Chapter 12 A Birthday Gift

• It had been over a week since Layana had retrieved the book for Cordelia. Over a week since she had seen Declan. And over a week since she learned that war was nearing. It had hit her like a cold bucket of ice, once the initial shock had worn off, she pondered over the woman's words over and over trying to make sense of what she had meant. Finding barely anything, she started to find information on the dark lord, but all she found was short stories told to scare children.
• She rarely saw her father and to her relief queen Myra. Her father was busy in meetings for most of the day or stuck in his office attending to his work.
• The palace was becoming busier with more knights and nobles visiting whether it was for the meetings or other reasons. Her sisters placed it down Terania’s engagement that was coming closer, but Layana knew the truth, a truth she could tell no one about. She had noticed guards were thickening, and training for the knights had been lengthened and had been raised several notches. With rumours going around that the new commanders in charge of training were brutal, ruthless, and skilled. Aren of House Silver Mountain and Declan of House Storm.