The Midnight Watch

Chapter 20

I walked the parapets in the freezing wind as the moon rose higher in the sky. When the sliver of white light was directly above me, I knew it was time. I slunk around the wall to an alcove outside the commander's tower and settled myself there. From that vantage point I could watch the entire courtyard, yet be completely invisible to anyone below. A dark figure, in dark clothes, standing in shadow.

Outside of the wall, three Shadowcats were prowling the woods in search of dinner. Nate's green eyes had met mine when he padded out of the front gate, Brylan and Niamh at his flanks. The guards had no choice but to let them go. But they would be back. They would have to be.

I almost missed the gates opening a crack. Whoever was on guard duty over there was breaking the rules. The torches weren't lit; the visitor didn't have to declare himself. A cloaked and hooded man slipped through the slight gap before they closed again on silent hinges. The king's emissary, right on time.

He traversed the courtyard in the shadows of the eaves and disappeared into the entrance to the commander's tower. I flattened my back against the stones as my wolf narrowed in on the quiet sounds inside the building.

At first I heard nothing but silence. Then, just as I began to wonder if the walls were too thick, my wolf honed in on the voices within. As clear as if they had been standing next to me, Commander Peyton welcomed his guest. But the visitor wasn't willing to observe the courtesies.

"The Queen has another week to live, if that," was the first thing he said in an all too familiar voice. Chilling and icy. I knew I recognised it from somewhere; I just couldn't quite put a finger on where.

"And the games will really begin," Peyton laughed. "I think you will live to regret your choices then, old friend."

A brief silence. "The victors write the history books."

"And you will most definitely be one of the villains when that princeling wins. Because he will. Wyatt Rochester still has no idea what makes a seventeen year-old boy such a threat."

"Kai? Dangerous? That's hard to believe," he replied.

"Oh, you don't have any idea either? Think about this. Wyatt is a perfumed lord sitting in a palace, someone few of us have ever met, much less like. But that Davengard lad... What did you call him? Kai? My point exactly. Kaeden is flesh and bone, sat beside them. He drinks and bleeds with them. He remembers their names. They believe he would fight for them, so they fight for him. I know my men."

"And women...?"

"Them, too. Who do you think the Moon Guard will pick? Wyatt Rochester, or the rightful heir who has walked among them for months? I can only do so much to convince them otherwise. And the Shadowcats? Kaeden shares blood with them. Isabel knew exactly what she was doing when she married Jeff Silveryn."

Shadowcats and the Moon Guard. And those were the two main armies in the realm, I realised. Kai hadn't thought they would support him. But Wyatt Rochester's men seemed to think differently.

"What a devious little minx that one was. I wasn't ever sure if I should love her or hate her."

"Exactly. The Llewellyns have held power for over a century. They know how to keep it."

"Kai is a boy who doesn't have the experience to win a battle, much less a war."

"No. But Isaiah Silveryn certainly does."

"We've discussed this already-" The voices became muffled as they moved into a different chamber. I hurried to follow on silent feet. I needed to hear the end of this conversation. But it was nearly a whole minute before I could get close enough again.