like it'll be popping through soon, given how much he's been chewing on everything in sight. In no time at all, he'll be making his first shift into his soft form, I'm sure of it!"
"Isn't it too soon?" Eris asked, her heart clenching. A cub's first shift was a sacred, vulnerable time, usually overseen by the family.
"Not at all, he is doing exactly what cubs should be doing at his tender age. You'll have to trust me on this one, milady, especially since you haven't been around many cubs before this." Alina reached out, patting Eris's hand. "You made the right decision, leaving him at the keep. We didn't know if you'd be caught or harmed on the way to the Shrine. At the keep, Uri is growing strong and healthy. He is just..."
"Just what?" Eris sat on the very edge of her seat, her breath hitching. "Alina, tell me."
"He is just... very attached to Warrior Roy at the moment."
The words hit Eris like a physical blow. She felt the world around her shatter into a thousand jagged pieces. "He is attached?" she whispered, her voice barely audible. "To the invader's leader? To the man who took his heritage?"
Alina chewed on her lower lip, trying to offer a supportive smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "He follows him everywhere, milady. Like a shadow. And the warrior... he lets him."
Eris felt her entire body begin to vibrate with a cold, crystalline rage. She had left her beloved nephew behind so he would be safe and provided for, not so he could be enamoured by some rogue beast of a male who lacked empathy for those he conquered.
The thought of Uri, innocent, sweet Uri, looking up to Roy as a father figure was more than she could bear.
Before she could verbalise the scream building in her throat, Alina took it as a sign to leave. The maid stood up, smoothing her skirts. "I best be leaving now, milady. I promised the soldiers escorting me that I would be back before the shift change. It's best not to give them any reason to distrust me, or I'm afraid I won't be allowed to bring you news so often."
Eris swallowed the bile in her throat and forced herself to stand. She walked Alina to the heavy iron-reinforced gates of the Shrine, her movements wooden. She hugged the maid servant goodbye, the scent of home lavender and woodsmoke clinging to Alina's clothes.
Watching the older woman disappear into the treeline with a small detachment of Claw Kingdom soldiers, Eris felt hot, unshed tears prick at her eyes. Her family was fractured, her home was renamed and repurposed, her servants were being seduced by 'kindness,' and now her own nephew had been claimed by the devilish male who had orchestrated it all.
'I should've taken his life when I had the chance,' she hissed to the wind, her voice a low, lethal promise. 'I should have buried my blade in his throat while he was distracted.'
A violent shiver racked through her small frame. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders, huddling into her robes as a sudden, frigid gust of wind swept through the courtyard. Today felt ominous. It was as if the very heavens had read her sour mood and decided to mirror it with a gathering storm.
As she turned to walk back into the depths of the Shrine, she found her mind circling back to Roy's threat. He had promised to remove her from her sanctuary. He had said she would come out willingly. The arrogance of the man was staggering, yet she couldn't help but wonder what card he had left to play.
Walking back up the grand stone stairs, her thoughts were interrupted by a flurry of activity. She heard the frantic chattering of voices coming from the small group of healers crowded around a narrow, rectangular window that overlooked the valley and the main path to the Shrine.
'What's going on?' she wondered, her curiosity momentarily overriding her grief. She hiked up her skirts and joined the crowd, her heart beginning to pound with a renewed sense of alarm.
She peered over the shoulder of an elderly healer, her eyes searching the landscape below.
Her heart dropped.