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I thought of Draven’s age. He must have been a child when it all happened. A mere babe in arms.
“You mean this will all start up again? The entire war? Or else what? They’ll just wait until all the Siabra have died off and then come home?”
Draven shrugged. “Who can say. But in the meantime, under my rule there will be changes. We must leave this dark path and find another.”
“If you make it to the end of the competition. If you become emperor.”
“If I do, it will benefit not just my people, but yours, Morgan. Do you not see that?”
I stared at him. “What are you saying?”
He shook his head in frustration. “Why do you think I am doing this? Keeping you here until the end of the competition?”
“I’ve asked myself that more times than I can count,” I said, my eyes blazing. “Why don’t you explain your brilliant logic to me?”
“As soon as I have redeemed myself in the eyes of the court and survived the trials, become emperor, all of Myntra’s resources will be at your disposal as well.”
“What do you mean?” I said slowly. “I think you mean they’ll be yours and solely yours.”
“My power will be yours,” he insisted. “There is no way the Queen Regent would offer to help end a war on another continent, especially a human war. But with me on the throne? We’ll return to Pendrath and we’ll end your brother’s foolish war. You’ll set things right in Eskira.”
Hope bloomed in my heart. “And Kaye... Kaye will be king.” I looked at Draven. “You’d do all that for me?”
“I want to help my people,” he said directly. “To protect them above all else, even from themselves. I want to repair the past–foolish though that dream may be, Iwillpursue it as emperor. I have no wish to wage any more meaningless wars. I have no lust for endless slaughter between mortals or fae versus fae as my father and brother did. I wish for change. I wish for peace. Not only here in Myntra, but in Eskira, too. And ending Arthur’s war?” He gave a modest shrug. “I believe it will be a fairly simple thing for us to do.”
Us. It was a fine word. A tempting word. I desperately wanted to believe him. He made sharing power with me sound so simple. As if power wasn’t fought for and bled over all of the time.
“Perhaps not as simple as you think. Who is Orcades?”
He blinked. “Orcades?”
“She was under that lake. A fae woman from Valtain. She was trapped in the place I found Excalibur. She took it from me and I think...” I took a deep breath. “I think she planned to give it to Arthur.”
Draven looked thoughtful. “To your brother? Would he even be able to wield such a tool, I wonder?”
“He certainly believed he’d find a use for it. Who was she? Do you know?” I remembered the long list of titles she had spewed. Not all but some. “She called herself Slayer of the Siabra. When she found out you were there, she did not seem pleased.”
Draven’s eyebrows went up. “She saw me?”
“Heard you, more like. Or sensed you somehow. I don’t know exactly, I was busy lying on the floor in a pool of my own blood at the time.”
Draven looked amused more than anything. “Slayer of the Siabra. She would brag about that. What would Orcades want with a mere mortal king?”
“You know her? Personally?”
“As you might imagine, she’s much older than me, so no, we’ve never met. But I know of her, yes. And I suppose she knew my father. She was the Valtain’s greatest warrior. Gorlois’s firm right-hand. She’s one of the High King’s daughters.”
I quirked a brow. “And yet she was imprisoned in a lake.”
“Surrounded by priceless treasure and invaluable magical artifacts, yes,” Draven agreed.
“Why the hell would he put her down there?” I had an odd idea. “Was she being stored just like the treasure?”
Draven shrugged. I’d somehow expected that. “More likely punished for something. What matters is you got her out. Not too grateful though, was she?”
I thought for a moment. “She didn’t run me through with Excalibur, at least.”
“Just left you there to die and took it herself instead?” Draven grinned. “And you call me a monster.”
