39. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

A single High Fae is stronger than a hundred untrained humans. A single High Fae royalty from a Great House is worth more than a thousand. With training, though? Six humans can bring down a High Fae from the Lesser Houses. Fifty can usually bring down one of the lesser nobility. Do not attempt to fight the Conduits or their heirs. No number of humans will win that fight. Only a Priest will have a chance against them.

~Sir Alistair Hawkings, Magical Combat for Humans

Maeve

We’ve had several run-ins with Aric’s small council at this point. Most of them stay quiet, but Sir Alistair Hawking is not. Ever. I know that I’m young. I don’t have the experience to make kingdom level decisions, but Cole has more experience than this entire council put together. He’s successfully fought wars with Immortals, and he’s successfully manipulated the most important people in the world.

So, when he gets that look on his face that means he would really like to choke the life out of the twenty-five-year-old man, I tend to agree with him.

“We should mobilize the entire army and march on the Fae,” he says nonchalantly, his legs propped up on the table as he leans back in the chair. It’s like he’s talking about a trade deal rather than possibly marching thousands of men to their deaths. “There are only five hundred of them. The scouts were sure that there weren’t any more hiding. There will be casualties, but five hundred of anything will die to five thousand archers.”

“Not High Fae. Especially trained House of Steel soldiers,” Cole seethes. “They will all die. Five hundred Steel soldiers could kill every human in your kingdom.”

The rest of the small council looks grim, but Alistair laughs. Aric glances from his Master of Defense to Cole, the Prince of the House of Flames, someone who’s killed hundreds of High Fae. “How do you know that?” he asks.

Cole smiles and says, “Because I could do the same, and five hundred House of Steel soldiers would give me pause.”

Alistair shakes his head. “There’s no way you could defeat my armies by yourself. You couldn’t stop a thousand arrows or beat a full cavalry charge. I’m sure that you could win any skirmish against humans, but you don’t even wear armor, Prince Cole. A stray arrow would eventually take you down.”

Cole smiles at Alistair, and I’m reminded of the times that he terrified me when I first met him. “That you believe that a human arrow would have any effect on me is how I know that you’re not nearly qualified to make decisions for a kingdom when it comes to dealing with High Fae.”

He takes a step toward the table, the smile on his face curling up higher, and I can see the heat waves beginning to pour from his body. I can feel a single emotion flowing through our bond. Pure joy. An emotion he’s perfected over the years.

It explodes from him in flames as he becomes the inferno. The carpet under him bursts alight, but thankfully, the stone underneath it doesn’t burn. The rest of the small council runs, and I get a glimpse of what it looks like when the ten most powerful men and women in the kingdom become terrified.

“Do you truly think that an arrow would hurt an inferno?” Cole’s voice says over the roar of the fire as he steps closer to Alistair. Everyone else has moved to get out of Cole’s way, but Alistair stayed, his eyes narrowing. He’s sitting up straight, his eyes on the walking fireball, but he hasn’t left his seat.

“Steel would,” he says.

It’s as though time slows down, just like when we’re in a battle, and I hear Cole’s voice through our bond. “Don’t interfere.” A command. Not because he outranks me or because he’s demanding it from me. It’s a battle command from the most experienced person in the room, and I trust him.

“Are you sure?” Cole asks, and Alistair draws his sword. It’s a functional sword, unlike the bejeweled side swords that the rest of the men at the council wear.

As a credit to the young man, he doesn’t waver as he holds the blade out. Aric tries to get him to put the weapon down, knowing that angering someone like Cole by threatening him could have him lash out at everyone here.

Both Alistair and Cole ignore the king, though. It’s two warriors facing each other down. “Step back, or I’ll take this as an actual threat,” Alistair says through gritted teeth. I know instinctively that if Cole had been anyone else, he’d have already cut them down for threatening him. King Aric didn’t put an idiot on the small council, but he doesn’t understand High Fae, and he certainly doesn’t understand Cole Cyrus.

And Cole steps forward. His hand moves as fast as if he were in a fight, and he grips the blade hard enough that when Alistair tries to pull it away from him, he can’t. Molten steel drips from his finger to the stone at their feet, and Alistair’s eyes open wide. “Are you sure that your steel would hurt me?”

“But the cage?” he stammers. “The stories. Even you said that High Fae are weak to steel.”

Cole lets go of the sword and steps back, the inferno disappearing and leaving him smiling in front of a fire on the rug. He lifts a hand, and the flames are extinguished in an instant. “Steel pulls our power, but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to win a fight by swinging a sword at a High Fae. Especially House of Steel soldiers.”

Alistair’s still looking at the sword in his hand, which has grooves cut into it where Cole’s fingers melted the steel. And Cole’s hand isn’t even cut.

Everyone silently stares at Cole, and I finally take a little control, clearing my throat. Then I remember something from the book that Vesta used to read to me.

“Humans won a war with the Immortals, though,” I say softly. “There were massive casualties on both sides, but the humans won. There’s a reason that humans haven’t been rounded up and treated like cattle. The Fae aren’t nearly as clever as they think they are. Where Draenyth was built with dragons and magic, this city and castle were built with engineering that the Fae simply don’t have. In this fight, you aren’t ready, but in the future, you might be.”

I purse my lips and look around the room, everyone’s expressions showing more confusion than I like. I look at Cole and his eyebrow is arched questioningly. “Where did you hear that?” he whispers down the bond.

