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Kicking open the door to their rooms, Aren waved away the wide-eyed servants who’d scurried up behind him. “Too long on her feet.” Then he elbowed the door shut, Lara sliding nimbly from his arms the moment the latch clicked.
“We only have a few minutes,” she said, “so listen carefully. My father’s formed an alliance with Amarid.”
Silence.
“Ithicana has spies throughout both kingdoms, Lara, andnoneof them have reported even a hint of an alliance between Maridrina and Amarid. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
“Yes, no doubt that’s what my father wishes you to believe.”
Aren listened silently as Lara explained the connections between the focused attacks on the Midwatch area, the Maridrinian wine and the smuggled ruby, and the ships being financed in Amarid with the very same gemstones. A stream of small details and coincidences that he might have passed off as nothing, except for the fact heknewwhy Lara had been sent to Ithicana. Knew Silas was his enemy.
“And there’s the ships lurking around Midwatch. The noblewoman—” She broke off, hesitating. “The noblewoman is only an excuse for the soldiers to be aboard. You know they’re looking for me.”
It was there Aren interrupted. “Of course he’s looking for you, Lara, because without you, his plots, his alliance with Amarid—everything—it amounts to nothing.”
“But—”
Aren gripped her shoulders. “Without you, he has nothing.”
Lara hadn’t betrayed him, Aren believed that. Trusted her with his heart, with the bridge, with his people. Yet the frantic gleam in her eye formed a seed of doubt in his chest. “You’re certain you didn’t give him any clues in your letters?”
Lara met his gaze unblinking. “I am certain. Just as I’m certain that he’s creating a situation in which he no longer needs me to take the bridge. He’s going to do it by force.”
Exhaling a long breath, Aren said, “Lara, he’s tried it before. Tried and failed, and took catastrophic losses. The Maridrinians remember what it was like to come against our shipbreakers. To see their comrades drowned in the waves, pummeled into rocks, and torn apart by sharks. Silas can hire out all the Amaridian vessels he wants to—it’s not a fight your people will support.”
“Why do you think he’s starving them?”
His blood abruptly chilled. “To try to get us to break off trade with Valcotta.”
Lara slowly shook her head. “That’s the last thing he wants. My father doesn’t want Ithicana as an ally; he wants you as his enemy.” Her eyes were bright with unshed tears. “And he’s done it. My father has turned you into Maridrina’s villain, and very soon, they’ll come for your blood.”
Even as the words poured from Lara’s throat, Aren knew they were true. That despite everything he’d done, everything he’d dreamed of for Ithicana’s future, war would be on his doorstep. Twisting away from Lara, he gripped the foot of the bed he shared with her, the wood groaning under his grip.
“Can you defend Ithicana against both nations?” Lara’s voice was soft.
Slowly, he nodded. “This year, yes. But I expect our losses will be catastrophic. Both kingdoms have far more soldiers to throw against us than Ithicana has to lose.”
And what were his options? The surest way to stop Silas would be to join forces with Valcotta, but that would be disastrous for Maridrina. Lara’s people would die by the thousands, cut down by blades or starved to death. Innocent lives lost—all because of the greed of one man. But to do otherwise would likely mean the end of Ithicana unless Harendell intervened, which past behavior indicated unlikely.
“There is no solution,” he said.
Silence.
“Stop trade with Valcotta.” Lara’s words were so quiet, he barely heard them. “Attempt to undercut support for this war with Maridrina. Make Ithicana the hero.”
“If I break trade relations with Valcotta and use my resources to crack their blockade on Maridrina, it will decimate our profits. Ithicana needs the income Valcotta brings in at Southwatch in order to survive. Never mind that they’ll likely retaliate. You want me to risk that on speculation? On coincidences?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
“Aren, you brought me here because you believed your people needed to know Maridrina in order for there to be peace between our people. In order for them to see Maridrina as an ally, not as the enemy of old.” Her voice was choked. “It goes both ways. Maridrina also need to see Ithicana as an ally. As a friend.”
Aren’s shoulders bowed. “Even if I agree with you, Lara, I’ll never get the council to go along with it. They believe we’ve bought peace with Maridrina—that we gave your father what he wanted, so he has no reason to attack us. They won’t jeopardize the Valcottan revenue based on the supposition that your father might want more.”
“Then maybe it’s time you told them the truth about me. Maybe that will be enough to prove to them the gravity of our situation.”
Aren felt the blood drain from his face. “I can’t.”
