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“Not for long”
Astrid’s jaw twitched. “Then what are you doing here? Plan to make me a hostage? Looking for a ransom? I assure you my son won’t pay.”
“I doubt he would.” I narrowed my eyes. “No, Queen. I’m not here for coin. I’m merely removing a nuisance. Your daughter will claim no crown here today and you will not be around to see it.”
For the first time, a look of unease filled the queen’s eyes. “Don’t kill my daughter. She was a pawn, nothing more.”
“I have no plans to kill the girl.”
“You won’t win.” Astrid’s eyes went glassy. Tears? “There are powers stronger than you.”
“Yes, you believe you are one of them. Britta Grym seemed to think you had a strange grasp on Niall. Is that true? Did you arrange this vow to spread your influence?”
“You wouldn’t understand.” She turned away, her nose in the air. “And I will not waste a moment explaining it to you. Kill me, imprison me. More with the same ambition as me will come again.”
She was as power mad as Britta.
Astrid whimpered when I gripped her jaw tightly and shoved my face close to hers. “You began a war against my wife. If it were up to me, you’d be dead already.”
She laughed. A cruel, harsh sound. One that lifted the hair on my neck.
“Dark days are coming. Take your throne. You will not keep it long. None of us will.”
“No. Only you. When your son defeats you, then he shall take you as his problem.” I was done with her lunacy and knocked on the coach’s wall. “Gunnar.”
The princeling appeared in the window, a bright thrill lived in his eyes. “My turn?”
I stepped aside as Gunnar came around and shoved his long body into the coach. “All right, queenie. You’re going to return to our camp silently. Once there, you will be bound, and you will not fight. In fact, you’ll beg us to tie you up. You will not utter a single word until you see your son after the battle is won.”
A hopeful command, but it worked. Astrid’s jaw clenched. She went still and glared at the both of us with a new kind of hatred.
I left the coach to Raum and Hagen to drive back to our camp. There remained enough Falkyns and warriors to guard an unmoving queen.
Without the High Queen, we would have one less enemy to battle. If Eryka and Ari were correct, if they found the prince, then Bracken could claim the crown if his mother was defeated. They assured us it was to our benefit to let Astrid live. All part of Southern games and politics. When a ruler conceded the loyalty, it ran deeper than if the predecessor simply died.
It had already paid off to have an ally in a foreign king. When Bracken ascended, having two would be even better.
“She’s ready, Kase.”
I whipped around. Tova stepped out of the cottage, scratching the edge of her ear where the pointed cap had been.
“She believed you?”
“All it took was Eryka. One look at her cousin and the princess believed anything she said. She’ll do her best to delay the actual vows. I tell you, a new light has sparked in her eyes knowing we plan to rescue her brother. We have her loyalty”
If all had gone according to plan, Sofia would already have the prince. If Ari had the stamina, his illusions would make it so no one would see the empty cells.
I mentally ran through the next steps. From now on, Tova, Eryka, and Elise would stick with Signe. They’d go in with combustible powders, dropping them around the palace.
Valen would be at the bridge and rivers. Sol and Tor would be lying in wait deep in the ravines.
Bard would go with Isak and Nik, distract the guards at the different gates, and traps would be set.
Herja, Junius, and Halvar would head up the archers on the peaks.
I would wait with the rest along the edges of the gates for the sign it was our time to make the final move. The final stand.
I stared at the gates in the distance. Soon. We’d face our fate soon.
