After only a moment, as the rest of the council wandered in, Helen slipped into the seat next to Syney and gave her a knowing smile. “Hi, there,” she said sweetly. There wasn’t much that wasn’t sweet about Helen. She was the big sister Syney never had. Her smile reached straight to her light blue eyes, the family trademark. Her dark brown hair was straight and on the longer side but kept simply.
“All right, out with it. What do you have planned for my birthday so I can squash it as quickly as I can?” Syney said.
“Nothing big, I swear. Just some friends at lunch.”
“I only have three friends.”
“I said it was small, and you’re not counting Reed. That would be four.”
Syney sighed. “Listen, I appreciate the effort and thought, but I don’t want to make a big deal out of this. I’m another year older. Big whoop.” Syney looked down at the table thinking of all of her birthdays past, including her last, with her adoptive parents in the Human Realm. It didn’t seem right to celebrate without them so she figured why celebrate at all.
“The celebration of birthdays is a big deal here. You know that. How many celebrations did you go to last year?”
“I avoided most of them.”
“Ugh. Could you at least do this for me? I need a good distraction and celebration!” Helen exclaimed before slumping in her chair.
“How are things going with you?” Syney asked slowly.
Helen sat up. “Fine. Why wouldn’t they be?”
“Oh-kay.” Syney nodded. “I’m just going to let that go.” She didn’t really want to, but she didn’t have much of a choice. Helen had been moody for the past few months, and Syney assumed it had something to do with Leaf—a thought that was just about confirmed when Leaf sat down on the other side of Syney.
Leaf and Helen exchanged tense hellos then continued to ignore each other. Syney looked back and forth between the two. She couldn’t figure out what exactly had happened, but they seemed to be fighting about something. A lover’s spat, so to speak. There were rules against different races becoming romantically linked, but these two had done it anyway—secretly of course. Syney was only one of two people who knew about the relationship, but oddly enough, neither Helen nor Leaf had come to her to talk about what obviously was bothering them. She wanted to lean over and whisper in Helen’s ear that very thing but thought better of it. Lycins’ hearing was at least fifty times better than hers, so Leaf would hear her right away. Instead she settled on writing the question on a piece of paper and slipping it to Helen as the meeting was called to order.
Helen read it and shook her head. Then she slid the note back to Syney without a response. Syney crinkled her nose and, against her better judgment, slipped it over to Leaf. After a moment he gave her his patented “you’re annoying me” look and turned back to the meeting. That was a dead end, Syney thought with sigh.
She turned her attention to Elder Thomas as he ranted about the food at the daily meals. The whole thing was absurd; Syney felt like telling him to get his own ass into the kitchen if he wanted to complain about the food being cooked for him for free by his equals—or at least his own race. The vote to reassign all the kitchen staff and choose new ones fell short but not by as large a margin as Syney would have liked. The whole idea of eating got her to thinking about the dining hall. She hated the way the royals sat upstairs while the nonroyals and Lycins were relegated to the downstairs area. But it was all in one big room with an opening in the middle. Syney had assumed it had been arranged this way so the queen could look down on those below her, but the whole logistics of the room didn’t make sense. It wasn’t very big either. At peak times of the day, some people—royal and non—found they couldn’t eat in the dining hall. There were much larger rooms in the palace, some even more centrally located. If the dining hall moved to another space, there couldn’t be an upper and a lower dining room.
“Is there anything else?” Queen Mellisandrianna asked, her tone more than bored.
“I have a question.”
All eyes fell on Syney.
“Yes?”
“While we’re on the subject of food, I was wondering about the dining hall. Has it always been where it is now?”
“No. Actually,” Helen said, “according to what I’ve read about the palace, it used to be in the Grand Ballroom. When my great-grandmother, Queen Lassandrianna took the throne, it was moved.”
“Can we move it back?” Syney asked slowly.
Mellisandrianna smiled at her—her icey smile that matched her piercing blue eyes. “But why would we want to?”
Syney smiled back. “I was just thinking about the people. The current room is rather small. I know you have your own table, but I’m sure you’ve noticed that on a daily basis people are forced to eat at different times or take their food to go. If the dining hall were in a larger room, everyone in the palace could eat at once if they wanted.”
Mellisandrianna was silent for a moment. Syney thought she could actually see her thinking. “Why the sudden interest in dining arrangements?”
“It’s not so sudden. It’s been no secret that I’m not a fan of the eating arrangements. Haven’t been since I arrived. Moving the dining hall would not only make most people happy because they could eat when they wanted but also make me happy because I don’t like looking down on people, literally.” She placed emphasis on the last part, even though she knew none was needed. She had made her point.
The vote was in Syney’s favor, barely. She knew Leaf and Helen would vote with her. She was surprised by Adanna’s yea vote and made a mental note to look into that. She also had Elder Josephina and Elder Warren’s votes, which wasn’t a surprise. They generally voted with Syney. Elder Thomas and Elder Lawrence voted against her, which also came as no surprise; they both were snobs. They liked Syney and even supported her as queen, but they believed they were above most of the people in the Village. Both queens—Lilith, head of the House of Grendalin, and Mellisandrianna—also voted against it. Neither wanted a lot of change in the palace and showed as much with their votes. But Syney had garnered a majority, which was all that was needed to pass a measure unless otherwise motioned.
