A note card attached to the cage by a thin piece of string caught Circe’s attention. She reached forward and untied it to read what was on it. Written in flowing script was a brief message offering warm congratulations and well wishes for her reign. At the bottom was a signature.

Taryn Caelorth.

Circe glanced back at the bird again, thoroughly baffled.

It truly was a beautiful creature, but she knew next to nothing about birds beyond the fact that they flew and occasionally pecked people.

"What do I even do with you?" Circe muttered beneath her breath.

The bird immediately squawked again as though responding directly to her question.

A startled laugh escaped her before she could stop it.

***

"Close the door," he said.

Someone hurried to do just that and the sounds of the corridor disappeared.

The war chamber had not been touched since the late king’s death. Ragnar stood at the head of the long oak table, his hands flat against its surface, and looked at the men assembled before him. Ten high ranking generals, Casilo and his newly appointed chief advisor, Falein Tomar. A scribe in the corner who had not lifted his eyes from his parchment since the meeting began.

Ragnar had been king for only a day yet It hadn’t stopped him from jumping straight into his royal duties and one of the first things he did was to call for this meeting. There was too much that needed to be done and the men watching him needed to see a king.

"Before we discuss the destruction in the east," he said, "there are other pressing matters that require over attention. My men completed their search on one of Laheir Tavish’s properties this morning. His estate in the capital. What they found was more than I expected, and I had already expected quite a lot."

General Adros, the oldest man at the table, shifted in his seat. "What kind of findings, your majesty?"

"More correspondence between Tavish and several figures we have been trying to identify within the rebel leadership. There were also financial records showing consistent withdrawals from the royal treasury, money that never reached the purposes it was allocated for. There were also maps that showed the location of the rebel camps and a list of the places they plan on attacking next." Ragnar pulled out a folded sheet, which he spread across the center of the table.

Casilo leaned forward and studied the map without touching it.

"The camps are concentrated here, and here," Ragnar said, pressing two fingers against the eastern regions marked in ink. "Three primary sites. The target list names four towns in the east and two different locations within the capital. Two of those places have already been struck. The remaining four have not."

"How accurate is this information?" Falein questioned.

Instead of answering, Ragnar said, "We will not be waiting for them to reach the next name on that list. I will send scouts to confirm the location of their camps."

He looked around the table.

"Laheir’s three sons have been taken into custody. The second son, Yannick Tavish, is implicated directly. The evidence against him is sufficient enough. But we are still in the process of gathering more evidence to convict the other two. They will be held until that process is complete."

Casilo, seated to Ragnar’s right, nodded in agreement.

"As for the rebels themselves," Ragnar said, "I am pulling troops from the northern garrisons, the southern posts along the border, and the standing divisions currently stationed in the capital. We are going to converge on these camps from three directions simultaneously and we are going to leave no route of retreat."

General Adros looked up. "That will strip some of our outer defenses considerably, sire. If there is movement from—"

"I am aware of that." Ragnar said. "I am also aware that a militia operating freely in the east and bleeding into the capital is a more immediate threat than anything on our outer border at present. A kingdom that cannot secure itself from within has nothing worth defending from foreign threats."

Adros said nothing further.

Ragnar moved around to the side of the table, closer to the map. "The convergence needs to be coordinated precisely. If any of the camps receive word before we reach them, they will disperse, and we spend the next two years digging them out one man at a time. That cannot happen." He looked at one of the generals. "I want communications between the eastern towns suppressed for the next four days. Anyone moving along the roads leading toward those camp positions is to be stopped and detained."

General Fennick acknowledged this with a short nod.

"There is one other thing," Ragnar said. He straightened and looked across the table at the assembled men. "I want to be understood clearly on this. When our forces reach those camps, they should not make any arrests. They should not accept their surrender. Otherwise the dungeons will be filled up to the brim by the time we are done and I don’t want that. Hence our troops will not be taking any prisoners. These rebels have burned villages. They have murdered civilians with weapons made for them with money taken from this kingdom’s treasury. Laheir used it to fund the destruction of our own people. There is no negotiation to be had with that. There is no good rebel. The only good rebel is a dead one."

Everyone, except Casilo and Falein, watched him in stunned silence. They were seeing firsthand how different he was from the late king. Zeriel enjoyed taking prisoners so he could parade and humiliate that for his satisfaction, Ragnar, on the other hand, has no plans on doing that. He found such things to be a waste of time.

"Destroy every camp, kill every man who took up arms against our people. When it is done, I want confirmation from each commander on the ground and I want it finished before the month is out." And to the scribe, he said, "Everything discussed in this room stays in this room until I say otherwise."

The scribe dipped his head.

When nothing remained, he dismissed them with a word and watched them all file out..