Rule of Wolves (King of Scars #2) - Leigh Bardugo Page 0,80

so much colder out here than we expected. Can’t you have one of your soldiers take us back to the kennels?”

“Hanne, you should have dressed for the weather.”

“I told you Mila needed a new cloak, didn’t I?”

“I’m f-fine,” Nina said, offering a brave, trembling smile as she shivered.

“Silly girls,” said Brum, his gaze lingering on Nina in a way that made her stomach turn. “I’ll take you back myself.”

Hanne stiffened. “Won’t it be perceived as an insult to the prince’s hunt?”

“The prince isn’t riding. Why should I?”

So he wanted to insult the crown. Seeing the prince embarrassed by his mother had emboldened him.

Nina tried to gather her focus as she and Hanne followed Brum back to the ringwall. Was Rasmus a lost cause? She’d thought healing the prince was a good thing, that a strong Rasmus might find it easier to stand against Fjerda’s drive toward war. She wanted to believe that could still be the case. There had to be an alternative to Brum’s violence. But she couldn’t stop seeing the red marks on Joran’s cheek, the ferocity in his eyes. There had been rage there, shame, and something else. Nina didn’t know what.

Get your head on straight, Zenik, she told herself. She would have one opportunity to find the letters in Brum’s office, and she’d need her wits about her to make the most of this chance.

It was even colder in the shadow of the ringwall, and Nina didn’t have to pretend to shiver as they approached the drüskelle gate. She’d never stood at the base of the Ice Court walls before. She’d been brought in hooded as a prisoner once, and she’d left by an underground river—nearly drowning in the process. She looked up and saw gunmen guarding the huge portcullis gate. She could hear the wolves in their kennels, their howls rising. Maybe they were like those Shu soldiers engineered to sniff out Grisha. Maybe they knew she was coming.

You’ve been living beneath the roof of the country’s most notorious witchhunter for months, she reminded herself. But this felt different, as if she were willingly walking into a cell and she’d have only herself to blame when the door slammed shut behind her.

They passed beneath the colossal arch and into the courtyard lined with kennels.

“Tigen, tigen,” Brum crooned as he approached the cages on the right, where the largest of the white wolves leapt and snapped at the air. Wolves trained to fight alongside their masters, to help them hunt down Grisha. The animals took no notice of Brum’s soothing words, growling and snarling, pressing against the wire fences. “You can smell the hunt, eh, Devjer? Don’t be afraid, Mila,” he said with a laugh. “They can’t get you.”

She thought of Trassel, Matthias’ wolf, with his scarred eye and huge jaws. He’d saved her life and she’d helped him find his pack.

She took a step toward the fences, then another. One of the wolves began to whine and then the animals fell silent, going to their bellies, resting their heads on their paws.

“Strange,” said Brum, his brow furrowing. “I’ve never seen them do that before.”

“They must not be used to having women here,” said Hanne hurriedly, but her eyes were startled.

Do you know me? Nina wondered as the wolves whimpered softly. Do you know Trassel watched over me? Do you know I walk with death?

Brum knelt by the cages. “Even so—”

An alarm began to ring, a high, staccato sound that rattled the air.

A shout came from the guardhouse. “Commander Brum! Red protocol!”

“Where was it triggered?” demanded Brum.

“Prison sector.”

Sector breach. And right on time. The night she’d hatched her plans with Hanne, she’d tossed a handful of special salts into the fire, so that they would send a burst of red smoke into the sky above the Ice Court—a signal to the Hringsa lookout posted nearby. The network hadn’t been able to get a servant into Brum’s quarters, but Nina was able to pass information to one of the gardeners, who had served as a messenger and informant. She needed a distraction, a big one, at just after ten bells. They’d delivered, but she couldn’t be certain how much time she had.

Brum’s men lined up behind him, rifles in hand, clubs and whips at the ready. “Stay here,” he told Hanne. “The guards will remain posted on the ringwall.”

“What’s happening?” Nina cried.

“There’s some kind of disturbance. Most likely it’s nothing. I’ll be back in no time.”

Nina forced tears to fill her eyes. “You can’t just leave us