9th Waiwod

The sun was setting on the castle in Daetus City when the messenger rode through the gates, his horse sweaty and breathing hard.

He’d come as fast as he could from Heartpin with his message for the Duchess. He didn’t relish giving it to her but it was his job. Who else would do it? His elderly mentor?

No, it was now Chaellen’s job to deliver the messages out of Heartpin. Nimes could handle things within the town and the farmlands, but an extended ride to Daetus couldn’t be made so quickly by the older man.

Chaellen slowed his horse to a walk as he approached the stable. A stablehand was already coming out to meet him.

“Evenin’, Messenger,” the woman said, grabbing the horse’s reins from him. Chaellen graced her with a smile and thanked her for taking his horse, for he had urgent news for the Duchess.

“Of course,” she said, smiling back, a small blush rising on her cheeks. She was quite fetching. Perhaps Chaellen would seek her out tonight. “Your ride will be well-attended.” Her smile turned a bit wicked and he thought he saw her wink before she led his horse away.

Yes, he’d definitely seek her out tonight.

Clearing his throat and straightening his uniform, Chaellen strode into the castle.

She was curled in her chair, looking through her fingers to the walls, where the light from the torches played together like fairies. She smiled at their antics, a show put on just for her, Duchess of Min.

Innis stretched, then, uncurling her body like fiddleheads into ferns. Just another twenty minutes before she could retire for dinner and the receiving room was so drafty!

“Bring me a blanket,” she said to her aide and a few moments later Innis had a thick wolf fur wrapped around her legs, keeping her warm while she waited. It was high quality; made by her cousin the hunter. She loved the fur as much as she loved him, which was to say, quite a bit.

She hated having to sit and listen to petitioners all day. Luckily the day was almost over. She was so bored with it all. Commoners are so common, she thought; then giggled, a bit madly.

She’d learned, early on in her education, to keep those sorts of thoughts to herself. But she could not hold back her laughter, small expressions of what she was lacking within.

Innis looked to her right. Her advisor sat beside her.

He was a strange man. So pale, compared to most Minae. His face was pinched and worn, as it had been for as long as he’d been here. That was a long time. He’d been the advisor for Innis’ father, the Duke Dryrr, and for Innis’ grandmother, Duchess Maeaneth, before Dryrr. There wasn’t a time in Innis’ family that this man had not sat by their side, advising them how best to rule Min.

Legend said he’d been around since the very founding of Daetus City itself. That he’d helped stop the wolf invasion, and saved her people.

She didn’t know if any of that was true. She did know that she couldn’t rule without him.

As if he sensed her looking at him, he turned, his black eyes raking her face. She never found him scary, as some did; so she smiled at him in a fashion she thought pretty.

“My lady?” Shailn raised his black eyebrows above the black lifeless orbs in his face. His teeth were white and pointed; his tongue colourless, caressing his chapped lips.

Innis wrinkled her nose. “I’m bored.”

Footsteps clattered at the entrance to the hall and the announcer boomed out: “Messenger for the Duchess Innis!”

Innis sat up in her chair and clapped her hands together. “Is it from my cousin? Tell me it is! I miss him so!”

The messenger came up before her chair, swallowing nervously. His uniform marked him as a resident of Heartpin Town. It had to be a message from Kaz!

She smiled eagerly at the messenger, who only coughed and shuffled his feet. “Well, out with it!” she said, impatiently.

The messenger bowed. “Chaellen from Heartpin, Your Grace,” he said formally but unnecessarily. As if she cared about the man’s name! She waved her hand, telling him to get on with it.

He coughed again. Innis jerked back in her seat, suddenly wondering if the man had the plague. She motioned to her guards, and they came forward, making the man move a few steps further away from the Duchess’ chair.

“Apologies, Your Grace. My throat is a bit dry.” Without her ordering it, a guard went to fetch the messenger a mug of water. She tried not to roll her eyes.

“I’m getting bored,” she said again, a whine creeping into her voice. She thought she heard Shailn laugh at that; that dry, huffing sound that was his expression of amusement.

