He checked the log in his hands again and again. The discrepancies between the original data Alara gave him and what he’d seen in the field were staggering. The princess had lied. Perhaps not about her men’s training or her abilities as a leader, but she’d certainly lied about how many mere labored under her command. Far worse, she had led him to provide the Council Chair with incorrect information. She made him appear a fool. It didn’t help that she’d turned him away last night. Kai had meant to respect her wishes, had only hoped to see her for a few minutes, to talk. But Alara had huffed in exasperated. As if he was nothing more than her plaything! Kai stomped through mushy, well-trodden snow back to the Glass House. His boots splashed mud and ice over the wide hallways on the way to his room. Before he changed his mind, he drew up his report and faxed his findings to Woodard. Alara had been correct about one thing, he would return to his life after he left Murrough Island.
