Lovely Dark Things

TWENTY-NINE (ISELEN POV)

But I did care... Ruby was up there with her former lover and I couldn't help feeling jealous, after all, my life depends on the Assassin considering me special, interesting and fascinating instead of a boring human, otherwise she won't want to be my bodyguard anymore. If she leaves me, I'll die. No one would take my safety so seriously, no matter if the Queen herself orders it, no one feels that special bond with me in this frozen kingdom. A shy ray of sun lit up a little stream running in the distance and I couldn't help smiling when an idea made its way through my mind. I decided that it was about time for the Advisor of the Lady of the Dark Elves to do her job and Sryne could go to hell.

*****

"... it depends on the soldiers we have available. If we attack this area..."

"Bullshit..." I whisper walking in the small room and taking a look at the map hanging on the wall that Sryne is pointing at out of the corner of my eye. The beautiful elven woman blinks shocked but also confused, she doesn't know the word I grumbled in my language, obviously... luckily for me or I'd be dead now. Maybe Ruby will kill me after all, she doesn't look very happy while I'm here being the centre of attention again, and she tilts her head to one side abruptly ordering me to leave. I'm not going, of course, I've crawled through this frozen land day and night till all the muscles in my body hurt... I'm not going to sit idly after all that great effort.

"Sorry, Iselen, you were saying?" Argyle asks smiling amused, it's pretty obvious he can feel the tension in the atmosphere and is having the time of his life looking at Sryne frowning and Ruby clenching her jaw.

"I said I have the solution to our problem," I answer with a firm tone of voice staring at the Captain sitting at the head of the table. There's a handful of lieutenants he trusts here and three Brides of the God of War with their Lady... we're a dozen of people here and yet, the room feels crowded, they even opened a window because it's getting hot in here with the fireplace.

"I'd love to hear your plan," Ruby's father answers ignoring Sryne offended look. "You're good at designing weapons... I want to know if you're good at military strategy too." I can't help chuckling while dropping a roll of paper on the table and pushing it to unroll it.

"This was my job, Terrible Lord, before coming to Baalberith." Ruby fidgets on her seat nervously while staring at me angrily and I realize she hasn't told anyone that I was a military history professor, actually no one in this room knows how valuable my knowledge is, not even the Queen knows it, probably... I guess this way her way to protect me and I'm ruining it again exposing myself too much, drawing attention, exactly the thing she told me not to do.

"Okay, let's hear all about that human strategy..." The Head of the God of War's Brides walks back to her seat and looks at me disdainfully, her tone of voice shows that she believes this is a waste of time... Damn bitch... I'm sick of lowering my head, sick of elves treating me like I'm a worm, sick of my bodyguard scolding me nonstop... I'm supposed to be here to improve the lives of this bunch of unbearable idiots and the only thing I ask in return is a little bit of respect... and no one stabbing my back with a knife.

"If you'd be kind enough to take a look at this drawing," I whisper pointing at the roll of paper keeping a professional and neutral tone of voice. "This battle plan is the result of mixing two different ones together, one of them was carried out successfully by one of the best warriors in my country centuries ago, the other one is actually a combat technique perfect to fight on the snow that the troops of a king invented a few years later... This is the fortress, there's a wide and clear area in front of it that would be a great battlefield for two armies, but there's a little stream running on this side through a not very deep ravine."