Unpredictable

By Laura Schiller

Based on: The Seven Kingdoms Trilogy

Copyright: Kristin Cashore

The lady monster is even more intoxicating than Brigan feared. Even now, pressing her up against the wall and holding her arms above her head, she has him spellbound, trapped in the glitter of her emerald eyes and the music of her voice inside his thoughts. He spent years training to guard himself against Cansrel, and yet she slips through his defenses like a knife through butter. It terrifies him. If she can handle him so easily, what could she do with an impulsive, weak-minded rockhead like his brother?

I don't stand in opposition to this kingdom, she tells him, furious. At least, no more so than you, Brigandell.

It's the last thing he expected to hear. In his shock, he lets go.

How does she know? How does she know the questions that haunt him, the doubts that keep him awake at night? Does she have any idea how it feels like to be irrevocably loyal to one's country – one's family – and yet hate oneself for the bloody, grinding, endless work involved? Can it be possible she has ever felt like that?

Is she reading his mind?

Just as his anger begins to rise again, he sees the blood seeping through her dress. His rough handling has opened up a recent wound, and he surprises himself with a sharp stab of remorse.

"You're inhuman," she snaps, turning her back on him. "You're the monster, not I."

Late that night, staring at the ceiling in the privacy of his quarters, he wonders whether she is right.

2.

At first, in the confusion of flying arrows and running horses, he doesn't realize that the raptors are moving away. It's only when the entire company reaches the tunnels without a single injury that Brigan, in the rear, glances over his shoulder and catches sight of Lady Fire's unmistakable hair. She is outside, her drab little horse galloping wildly back toward the fortress gates, pursued by hundreds of shrieking, sharp-clawed monster birds. She is shooting at them, despite her injury, and if she weren't her father's daughter, he would seriously consider recruiting her for his army. It's one of the bravest things he's ever seen, and also the most foolish. She barely gets to the gates in time.

He gives himself a headache trying to figure out what made her do such a thing. Is she protecting Nash – who is, after all, her best bid for power? But why not simply mind-control him into staying at the fort? Why put her life at risk?

3.

Lord Brocker has been a role model for Brigan ever since he can remember. He grew up reading the older man's military and historical writings; in fact he has those books to thank for not only is success as a commander, but his life. Lord Brocker is one of the most strong-minded men this kingdom has ever known. After all the suffering that Nax and Cansrel put him through, he had to be – which is why, for the life of him, Brigan cannot understand Brocker's fatherly protectiveness toward Cansrel's daughter.

"How can you guarantee her safety?" he keeps asking.

"Her safety?" Brigan can't help but exclaim. As if the lady monster couldn't control the entire First Branch if she tried. Cansrel could have done it; why not his daughter? "If she's anything like her father, I asure you, sir, the lady's safety will be the least of our concerns."

Brocker's gray eyes are suddenly cold as a northern winter.

"Fire is nothing like her father, Lord Prince," he retorts. "Now I'm going to tell you something extremely personal, and if she finds out, she may never forgive me. But if this is what it takes to put an end to your suspicions, so be it." He wheels his chair closer to Brigan's, glances behind him, and leans forward. "Cansrel didn't kill himself," he says simply. "She killed him. And she did it for you."