Lion Head Mesa And which is to remain unknowable and unremembered

They were our allies once, or so they claimed, said Aventus. He had not liked the Saints from first meeting. Now he knew it was their inevitable deceit he was sensing as a boy. His arrogance was in believing that he could sense these things at all, for he was mistaken about his sister, and yet he believed her a traitor from the moment she came to visit him in Evien's ward. They came to Ursus at my father's invitation. Nyra disrespected my queen mother on our very doorstep.

Then she came again to our border with false apologies. I knew it to be a lie and did not accept it. She showed her true character then. In hindsight, it was Aventus' fault for targeting Nyra, but even then, it took a special sort of unhinged wolf to slam a child into the ground that way. She could easily have evaded his teeth and scruffed him. Instead, she showed them all the coward she was, and single-handedly destroyed the alliance.

We demanded her head. They would not comply. The alliance ended, and we moved on from that. He snorted. They did not. Now they have killed my mother, and your wolf as well. He indicated Maggie. The woman might breathe still, but death couldn't be far from her now. Nyra was there. She always wanted my mother's flesh. He couldn't prove it, but he believed the white fur at the scene was damning evidence enough. Even if Nyra wasn't actually there, he was content to blame her anyway.

She was sick. She would have killed Nyra if she was well, he shared. Another cowardly move by Nyra, targeting a sick wolf who would otherwise have effortlessly carved the throat of the winter bitch. Perhaps it was unwise to tell Pharaoh all this, but they were allies for now, were they not? He did not trust this gilded serpent-tongue king, but he did not feel the same immediate aversion he had when meeting Donovan. That had to count for something. He wasn't in his right mind, either, mired in his own hidden grief as he was. My father deserves to take her head more than anyone, he said, and believed it wholly.