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“We suspected there was a potential problem with New Rosanthe when you summoned your diplomats home and sent ours out of the country,” Rayne answered.
“I’m here to speak with the God of Wisdom. I need access to the Light Stone,” Caelan stated.
“But you’ll first help me get rid of the Empire, right? You fought New Rosanthe in Stormbreak and Sirelis. You’ll help us as well.”
“Stormbreak is my home.” Caelan paused and narrowed his eyes. “And Caspagir is an ally of Erya. They always have been. Of course, I was happy to help them.”
Jasper’s face clouded, and his thin white eyebrows snapped together over his nose. Rayne’s breath became stuck in his chest and his heart picked up. He knew what was coming, and he wished he could will Jasper to pause for half a second, to make him carefully guard his words.
“I don’t understand. Erya and Ilon have been allies for centuries. I sent your people out of the country to protect them,” Jasper argued, his voice growing louder with each word.
“And what about the Erya children you had stolen from their homes and brought to Ilon?” Caelan’s voice was deceptively calm and soft, but it was enough to make Jasper’s breath audibly catch in his throat. The man flinched, his eyes widening slightly.
“I don’t know—”
Caelan’s tone sharpened to a razor’s edge as he cut Jasper off. “Don’t. Don’t deny. Don’t lie to me.” He leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. He stared down the prime minister, who swallowed hard. “I’m keeping things civil right now because our countries have a long—and what I thought was trusted—history. But I’ve seen and met the proof that Erya’s trust has been betrayed by you and previous leaders for decades.”
Sweat glistened on the man’s forehead and along his upper lip in the overhead light. His hand trembled as it smoothed through his hair. “Your-your Majesty, please, you must understand, that program, it wasn’t started by me. It’s a relic that was begun long ago. I never approved of it.”
“And you’ve done nothing to stop it. You’ve done nothing by way of restitution or even apologizing to those who were taken from their homes.”
“They were largely orphans—”
“They were Erya’s children!” Caelan roared, launching to his feet. “They were children stolen from the hospital, still warm from the loving arms of their parents!”
Rayne hesitated. Sadly, part of him wanted Caelan to lose his temper and unleash the power of the gods on this man, but it wasn’t right. Yes, Jasper Feroz had done nothing to stop the program, but he also wasn’t the start of it, and killing him wouldn’t fix anything.
Swallowing a sigh, Rayne shoved to his feet as well and turned to face Caelan, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Please, Cael,” he whispered in the king’s ear. “This won’t solve it.”
“No, but I wonder how Damardor would feel if they knew how many children were stolen by people under the orders of the Ilon government. Or even New Rosanthe. The Empire is being quite generous now, but would the emperor continue to be merciful if he knew what you’d stolen?”
“No! Please!” the prime minister gasped and fell to his knees in the center of the room. “Please, Your Majesty. You can’t tell them. It will become a race to destroy us. Please, you must show us mercy. Ilon and Erya have helped each other for so long. The program was only created because our population was growing old and dying faster than children were being born. Our society is not built on archaic notions of family units.”
“So, you’ve turned to stealing a labor force from other countries to support your own people,” Rayne snapped.
“We’re trying to wind down the program and become more reliant on Ilon citizens to grow the population, but our society is slowly dying.”
Caelan leaned forward and twisted his fist in the collar of Jasper’s shirt, pulling him upright so that the older man was forced to stare the king in the eyes. “Where are the missing children?”
“Wh-what?”
“Half the population you’ve stolen from Erya and other countries has been traced to Brightspire and some other major cities, but half has gone missing completely,” Rayne explained. “Where are they?”
“What have you done with them?” Caelan shook him hard, snapping his head up.
“They’re safe! They’re safe! I swear! They’ve been sent to Green Spring. It’s a small town in the east. We’ve sent both refugees as well as the children that have come to us there.”
Caelan snarled and released Jasper. He straightened and wiped his hand on his pants before throwing himself on the couch again. Rayne hesitated for a moment, making sure that Caelan wasn’t going to attack Jasper, then took his seat as well.
“I’ll help Ilon get rid of the Empire, but only after you take me to the godstone,” Caelan bit out.
“What? But the Empire…we need to get rid of them now. They—”
“Safa and New Rosanthe are after the godstone. We have to beat them to it,” Rayne interrupted. He paused and narrowed his eyes on the man. “Unless you’ve already shown them to it.”
“What? No! Of course not! I-I didn’t know that’s what they were after,” the prime minister sputtered. “No one has made a single mention of it to me.”
“Why else would they take an interest in Stormbreak and Sirelis and Brightspire?” Rayne sneered.
