Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The ride back to the battle lines gave them ample time to discuss the particulars of the treaty. By the time they reached the spot between the lines—the tent still set up for their use—it was a simple thing to write out what they’d discussed on the way there.
Sitting at a table set outside in full view of both armies, Adeline stared at the finished treaty, the quill to sign it in her hand. This was it. An end to the war. Peace. Everything her parents would have wanted. Everything she had risked her marriage, her life, and her reign to achieve.
She probably shouldn’t be hesitating. Not that this was hesitation, exactly. More that this occasion felt too momentous to rush. She needed a few seconds to take it all in. Maybe then it would feel real.
Lorne’s hand rested on her shoulder, the slight pressure of a squeeze grounding her in the moment.
She glanced over her shoulder at him where he stood at her back. She appreciated that he was standing with her in this moment and not at his father’s side on the other side of the table.
With a deep breath, she turned her focus back to the paper before her. She scrawled her signature on both copies of the treaty before she held out the pen to King Philip.
He took it and swiveled the copies of the treaty to face him. He didn’t even pause before he signed each of them.
And just like that, the war was over. After all the blood that had been shed—after all her grandfather had done to prolong it including using her parents’ deaths to start it—the war ended with a mere scratch of pen on page.
This wouldn’t fix all of the tension within Kelverny. After all, she had not one, but two traitorous lords to sentence and very likely execute, and that wouldn’t sit well with their supporters.
Nor would everyone in Kelverny be satisfied with the compromises in the treaty.
Kelverny wouldn’t gain any territory or any fleech dragons of their own.
But Lalsacia had pledged to enable a way for Kelvernese citizens to cross the border and seek healing from the fleech dragons, under Lalsacian escort, of course.
It would take a few months for Lalsacia to put infrastructure in place to make sure all the Kelvernese, Lalsacians, and fleech dragons involved remained safe. But it was a solution.
Kelverny, too, wouldn’t be giving up any of the sylon cats. But they’d pledged military aid, including the use of their sylon cats, to Lalsacia in the event of an attack by another kingdom.
The stickiest situation to sort out had been the whole how-to-handle-the-heirs-being-married thing.
As long as King Philip was alive, it was fairly manageable.
He would rule Lalsacia while Adeline and Lorne made Kelverny their priority.
Even after King Philip died, they could split their time between the kingdoms, assuming that the tensions had cooled to the point that neither kingdom worried too much if their monarch spent half the year in a different kingdom.
But it was the next generation where things got complicated.
Their firstborn son couldn’t inherit both kingdoms, not unless they wanted to merge the kingdoms into one.
And while they certainly had hope that the two kingdoms would work their way toward a solid peace, they wouldn’t be ready for that, even several decades down the road.
So instead, they’d worked out a whole bunch of succession contingencies, writing them into the treaty. They would have to tweak the succession laws in their respective kingdoms to match, but it was the best they could do.
At its heart, they’d agreed that the firstborn son would be the heir to Lalsacia while the firstborn daughter would be heir to Kelverny. There were a few contingencies, such as if they had only girls or only boys, but that was the simplest.
Kelverny’s nobles might not appreciate the fact that their heir would be the daughter instead of the son.
But as Adeline was the queen, it had made the most sense for Kelverny to be the one to have a daughter as heir.
Hopefully by the time her daughter inherited the throne, Kelverny would be so used to having a queen that they would find it natural to have another one.
King Philip set down the pen, picked up one of the copies of the treaty, and pulled out his royal seal. A Lalsacian clerk hurried forward with a bowl of purple wax, already heated in preparation.
Thaddeus appeared at Adeline’s elbow, a bowl of Kelvernese yellow wax heated and ready to go. She took her own royal ring off her finger to make pressing it into the wax easier.
After taking the bowl from Thaddeus, she poured a small amount of the wax onto the bottom of one of the treaties near her signature, then pressed her seal into it to make everything official.
Once that was done, she passed that treaty to King Philip, who in turn passed her the treaty he’d already sealed.