The messenger decided to go on without the water. A good plan, Innis thought. The man was smarter than he appeared. “Innis, I bring news from your family in Heartpin.” Innis held her breath in excitement. Was Kaz coming to visit her? Oh, she hoped so!

The look on the messenger’s face turned to one of dread. “Your cousin was found in Steelmint Forest. Murdered.”

The messenger continued to speak but Innis heard none of it. The buzzing was back now, in her ears; it eclipsed all else. She sat numbly until it turned into a scream of anguish that erupted from her throat.

Silence rang. She thought someone coughed out, “Off with his head;” though whether it was she or Shailn she didn’t know. The messenger’s screams for mercy rent the air as the guards dragged him away but Innis was already far within herself, spiraling down, down, down into despair.

She curled up and fell off her chair to the ground below, fainting. Again.

Pinla was taking care of the horses, looking forward to that night, when the smell reached her sensitive nose.

Death, and the messenger.

Dammit. The Duchess’ wild mood swings had got the better of the messenger from Heartpin. There went Pinla’s best chance at information from the north-west.

She finished her work, making sure to tell her replacement all he’d need to know for the night shift. Bundling up in her shawl, Pinla left the castle grounds, heading for her humble house on the outskirts of Daetus City.

The city was walled, of course. She hated that. So trapped, all the time trapped.

But she’d managed to find a nice little place that had a garden, of all things, and a tree in the backyard. It wasn’t what she was used to but it was something. The old woman who lived in the cottage had needed a caretaker, someone who could do basic tasks around the house and in the garden out back. It wasn’t a time-intensive job and the old woman basically took care of herself, so for meals and a room Pinla happily worked there when not at her stablehand job at the castle.

That job had not been as easily won.

The Duchess Innis was suspicious of all. Each applicant to any job at the castle was thoroughly vetted. Lucky for Pinla, she looked Minae and the Duchy had insufficient resources to uncover her true identity.

Her house was up against the wall, on the northwest end of the city. An iron fence surrounded the cottage and its grounds. Snow rested on the roof and on the garden, lightly dusting whatever part of the fence it could stick to.

With hands used to much colder temperatures than these, Pinla opened the gate and walked through. It creaked and she took note of that, realizing she’d need to oil it soon. The pathway had been shoveled that morning, by her, and she’d done a thorough job.

Couldn’t have her roommate slipping and breaking her back. That would reflect most poorly on the stablehand.

Frouterai was sitting in front of the fireplace when Pinla entered. Pinla greeted the old woman and went to get some dinner. It was so warm in this house. It was so warm in Daetus City. She sweated, an interesting sensation, as she pulled the chicken off the stove to dish out some for herself.

Frouterai was a good cook. That was nice, for Pinla could not cook at all. She’d never had to before.

She sat and was social with Frouterai, making the woman smile. That part she considered as part of her job as much as anything else. She wasn’t used to being social and she didn’t frankly like the Minae enough to want to be. But if Frouterai was happy with her, then she could remain invisible.

That was most important.

After dinner, Pinla headed out to the garden. It was past nightfall but she had better night-vision than most others and the plants had be taken care of every day if they were to survive the winter. Besides, Frouterai had a lantern that Pinla could use.

A fading circle of yellow light came from where she hung the lantern and she worked quickly. She was not cold but she was tired and wished to head to bed as soon as possible.

“Caw!”

Pinla’s head snapped up. In the tree, a raven sat. It looked directly at her and she stopped her work, ready to receive the message.

The raven’s voice, scratchy and screechy, came into her head. The Steelmint packs are on the move. They head to Thaen.

With a flurry of wings, the raven was gone.

Pinla’s hearts beat out a terrified tattoo. She knew, with piercing clarity, that whatever message the Heartpin man had brought was directly related to this news.

One truth that Pinla knew, without a doubt, pulsed in her mind like a star in the deep, dark heavens.

Min would soon launch war on Thaen. And she could not stop it.

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