“And I will give it to them. But not until you can convince me it will be a decisive victory. I want every single person in that frozen wasteland to understand the fear I felt running through those tunnels, knowing my father was dead, expecting at any moment my life to bleed out of me from a knife in the back. I want to be the monster under their bed, their waking nightmare. If I must take the blood of every person under Hollis’s rule, I will do it until they willingly fall to their knees at my feet. I’ll accept nothing less.”
Angus couldn’t suppress a sigh. He glanced up at Althorpe who was grinding his teeth. Instinct told him he should send the man out of the room, which was strange. Specialist Johnneth Althorpe was getting a little too comfortable with the queen and being privy to conversations like this didn’t help. Angus was more than capable of looking out for her safety during these meetings between him and Caroline.
He pressed on, pulling a folded letter out of his pocket, and tossed it on the table before her. The queen knew what it was without reading it and groaned.
“Another skirmish. Where this time?” she asked.
“On the border. I sent troops to clean up and establish order. Hollis did too, but the survivors are angry. Tensions between our people are escalating. Even the merchants who normally operate in the neutral trading towns have reported an increase in raids and street fights. The magistrate in Bowring said the cases of theft are up two-fold from this time a year ago.”
“Then we’ll have to work harder,” Caroline said.
Angus’s mouth pinched into a frown. He didn’t know if they had the capacity to work harder. There was only so much a ruler could oversee themselves. A king would solve the problem, which Caroline was still determined to put off. Taking over Veetula would also solve the problem. Sure, at first it would be more work, but eventually, as one kingdom, one people under Caroline’s rule, things would smooth out. He just needed to get her to dosomething.
Right when Johnneth started to soften to her, she reminded him of why they were enemies. Caroline hadn’t blinked when she’d spoken about annihilating his family. It took every bit of self-control not to let his face slip into the rage that was churning inside him. But he was glad she’d said it. Hearing the truth of who she was from her own mouth was exactly what he needed.
Caroline chewed on the end of a peppermint stick as she studied the map carved into the table. Gods, watching her lips work… Her vitriol didn’t change the fact that he wanted to bed her. How could you be aroused by someone you hated in the depth of your very being? Someone who represented that blasphemous power that her ancestors had the gall to request from the Gods. And what her father had used it for. For what he’d witnessed as a child, a memory which dragged him from sleep many nights. He could almost hate the Gods for giving that unholy power to the Dallimore’s.
“What do you think, Johnneth?” Caroline’s voice drew him out of the rage filled stupor his mind had spiraled into.
Angus, leaning over the table, stiffened. “Specialist Althorpe is here to keep you alive, Your Majesty. Not give his opinion on political matters.”
Johnneth gave a curt nod to the commander. He completely agreed and had no desire to speak because speaking might betray his roiling emotions.
Caroline placed the end of the candy which she’d sucked down into a point between her teeth. She eyed him, then snapped the end off, crunching as she chewed. When she swallowed, still watching him, she said, “I think Johnneth has something to say, and I’d like to hear it.”
She always had a way of keeping him on his toes, whether she intended it or not. Who was he kidding? She definitely intended it.
He stepped forward, splaying his hands out on the table, and leaned over the carved map. “Warrik is on the other side of the border from Bowring.” Caroline shot him a look like she didn’t need a geography lesson from him. “I’m going somewhere with this. Warrik is a logging town. Its primary source of income is the milling of timber from the surrounding forests and the ones up the river. The different mills employ most of the townsfolk. Bowring, on the other side of the river, has access to all the farmland of Everstal.”
Johnneth waved a hand at the blush stone surrounding them on all four walls. “Everstal has other resources for building and enough timber to get by. Veetula on the other hand, particularly the small borderland villages—”
“Need the supplementation that travels through the river towns,” Caroline finished for him.
“Right. And when you freed the indentures and the new pricing structure went into effect in your kingdom, it affected—” Johnneth caught himself. “It affected theirs. The price of grain almost doubled. Everstal citizens could afford it with the new wages, but in Veetula, where families may have only had one or two members not in an indenture bringing home income, put simple things like grain out of their range.”
Johnneth sighed as he took a seat, ignoring the thin line Angus’s lips were pressed into. “In a good year, they can live off the game and winter crop, but reports say the last few winters have been harsher, so I expect the tensions result from that. They need the supplement, but can’t afford it.”
Caroline blinked at him. It made perfect sense. Of course, there would be ramifications from her releasing the indentures, but none this extensive. Merchants and landowners had been angry, but she’d encouraged them to put a new pricing structure in place and within a few years, it appeared to work. A prickle, like the touch of Justice’s icy hand, slid up the back of her neck. She would not sit here and be blamed for this.
“That sounds like the problem of that bastard Hollis Ivanslohe. It doesn’t give his subjects the right to raid mine,” Caroline said, fuming.
Johnneth shot to his feet before he could stop himself, his chair grating across the floor behind him in a burst. How dare she bring up Hollis’s name like that?
He banged his fists on the table once, the sound echoing off the solid walls. His frustration did not ease as he stared at the unmoved queen. Out of the corner of his eye, Angus was swiftly making his way around the table.
“Those are innocent people going hungry, Caroline,” he said, keeping his eye trained on her, his shaking hands rumbling the table.Cruel Queen indeed.But he kept that to himself.
Angus wrapped his fists into the fabric of his tunic, gripping tightly, and spun him so he was staring into angry gold eyes. “You do not have the privilege of speaking the queen’s name. You will address her as Your Majesty. And you certainly don’t have the privilege of raising your voice to the queen.”
Johnneth jerked like he would yank himself out of Angus’s grip as the rose-colored walls encroached into his vision. But the commander held firm. “You are dangerously close to losing your position. Do you understand me, Specialist Althorpe?”
That snapped him out of it. If Angus dismissed him, he’d be back to the start. “Yes, sir,” he ground out, forcing his eyes to lower. Angus released him and he took a step back.
Angus’s jaw was working as he ran a hand across his head. “You’re suspended for one week. Go train with the new recruits and try to remember your place.”
He couldn’t help but glance between the queen and the commander. Angus radiated his agitation as he paced, but Caroline only stared between the two men with an amused glint in her eye. He shot her a pleading look, which she dismissed with a subtle shake of her head. She wouldn’t intervene on his behalf.Fine. He bowed. “As you wish, commander.” He barely had the wherewithal to un-grit his teeth as he said it, then marched from the room.
After Felix had been exiled, several more weeks had gone by uneventfully… outside Johnneth’s minor altercation with Angus and the subsequent suspension. He’d been itching to get back to the queen’s side.
