How long will Malyen Oretsev play Sturmhond? How long will Nikolai Lantsov manage to keep his boots on the ground?
There is so little choice involved in the latter decision. A king cannot run away to the sea. He cannot say he is serving Ravka as best he knows how as a privateer now that the crown has come to him.
But they are not speaking of the crown.
He knows this look on Zoya's face, if only in passing. It has been directed at maps and intelligence and at scouts, but never at him directly. (Perhaps it had and he had not noticed, but how much does Nikolai miss?) There is a quality in her that he recognizes, knowing it in himself, in Alina. Born maybe of soldiering, but perhaps innate in them all.
"You served in the Second Army, once working closely with the Black General before his betrayal of Ravka. And you were among our number who gathered and fought against him after he'd shown his true intentions. And I know you attended the coronation. I saw you in a room with Genya and Alina just before the ceremony commenced, before I excused myself."
A succinct summary. These are the points where their paths had crossed. Enough to know her, to recognize her one sight, to have some understanding of her and know her to be trustworthy. But if Nikolai were to guess at who would know her best, he would have said Alina before he said his own name.
no subject
There is so little choice involved in the latter decision. A king cannot run away to the sea. He cannot say he is serving Ravka as best he knows how as a privateer now that the crown has come to him.
But they are not speaking of the crown.
He knows this look on Zoya's face, if only in passing. It has been directed at maps and intelligence and at scouts, but never at him directly. (Perhaps it had and he had not noticed, but how much does Nikolai miss?) There is a quality in her that he recognizes, knowing it in himself, in Alina. Born maybe of soldiering, but perhaps innate in them all.
"You served in the Second Army, once working closely with the Black General before his betrayal of Ravka. And you were among our number who gathered and fought against him after he'd shown his true intentions. And I know you attended the coronation. I saw you in a room with Genya and Alina just before the ceremony commenced, before I excused myself."
A succinct summary. These are the points where their paths had crossed. Enough to know her, to recognize her one sight, to have some understanding of her and know her to be trustworthy. But if Nikolai were to guess at who would know her best, he would have said Alina before he said his own name.