Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
“She calls me the pain in the ass, but you’re the pain in the ass.” I bent over and dropped a kiss on his nose, the only part of his face free of the bandages. “All you have to do is wake up, but you’re stubbornly refusing because you can never give me what I want without torturing me a little first.” My smile was soft as I slipped my hand under his. “The joke is on you, because I’ll wait as long as it takes.”
I’d be waiting a long time was Alisdair’s silent reply.
A week passed, and then two. My husband didn’t open his eyes.
“Conn obviously didn’t learn from his predecessor Lorcan. The basks only have the right of the territory I give them,” I said. “Tell him he and his people return to the northern marsh, or I’ll have his throat ripped out and replace him with a leader who listens.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the soldier replied, bowing out of the room.
I was already done with her and fixing on Foalan. “I want you to increase the guard presence in the village, Bevin, and the other outlying towns. Reassign the palace guards if necessary. Attackers can’t invade the palace if they never get past the village.”
“Yes, my lady.”
“Aeris,” I continued. “Round up the palace staff and begin clearing out and preparing all the empty rooms. Evacuate the families in the villages beyond Hathal and bring them here to shelter until the threat has passed.”
“If they leave their homes, their plants and crops will wither and die,” Aeris replied. “They’ll return home to no food.”
“Precisely why I hired five more traveling merchants this morning. Riordan will have company when he sets out within the next few days. Two of them are traveling to Quatassa—much closer than Lyrica.” I shook my head. “It has to be this way, Aeris. We’ll spread our forces too thin if we try to cover every single village. When the threat has passed, we’ll provide food assistance until they are able to revive their resources.”
“Yes, Lady Ana.” She set out without another word, ready and able to carry out my will.
Holding court in my bedchamber wasn’t ideal, but I wasn’t leaving Alisdair’s side and there was a kingdom to rule. Especially because the morning after the wolves attacked, Foalan returned to the scene and found four corpses—the three wolves who aided Meallan, and the lone guard who went back alone after I dragged Alisdair away. The only trace left of Meallan was his severed hand.
Somehow the loathsome rat survived and scuttled off. Foalan had enough time to order the wolves living in Lumenfell out before the rest attacked Bevin, Gibarden, Lutran, and a bunch of innocent people—heeding the orders of their vengeful, humiliated alpha.
The attacks continued for days until they were driven out to the darkest, coldest part of the forest where only the best trackers with senses better or equal to the wolves could follow.
What Meallan hoped to achieve with these attacks, I had no idea. If his plan was to piss off and enrage the citizens so much they overthrow me and Alisdair, and hand him the throne, it wasn’t working.
“What about the other war we’re waging?” I asked when it was only the three of us in the room.
I eyed the babies sleeping, cooing, nursing, and slung on her back. Actually, the nine of us. “Were you able to find Mahoun’s heirs?”
Treasa walked past the baby cots I had brought up for her as if they were cacti, and not comfort for her and her babies. “So far we’ve found one,” she replied. “As you know, there’s no point killing one if we can’t find the rest.”
I sighed, gazing at Alisdair. He was impatient for this war. Emiana was impatient for this war. I was impatient for a better life for my mother and my sisters, so impatient, I gave them both the key to bringing about their blood-soaked victories.
But is this truly the only way? Just because Alisdair believes change can’t come without blood and slaughter, doesn’t mean I can’t prove him wrong.
“There’s nothing that can be done,” I finally said. “When Mahoun dies, they’ll swear in the new king, everyone will come out of hiding, and our spies can kill them then. That will give us a few months to think of something better.”
“Better?” Treasa bounced up and down, burping two fussy babies and rocking the other four. “My lady, the plan you chose is as wise as it is creative as it is merciful. You found the path of minimal and only necessary bloodshed. No messy war. No collateral damage,” she said kindly. “I don’t believe there is another way. Certainly not a better one.”
“But that’s just it, Treasa.” I talked while I picked up Alisdair’s broth and began the slow, gentle process of feeding him. “To assume there will be no messy war or unnecessary bloodshed is to assume we can create a power vacuum, appoint ourselves the rulers to fill it, and everyone in Elva will simply fall in line.