After repeating the process, she claimed one of the copies of the treaty for herself while King Philip took the other.
The two of them stood, and King Philip nodded to her. “I wish we had more time to get to know each other.”
“Me too.” Strangely, she found herself meaning that. “And I would have loved to spend more time in Lalsacia. The little I saw of it was lovely.”
“Perhaps you will be able to visit again in a few months, once things settle.” King Philip sent her a smile, but his gaze strayed to Lorne beside her.
She understood. It must be hard for the Lalsacian king to send his only child back into a former enemy kingdom, not knowing when he’d see him again.
“I would like that.” She smiled at the king before she turned to Lorne, resting a hand on his arm. “Take your time.”
Then she headed for the gathering of Kelvernese nobles and soldiers farther up the valley, leaving Lorne to take a few moments to say farewell to his father.
Thaddeus joined her, walking just a few steps behind her. “You did it, Your Majesty.”
“We did it.” Adeline glanced at him, her smile seeming not enough to convey the depth of what was in her heart. “This was your plan. You were the one who suggested I marry the Lalsacian noble in the dungeon.”
Thaddeus huffed, shook his head, and shot a look over his shoulder. “I might have considered the options more thoroughly if I’d known he was the Lalsacian crown prince and not just a high-ranking nobleman.”
She would have too. But it was just as well. She couldn’t imagine loving anyone else the way she did Lorne.
Facing her again, Thaddeus dipped his head in as respectful a bow as he could manage while they were walking. “But you were the one who risked everything to follow the plan I proposed. Do not sell yourself short, Your Majesty. This is your achievement.”
Adeline straightened her shoulders, the thick paper of the treaty in her hand. Her grandfather never would have believed she was capable of this. He’d dismissed her. Controlled her. Tried to break her.
But she had done it. Survived two assassination attempts. Brought about peace. Dare she hope this would earn the support of her nobility? Or, at least, enough support that they’d merely try to corral her with politics rather than take the leap to regicide. Political maneuvering, she could handle.
Just before she reached the line of Kelvernese nobles and soldiers, Lorne jogged to her side and clasped her hand. She peered up at him, searching the expression on his face. “Are you all right?”
“Yes.” His smile remained unwavering, more than she would have expected.
She still studied his face, looking for what, she wasn’t fully sure. Regret, maybe?
He swung their clasped hands, facing forward. “I mean it. Yes, I’ll miss my father, and I’ll miss Lalsacia. But this time, I’m bringing my horse along, and I gave a list of things I’d like sent to Kelverny to one of my father’s clerks. This won’t be like last time.”
A quick glance over her shoulder showed that Godwin, Burchard, Arne, Emil, and Orvyn trailed after them, mounted on destriers and leading the black warhorse she and Lorne had ridden on that mad dash to Lalsacia.
The sight made her smile once again. Their loyalty wasn’t something to take for granted. After all they’d endured in Kelverny, they were still willing to return to continue guarding Lorne.
Although, she suspected Orvyn’s return had as much to do with the fact that Jelsa was in Kelverny as it was loyalty to his prince.
“No, it won’t.” She would make sure of it.
More, she was going to stop cutting him out. The nobles might complain, but she needed Lorne at her side in his full capacity as her prince consort. And when she had the chance to visit Lalsacia, she would embrace her role at his side as his princess.
It was time to finally be bold and speak the truth of her heart. She halted and turned to better face him. “I love you. I know you might not believe that after I tried to send you back to Lalsacia, but—”
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her, right there in the valley in the sight of the armies of both their kingdoms.
And she didn’t even care. She was kissing him and he was kissing her and they loved each other. That was all that mattered.
With a flap and rustle of wings, the little yellow-green fleech dragon barreled through the air and slammed into her. Breaking off the kiss, she fumbled to wrap an arm around him as he clung to the front of her dress with his claws. “I guess you’re coming home with me.”
Lorne’s grin widened. “Yes. Let’s go home.”