hawk & sable

CHAPTER THIRTEEN,

HAWK & SABLE | THIRTEEN

"YOU BETTER NOT make me regret this," came the princess's sigh. The Briar looked rather smug, leaning against the pillar, half-smirk dancing on her lips. Her partner, the Notus, did not seem pleased.

"You won't, I give you my word."

"You're not going to push this?" The Notus demanded, flexing his hands, as if fantasising choking both the princess and his partner to death.

Prince Ryan looked faintly amused at his friend's annoyance. "Rhys knows what she's doing."

The Notus' dark look turned to him. "Ruge."

Mockingly, said Prince replied, "Lang Jun."

Dominic Lang Jun. That was a name to store in his memory. The Arecians always wanted to know where they were finding all the wiccai for the Iron Wolves. Were they truly finding these people from the Hatlen Isles? To the rest of the world, the home islands for the wiccai were almost legendary. As someone who'd travelled there before, Laurence hadn't found much to be impressed about except in their capital, which had kept itself up-to-date with the rest of the world. The people there mostly had no interest in leaving. So where did all these young, skilled men come from?

"Boys." A hint of warning crossed Longyu's voice as she looked up from the table. "So. We take Rhys's word for it. It's not the children. How long has the scheme been operating?"

Myrina replied, quietly, "We don't know. We've tracked as far as three years ago, but the Meliqueans have always had ambitions of expanding."

"So that's useless." Longyu had stood up from her chair and was now pacing around the room. "Do we check the teenagers? The younger officials?"

"Not unless they'd logically have access to all that information," Asteria pointed out, clear-headed as always. "We shouldn't be wasting our resources right now. We need to concentrate our search before any more damage is done. My father's getting frisky. He might send in some of his men to help if this takes much longer without a lead."

Longyu flexed her jaw. Laurence watched this with interest. The princess didn't like people meddling in her business. From the Prince's face, neither did he. They've been given too much freedom, he thought. Because of the Emperor's partial retirement, they'd been given half the reins for the entire empire, and they were hungry for more. He didn't think either would attempt anything that would destabilise the Emperor, but it would be a quiet grievance they kept close to themselves.

Something to watch out for when war inevitably came. These two would want to take control by themselves. They were mature and intelligent, but possessed the rashness most young adults had.

The Meliqueans would exploit that. The Meliqueans would use the fact that the actual monarchs of both Arecia and Sai were either sickly or growing older, and that it was the younger, inexperienced people at the helm.

Ciri's voice was curt when she spoke up from the corner of the room, where she sat. "Then we must hurry. We'll all choose some targets and go investigate—"

Her voice cut off as the two Iron Wolves raised their hands, freezing. Instantly, everyone in the room fell quiet. Laurence frowned, confused, until he heard the faint sound of footsteps. Someone was coming. The steps were rushed, as if the person was running. A messenger.

The sound of knuckle rapping against the door.

"Come in," Ruge announced, leaning back in his chair, ever bit the perfect, confident prince. One of the servants walked in a moment later, back hunched.