Chapter 169
**CAY POV**
I wake as a knock sounds on the door, grunting as I stumble to my feet, pulling on my leather trousers and blue tunic that is far too big before I finally walk towards the door.
Kiren is waiting outside, a tray of stew and coffee in his hand, “I left you for a few hours.” He says, “thought you would have needed the rest after spending the day on horseback.”
“Thanks.” I say, opening the door wider so he can come in, “I definitely needed the sleep.”
He smiles, walking past me and placing the tray on the small set of drawers by the bed. “I spoke to the leader of this town, he said they will have better accommodation ready for you by sunrise.”
I frown, crossing my arms, “I never said I wanted better accommodation, I’m fine here.”
He turns to look at me, tone clipped and dry. “The army isn’t going to take you seriously if you are commanding them from an inn, you need to be in the mansion where high borns belong.” He takes a step closer to me, “don’t think I mean that in a bad way, because I don’t, but the men you are commanding are used to certain things from you, and staying in this rundown pit is not one of them.” He sighs, “I know you want to be seen differently from the rest of the royals, but that doesn’t happen in one day, you know that.”
I stare at him, wanting to scream in his face that he is wrong, but I can’t, because he is right. My army expects a certain level of authority from me, and they will not take me seriously if I show up covered in mud from the road.
I need to bathe, and I need to have my armour ready for when they arrive.
I will not make the same mistake my mother did and leave all the decisions to the men. The men are the ones that caused this war, and I’m the one who is going to try and end it.
I walk to the set of drawers and pick up the coffee, gulping down half the cup before I place it back onto the tray, deciding that I was clam enough to talk.
“You’re right.” I say, staring down at the hot stew, “they expect me to be presented to them in a certain way, my title gives me more authority over them because they were given to me because I am the princess.” I turn to Kiren, “they expect to see a warrior, but they also expect to see someone who takes great care of herself.”
Kiren nods, smiling, “Derran and Jamie are downstairs, they are trying to recruit people from the village who are well enough to pick up arms against the shape shifters.” He plops down on the bed, “the more people we have on our side the better, it’ll only take a few days to train them adequately.”
“Are you trying to recruit the women too?” I ask, sitting down next to him and grabbing the bowl of stew. “Just because they have vaginas doesn’t mean they cannot fight.”
Kiren laughs, “you already taught me that lesson when you kicked my ass during training.” He shakes his head, “I’ll tell them to recruit the women too. The more people the better.”
We sit in silence as I devour the stew and warm bread, finishing the rest of the coffee. It’s nice to eat something hot, one the road all we ate was dried nuts and stale bread.
I couldn’t live my life just eating stuff like that, I need things to have flavour, I hated food that was nothing but bland. I guess that is because I’ve always had whatever I wanted to eat an order away. The kitchen staff at castle would make whatever I asked. No questions asked.
I’ve been spoiled, I know that I have, but I am determined not to spend my life the way my family does. They are blind to the suffering of others, I am not.
“I’ll leave you alone to finish your meal in peace.” Kiren says, standing and walking towards the door, “I know you prefer to eat in silence.”
“Thanks.” I say, appreciating his consideration. “I’ll be down soon to go over the plan again.”
He nods, “see you then.”
He closes the door behind him, and though I had already finished my food, I took a moment to relax. I won’t be doing much of it over the next few days, maybe even weeks.
War is not won in a single day. It takes time, and more than likely, it’ll take many lives.
I lay down on the bed for a moment, looking up at the rotten ceiling as I try to decide my next move. I always thought planning a battle was easy, but it isn’t. Nothing about war is easy.
I just hope the men that I have will be enough to fight off the shape shifters and protect this town. The town is one of the main suppliers of food to the capital. It’s also a valuable resource to the entire kingdom.
If we don’t stop the shifters from taking this town, it won’t be long before the entire Griffin kingdom has been destroyed.
Everything I love is in danger, and I can no longer just sit back and watch everything my family worked so hard to build be destroyed in the blink of an eye.
I wish there were no wars, I wish that all the people of this continent could live in relative peace. But it’s not possible. No one would agree to it.
People are selfish, they always want more than what they have, and it is never enough.
I sigh and I push myself to my feet, grabbing the tray to take it back down to the bar.
I could lay here all day and think about the what ifs, but thinking won’t change a thing. Action is what makes changes, and I have to take action as quickly as possible.
I know that the smart thing to do would be to reinforce the walls and the gate, but I’m not sure that we have enough time to do that before the shifters arrive.
But we have to think of something, otherwise all will be lost.
And I hate to lose.