Val blinked blankly at the envelope being offered to her. The press of bodies around them as they waited at the citadel gate was making her deeply uncomfortable, this whole arrival had been an colossal fuck up so far and she was loathe to leave her post hanging at the back of Dorius covered carriage. How the paper runner boy had gotten this close between the mess of waiting commoners was beyond her.

  “You not the grey Prince?” asked the boy cheekily, holding his hand for his coin and practically shoving his delivery between her hands.

  Val raised her head and looked about for Bastian or Hart. Hart was preoccupied trying to clear some space around the carriage, yelling over the crowd as his fell beast mount sidled close to the front of the bull team and pushed men and women clear.

  “Wait your turns!” he bellowed, pushing back a group of men from nearby with his beast, “Ain’t go no faster whether you’re behind us or next to us, so get behind!”

  “Pay me or not?” demanded the boy, drawing her attention back to him.

  “Just wait,” she croaked in gruff demand and setting her fingers between her lips she gave a breathy whistle, she’d never been good at the company call. It got her quick attention though, and two Company men attended her to bring coins for the boy. She shoved the papers he’d been trying to deliver down into the gap beneath the armpit of her plate.

  “Where’s Bastian?” she demanded to one of the men quickly, giving a commoner who came slightly too close to the carriage a stony glare.

  “Gone to the front of the line to work out what the hold up is, Fae,” was the curt reply.

  “Get him,” she snapped.

  She picked up her axe from the carriage roof and beat her chest plate with the knob of the base several times, cutting through the conversation and drawing eyes to her scowling face and horns. As eyes settled on her she hefted her axe menacingly across her shoulders and leaned back from the carriage, the two men taking advantage of her distraction to push the crowd back.

  “Get back! Leave some space,” they called, the crowd splitting for one of their fell beasts as they departed to do as asked.

  In short order, Bastian pushed his way through the crowd on foot, his jaw clenched so firmly with stress Val was certain he’d crack a tooth.

  “Fucking eh!” he cursed, shouldering a man to the side as he broke through to her, “Who picked this gate?”

  The answer didn’t matter, it was obvious they’d completely underestimated the citadel. The population density was unlike anything Val had ever experienced, they would have needed at least twice the retinue they’d bought with them to have stood a chance of keeping the carriage well supervised as it passed through the limited gates of the outer walls. As it was, the line for entry at the gate they picked was a disorganized mess, and their team of ten with only four beasts and two talon steeds between them barely managed to keep the impatient crowd at a comfortable distance from the covered carriage and the four bulls strapped to the front of it.

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  Val lowered her hand down to pull Bastian up onto the footboard with her, then shoved a hand into her armpit to retrieve the papers.

  “Paper runner bought this, he knew who we have inside,” she hissed.

  “You just stuck it under your plate?” asked Bastian with a curl to the corner of his mouth.

  “Where else would I put it? Just read it for me.”

  Bastian uncrumpled the notes, and sucked his breath in as he read, “There goes our plan for a stealthy entry. We’ve been directly invited to the Royal Apartments. Oi, Elias!” Bastian gave the window at the back of the carriage a rattle. “No, not all the way, here just read this,” he ordered, grabbing the window as it began to slide to prevent it opening more than a crack and passing through the message.

  “What is happening out there?” came Dorius' voice through the gap.

  “Nothing,” snapped Bastian, “Keep the window shutters closed, we’ll be through in a bit.”

  “It doesn’t sound like nothing.”

  “Well it’s nothing!”

  “Sebastian?” that voice had been Elias.

  Bastian narrowed the window, pressing his ear to the gap. Val couldn’t overhear what was said but he turned his head and replied, “We can, but we gotta get through the gate first,” before placing his ear back to listen for the reply. Bastian frowned at whatever was said next then turned to reply a final time, “Oh I wouldn’t worry about that, you look very much the idiot who has no idea what he is getting into.” He slammed the window shut.

  Val silently waited, giving another passing group of travelers a glare. The carriage had been stuck in place now for several minutes. Bastian rubbed his eyebrows with two fingers, his face scrunched. When he put his hand down again to grab the holds used for balancing off the back of the footboard, his fingers inadvertently landed on hers. He flinched, brushed his hand against his hip, and turned from her.

  “Stay here,” he muttered, and dropped down from the footboard again.

  “Where are you going?” she asked after him.

  “Trying to get us through this bloody gate,” he called back over his shoulder.

  The window rattled again, Val hesitated, then drew it slightly open to find Dorius right at it, his eye pressed to the gap.

  “Open it properly,” he demanded.

  “Not when there are so many around,” she hissed.

  “What is happening?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Didn’t Bastian tell you?”

  Val frowned, “He’ll do his job, I don’t need to know what it is.”

  Dorius drew back from the window a bit, “Elias says we won’t be able to bring many with us to the apartments. Will you come?”

  “Of course.”