Mellisandrianna’s blue eyes turned even colder than usual. “Very well. Justice,” she said, turning to her assistant, “make arrangements to move the dining hall to the Grand Ballroom.” She stood up quickly. “Is there anything else?”
No one moved an inch.
“Good.” She swept out of the room, taking full advantage of her long skirt as she always did.
Syney looked back and forth between Leaf and Helen as everyone else filed out of the room. “Pretty cool, huh?”
They nodded but gave her sad looks.
Syney rolled her eyes. “Come on, guys! I’m supposed to be here to make changes. This is a big one!”
“It is, really,” Helen said.
“But you still didn’t have the votes of almost half the council,” Leaf said quietly.
Syney frowned. “I guess I didn’t, but it just could have just been the issue.”
Helen shook her head. “It wasn’t, but it’s OK. Just means you have some more work to do. You need to get on their good side.” She stood and headed out of the room.
Syney looked at Leaf. “Do they have good sides?”
A small smile played on his lips. “Some of them do.”
“Are we gonna talk now?”
He stared at her. “About what?”
“Seriously? Come on. A very tense elephant is standing in the middle of the room, and I’m so done dancing around it. What happened with you and…you know who?”
He stood. “It’s a private matter.”
She also stood, quickly. He wasn’t getting away with that. “And I’m a friend. Whom else can you talk to?”
“No one, which sounds good,” he said with a bow. He retreated out of the room as fast as he could.
Syney watched him go. She put the two of them on her personal to-do list, which se
emed to get longer by the day. At least integrating royals and nonroyals was being slowly checked off. Only about a hundred more things to go.
Hunter sat up and sighed. For the most part, he was getting used to sleeping on the floor, while on a mission away from the Village, but he had a nagging crick in his neck that begged for a good massage. The week prior he had broken down and asked Fern, his mate, to see what she could do about it, but it felt even worse now. Lycin women were known for power and speed, both of which were a bad combination for a masseuse. He looked around the sparse tent and reviewed the day ahead of him. He wasn’t on patrol until tonight, but he still had much to do. He needed to drill the troops, especially the younger wolves. He also had to deal with the food issue. They packed rations, but he expected some hunting for fresh kill. Every day, however, he sent out a hunting party that came back empty-handed. It was as if the lands had been stripped somehow. And then there was the Cass issue. He raked his fingers through his short, curly brown hair. He still had no idea how she had weaseled her way onto his mission or why. All he knew was that she was annoying and unwanted.
The mission was simple out here. An earlier recon had shown more Shifter activity than usual, and then there had been the Daemon attack on Magic User lands. Both of these things meant the need for more protection for the Village from the other races they were at war with. But there was only so much they could do in the Village itself. Hunter had set up two squadrons of Royal Guards under his command along the Magic User/Shifter border. His goal with the mission was to see how much activity was occurring along the borders and even infiltrate the Shifter lands to possibly see what they had up their sleeves. But neither of these things had happened in the four months they’d been out here. It had been eerily quiet along the border, and Hunter still didn’t have enough faith in any of his men to send them over the line.
As Fern walked into the tent, he stood to his over six foot height and opened his trunk to find something to wear. She had been on duty the whole night and was still flushed from her transformation from wolf to human form. Her long black hair was sticking to her moist skin. She also was naked, which didn’t faze Hunter. When Lycins were on a mission in which patrolling consisted of changing into their wolf states, most of the base walked around naked at any time of the day. She stretched out her long, lean muscles, her movements more of a cat than a wolf at the moment.
“How does it look out there?” Hunter asked, pulling on a black shirt.
“Same. I thought I saw some movement a hundred yards north, but it was an animal,” she said, pulling out some clothes of her own.
Hunter looked at her. “What kind?”
“Couldn’t tell, but it was too small to hunt.”
“Damn. And it wasn’t a Shifter?”
“I’m sure.”
Hunter nodded. Although Shifters turned into many different animals, they still kept a very distinct Shifter smell. Fern turned to pull on her boots, and Hunter took the opportunity to retrieve a long leather strap from his trunk. He pulled it over his neck and slipped the end under his shirt. A familiar weight lay against his chest when he put it on.
“You should get some sleep,” he said, walking toward the entrance. The tent wasn’t large, but it was the biggest one next to the center tent, which playfully had been dubbed the “war room” by some of the younger guards because it stored the map of the area and all their surplus supplies. It was also where they held all their meetings.
“I will tonight,” Fern said, following him into the sunlight.
“You need to use more of your downtime for resting. Can’t have you burning out.”
Hunter nodded to several of the guards who were scattered around the camp. He had chosen an area that was open on only two sides. The south and west sides of the camp stood against a rock face. He also had guards stationed on the ridge above and a few meters away on the north and east sides of the camp. Their location was tactically safe and a good place to stay, but Hunter wasn’t sure that’s what he wanted to do. There wasn’t any activity, which contradicted the report the scouting party had given. He didn’t like it.
