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Ren raised an eyebrow. “I could try asking them real nicely for it instead,” he offered in a dry voice, “if you think that might work better?”
“Panarina.” That was Val. “It’s this in the short-term, or enduring another reign of a monster in the long. Welzes is...” He swallowed, and I wondered if he was thinking of Alondra and the fearful expression she’d worn in the presence of her husband. “Nothing good for anything of us.”
Glancing at the parchment in front of me where I’d been scribbling down the concessions Ren had agreed to make to his northern neighbours if he returned to power, Astrid let out a low hum of consideration.
My prince raised his chin. “You help me arrest Navar and Welzes so I can plant my ass back on my throne, and Your Majesty, Your Highness, you need never worry about a threat from the south again. One last act of war to achieve peace.”
Val let out a long breath, looking as pleadingly at Astrid as Ren and I were.
“Fine. I willconsiderit,” the queen said, a note of warning finality in her voice. “Happy?”
Ren smiled broadly, leaned back in his chair, and sipped from his wine glass before answering. “No. I also want Algejón.”
We all stared at him.
Then Astrid laughed, and it wasn’t a nice sound. “You come here to beg me for favours and then meet me with demands? You have guts, Aratorre, I’ll give you that. I wonder what they’ll look like spread over my floors.”
Ren didn’t flinch. He merely continued to smile as if it was all of great amusement to him.
“This all started with you taking Algejón,” he said. “It will end with me taking it back.”
“Perhapsdon’tremind everyone here how you tried to kidnap Astrid and ended up with me instead,” I hissed at him. “Besides, it was Commander Grachyov and King Oleg who took your city.”
“Then Her Majesty should have no objection to handing it back,” Ren said smoothly, continuing to recklessly court danger in a way that made him a fucking hypocrite for ever admonishing me for the same.
From the deepening glare she was sending his way, Astrid clearlydidhave objections. “Arguably, the city belongs to Mazekhstam. Quareh invaded it and renamed it Algejón several hundred years ago.”
“Arguably,that’s just a rumour. The records from that era are far from clear on what happened.”
“We’ve held it for over a year now,” she said. “A further change in control would be disruptive to the local populace.”
Ren narrowed his eyes. “Continuing to evict Quarehian citizens so that your own people can take up residence there isdisruptive to the local populace.”
“You just want to control the border, Aratorre.”
“Ah. Sothat’swhy you won’t give it up.”
“We get it. The city has strategic importance,” Valeri said with a sigh.
“It also has a human cost,” Ren snapped. “Those aremypeople suffering under Mazekhstani rule, forced to comply withyourridiculous laws and customs, Panarina, that prevent a woman from lying with her wife or a man from kissing his husband.”
“Your people are welcome to leave,” Astrid said. “That has always been made clear to them.”
“One of you gets the city,” I interrupted. “The other is allowed to maintain a garrison in it and elect a representative to its local council to ensure that the city can never be used against you.”
Astrid glanced at me and then pursed her lips. “But who decides who gets which?”
“Chance,” I said, pulling a coin from my pocket and slamming it down onto the table. “Reach agreement on the terms now, while neither of you know which position you’ll end up with. That will ensure you give yourselves – and each other – a fair deal.”
Val looked surprised. Ren did not.
“Yes,” my prince said, shooting me an affectionate smile. “Your brother is the second cleverest person on the continent, Velichkov, if you weren’t already aware.”
Valeri frowned and opened his mouth as if to ask something foolish like who Ren believed thecleverestwas, and then seemed to think better of it.
Astrid and Ren descended into rapid-fire discussions, negotiating the terms for Algejón quicker than I could write them down. When they fell silent a few minutes later, holding identically tense poses as they watched each other carefully and tried to work out if they’d distributed the rights evenly enough to be acceptable no matter the outcome, I slid the coin across the table to Val.
“Tails for Mazekhstam keeping the city,” I said, and my brother deftly flipped the coin, catching it in mid-air and slamming it down on his wrist.
