A/N:

I'm back! And I bring gifts… and updating schedule! Yeah! I will try to get a chapter up every week. (So we'll see how long that lasts.) I hope you are all well and Covid isn't getting you too down.

Aelin:

Dinner later that night was a disaster of epic proportions. Not that there were any problems between the Cadre and Aelin's other friends. It was just that… Well… Aedion, Dorian, Aelin and Lysandra were exchanging lewd jokes that made the courtiers gasp and some of the noblewomen fan their faces like they were about to faint. Lorcan and Rowan were brooding like the vultures they were. Nehemia and Elide were locked in quiet conversation. (That fact seemed to concern everyone more than anything else. Even the King was throwing them nervous looks.) (To be fair. The might very well be plotting his downfall.)

Ansel and Fenrys had not yet made an appearance and Aelin had to wonder what in the name of Mala they were doing.

She speared another piece of steak on her fork and pushed out her chair so she could prop her boots on the table. The king stood up with a start. His cutlery clattering down on his plate. His voice was strained and long-suffering when he said, "I would like to welcome our esteemed guests from Terrasen." His voice conveyed neither welcome nor respect. "Thank you for coming to aid us in this war." He raised his glass and his courtiers followed his example. Lifting high crystal goblets of wine. They drank.

Aelin stood too. Placing her goblet down and clearing her throat. "My lord." She said with a sweet smile. Rowan buried his face in a hand. Aedion muttered something that sounded like, 'shit stirrer.'

Aelin ignored them, "Thank you for honouring us with this fine meal." She made a show of fluttering her eyes. "I just want to tell you what a pleasure it is to be back in Adarlan. We are so grateful that you agreed to host us during this time of crisis." She dropped her voice dramatically.

"Times are dark and now more than ever, we must stick together."

She raised her glass again. "Thank you."

She retook her seat, placing her hand on Rowan's knee under the table. He still had his face smashed into his palm. The king opened his mouth to say something, maybe thank her for her speech, maybe to curse her to hell, but right then the doors burst open and Ansel of Briarcliff strode in. A newly human and thankfully clothed, Fenrys on her heels.

The king sank back into his seat with a disheartened expression, looking for all the world like he wished they would all vanish into thin air.

"You started dinner without me?" Ansel faked hurt.

Aelin gave her a shit eating grin that made some of the courtiers quake in their ridiculously gaudy gowns. "Of course not. I saved you a seat." She motioned for Aedion, sitting on her other side, to move.

He did so grudgingly, but with little resistance.

The two girls shared a smile. They looked strange together. The pale haired beauty and the red headed warrior. The angel with her halo and the devil with her forked silver tongue.

Of all of her friends, Aelin mused, Ansel may very well be the most dangerous. She had a rough upbringing. Her best friend- murdered by an Irontooth Witch. When she was twelve, her father and sister, killed by a conquering tyrant.

She had then been chased into the arms of the Silent Assassins of the Red Desert. It was clear to Aelin that it never would have worked out, the girl had a sharp tongue and the wits to back it up.

She wasn't as smart as Elide or gifted like Lysandra but there was a fire that burned behind her eyes, fueled by her loss and pain. It was quite like Aelin's flames, quite like the red of Ansel's hair, hot and consuming. Dangerous.

Ansel slid into the seat and Fenrys took up occupation of one down the far end of the table, next to Chaol and the two immediately struck up an argument. Probably about the best way to disembowel a man. Strike that. That is most definitely what it was about.

"Where do we go from here?" Aelin asked her friend quietly so the others sitting at the dinner table could not hear them. "I didn't actually think about that part."

Ansel looked like she was holding back a smirk, but remained somewhat sober. "I talked to Dorian just before. The army is now in the Western Wastes. They landed in the Gulf of Oro, went through the Bogdano Jungle and they're now just outside the White Fang Mountains, on the border between the Wastes and Adarlan. The Adarlian armies are holding them back. Barely." The tone she used when she said that was derisive and mocking. And suddenly, Aelin realised why they had brought Ansel in. She was lethal, a killing machine. No mercy, no remorse. When the Adarlian Armies inevitably failed, Ansel would fight, and die. But you could be sure that she would take at least half of the opposing forces with her.

"I got here just before they reached the Mountains, I'm cut off from the wastes now. I can't return home." Ansel continued, unaware of Aelin's inner turmoil.

The two continued their discussion through the rest of dinner, and when the meal was over, they headed for the war room, the others departing for the guest chambers where Aelin and her Cadre were staying. After they had picked up a few things, they headed that way too, steps slow, both dreading what was to come next.