“I won’t,” Fern said. “I’ve done much worse than not sleeping for a few days.”
He stopped and looked down at her. “A few days?”
She shrugged. “I was on patrol two days ago and last night. And the night in between I didn’t get much sleep.” She gave him a small smile. “But that was worth it.”
Hunter thought he saw a light blush on her cheeks, but there was no way Fern was embarrassed; she didn’t possess the ability. He smiled back at her. “It was.”
They headed to the center of the camp. Several of the guards were gathered around a large unlit fire pit as they ate their breakfast rations. Hunter put his hand on the back of his second-in-command, Ridge. He was around Hunter’s age, which wasn’t young but not quiet old either. Officially Hunter was 120, but Lycins aged much slower than the Magic Users they protected; he personally looked to be in his thirties. Ridge wasn’t as tall as Hunter, but not by much, and his red hair stood in contrast to Hunter’s brown. Both, however, looked like typical Lycin men, with broad shoulders and lean muscles on their arms and legs.
“How’s everything?” Hunter asked.
“Good. All patrols checked in, and the day shifts went out. I put together a group to go over the border, like we talked about. I figured we could do some specialized trainings.”
Hunter nodded. “Good idea. Anything else?”
Ridge motioned with his head to a small tent to the right. “The princess wants to talk to you.”
“She’ll have to wait.”
“You’ve been saying that for a month. I don’t think she’ll take that as an answer for much longer,” Ridge said with a small laugh.
Hunter rolled his eyes. “Go get her.”
Fern scoffed. “You should send her back.”
“I tried. Somehow all the guards I send with her turn back around because she tells them to.” Hunter looked at Ridge, who walked up with Princess Cassandrianna in tow.
Cass had changed in the past four months. Her usually well-kept short black hair had grown out and looked ragged. She had dirt on her skin and clothes, which were cotton pants and shirts since the dresses she always wore in the Village weren’t conducive to living in the camp. A small body of water led out to the Great Lake only a few meters north of camp, where most of the guards went to wash up, but Cass had insisted she couldn’t under any circumstances bathe there or with other people. Fern had been the one to receive that message and nearly took the princess’s head off, or at least that was what Hunter was told. Hunter did his best to stay away from Cass and had spoken to her only once in four months, when they had first settled into camp. He made it very clear, mostly by his silence, that he wanted nothing to do with her, whether she was there or not.
Cass stopped about a foot away from Hunter and Fern and looked away quickly from a naked guard that was walking past before putting her hands on her hips. “I want to leave the camp,” she said without any hello or acknowledgment.
“Sounds good. I’ll have a guard escort you back to the Village right away,” Hunter said, turning away.
Cass ran around him to block his path. “I didn’t say I wanted to go back to the Village. I just want to be able to leave camp.”
“No.” Hunter tried to walk around her, but she again blocked him. “You do realize this isn’t a vacation, right? We’re at war with the race that’s just over those hills, and they’d gladly kill you for a good dinnertime story!”
Cass recoiled a little but held her place in front of him. “I know.” She took a deep breath and stepped closer to him. “And you should know I’m still a royal princess and…I’m sorry!” Tears sprang into her eyes at the last part. She looked away and took a jagged breath. “Just stop trying to punish me, please.”
Hunter looked at Fern and Ridge and motioned for them to leave and give him a moment with Cass. They both obeyed immediately. “
Why are you here?” Hunter asked once they were out of earshot.
Cass looked up at him, tears still in her blue eyes. “I don’t know,” she said shakily. “I just didn’t want to sit around the palace anymore.”
Hunter repeated his question. He had found that Magic Users, especially royal ones, sometimes needed prodding to tell the truth.
“Maybe I just want to punish myself,” she said, with a new edge to her voice. “And living with a bunch of wolves is the best I could do.” She threw her hands up in frustration and stalked back to her tent.
Hunter should have been nicer to Cass, especially since she was a princess, but he just couldn’t. Not when the girl had singlehandedly ruined his life. With just a few words to her mother, the queen, Cass had given away Hunter and Syney’s plan to run away together, to get away from the restricting rules of the palace and be happy together. The queen had given Hunter the choice of leading this mission or being put to death. He had taken the assignment only under the condition that Syney had no idea they had been found out. Someplace deep inside him screamed that since he moved on with everything else, he should move on with Cass as well. It seemed impossible but he had to at least try.
Fern slowly walked up. “Is everything OK?”
Hunter nodded, pulling his thoughts from things he couldn’t change. “Can you choose a female guard and go with her and Cass to the bathing spot?”
Fern hesitated but gave a curt nod.
“And…take her the long way or something. Let her stretch her legs.”
“Is that a good idea?”
“No, but I can’t keep arguing with her, and the Shifters are going to be able to smell her over the border soon.”
Deviation: Altera Realm Trilogy Book 2 Page 2