Chapter 261

They weren't convinced. Lucien could tell that the females they were all trying to usher into the training square were not convinced of the immediate threat, or that this was the solution. He could hear the murmuring, some of them who had not participated in the training the day before, lamenting the fact that they were unable to be at work, or doing their chores, and they wished to be allowed to go about their business. He understood that. They were a practical people, and they lived in the day to day. Still, he knew, they wouldn't be able to live in their day to day if those bastards came back down here and slaughtered them all.

"What does he want now?" A harried looking Illyrian woman Lucien suspected was a fair bit older than himself same to stand before him, not moving any further into the training square, and blocking those behind her who were trying to get inside.

"Cassian?" Lucien asked, and she nodded, one hand on her hip.

"He's disrupted me yesterday, and now this?"

Looking at her, Lucien tried to work out how to respond. He knew that telling her to just move along, and that she would find out soon enough would not work. She would only get defensive and impatient and probably cause a bigger problem. He smiled instead, bringing out his old charming courtly smile that had so often flattered the females of any of the Courts he had spent time in.

"He wishes to make an announcement, Lady." He told her, watching as her demeanour changed. Her posture shifted and straightened and she became visibly less irritated and hostile. "This is a good place to defend against attack, and there may be cause to do just that."

"He intends to defend us against an attack?" her brown eyes moved over Lucien's face and he kept his courtly smile firmly in place.

"He does." He nodded his head, gesturing to the slowly filling space. "When everyone is safely inside, he will let everyone know just that."

Lucien watched her turn her head, taking in the square, and she bit her lip. "Very well." She adjusted the bag over her shoulder, and then continued inside. He watched her for a moment, noticing the way that she seemed to move into leading others around her to fill in empty places by the wall, before he looked around when Feyre came to stand beside him.

"Is the street empty yet?"

"Not quite." She replied, "Some are proving a stubborn as you would expect Illyrians to be."

"Ahh…" he would expect they would be quite stubborn indeed. "I do imagine they would not like being told what to do."

"You would be correct."

Lucien eyed his friend from the corner of his eye. Feyre was Cassian's High Lady, and might know something he did not. "Are you aware?" he asked, "Of the rest of his plan?"

"I can guess." She replied, her words coming out in what sounded like a sigh. "I've also let Rhys know."

Lucien nodded, a little bit of relief moving through him then. The High Lord of the Night Court would be worth his weight in gold, and Lucien had never thought he would have been so relieved to hear that Rhysand was expected to turn up somewhere. "He will come?"

"Mmm…" Feyre gave a small shrug, "He said he would see to something…"

"What does that mean?"

"Not sure." Feyre admitted, "But whatever it is will help…"

Lucien frowned, he knew that Rhys would never just leave Feyre to whatever fate something like this may have in store for her, but he didn't like the sound of that vague response. Why couldn't the High Lord come and sort out these Illyrians? "You don't know what he's going to do?" he pressed, wondering if she had intended to be so unspecific in her response.

"I don't know exactly what he is going to do." She said, "But he will do something to help…"

Lucien doubted that he would have had such blind faith in Rhysand, but then the High Lord was not his mate. If Elain had have told him that she would do something to help him, he knew that he would believe her, even if he had no clue what that something would have been. Feyre trusted that Rhys was going to help, and so that would have to be enough for him.

Feyre gave Lucien a smile and then turned and headed inside, trying to help organise those who were setting themselves up on bedrolls and blankets and whatever else they had had time to grab before coming up here, and Lucien turned back to the door, waving the next lot inside. He recognised some of those he had helped train the day before, and they gave him smiles as they passed by. He hoped that, if it came to it, what they had learned yesterday would be enough to save their lives.

When Elain passed by, mixed among the crowd, she still managed to catch Lucien's eye and he watched her for a little while. She was holding her clipboard with her lists and organisation from the day before and, after a few minutes, he worked out what she was doing. It seemed as if Elain was checking off names and he realised that she was trying to work out if everyone had gotten to safety. Turning to look for Cassian, Lucien wondered if that was a job she had been allocated to do, or if it was something she had assigned herself.