Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A cacophony of sound erupted around us, but there was only one reaction I cared about.
Not the glowering Elk lord or the murderous king, but the singularly shocked and surprisingly unreadable expression of the princess across from me. I kept her in my line of sight while I addressed the table, outlining the advantages of an alliance.
“It’s no secret that Lochlann’s coffers are running low after the rebuilding effort, and Socairans have favored military over farming to their detriment. Trade would benefit both of our peoples.”
“Which is why you’re here for trade discussions,” Korhonan spat.
I ignored him, though I could practically sense the vein bulging in his temple from his out-of-character anger. We both knew that true alliances were forged in blood or marriage beds.
“But if you were going to pick one clan to align yourselves with, Bear controls the pass, and no one is moving any substantial amount of goods or livestock through that tunnel.” At the very least, they would need to include Bear in trade agreements, which would only deepen their burden. Unless we were their primary alliance. “We’re also the largest territory, with the deepest coffers, and we represent the single biggest military force in Socair.”
Rowan stared at me unblinking, mute with disbelief. Or possibly fury.
“Elk’s coffers are plenty deep,” Korhonan countered, gathering himself and sitting straighter in his seat. “And the pass is only accessible five or six months a year, whereas the tunnel could be improved to accommodate trade year-long.”
“It would take years to get the tunnel wide enough to fit a standard wagon through,” I shot back. “And that doesn’t address the other points.”
He opened his mouth to respond, but a quieter voice cut him off.
“You said you had no intentions of marrying.” The entire room shifted to focus on Rowan, who was staring at me with open outrage on her perfect features.
Because I was offering a marriage alliance? Or because I hadn’t sooner?
It wasn’t hard to remember the only time we had discussed marriage, at the cabin, just before Mila came for Taras. Easier still to remember the things I had let myself want, the flimsy excuses I had made to prevent myself from having them.
“I said I had too much chaos in my life for a wife,” I clarified. “And I find that these days that chaos has...largely abated.”
At least, it had, before I came here.
A strangled sound escaped her. “You have got to be kidding me.”
Red crept from her chest up her neck, before settling into her cheeks.
“I can assure you, I’m not.” I spread my hands out, indicating I had no ulterior motives when I wasn’t honestly sure what my motives were right now. “You need an alliance, and I’m offering one.”
I said it like it was simple. Like it wasn’t an enormous gamble for both of us. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to take it back.
“I wouldn’t need an alliance if you would just agree to the one I already had in the works,” she hissed.
Oh, she had an alliance in the works, now, did she?
“Hmm. It was my understanding you hadn’t yet agreed,” I couldn’t help but point out. “In any event, I’m not inclined to grant my permission when the end result is my enemy’s clan being strengthened.”
That part was true enough, at least.
“That’s why you let me go.” Her words were soaked in bitterness. “All this time, I wondered how you could risk me marrying into Clan Elk, but it never was a risk. You were never planning on letting it happen.”
I wished that were true, that I had taken the time to consider the possibility before letting her walk away from Bear, that I had considered the consequences, like someone responsible for an entire clan of people should, instead of being blinded by my own need to see her gone.
Safe .
Gone.
She clutched Korhonan’s hand tighter, and I declined to explain that to her.
“I told you before, there was nothing I wouldn’t do for my clan.” Except force you to stay when it might get you killed.
It would be different if she was a Clan Wife, but not without risk. She knew that, though. There was no need to bring it up in front of Korhonan.
“So once again, all of this is about keeping Elk from getting something you don’t even want.” Her words were reminiscent of another argument, a lifetime away in the cabin.
Had it been true then? Was it now?
It was hard to look at her and lie to myself enough to claim she was something I didn’t want, but neither could I deny a visceral need to keep her out of Elk’s hands.
“Do you honestly think anyone at this table would let Rowan go back to Bear after what you let happen to her?” Korhonan interrupted my thoughts before I could respond.
So much for not bringing up the risk, but that risk was sure as hell not exclusive to my clan. Iiro would just as soon see her dead as married, something everyone at this table knew.
I fixed Korhonan with a stare, letting every ounce of the rage I had felt since I got his letter show in my expression.
“Remind me.” My voice was like ice, and still warmer than I felt when I thought about Iiro. “Was it my brother who trapped her in a tunnel where she could have died—nearly did, in fact—then brought her to a Summit that voted to hang her?”
“Iiro made plenty of mistakes,” Theodore said, as if endangering Rowan’s life was something as simple as that. “But last I checked, he didn’t have her tortured and humiliated, stripped half bare and bleeding in front of his entire regiment.”
