AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“He cannot breach our walls. He’ll soon grow tired of his games. Everything will return to the way it was.”
Arin straightened, and I suspected my Prince of Flowers was about to reveal his thorns. “I hesitate to call this what it appears to be but are you afraid, my king?”
Well, that was one way to lose our heads.
Draven shot to his feet. “What Arin meant to say was—”
“You heard me,” Arin snapped. “Well, Ogden? What other excuse is there?”
Ogden sat back in his throne-like chair, growing ever more quiet and dangerously scarlet.
Noemi glanced to me in desperation. But Ogden had no interest in listening to me. I could do nothing but watch.
“You will apologize at once!” one of Ogden’s advisors yelled, slamming his fist on the table.
“May I speak?” Noemi interjected. “As the sole representative of Justice, it is my duty to placate disagreements.”
“Justice?” Ogden blustered. “Your court was as corrupt as his!” The king threw a hand at Arin.
“My court was not corrupt!”
“Just inept,” I said. The first words I’d spoken since taking my seat. My contribution silenced the entire assembly.
Ogden laughed and eyed me across the table. “So he does speak—Zayan. Must be quite the privilege sitting there, at my table. You’re a long way from the gutter, boy.”
I smiled and leaned forward. He’d clearly forgotten all I knew. A little reminder was in order. “Strange, don’t you think, how Razak has three crowns, and we have Love’s with us? So that must mean…” I counted down my fingers. “Hm, are you sure your crown is safe?”
“Perfectly safe. He has a fake. Costume jewelry, no more.”
Noemi cleared her throat. “My king, princes, lords. The fact remains the shatterlands are already on their knees. We need War to fight for us all. And not all of Justice was corrupt. I certainly am not.”
“You’re an aide.” Ogden huffed.
“I entered into Justice’s service in my sixth year. I have trained, every day of my life, to become a serving member of Justice. I may not hold a title—Justice Ines was taken too soon to grant me that honor—or have noble blood, but I have the will, the knowledge, and the heart to stand here and represent Justice after our court was cruelly shattered.”
“Due to your own incompetence.”
I saw Draven clutch Arin’s arm, holding him back. “Do nothing,” Arin blurted anyway, “and you’re not worthy of your own court.”
A gag may have been useful about now. Four years behind a door had clearly stripped Arin of any political nuance.
This was likely why the shatterlands had always been separated and why the crowns were destined to remain apart. Arin was passionate, Noemi righteous but naïve, Draven—was Draven—and Ogden, in his stubbornness, would hear none of it.
They descended into bickering once more, and I pinched the bridge of my nose. This wasn’t going to solve anything and if it continued, we’d be out in the sands by morning.
I shot to my feet, screeching the chair legs across the floor. “Enough! All of you. Bickering will see to it Razak wins. The fact remains there is no choice here. Ogden, you know you must act, which is why you’re so adamant not to. You cannot sit on your ass and drink wine until Razak takes your kingdom from you—which trust me, he will. Two courts have fallen, yours is next. Act, or open the gates and let him walk in. Those are your options.”
“Who are you to order me—”
“Nobody, I’m nothing, yet even I see you’re on the losing side. If we do not combine our strengths, if we do not work together, we are all lost.Thatis the truth. Bicker all you like, it changes nothing.”
Ogden glanced at the faces of his advisors; he had to act. Anything less looked weak. “Razak is no threat, but… I’ll consider it.”
A collective sigh of relief eased the tension in the room.
“Then, how do you suggest we stop Razak?” one of the advisors askedme.
I had a few ideas, but none of them involved anyone in this room. “That is for minds far greater than mine to wrestle with,” I said. “However, two things will lure Razak from his court: threaten to kill me, or we parade our alliance in front of him until he can no longer resist tearing it all down. His ego will win out. It always does. As I’d rather stay alive, I vote for the second option.”
