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“Right. And when would we leave? Tonight?” This was when I’d call his bluff, I decided.
His eyes widened slightly. “Yes. If that is what you wish. I could arrange it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Sure. You’d let me pull Odessa, one of your most loyal allies, away from the court, away from the competition, now? Tonight?”
“If that’s what you want, yes.” He met my gaze levelly. “This isn’t a bluff, Morgan.”
“Fine,” I snapped. “It’s not a bluff. Or?”
“Or?”
“There must be an ‘or.’ Or my other option is to...? What? What’s the offer? What’s on the table?”
Draven smiled slightly. “There is an ‘or.’”
“Of course, there is,” I muttered.
“If you stay, I’ll see to it that you receive the best training. Training you could never have possibly hoped to receive in Pendrath. There is no one there capable of teaching you what you need to know, Morgan.”
“What I need to know?” I repeated. “What are you talking about?”
He gave me a frank look. “You know what I mean. Your magic. You can’t just keep pretending it doesn’t exist.”
I looked away. “Yes, I can. For all you know that’s exactly what I have planned.”
“Fine. Let me rephrase. Youcoulddo that. But to do so would be incredibly stupid, selfish, and inefficient.”
“Inefficient? You’re calling me stupid, selfish, andinefficient?”
“I’m not calling you those things. I’m saying that’s what that particular choice would be best-described as.”
I made a face of annoyance. “Right. Semantics.”
“It would be absolutely inefficient, make no mistake, Morgan, for Pendrath’s best hope and most powerful royal heir to return without having an inkling of how to properly use or control her own magic. For all you know, it’s the very key to undoing this nightmare of a war your brother has entangled your country in.”
Fuck.
Damn him, but he had a point. One I hated to admit.
“Most powerful royalheir? Really? That’s what you’re calling me now?”
I felt his hard gaze on me but refused to meet his eyes.
“You want to set a child up on the throne of Pendrath? Be my guest. I’m sure Kaye will have plenty to say about that idea,” Draven said. “Make no mistake, you’d be using him. Just like Arthur is doing right now.”
I wondered what Merlin would say about the idea of replacing Arthur with Kaye. Or Sir Ector.
“There is no one with a stronger claim to that throne than you, Morgan, and perhaps it’s time you stopped avoiding that uncomfortable truth,” he continued.
“I’m not usurping Arthur,” I said stubbornly.
“No,” Draven said softly. “There’s no need to. He already did it to you.”
There was silence for a moment.
“And if you stay,” he continued finally. “You’ll go back to Pendrath like I promised you, with a Siabra army behind you. That is not an inconsiderable offer.”
I knew it wasn’t. A foreign army to back me, to protect me. To even help me get into Camelot in the first place. For all I knew, the city was under siege by Lyonesse or Rheged at this very moment.