His words echoed in the sudden silence, punctuated by the queen’s sharp inhale. My lemmikki’s face lost all color, her chest rising and falling rapidly.
Korhonan had always been an idiot, but had he honestly just thrown that day in her face to spite me ? His chest puffed up protectively, like he wasn’t the one grinding salt into her wounds when he hadn’t even been there to see the carnage.
Did he think he could picture the horror of that moment without seeing Rowan’s pale skin nearly translucent and covered in her own blood?
My fists clenched, fury at Ava and the massive aalio warring for dominance.
“It’s safe to say there is risk on either side,” Prince Oliver cut in, with all the diplomacy he had instilled in his son.
It was enough of a distraction for me to take a breath, compose myself, to respond to the legitimate concern, no matter who had posed it. Not for Korhonan’s sake or for the room’s, but because Rowan’s features were still drawn in an incredibly rare display of apprehension.
All at once, I remembered why I was never supposed to make this offer. But Oliver wasn’t wrong. There was a risk in Elk, too. At least this one, I could shield her from.
Whatever else we were to one another, she was mine to protect. My clan’s. Mine .
I thought about her vibrant kingdom and the bounteous food and the family that adored her, and another reason for her reluctance to marry Korhonan occurred to me—one that should have been obvious.
She had never wanted to be in Socair. Aside from vodka, what did my kingdom have to offer her?
If I wanted to keep her from Elk, there was an irrefutable way to do it. A way to give her what she wanted, along with what she needed.
And if she wasn’t entirely mine, at least she wouldn’t be his .
“Clan wives are protected,” I offered, my tone more controlled now. “That’s true no matter who she chooses... But if the princess’ safety is a concern, she is welcome to stay in Lochlann.”
The princess in question narrowed her jade eyes at me. “You want to marry me, but you don’t care if I stay here, in Lochlann, while you reside in Socair?”
Was that hope in her tone, or only disbelief?
“You would need to come for the wedding, of course, but after that?” I shrugged, feigning the nonchalance I couldn’t quite feel under the weight of her furious gaze. “It hardly makes a difference to the alliance. As far as I’m concerned, your life is your own.”
I ignored the part of me that rebelled at the arrangement I was so casually offering, the part that wondered what or who she might distract herself with if her husband was a kingdom away.
If she agreed to those terms. If she wanted to stay here.
As easy as it was to read the open anger on her face, I still couldn’t quite nail down the reason.
“What a novel concept.” Her voice was low, but the scathing tone carried all the same.
She opened her mouth, then closed it, like she was physically fighting not to tell everyone in this room that just the night before I reminded her that I owned her.
“I suppose then you would get everything you want,” she said instead.
Is that what she thought? That I wanted the massive pain in the arse it would be to have to explain my absentee wife at every wedding and Summit for the next fifty years?
“I wouldn’t go right to want .” My mouth tugged upward. Did she remember the first time I had said those words, when she had been nearly as angry as she was right now? “But sacrifices must be made.”
“Sacrifices,” she breathed, her lips twisting on the word.
Korhonan tugged her hand slightly, just enough to break whatever spell we were under, enough to make me realize my eyes hadn’t left hers for the entirety of this conversation.
That every other eye in the room was on us as well, expressions ranging from amused to embittered. Mostly Korhonan for that last one.
Rowan shook her head like she was forcing away cobwebs, then squared her shoulders in a battle-ready position. So what she said next wasn’t much of a surprise.
“That’s very noble of you, but entirely unnecessary, as we’re supposed to be discussing stipulations for me to marry Theo, not a counterproposal.”
The aalio nodded with approval, and I willed my fists to unclench.
“That is my stipulation,” I countered, having decided that roughly three seconds ago. “That we discuss the merits of an alliance between Bear and Lochlann for the sake of both our people, that you give it genuine consideration. In return, I will give genuine consideration to granting my permission for you to marry Korhonan, in the event that you decide against an alliance with Bear.”
I wasn’t sure why I was pushing when I had told myself I wouldn’t, except that she was stubborn as all storms-damned hell. I couldn’t gauge her reaction from one conversation. If she really wanted to be with Korhonan, I would know after a few days.
And I would consider granting my permission right up until the moment I withheld it.
She looked like she wanted to refuse, while her mother appeared thoughtful. Her father’s expression, of course, more closely mirrored her own, though he didn’t outright intercede.
Just as Princess Jocelyn had said, they were leaving this decision entirely to her, and I was banking on that responsibility holding some degree of weight with her.
Sure enough, she let out a frustrated sigh.
