Revolution (Chronicles of Charanthe #2)

by Rachel Cotterill

  *

  The council meeting had already started when Eleanor arrived, but the chamber was surprisingly empty.

  “Where is everyone?” she asked as she sat down.

  “We’ve sent a few men out to try and infiltrate rebel groups,” Laban said. “Which will be a very slow process, to do it safely, so we’ll be quiet for a while.”

  “Daniel was just telling us about your trip,” Ragal said. “Quite fascinating.”

  “Looks like those Tarasanka bastards are a bit more subtle than we gave them credit for,” Eleanor said. “But I’m certainly no more fond of them.”

  “You’ll need to report back to the palace,” Albert said. “I’m sure there’ll be questions.”

  “What else?” Ragal leafed through a pile of papers and handed a few pages across the table. “Daniel, these are the some of the reports you requested before your trip. And a couple of other things have come in that might be of interest.”

  “Now that Eleanor’s back, perhaps we can discuss whether Jorge has served long enough on the punishment watch,” Nicholas said. “It’s been a few months now.”

  “Tell him he can come back to normal duties the day he apologises,” Eleanor said. “He doesn’t have to mean it, but I want to hear the words.”

  “That sounds fair.” Ivan smiled. “I’ll tell him. No news yet on the state of the mountains?”

  Ragal shook his head. “Nothing yet.”

  “Well, I think that’s everything of immediate importance,” Laban said. “Are you two both happy with your new rooms?”

  “Does anyone know what happened to the rest of our stuff?” Eleanor asked.

  “I think Sebastien offered to keep your trunks in his rooms over at the academy.”

  Eleanor nodded, and squeezed Daniel’s hand under the table, though he was oblivious to her nerves. She’d been avoiding the academy since they got back, but she knew she was delaying the inevitable. Raf must know by now that they were home.

  “Shall we go now?” Daniel asked. Unable to think of any good excuse to say no, she agreed.

  There was no sign of Sebastien but they retrieved their luggage from the corner of his sitting room.

  “I’ll catch you up once I’ve unpacked,” Eleanor said as they went their separate ways, but instead of going to her room she she turned into the academy. Better to get this over with sooner rather than later.

  She found Raf sparring with Greg in the practice hall, and waited by the door until he had the younger boy pinned firmly beneath the edge of his dagger.

  “Good job,” she said, and they both turned.

  “Can you give us the room?” Raf said, offering his hand to help Greg to his feet.

  “Sure.” Greg winked at Eleanor, collected his weapons, and jogged outside.

  Eleanor and Raf stood in silence, watching one another across the room. Eleanor still didn’t know if she wanted to slap him for what he’d said or apologise for her overreaction.

  “So...” she said at last.

  “Yeah.”

  “I was an idiot,” she said, looking at her feet. “But in my defence, someone had just tried to kill me. And you sort of deserved it.”

  “I totally deserved it.” A smile spread across his face. “I’m sorry.”

  “So. Friends again?”

  He stepped across and swept her into a hug. “I never stopped being your friend, stupid.”

  “I’ve missed you,” she said as they separated.

  “I missed you too.” He hooked his arm through hers. “Why don’t you stay down here for a bit? We can train together and you can tell me what you’ve been up to.”

  “I’d love to, but I need to unpack, and then Daniel and I have to prepare a report for the palace this afternoon. Come round and see me after dinner, I’m only three doors down from Ivan.”

  “Okay.”

  “Great. See you later.” She kissed him on the cheek and turned to lift her trunk.

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to give you a hand with that?”

  “Let’s not have another fight over whether I can take care of myself,” she said, laughing. “Not so soon after making up from the last one.”

  He held his hands up in mock surrender. “Okay. See you later.”