“Vesta’s book,” I respond silently. Then I say to the small council, “We’ll fight your war with the High Fae this time. If we don’t, they will march into your kingdom, and they will slaughter or capture everyone. Stormhaven won’t be anything but ruins by the end of winter. But I won’t do it for free. Not this time.”

I don’t look at the rest of the small council. This isn’t said to them. Instead, I focus on King Aric. I stare into those gray eyes and smile. Shadows whip around my body, surrounding me in a cloak made of them, and I say, “You know the rules of the Shade’s debts. I’m offering you the same thing. A single debt is all it will take. When I call it in, you’ll either do as I command, or you’ll die.”

The color drains from King Aric’s face as he stares at me. Cole has played the part of the Shade a thousand times, but I never have. Shadows slowly expand from my feet, curling around the room until only the two of us can see each other, shadows hiding everything and everyone else in the room. “What do you say, King Aric? A trade. Your safety now, in exchange for your help at a later date?”

“I don’t have a choice, do I?” he snarls. “Sylvantia had been peaceful until you came here. Ever since then, there’s been constant violence.”

I smile, but it’s hidden behind shadows. “We didn’t start a war, King Aric. We’re the thin strands of hope that are holding the world together, and it is both your honor and unfortunate position to be forced into a battle between destruction and salvation.”

“What if I simply offered you over to the people looking to invade? I don’t know who that captive we have in the dungeons is, but I’m sure they’d be interested in him.”

My smile only gets wider. “They probably would. Except that I’m about to let him out of his cage.”

Aric sinks. “I’ll do it. I’ll accept the debt,” he says. A sense of strength fills me as I look at the man that I’d once thought of as the most powerful man in the world. Uncle Trevor used to say his name with reverence.

Now he owes me a debt. “Your hand?” I say.

His movements are sudden and angry, but he doesn’t argue as he sticks his arm out. I move toward him; the shadows cover my feet and make me look like I’m gliding over the stone. I take his wrist in mine, and when I press my nail against his wrist, he grits his teeth. A portion of my power flows into his skin, and I can feel it connect to his soul and body, tying him to me.

Where his wrist had been unmarked a moment ago, a thin brown tally mark shifts and moves under his skin now.

The shadows around me and the room dissipate, and I let his hand go. “Thank you, King Aric. Beginning tomorrow, Darian will help you begin building anti-Immortal weapons. That way, when the time comes to fight, you won’t be quite as powerless as you are right now. As a bonus, you’ll learn how to fight against Immortals, and maybe you won’t need to be quite so afraid of them.”

Cole’s eyes widen at the idea of humans being anything but terrified of Immortals. He heard what I’d said about humans winning the last war, and now I’m going to give them the tools to do it again. I’m sure he questions what would happen if they assaulted Draenyth.

Immortals are weaker than they were in days past, and humans are stronger, but they’re more afraid than they were, and now they’re angry at the House of Steel. Yes, I’m opening us up to a new enemy, but if we fail, if Cole and I cannot wrest the power in Draenyth away from Gethin, someone needs to protect the humans from him.

And it won’t be us because we’ll be dead.

“Are you sure about this?” Cole asks through the bond.

“Absolutely.” It’s like the lines are laid out in front of me as if I were Calyr. We can’t fight Draenyth on our own. The number of allies we’ll be able to call in are too few, and most of them will be lesser Immortals.

It’s like he can read my mind, though. “I’m not talking about teaching the humans to fight Immortals. I mean about my father.”

Oh. Right. “It’s the only option, Cole. He’s the only person who’s strong enough to help us fight this small army. We’re going to struggle, but he wants them to lose just as much as we do. And Cole…” I pause for a moment, not completely sure how to say this. He doesn’t interrupt me, waiting for me to finish. “I think he wants you to take the Throne. Everything that Darian’s told us points to that. If he doesn’t accept that, then… well, we’ll kill him. He can’t fight us both.”

He swallows hard, but he nods. “He’s the only person who worries me, Maeve. He…”

Cole is terrified of his father, but his father doesn’t wear the Painted Crown any longer. I do. And I am not afraid of Casimir Cyrus. “This is the right answer,” I say.

He nods, and our silent conversation ends. Everyone in the room is staring at us. “Alistair,” I say, putting the focus back on the small council, “tomorrow, you are going to spend time with Darian. You will listen to him, or I will find someone else to teach how to fight Immortals. You will do what he says, and you will begin training your soldiers, all of them. There will come a time very soon that this army will go to war, and if your men are not prepared, they will all die.”

The response is silent fear, and I continue. “I am giving you the keys to saving as many of them as possible.” I glance at King Aric and say, “I could have you send them all to their deaths, but I want as few casualties as possible. Yes, I will use your army, but I want them for what they can do, not for the sacrifice they can make. Do you understand?”

Aric nods to me, and I look around at the table of men. When I’d first come here, they hadn’t respected me. They had thought they were talking to a young woman, not the Queen of Nyth. Now, they don’t dare disagree. Even Alistair nods when I glance at him.

“Good. This is not all bad, mind you. For your help, when we retake Draenyth, you will be the first human country that we’ll begin trading with. How would you like to have first access to a market and goods that have been out of your reach for thousands of years? I’m sure that will end with your coffers being filled far beyond what they’ve ever been.”

It seems like this possibility hadn’t occurred to any of them, but the tense expressions on most of their faces change suddenly with the thought of future wealth and prosperity. I don’t wait for their response. I simply take Cole’s arm in mine and fall through the world.

I wait a moment in the void, savoring its serenity for only a handful of seconds before appearing outside Casimir’s cell. That was the simple part. This is the part that’s terrifying.

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