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“Come, sit. We’ll have a meal,” Brigance suggested, as politely reasonable as Ronan was prickly.
I accepted the goblet of dewberry wine brought to me, but my stomach was too tight with nerves to eat much. I began as soon as they’d been served.
“As you both know, I have received prophecies around the vampire princess and her quest to reclaim the throne of Saori Sang. Their ancient magic has manifested in their mist and these Trials, and of course, we would prefer to have Kana as an ally, rather than Merden as a threat.”
Both kings nodded, although I was sure they were thinking about how Merden had yet to involve Aralia in anything.
To me, her neutrality was an obvious ploy - only a fool wouldn’t assume she was like a serpent biding its time before striking. Gaining the ancient vampire magic would afford her the opportunity. Still, Ignea had always held a supreme arrogance that Aralia could never fall, and she’d passed at least some of that down to the brothers sitting before me.
I would need to be heavy-handed to convince them of the threat.
“I’ll be blunt, my Kings. The gobbelins are no longer a story from the past. Four days ago, in the vampire palace, an ice wolf brought a freshly killed gobbelin to court.” I’d already been halfway to Aralia then, but news spread quickly in the countryside.
Ronan and Brigance both stilled in that similar way of people who shared training, watching me intently.
“Impossible,” Brigance breathed after a long moment.
I spread my hands in a gesture of honesty. “I wish it were. Merden has likely already covered the evidence, but I believe the prophecies surrounding the princess do indeed mention the gobbelins - ‘wake the sleepers’ is the line I’m most concerned about. It is my fear that the gobbelins were not, in fact, defeated by the ice wolves and vampires all those centuries ago, but were simply-”
“Buried in the ice,” Ronan growled. “It is not for commoner knowledge. But yes, you are correct. We have always known this.”
Brigance nodded, neither one of them looking at all embarrassed that they’d held such a terrifying piece of information secret.
Then again, royalty was royalty, no matter the country. They either assumed they could handle the threat, or they were comfortable with the loss of life, because it would never be theirs.
Still, they knew enough of my mission. Neglecting to tell me what truly threatened Saori Sang was sounding more and more like a choice. Perhaps they wanted me to fail - wanted the gobbelins to rise and ravage the vampire realm for them.
“The gobbelins are coming to destroy the vampires,” I said slowly, hoping to see more of a reaction.
A long beat of silence dragged into something more telling than words. The fae kings were unconcerned.
“Best get along back to Saori Sang and warn your princess, then,” Ronan finally said, setting his goblet down and flicking his fingers at a pair of guards who advanced toward me.
I had been dismissed.
CHAPTER SIX
