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Lara was of identical blood to Keris, and it was not lost on Zarrah that if he stood before the Empress, the words might be the same. Might well be worse.
Aren tensed, but Lara only tilted her head, gaze full of challenge as she said, “Why don’t you?”
“Because as much as we might wish it otherwise, your life doesn’t belong to Valcotta. Nor your death.”
There wasn’t so much as a hint of fear on Lara’s face as she said, “Your honor is my salvation.” Indeed, Zarrah’s skin prickled with the sense of threat, for though every individual present was a warrior of renown, this small blond woman was more dangerous than all of them combined.
Her aunt huffed out an annoyed breath, suggesting she also saw the threat and didn’t like it. “Don’t speak to me of honor.”
Setting aside the doll, she rose to her feet, and Aren inclined his head. “Your Imperial Majesty. It is a privilege to meet you in person.”
“A privilege or a necessity?” Her aunt circled the pair, ignoring Zarrah entirely. Lara’s brow furrowed, but Aren’s face was completely composed as he said, “Can’t it be both?”
The Empress pursed her lips, making a noncommittal noise in response. “For the sake of your mother, who was our dearest of friends, we are pleased to see you alive. But for ourselves?” Her voice hardened. “We do not forget how you spit upon our friendship.”
Zarrah saw what she was doing—turning a political conflict into a personal one, which meant she intended to use personal justifications to weasel her way out of offering Ithicana assistance.
Aren only rubbed his chin and said, “You speak of my mother as your dearest friend, and yet it was she who proposed the Fifteen Year Treaty between Ithicana, Harendell, and Maridrina, including the marriage clause. My mother formed the alliance with your greatest enemy, and for it you held her no ill will. And yet when I followed through on her wishes, I lost favor in your eyes.”
Her aunt stopped in front of Aren, her dark-brown eyes unreadable. “Your mother had little choice. Ithicana was starving. And the treaty as she wrote it cost Valcotta nothing. It was the terms you agreed to fifteen years later that were the slight.” She leveled a finger at him. “My soldiers dying on steel supplied by Ithicana’s bridge.”
Aren shook his head. “Steel supplied byHarendell, which Maridrina was already importing by ship. It cost them less, yes, but to say they were at any greater advantage against your soldiers is a fallacy. It also gave Valcotta the unique opportunity to prevent Silas from retrieving his precious import for the better part of a year, so one might argue that the terms worked in your favor.”
“What benefit we saw faded swiftly when you turned your shipbreakers on my fleet,” her aunt countered. “You chose your alliance with Maridrina over your friendship with Valcotta, and now you come weeping because you discovered your ally was a rat.”
“You put Ithicana in a position where all paths led to war, and when I gave you a path to peace, you refused it.”
“It was no choice.” Her aunt threw up her hands, but Zarrah suspected her frustration was feigned. “If we’d dropped the blockade, Maridrina would’ve gotten what it wanted without a fight. More steel to use against Valcotta. Besides, it was clear that the last thing Silas wanted was peace. Especially peace with Ithicana.”
“If you foresaw what was to come and said nothing, what friend are you?”
No truer words had ever been spoken, and Zarrah saw the slight tightening in her aunt’s jaw, suggesting that they’d struck home. But not in the way Aren had intended.
“Just because I see the clouds in the sky doesn’t mean I can predict where the lightning will strike.”
The silence that came after was tense, and Zarrah sensed her aunt revising her measure of Ithicana’s king. “We have more to discuss, but I believe it a discussion best done in private.” The look she turned on Lara was not friendly. “You will wait here.”
Ithicana’s queen’s eyes turned equally frosty. “No.”
Zarrah winced, knowing well what was to come, and sure enough, her aunt said, “Welran, subdue her.”
Her aunt’s enormous bodyguard tackled Lara to the ground and twisted her arm behind her back. Except Zarrah had seen the woman fight andknewthe woman had allowed the takedown. She opened her mouth to warn the man, then shut it, abruptly uncertain whose side she was on in this engagement.
Aren, however, pressed his hand to Welran’s shoulder, giving him an amused smile. “I can’t in good conscience go without warning you. She saw you coming from a mile away. Palmed your knife when you took her down. And all that wriggling she’s doing? I’d bet my last coin that the blade is only about an inch from your balls.”
Smiling, Zarrah followed Aren and her aunt, Welran’s laugh echoing after them.
They climbed to the top, the staircase opening into a large room with stained-glass windows featuring prior rulers of Valcotta, all with their hands reaching up to the sky. Zarrah took her place next to the door, her aunt motioning for Aren to sit on one of the many pillows.
“Let us start first with a discussion of why you are here, Aren. I have my own theories, of course, but I’d like to hear it from your lips.”
“I think you know that having the bridge under the control of Silas Veliant benefits no one, not even his own people.” When her aunt made a noncommittal noise, he added, “I’ve received word that my sister, Princess Ahnna, has secured Harendell’s support for retaking Northwatch. It is my hope that you’ll see the merit in assisting me in securing Southwatch from Maridrina and reinstating Ithicana as a sovereign nation.”
Picking up a glass, the Empress eyed the contents, though Zarrah knew she was stalling. Her aunt did not drink wine during negotiations. “Southwatch isn’t assailable. Or at least, not without an unpalatable loss of vessels and life.”
“It is if you know how. Which I do.”
“Giving up such a secret would make Northwatch and Southwatch forever vulnerable—would makeIthicanaforever vulnerable.”