The rest of the group were already there waiting for them.

They all gathered in the gaming room, somber and serious. All the jesting and smiling from that evening's meal was gone.

Lorcan brooded in the back of the room, his eyes never leaving Elide as she sat at the table, staring at the page of a book.

Lysandra was turning a pool cue over and over in her hands, looking alarmingly like she was debating hitting someone over the head with it. Aedion was juggling the balls.

Dorian and Chaol were having an intense game of paper-scissors-rock, gods knew why. Nehemia was standing behind Elide's chair, occasionally pointing things out on the pages.

Fenrys greeted them at the door like the big puppy he was. "This is so depressing." He moaned, "Everybody's brooding and I think Rowan has developed separation anxiety from the five seconds that Aelin was out of his sight."

Rowan rolled his eyes as he came towards them, kissing Aelin sweetly on the cheek and baring his teeth at Fenrys. The younger fae shut up and proceeded to all but plaster himself to Ansel's back.

"It's like he actually is a puppy." Rowan muttered in Aelin's ear, making her laugh.

Ansel spread the maps and tokens over the table. Elide and Nehemia stood up to help her lay them out- Ansel directing them.

When the table was set, they all gathered round. Crowding and jostling for space.

Nehemia pointed to a spot on the table, just on the edge of the Western Wastes. "This is where the army is now."

Aedion held up a hand. "Wait a second. Can you first tell us where the army is from? Rhoe was very secretive about it all."

"As far as we know, the army came from the West." Nehemia said. "My mother managed to get a message to Wendlyn, they identified the only mapped country down there."

She turned the book around on the table, stabbing a finger at the pages. " Gailemara."

The picture in the book showed rocky mountains with vicious jagged peaks.

"It's their territory." Elide realised. "The mountains, it's why they picked that particular spot. They could have entered Adarlan from anywhere. They could have gone through Eyllwe. They also could have gone straight into Adarlian territory," Elide pointed a finger towards the map. "Here."

Rowan leant over the table, eyes scanning. "They had no need to go to the jungle. Or the Wastes.

They picked that spot because they know the terrain. There." Rowan touched another spot on the map. "This would be the place they attack. The most dangerous, wild. They know how to fight there, we don't."

"But.." Aedion broke off for a second. "If the armies are fighting in the Western Wastes right now. Then they intend to push us back into the mountains. They aren't expecting a surrender."
They all shared a moment of silence, struck by the realisation.
"They haven't come to conquer." Lysandra said. "They came to kill."

Aelin pointed to the black tokens on the board. "These are the opposing armies?"

Ansel nodded, "And this is us." She nodded at the pale blue tokens.

"It doesn't make sense." Dorian said. "Even if they wanted to trap us in the mountains, they could have come from here". He tapped another spot, just on the border between Eyllwe and Ardarlan. " They didn't need to go through the wastes."

Ansel leaned over the map, hair falling in her scarred face. "Unless… unless, Ardarlan isn't their target."

Fenrys too moved in closer, " Taking that into consideration, they went through the Wastes, obviously they were trying to get North. The they realise that an army that size wouldn't survive that trip. " Aelin rested her finger on the map. Let it travel upwards. To Terrasen. "I know what they are after."

Rowan had apparently realised at the same time as she had. "The Lord of the North. They want to capture the Stag.

…

Elide:

It made so much sense now. The Lord of the North kept the land alive. It was the heart and soul of Terrasen. The reason that the land was so lush and fertile. Gailemara was all rock and hard soil. They had to have brutal winters and summers not much warmer than above freezing.

They were in the Wastes now, pushing the Adarlian forces back into the mountains. The Eyllwe forces would be arriving soon and Terrasen would come soon after that but from what Elide had heard their efforts would be in vain. Their numbers were far too few and the enemies, far too great. Once they were pushed back into the mountains, they were dead.

"We can't let them take him." Aelin was muttering to herself, staring at the map. Fingers clutched like claws in her hair. "We can't let them take him."

Rowan was running soothing hands up her back.

"I don't know what to do." Nehemia said. " Wendlyn refuses to have no way to contact the South."

And then it hit Elide, she stood up. Studying the map, hope began to brew in her heart.

"I-" She said slowly. " If they are where I think they are..."

"What?" Chaol demanded. "For the gods sake what?!"

Elide beamed so brightly that her face hurt. "I know where we can find help. And I know a way to get a message to them."