~*~

The Knight's council consisted of four members, Sir Bromley Bladesbane, Sir Roderick Damour, Sir Mathias Broadwick and Zengruid. Zengruid was a mage whom by unconventional means and circumstance had found himself on the council. The elders present at the meeting were Maison Damour who was in fact Roderick's brother along with Morrosal Kurtas and Khan Solace, the king's younger brother.

A meeting like this had not been held since the war with the felines. And since king Nachum did not host as many balls as the previous king the meeting hall seemed dusty. Only the maple wood table they sat around and the throne which was constantly tended to seemed to be clean. The rest of the furniture was dust clad with not even a trace of human interference.

"So Zengruid. What has your mage to say about his mission?"

Zengruid lowered his hood that like the other mages' hoods was black as oil to reveal his blood red hair.

"I believe he can tell you himself. If I may?" he pointed at the door.

"You may." the king said.

The mage walked to the archway entrance and seemed to converse with an unseen character. After a moment he came back accompanied by another mage.

"Your highness." the new mage bowed. "Elders and Council." he acknowledged these with a second bow. "My name is Shimza. A second grade mage from-"

"Enough with the yapping, our king hates it when people yap. We hear you found the girl?" Maison inquired.

If the mage was offended he didn't show it.

"Yes my lord. I tracked her deep into the forest until I came upon the treasure she carried with her."

"No one said anything about treasure?" Sir Bromley said.

Everyone had been informed about the shifter who had infiltrated the castle in the guise of the princess. But the detail about the treasure she carried when she fled seemed to have been left out.

"Two of the guards that accompanied me on the chase say they saw her with a brown leather bag. She must've picked it up on her way out."

"Okay. So where is she?" Bromley asked.

"As I was saying, I came upon her bag, it seemed to be carrying jewels and other treasures."

"Seemed? Did you not check?"

"Sir Bromley. You seem to forget that the mage is on our side. No need to interrogate him." Zengruid reminded the knight in a warning tone.

"It was high up in the trees. So instead of trying to get it down I decided to lie in wait for her." Shimza waited for one of them to ask how it had gotten there. When no one asked he continued. "She came back the next day accompanied by a feline. In the midst of my battle with the feline she managed to escape."

Shimza didn't mention the fact that he was beaten unconscious at that point and that the feline was a mere boy, maybe half his own age.

"Did you capture the feline at least?" this time it was Roderick who asked.

"No." the mage said with regret.

"You are dismissed Shimza." Zengruid waved his hand as he said this.

Shimza did not question the abrupt dismissal seeing as there was nothing else he had to report. He just turned and walked back out the hall.

"So the felines are in league with the shifters?" asked Khan.

"We should not rush into any conclusions." the king said.

"We still need to act though. Our first priority must be the safety of our King and his heir." Sir Bromley was leaning over the table at this point so that he had everyone's attention. "I will assign four of my best Knights to guard the princess' chambers and double the knights guarding the palace. We can also double the guards around the city."

"Do not get ahead of yourself Bromley." the king said. "Doubling guards and resorting to such bold measures only shows fear and weakness. We keep things as is."

"Then sire. You expect us to pretend that there is no threat?"

"Yes." the king replied.

"Then why call this meeting at all?"

"I needed each one of you to be updated on the matter. I also wanted to order you to ready yourself for battle. Just remember, there is no threat until we know what the threat is. We cannot defend ourselves from unknown enemies. Zengruid. I put you and Bromley on the task of finding out who the enemy is. And be discreet about it. Meeting dismissed."

And with that the king stood up and walked back to his chambers, leaving the rest of the men to swallow their comments.

~*~