The beast knights — she was aware of the particular quality of everyone's attention when her gaze moved toward them, the collective holding of breath among the court officials who were clearly waiting to see how she was going to handle the delicate question of the men who were, technically, both her personal guard and a power she had not yet found a way to fully account for. She had not acted yet. She was not unaware of the calculation others were doing about what that meant. They could do their calculations. She would act when she was ready to act, and not before.
"What happened to him?"
The guard she addressed was one of the senior ones — she did not know his name yet, but she had noted his rank from the configuration of his armor. He answered without hesitation, which she also noted. Men who hesitated before answering simple questions had usually decided they had reasons to be careful. This one spoke straight, which was either honesty or a very good performance of it.
