Till Death Do Us Part

17. I Have a Bad Feeling About This

Skylar's shoes drummed the steady rhythm with the heels as she walked through the palace hallways. The heads were turning as she passed, and the nobles were whispering, not even trying to cover their mocking smiles. At this point, she didn't pay them any attention. She had more pressing matters to attend to.

Her new sword was hanging proudly and openly at her belt, and her black and red army uniform was crisp and fitting perfectly to her feminine figure. Master Bailey was beyond happy when she asked him to design the first-ever female army uniforms.

It'd been already two months since she was appointed the Lieutenant. At first, everyone looked at her as if she had lost her mind, even the soldiers. But they learnt very quickly that even though Skylar was a woman, she was not a stranger to the ways of how the military worked. After the first few spectacular duels, the soldiers treated her like she always belonged to the army.

The nobles were harder to convince, but Skylar didn't care much for their opinions or the gossip they spread about her. She was doing what she was best at and couldn't be happier.

Skylar reached the War Council chamber, and the guards at the door straightened and saluted her. She nodded to them and entered the room. A huge round table was covered by maps and tokens signifying military forces belonging to different noble families. Gawyn and Alarat broke their conversation and looked up at her.

"Lord General. Your Highness." Skylar saluted.

"Lieutenant," Gawyn nodded briefly. "At ease. I hope you brought good news."

"Yes, sir," she replied without batting an eye.

"Gods! Are you talking at home like this too?" the Queen asked mockingly from her seat at the window.

"We are on an official business, my love. That's what soldiers do," the King said calmly to his wife. "Please continue, Lieutenant."

"Battalions Fourth and Fifth are fully prepared for mobilisation. All soldiers were trained to face the Blighted Lands creatures and equipped in all basic protection charms and wraiths repellers."

"Good. That means we have twenty-five hundred soldiers ready to march east any day." Gawyn nodded and looked at the King. "We need to start moving them soon. The recent reports from Shawcross warn about unusually high activity at the border."

"Yes, you have my permission to proceed whenever you feel it's necessary."

"Are we certain we should act this hastily, your Majesty?" asked an older gentleman sitting at the table. He was an elected deputy chosen by all the noble families as the King's Advisor. After the War of Crowns and the failure of the previous king to manage the kingdom of Lamyria properly, the position was established to make sure the noble families were aware of any possible shortcomings in the government. "There are still no signs of upcoming invasion, and some of the noble families are still sceptical regarding handing you command over their armies."

"Do you think the Blighted Lands will send us a formal notification with a date they want to invade our kingdom?" the King asked pointedly. "We have to be ready for them. There's no way around it. As we've already had five battalions fully prepared, I say it's high time to move them."

"I'll see it's done." Gawyn nodded. "However, I would suggest leaving two of them in the capital in case of... any other disturbances."

"Disturbances?" the Queen asked with raised brows. "What kind of disturbances, Lord General? Are we expecting any troubles in our city?"

"It's just a precaution, your Majesty," replied the General calmly. "It is not wise to send away all our most experienced and trusted forces and leave only a skeletal garrison to guard the base of operations."