Page 121 of Shadow Queen
“I’m going out to look at more of the city,” he said as he pulled the strap tight.
“You’re not going to battle. It’s perfectly safe.”
“It’s safe for you—but I’m the enemy.”
Norah paused, realizing that he was alone in a strange land and surrounded by longtime adversaries, just as she had been in Kharav. She knew this loneliness. It was hard, surely even for the Destroyer.
He pushed the end of the final strap through its buckle and picked up his head wrap. She sighed. Not seeing his face added to her men’s suspicion, but she wouldn’t be able to talk him out of it. The only time he didn’t wear the wrap out was when he was in the castle in Kharav.
He reached for his axe, and she shook her head, drawing the line. “No. Not the axe. I don’t want you scaring people.” His eyes showed his objection, but she stood firm. “No.”
He gave a deep protesting rumble in his chest but left the axe leaning against the wall.
“Come on, I’ll walk with you,” she said.
The morning air was chilly.
“These are your people, too, now,” she told him.
He snorted. “The North will never see me as one of their own.”
As they reached the stables, a boy came careening around the corner, colliding with Soren’s legs and falling backward into the dirt. He wasn’t more than seven or eight years old.
“Oh!” Norah exclaimed, rushing forward. “Are you all right?”
The boy scrambled to his feet, shaken. He stared at Soren with wide eyes. In the dirt lay a makeshift axe that had been refashioned from a wooden toy sword.
Norah looked at the lord commander. His eyes showed no emotion. She turned back to the boy. “Hello there,” she said. “What’s your name?”
The boy didn’t answer.
“Do you not have a name?” she asked.
The boy looked at her, then back at Soren. “Thomas,” he said finally.
“Do you know who I am?”
He nodded. “You’re Queen Norah.”
She smiled. “Do you know who this is?” she asked, waving a hand at the commander.
“The Destroyer,” the boy said, his eyes still on the lord commander.
Norah looked back at Soren and scowled at his formidable posture. He shifted, reaching down and picking up the wooden axe from the ground.
“You have an axe?” Soren asked him.
“I made it myself,” the boy said, a boldness coming to him.
“Why not a sword, or a bow?”
“Everyone has a sword,” the boy said. “And I don’t want to stand and shoot arrows. I want to fight!”
Norah thought she saw a hint of a smile in Soren’s eyes. He held the wooden axe back out to the boy.
“I’m going to make a bigger one, like yours,” Thomas said.
“There’s no skill in a big axe,” Soren told him. “And it’s not an easy battle weapon. Smaller is better for quick work.”
