Blackfeather Woods and he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower

they arrived in varied shades of annoyance and of supplication. wintersbane was first to arrive; his imploring silence earned him a cool lingering stare from the listener, one made impassive by her rage. it had not been him to bring the captive here; this she knew. but it mattered not to relmyna, for a redhawk was in their midst, and it spelled danger for blackfeather.
mou next, and the woman trained a colder stare on him. had it been a mistake to give her stone to the scarred boy? she did not know — she hoped fervently it was not so — but it remained to be seen. he kept his eyes upon the ground, and relmyna pulled her stare from him to rest it upon maegi. beloved melonii child, her chosen heir — a fool.
the way all three of them had glanced to the flame burning with fear in the den provoked a growl from relmyna, a sound designed to refocus their attention on herself. for the present, the she-wolf did not exist. the patchwork woman's tail arched over her hips in a rare display of her rank; she enforced it with a thorny sweep of her gaze. mou was not gifted the ability of clear speech; wintersbane could for the present wait.
maegi —
before you tell me what has taken place here, the war that killed your father was with these wolves. there was no desire in relmyna to be kind, to be gentle, to choose her words with warmth — they must know inherently the threat posed by the presence of this redhawk woman. and she had been too lenient, far too lenient.
he left a trail of blood through the woods, maegi; no one could have survived what was done to him. in truth, relmyna did not know who had killed the toxicologist; she had not seen him depart, only drew up the scarlet trail of his ruined scent once he had gone. the redhawks had scattered them, driven blackfeather out, and it was them she blamed for his death, knowing not the name of drageda. i will not have war again.
she straightened, turquoise eyes burning toward the indigo and fire of the melonii gaze. speak.