Chapter 80
Semuel’s eyes bored into mine. “And you’re fine with that? The Queen of Ilma is truly fine with that?”
“I may be from Ilma, but I was raised in Ramel. It’s common practice there, is it not? And besides, what he had to do was for my people. So yes, I am perfectly fine with that.”
“Did you know it was for your people when he struck the bargain? Queen Elara might have agreed to it, but Cordelia Wildheart would have never.”
“What did you do?” Amani whispered. Her look was so intense, it was as if she and Aegir were the only two people in the room.
“My father asked him to sire a child with my sister Maryam.” Everyone’s wide-eyed gaze shifted from Semuel to Aegir to me.
“And you secured the deal?” Amani’s tone sounded judgmental.
“I can confirm that Princess Maryam is with child. Can we move on now?”
“Bullshit.” Amani shifted in her seat. “You wouldn’t have found your soulbound, then gone ahead with sticking your dick into some other woman.”
For some reason Aegir looked at his brother, but Ryvar just shrugged and told him, “I’m with my sister on this one.”
“It’s Sendor’s, isn’t it?” Semuel murmured.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Aegir exhaled in frustration, pinching between his brows. “Fine. I made a deal with your pregnant sister to pretend it was mine so that your father wouldn’t cast her and the child out, and in turn, we get our eighty thousand. Win-win, I’d say, would you not?”
“If word comes out, then no, it would be lose-lose,” Semuel snapped. He gave me a piercing look-over. “Fine with it, my ass.”
“Well, we’ll make sure that doesn’t happen, won’t we?” Aegir snapped back. “King Belzari must never know, and Princess Maryam wished for it to remain between us.” He gestured to himself, then me. “I’ve failed the princess gravely in that matter.”
“The child will have none of your Fae features,” Faern added. Valid point.
“I’m Demi-Fae. The child isn’t expected to come out with sharp ears and pointy canines. Look at Amani’s teeth, you can barely tell. Now, shall we move on to the next topic?”
“This is fucked-up,” Amani grumbled, moving around in her chair.
“This is fucked-up, brother. When I told you to ally at all cost, I surely did not have this in mind. But, a done deal’s a done deal.
None of us will say a word, so I say the situation is well under control.
We all know securing those eighty is a desperate-times-call-for-desperate-measures kind of situation. ”
Everyone agreed in silence.
“Can we talk about the Ilmans trapped on Mistgeil Island now?” Eldric muttered as he leaned back into his seat.
“Yes, I am curious. How is it possible that you searched everywhere for ten years, yet missed that one giant piece of land, surrounded by angry seas, I hear?” Yanik’s comment was directed towards Ryvar.
Ten years.
Marshen had said that the search party commenced six years ago, when Ryvar was appointed as king…
Wait, did Ryvar go all fuck-the-peace-treaty and rebel against his parents’ wishes?
I was certain his parents wouldn’t have allowed him to intervene…
Emika did tell me that Aegir and Ryvar argued with their parents about it.
“I sent my avian shifters to look for potential survivors, and they all told me that they saw nothing but sand and dust. We all thought nothing lived there.”
“I can assure you nothing is visible until the moment you set foot on that land,” Eldric commented. “The island is well cloaked.”
“Let me guess,” Amani said, lifting her wine glass. “Witches.”
I nodded. The same one that put me to sleep. She secured passage for more than six hundred Nerithians. She promised them she would come here to inform your parents about them.”
“Well, I would surely have remembered it if a witch came through our doors. My guess is she never made it here,” Ryvar said.
I wondered what had happened to her. Was she dead? But the spell held, and the veil held. That somehow gave me a potential assurance that she wasn’t.
“How can we secure a safe passage for them to come here? You will let them come here, right?” I asked Ryvar.
“Of course,” he replied, giving me a genuine smirk. My gut felt weird. I was quite convinced that he didn’t truly care about them, so I wasn’t nearly sold on his benevolence.
“So how can you discreetly transport five hundred seventy-two people safely? And shall it be along the Thyren Ocean or the Elder Ocean?” I asked.
“You speak as if I am the one who commands what happens to these people. You are their queen, so you tell me.” The tone itself already annoyed me. The fact that the words came out of Ryvar’s mouth caused turmoil in my stomach.
