“I don’t need your pity,” she spits at me when she catches me staring.
“Quinn—” Ronan starts, but I interrupt the warning he’s about to give her.
“It’s fine,” I say. “We’ll talk later.”
“No the fuck we won’t,” says Quinn.
Octavia, of all people, glares across the table at Quinn, heat behind her eyes. “She has sacrificed much to be here with you. Show her some respect.”
“This hasnothingto do with you,” says Quinn, moving to rise out of instinct but being unable to do so.
“Enough,” says Ronan. “Let me be perfectly clear about something before we waste any more time with stupid arguments. I have invited Sylvie to be here with me. If you have an issue, it’s with me, not her. If you disrespect her, you disrespect me, and I don’t have time to deal with it right now. Any further insults to the person I have chosen to be with will be met with immediate dismissal. Are we clear?”
Typhon, Larus, and Octavia immediately assent. Queen Claudia does so too without hesitation. But Quinn just mutters to herself.
“Are we clear?”
“Yes, alright,your majesty.” Her voice drips with sarcasm, but Ronan lets it slide.
“Before Taran arrives with Seth, I wanted to discuss the wisdom of acting on his intelligence, assuming he’s forthcoming. Sylvie, from what you’ve observed, do you think he can be trusted?”
Quinn scoffs from across the table.
“Quinn, I warned you—”
“I’m not insultingher. I’m insulting him. Seth. You’re asking if he can be trusted? Seth? You know what he’s like. He’s the most self-serving asshole this world has ever seen. If we give himeven the slightest opportunity to betray us, he’ll take it if it helps him.”
“Well, she’s right about that,” I admit. “He told me as much himself. But he also told me that his goal is to be free from Adria. I think there’s a good chance that if you can convince him you can defeat her, he’ll do anything to help make that happen.”
“But how can I tell if I’ve truly convinced him and he’s helping us, or if he’s just pretending and actually leading us to our doom?”
“Hmm, wouldn’t it be nice if you could somehow perceive how he feels and use that information to your advantage?” Quinn has fully turned her ire to Ronan now, just as he told her to.
Ronan glowers at her. “I’m aware of my own magic, thank you. But Seth’s feelings.” He shakes his head. “I mean, it’s like a cage of rats in there. Total chaos. He makes adolescents seem stable. I don’t know if I could get a good enough read on him to know what he’s truly thinking.”
“There are other means of extracting information from him, sir,” says Cyrus. “My interrogators can be very compelling.”
Ronan’s eyes spear his advisor. “I thought we agreed that we don’t rely on torture.”
Cyrus bows his head in deference. “Of course, sir, of course. Only these are desperate times. And sometimes desperate times call for—”
“—desperate measures, I’m aware. But desperate people will sayanythingout of desperation. I will not have Seth—or anyone else—tortured. Your interrogators can find another way to be compelling.”
I don’t mention the minor torture Seth did to me and Taran or the harsher version he threatened. I don’t think it will help his case, and I do want to make use of his information if we can.
“Let’s just hear him out. If he suggests something insane, we don’t have to do it. Anything he gives away, even by accident, could be useful,” I say.
“Agreed, unless anyone else has an objection.”
No one objects, so Ronan has a servant sent to fetch Taran and Seth from the baths.
We’re served dinner while we wait. I devour the hearty stew and flatbread the servants offer us, having not eaten since we left Seth’s camp last night, as Ronan and Cyrus discuss the news regarding other military options to break the siege.
“Ambassador Berric sends his regrets, but he’s unable to supply any legions at the present. He will be increasing the grain shipments in hopes that some make it through the blockade.”
“Damned coward,” says Ronan. “Years of paying exorbitant prices, and that’s the best they can do?”
“He’s a fool if he thinks he’ll get more out of Adria,” says Typhon. “She controls the Nithyrian coin with an iron fist.”
