Aleksandra watched with growing dismay as he stood there, doing nothing, and steeled herself for the blow she knew was coming. And it came. She stumbled back, falling on her ass as blood gushed from her nose like a geyser. She was spluttering half-finished curses, not entirely at Aulfr. And when he snapped her broken nose back into place, she abandoned Noxan altogether and starting growling at him in Ardanian. She had a [i]very[/i] colorful vocabulary.

She watched him with a petulant expression as he got up and walked away, leaving her the cloth to mop up her blood. She didn't like the look he'd given her. And if her thought he or some shoddy soldier was going to kill her brothers, he was more than wrong, he was insane. She was going to [i]ruin[/i] Vasily and Rusalka, and then she'd kill them and bathe in their Devils-damned blood.

She took a moment to clean herself up and staunch the bleeding before staggering to her feet and following the prince. The next forty-five minutes passed with her giving a detailed account of her hunt. Who the Jarl had visited, all the shops he bought from, descriptions of his guards and his possessions and all of his written documents, which she had in her satchel. She hadn't read them, knowing that she hadn't the time. She retrieved them for Aulfr and handed them over.

"I visited an artist I know in the city, someone who knows my identity as the Handmaid and can keep a secret. He painted twenty cards with wolves whose fur are the royal colors. I left one inside the Jarl's mouth. The message is clear: Aulfr Volsung deals swift punishment to those who oppose him." She also retrieved one of the cards from her satchel and showed it to him.