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“I heard it. I’m terribly sorry for that.” She felt that he was going to say something, but she kept going, so as not to be interrupted. “The problem was that they looked like they were from Ironhold.” She was getting tired of almost choking on lies, so she was trying to keep her words true. “Can you believe that?”
The Ironhold king managed to look incredulous. “Where did they attack?”
“A small fort, but it’s where my family was. They must have known it. I wasn’t here, I was in my house. But I saw some of the burned bodies, and they had Ironhold uniforms. We know this attack could not have come from a friendly kingdom, so that leaves us with only one explanation.”
King Harold was rubbing his beard. “That’s… quite unfortunate. Did you suffer many losses?”
“Many hurt. Some dead.”
“Did you capture any prisoners?”
Right. He would want to know if Umbraar could question them. “I… don’t know what happened. Something with fire. They all perished.”
The Ironhold king was observing her attentively, likely trying to figure out how the battle had gone. “So you won?”
“We did, but it doesn’t change the fact we were attacked, your majesty, which is troubling.”
King Harold nodded. “These are dark times for Aluria. You may have noticed that my dear friend King Flavio is not here. In his place, I have General Faulum, from Ironhold, representing Frostlake. He’s supervising the security forces there. We tried to help them, but we were too late.” He looked down and shook his head, managing to look sorry. “Still, as far as I know, that was the only big loss. My son and my daughter-in-law are going there soon, to assume the throne, but our forces will remain in that kingdom, just in case something happens.”
Daughter-in-law… Leah? She wasn’t there. But then, nobody knew that, so they could just lie and send someone else, especially when they had control of the military forces and perhaps even the government in Frostlake.
The Ironhold King continued, “I brought here my dear friends Greenstone and Wolfmark to go over the next steps. This will be discussed with more kingdoms, of course, but we had to know what was going on in Umbraar. As you can all see, the fae are back, and they are not joking this time. They likely had been waiting all these years, perfecting their battle tactics, planning, getting ready to catch us unaware, unprepared. They’ve dealt a blow to Aluria. More than one blow, it seems, but they are going to pay.”
All that talk about the white fae with so much hatred was something that bothered Naia. How did River think they could come back from that?
“We need a strong, united Aluria,” King Harold continued. “Your father was not in favor of that. I assume he changed his mind?”
Naia sighed. “He’s… not in a position to make decisions right now, but I have interim queen power, and my word is final.”
“Hmmm. This is not the time for squabbles, niece.”
That word startled her. She rarely remembered that she was related to that dreadful kingdom by blood, and she had never been addressed by that king as part of the family.
Naia just nodded. “I know.”
King Harold continued, “Our land needs one army, one government, one power, if we hope to stand a chance against the fae. This is why I’m contacting you, and it’s something that has been discussed with Wolfmark and Greenstone.”
The two kings were both somber, and obviously hadn’t really had a voice in the discussion. Probably haven’t had a choice either.
“From now on,” King Harold said, “Aluria will be the Ironhold Empire. My question, dear niece, is if you will stand with us.”
Pretend to be dumb. The thought came to her in a flash. She smiled. “That sounds wonderful. A strong, united Aluria. We’ll be happy to support you.”
King Harold’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but then he resumed his serious stance. “That means you’ll grant passage to our forces, and allow representatives from our government—”
“No.” It was bold to interrupt him, but she had to do it. “Didn’t you hear me? Our attackers. They looked like they were from Ironhold. How are we going to know the difference?”
“That’s a good question,” The Greenstone King said.
King Harold grimaced. “You’ll know because you’ll have documents from our kingdom saying we sent them.”
“What if they forge documents?” Naia asked. “We need a foolproof system.” A bizarre idea came to her mind. “I know. We need an emergency gathering to decide all the details and come up with the best way to make sure this empire will make us strong, not vulnerable.”
King Harold rolled his eyes and shook his head. “A gathering will be the opportunity for them to strike all of us at once. Don’t you remember what happened in Frostlake?”
Naia did—and knew it had been drivel, a stupid lie. Another idea, again almost nonsensical, came to her mind. “That was in Frostlake, but we won’t return there. This gathering could be in the one kingdom, the one castle, where the fae can’t enter. It could be in the most powerful kingdom in Aluria, the one with the power to protect us. Of course it will be safe.”
There. He couldn’t refuse it now. The Wolfmark King’s expression relaxed. “It makes sense.”
