Chapter Twenty-One
“Seal the doors. Get the queen in the middle and make sure the windows are closed as well.”
Gunnar barged into our council meeting. I had wondered why he wasn’t present but knew there was a good reason. There had to be.
“What is happening?” I asked as the entire council flanked me. Some brandished knives or daggers. Where they kept those things, I didn’t know, but here we were.
“Bors was spotted inside the kingdom walls. We don’t know where our security was breached. We have a team chasing him down. Until we have him in custody, we’re not taking any chances.”
Leif had my wrist in a strong grip. “Should we move her to the tower?”
Daniel shook his head but didn’t move from his place near the door. His ear was pressed against it and his sword was drawn and ready. He was out of breath, and sweat beaded along the crown of his head and made tiny rivers that flowed toward his neck. “No. That’s the first place he will look for her. We keep her here. These doors are lined with silver. They will hold.”
That was news to me. Doors lined with silver. It was like I found out more and more about this kingdom every day.
Arne was behind me. His chest heaved, pressed against my back while his arms wrapped around my waist.
“Are we just supposed to wait here?” I asked. I felt like the ant queen inside a hill of testosterone and other ants willing to take a hit for me.
“We wait until we know what’s going on,” Daniel answered me. There was no Your Majesty or anything attached to his sentence as usual. He was under a heavy amount of stress. Not that I cared about that stuff in the first place.
“Okay.”
It must’ve been a half hour before a knock at the door had all of us nearly jumping out of our skin. Daniel spoke to the person on the other side.
“What are they talking about?” I asked Leif, tugging on his grip still on my wrist.
He turned to me. “They have secret questions and answers. It’s like a code. If you don’t know the code, you can’t get in.”
Secret codes and silver-lined doors. I would let it go, for now.
“I see. Well?”
Leif smiled. “It’s one of ours. They are unlocking the doors from the outside then from the inside.”
I didn’t even want to know how that worked. Security was a complicated business.
The heavy doors opened and the crowd around me moved, but only slightly. Five men came in, all of them out of breath, and by their shorts and T-shirts, I could tell they’d thrown on anything after being in wolf form. No cares about uniforms.
“Well, did you catch him?”
“Nearly. We darted into a break in the outer wall. We already have a team repairing it. Looks to us as though they created the break themselves. It was carved out and only big enough for a wolf to fit through.”
I stepped out of the crowd and after some cajoling got Leif to let go of my wrist. “And who else was with him. He spoke to me of an army. A big army.”
I didn’t know the man’s name but he turned to me. His bright-blue eyes bored into mine as he spoke. “There was no big army, Your Majesty. He had maybe a dozen wolves with him, but no one we recognized. We took out three. We intended to keep them for questioning but they were already dead.”
“At least there’s no big army. What do we do now?” I asked the group.
“We have to bump up security, big-time. I want the wall guarded around the clock. Your Majesty, we would like you in a secure room at all times. With five guards in addition to your mates. Atalltimes.”
Great. More security and more being watched. I understood it was for my own good, but it made me feel pinned down like my entire childhood had been.
“Fine,” Leif answered for me. “Whatever it takes to keep her safe.”