“Well, I value your opinion so much that I wanted to ask you personally,” I told him, giving him a subtly hostile grin. “I don’t know what kind of resources you have, so you tell me.”
“I was thinking ships.”
“How many do you have?”
“Many.”
“How many people do they hold?”
“The ones suitable for long journeys may hold up to three hundred.”
“Great, so three of those. We’ll split them into groups of three so that there will be enough room for everyone, plus food and materials.
As you said, the journey is rather long.
We should send Ice Wielders to keep the food fresh throughout the whole sail.
We have to prepare clothes, supplies, and medicine. ”
“Three would attract too much attention,” Amani added.
Ryvar stood and sauntered next to a vase containing a bouquet of large scrolls. “All right, we can think about the specifics later. What about the journey?”
The king returned, unfurling one of the scrolls. He set it up on the table before me.
“The shortest route would be to go north through the Thyren Ocean, but there are two main issues with that. The boats would have to pass through the Wrathwater Depths, which is impossible without some form of magic. The other is that travelling along the coast of Ilma is dangerous. Marshen told me that the Naaris patrol both land and sea. And since we do not have witches on our side, then we cannot hide our way towards the heavily guarded Hydran Bridge. The other option would be to sail along the Brim and into the Elder. Boarding from South Bay would free us from the burden of the Depths, which I can assure you, its name is not overstated. The journey is not only longer but we would also have to cross waters that aren’t very far from the Land of Naar.
Sailing too close to Marais has its dangers, too. ”
“How about we give them passage through the Unnar Caves?” Yanik suggested.
“No!” Marshen and I blurted in unison. Yanik just showed us his palms.
“Do you have any Earth Wielder friends?” I asked Yanik.
“I do,” he answered. His confused tone was a proxy for the question why?
“How about sailing along the Brim then into the Earthen Gulf? Earth Wielders can create a passage through the cliffs. Then we could cross overland from Troiya.”
“Considering that Naar has the right to search boats passing through their sea, then perhaps your last suggestion is also my most preferred one.” The king took a sip from his wine before continuing.
“Yanik, see if this is possible and see if we could also use their wielding gifts to create waterways throughout Sijar. We would have to involve your sister, then,” he added, looking at Leannon with half a tight mouth.
“We would, of course, need her permission before digging around her Land. You two,” Ryvar said, pointing towards Yanik and Amani, “come up with strategic bargains that we could propose to King Dorell. We’d have to go through his Land, too, but perhaps replenishing his Fount would get him to listen.
” Then he pointed at Leannon and Faern and said, “You’re on supplies duties.
I want lists.” Finally, he turned his attention to his brother.
“Aegir, Eldric, prepare your men. We won’t sail without the Vanguard. ”
We? I doubted Ryvar would be journeying with us, but anyway.
“Oh, and you,” he said, directing his head at Semuel, “perhaps it’s time you send a how-are-things letter to your family, now that we know one of your sisters is in a delicate situation.”
Semuel scoffed. “So it’s all right now for me to send letters home?” His tone morphed into a sarcastic one. “And should I write the castle of Nivaria as the return address?”
Ryvar rolled his eyes. “Funny. We’ll send a shifter.”
The king did not give Marshen or me any direct tasks, so I took the liberty and said, “Marshen and I will do some research on the source of our powers. Hopefully, we’ll come across something that could help us restore them.”
“Sounds like a plan. All right, shall we move on to our third discussion?” Leannon asked.
“Yes, what are we going to do about the others?” King Ryvar asked, looking at his brother.
“Others? There are more rebels?” I asked.
“We do not use that word. We prefer the term revolutionaries,” the king corrected.
“All right, well, are there more revolutionaries?”
The double doors were thrown open and ten servants made their way in, one after the other, surrounding our table.
They placed a domed plate in front of each revolutionary at the exact same time.
Each cover was simultaneously lifted, causing my mouth to work.
What I assumed were beef ribs looked and smelled divine.
As did the colourful side of vegetables.
Cutlery was in order, drinks were poured, and napkins were placed on our laps.
I waited for the last remaining servant to close the door before continuing, “So, are there more of you—of us?”