“Your Majesty, a noble is willing to defect, but he asks you to destroy the royal garrison holding his family!”
Nikolai looked up from the documents spread across the wooden table. The messenger stood before him, still breathing heavily after rushing through the snow. His cloak was covered in frost, and his boots had left wet marks on the floor.
“Who sent you?” Nikolai asked.
“Lord Adrian Veymont, Your Majesty. He received a secret message from the noble this morning. The man is called Lord Marcus Ainsworth. His family has been detained inside the royal garrison in western Frostvein.”
Adrian, who had been examining a map near the window, turned around.
“House Ainsworth is one of the oldest noble families in the region,” he said. “They controlled several trade routes before Isolde took
