shared with Sylvie, was a mirror image of every other room in this wing. She couldn’t seem to relax in it, as nice as it was, but instead found herself tossing and turning in the bed.
Giving up, she threw back the covers and retreated to the miniature garden that she could see from her window.
No one else was awake, and nothing stirred. She sat on the edge of the porch, in nothing but loose pants and an oversized shirt, letting her bare feet dangle in the shallow fish pond. The cool water felt good to her aching feet. She’d been on them most of the day and her body told her in detail about how it didn’t appreciate that.
As tired as she was physically, her mind wouldn’t let her rest and insisted on going over everything said today. She’d hoped that the stillness of this moonlit garden would soothe her and her thoughts would settle, but after sitting here for several minutes, that wish proved to be in vain.
Something didn’t feel right about this.
Siobhan couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she was missing something. Something vital, at that. The reasons and theories of this afternoon made sense, certainly, but she felt that there should be something more to this. Something…with a deeper significance that would drive a guild to such desperate lengths. And it was desperate—picking a fight with three of the major guilds on two continents that could directly affect trade with all of Orin couldn’t be described as anything else. In fact, Siobhan labeled it as the plan of a madman.
But what? What could possibly be so important that it would justify hiring assassins and making enemies of major guilds?
The hallway door softly opened and closed behind her, Wolf’s familiar heavy tread making the floorboards vibrate slightly. With a muted grunt, he sat down with legs on either side of her, then put both arms around her waist, chin resting on top of her head.
Despite her heavy thoughts, she couldn’t help but smile. He only did this when he was certain no one was watching, as if embarrassed to be caught doing anything so sentimental, but she loved it when he did. Siobhan felt the weight of her duties very strongly. She had from the very first day of being guildmaster. Sometimes, like now, the weight became almost crushing. Her decisions, good or bad, directly influenced the lives around her. A careless or poorly thought-out command could cost her a friend. Thinking like this made her job hard to bear sometimes.
But whenever she hit a low point, Wolf always seemed to appear in that moment, and he would wrap her up in his arms like this. For just a few selfish moments, she leaned against his strength and let him support her completely. Siobhan let her eyes fall closed as she entrusted her body weight to him. She took in a deep breath, letting the scent of him fill her head, mixed in with the cool night air. Then she took another, and when she opened her eyes, she felt strong enough to face the world again.
"Something’s not adding up,” Wolf murmured to her lowly. “It’s troubling you.”
“And you,” she acknowledged. “If trade monopolies were really what scared them into action, then why do it this way? It doesn’t make sense. I mean, even if the plan succeeded, it would only be short term. In the long run, Blackstone and Iron Dragain would have figured out the truth. When they did, Orin would be in an even worse situation, as I can’t imagine that either guild wouldn’t exact revenge.”
He grunted agreement. “Delaying tactics, that’s what this feels like to me.”
She couldn’t help but think the same. “But delaying for what?”
“Wish I knew. This I can tell you—it has to be strong enough, somehow, to turn the tides. Orin has to think it’ll give ‘em an upper hand so no other guild can harm ‘em.”
Yes, it was that unquantified potential for power that made the marrow in her bones tremble. She cuddled in a little harder and tried not to think about it.
“Siobhan, I have to ask, what do you intend to do with Rune?”
She blinked at this question, coming from nowhere. “Do with him? Am I supposed to do something with him?”
Wolf let out a gusty sigh. “You really adopted an assassin without thinking it through? He has bad habits, dangerous habits, y’know. His first instinct will be to ignore trouble as long as it won’t