“Fine, but I want a guarantee that when I decide against it, I will have more than consideration. You will grant your full permission,” she spat the word. “To marry into Elk, provided they agree to the terms of the negotiations.”
I wanted to point out that it was hardly fair to ask me to agree when she had all but admitted that she wouldn’t live up to her end, but I decided on a different angle.
“Very well. If you decide against it, I’ll grant your permission. But I want permission in turn to stay until I find another suitable alliance.”
If Elk was tied to Lochlann, Bear would need something stronger than a trade agreement to keep us protected, even with Iiro’s dubious word on the negotiations. That was the only reason I decided to bring up an alliance of my own, certainly not because I remembered green eyes staring fiery daggers at my rustled bed the night before.
And for all that she was sure she wanted to marry Korhonan, for all her fury at my offer and her indignation at my terms, she froze.
She blinked once, then twice, a third time, before croaking, “A what?”
“A wife, in Lochlann.”
For the second time in an hour, and maybe in her entire life, she had gone mute, and I felt just a little firmer in my decision to stay.
I went on like I didn’t notice her reaction. “Your own council just told me that marriage was the most binding way to make an agreement. It would give my clan reasonable protection against any moves from Lochlann, via Elk, and it could only benefit both of our peoples to have more alliances.”
“That’s true,” MacKinnon, my new favorite person in this room, chimed in.
Rowan’s nostrils flared, and I bit back a smirk.
“Perfect.” I raised my eyebrows. “I believe you have an unpromised cousin?”
She swallowed, looking for the first time like the night before was coming back to haunt her. “Gwyn doesn’t want to get married,” she responded in a voice so low it was nearly inaudible.
There was a brief pause in the room, and even Korhonan looked at her sideways.
“Lady Gwyndolyn knows she will need to marry at some point, just as all of you do,” Jocelyn countered, eying her niece, who made an indeterminable sound in the back of her throat.
“Regardless,” I cut in before the issue of Rowan’s cousin could overtake the conversation. “I understand the lairds here have a great deal more power than those in Socair do, and I already received several offers last night.”
In most of the clans, the lords would have to gain permission from the duke to marry even outside the clan, but certainly outside of the kingdom. I was willing to bet that wasn’t the case here, and the speculative murmurs around me confirmed it.
Korhonan’s cheeks colored enough to let me know he had received similar offers, and Rowan went red for an entirely different reason, the exposed skin on her chest blazing as crimson as the threads of her gown.
“Yes,” she scoffed. “Lady Fiona seemed to be offering you a great deal last night.”
Oliver choked on a laugh, and Queen Charlotte shot her daughter a frown, while several of the lairds around the table looked scandalized.
I didn’t deny it, since there was little point. “As I said, I received multiple offers.”
The prince’s features went from amused to thoughtful as he exchanged a glance with his wife.
“For all their talk of war,” he said, “the ladies do seem to be quite taken with the Socairans. And though some of their fathers would prefer to go to war, there are plenty of lairds who won’t object to forming powerful partnerships.”
Jocelyn nodded, and even the king grunted out something like an agreement.
“So, I think we can agree that the request is reasonable,” MacKinnon announced.
I was curious about his role here as the only commoner, but whatever it was, his words seemed to hold a great deal of weight. The laird who had tried to start the meeting early looked like he was going to make an objection but went quiet at MacKinnon’s words.
Rowan also looked like she wanted to make an objection, but instead she clamped her lips shut so tightly they turned ashen.
Which was funny, considering how very horrified she was at the prospect of marrying me herself.
Queen Charlotte cleared her throat. “The Summer Festival is in just over a week, and we need to make a strong, united showing there. Not to mention, the people are, indeed, restless. Rowan, is that an acceptable timeline to make your decision?”
Her voice softened on the last sentence, but her daughter only nodded.
“Of course, she can always decide not to marry either of them.” King Logan spoke up for the first time, leaving no doubt as to his opinion on the matter.
“Yes, that’s an option as well,” the queen responded, a note of exasperation to her voice. “Are there any objections?”
She gave her husband a warning look, and quite possibly a good kick under the table, if his arched eyebrows and miniscule flinch was anything to judge by. When he didn’t respond further, she nodded to herself. Then she turned to take in the rest of the room, giving them a chance to speak up.
No one did.
The queen declared the meeting ended, casting a glance between her newly mute daughter and me, while I tried to decide if this could be considered a victory for me.
Or if we were right back at an inn in Socair, drinking down the world’s worst fish stew while we both refused to blink—just a higher stakes version of a game we were both destined to lose.