“Yes, of course.” Finn lowered his eyes, but not before I saw the hurt flash in them for a moment. He’d grown accustomed to me turning to him for comfort, but I didn’t need him anymore. “I didn’t mean to keep you.”

“It’s quite alright,” I said and turned to Matt. “Wil you accompany me?”

“What?” Matt sounded surprised, probably because I hardly asked him to do anything with me anymore. So much of what I did involved the business of the palace, and I couldn’t let a mänsklig tag along with me.

“I’m going down to the library,” I clarified. “Would you come with me?”

“Yeah, sure,” Matt nodded, almost eagerly. “I’d love to help you any way I can.”

Matt and I left his room, but Finn walked with us because he was going in the same direction. The trackers were doing most of their training in the first floor balroom since it had the most space.

Tove had already gone down to work with them, but Duncan had waited for us.

“How is the training coming?” I asked Finn, since he was beside me, and I needed to fil the space with something.

“It’s going as wel as can be expected,” Finn said. “They are learning quickly, which is good.”

“Is Loki being of any help?” I asked, and Finn stiffened at the mention of Loki’s name.

“Yes, surprisingly.” Finn scratched at his temple and seemed reluctant to say anything nice about Loki. “He is much stronger than our trackers, but he’s done a fine job of teaching them how to maneuver. We wil be unable to beat the Vittra hobgoblins with our strength, but we have the upper hand with our wits.”

“Good,” I nodded. “You know we only have a few days until the Vittra wil come.”

“Yes,” Finn said. “We wil work overtime until then.”

“Don’t overwork them,” I said.

“I wil try not to.”

“And…” I paused, thinking of exactly how I wanted to phrase it. “If they can’t do it, if you don’t honestly believe they stand a chance against the Vittra, do not let them fight.”

“They stand a chance,” Finn said, slightly offended.

“No, Finn, listen to me.” I stopped and touched his arm, so he would stop and face me. His dark eyes stil smoldered with something, but I refused to acknowledge it. “If our Tryle army cannot win against the Vittra, do not send them to fight. I wil not let them al go on a suicide mission. Do you understand?”

“Some lives wil be lost, Princess,” Finn answered cautiously.

“I know,” I admitted, hating that it was true. “But it is only worth losing some lives if we can win, otherwise the lives were lost for nothing.”

“What do you propose we do then?” Finn asked. “If the troops aren’t ready to fight the Vittra, what wil you have us do?”