Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
We’re led into the great hall, an expansive room where we gathered to eat and where my father conducted official business, hearing the requests and complaints of our minor houses and the common folk who tended our lands.
I can almost picture him sitting in the great chair at the end of the hall, snow falling outside the narrow windows, a fire roaring in the fireplace.
The hearth lies cold now. A damp chill hangs in the air, pricking goosebumps to the surface of my skin.
Ronan rubs my arms with his warming light, his disguise abandoned now that it’s clear there’s no concealing who we are or our purpose here.
“Here you are,” says Xu Fushi. “Escorted. Don’t say I don’t do what’s asked of me. Now, I’ll be needing your weapons.”
“Not a chance,” says Ronan, his grip tight on his pommel. Not that he even really needs a weapon. If he wanted to, he could spear Xu Fushi through the head with light at any moment.
“Stand down, Fu,” says the woman’s voice from earlier as she glides into the room.
This must be Karis, the leader of the Koraka tribe of Orsa and current steward of Castle Pyka.
I had been expecting a warrior like Taran, all hard lines and muscles, but she’s softly elegant, clothed in flowing silk in a light blue with a cream-colored stole wrapped around her pale shoulders.
Her hair is wildly, gloriously curly and roughly the same color as Seth’s.
Which is apparent because he enters after her along with the others: Typhon, Larus, Seth, and Quinn, who has been given a wheelchair. The rest of the group are bound by the hands.
“Where are our griffins?” asks Ronan, his voice tight with fear.
“I sent them away,” says Quinn. “I didn’t want them to get hurt.”
Fuck. I hope they’re alright out there. And I hope they return to us once we get out of here.
If we get out of here.
“Is that any way to greet an old friend? Ronan, I’m surprised at you. They took the crown off your head, and you’ve forgotten your manners.”
“Not at all, Karis.” Ronan strides forward and offers his hand. To shake, not to kiss.
“It’s good to see you again. I wish you had come to me directly, although I can see why you didn’t think that was wise.” She looks from Seth to Larus and finally to me.
Ronan leans over to shield me from view.
Karis leans around him and smiles. “That won’t be necessary. I know what she is to you. She’s under no threat from me. Come forward, darling, and let me see this lovely girl half the world is talking about.”
I approach her, taking my place beside Ronan. “Ma’am,” I say, bowing.
She laughs. “Oh, she is charming! You need not bow to me, sweetling.” She looks no more than a decade older than me, but she addresses me as if I were a child. “Tell me how a family like yours raised someone so magnificent that she stole the heart of the best man in the world.”
My neck heats with jealousy at the way she talks about Ronan. And the way she looks at him. So many people look at him this way, but it feels different coming from the ancient enemy of my family, someone who is deeply indebted to Ronan for what he gave her people.
Someone who is a leader in her own right. I can’t help but see what a great match they would make.
Ronan senses my jealousy, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “It’s quite simple, really.” He wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me to him. “This is the best woman in the world.”
He kisses the top of my head, and his feeling of pride as he shows me off is intoxicating.
“Wonderful!” says Karis, and she seems to really mean it. “Truly, I’m happy for you both. I wish it had happened a decade ago, but I suppose it’s better late than never.”
A decade ago I was twelve, but I see what she means. If we’d even just been betrothed to marry when we were adults, the entire war could have been prevented.
“Now, I’m afraid we have to discuss the less pleasant business.” She steps up to the great chair—my father’s chair—and takes a seat. “I understand you wish to leave Selara, and that’s likely a wise decision. But you brought our enemies here.”
“They are all with me, Karis. Typhon and Quinn have been my loyal advisors for years. Release them, and then we can talk about the rest.”
“Very well.” Karis waves her hand and gives a command in Orsan, and a pair of Orsan guards removes Typhon’s bindings and allows Quinn to join us.
It’s a gesture of goodwill. A good start to the negotiation.
“I must apologize for the ambush, and for Xu Fushi’s treatment.
” She glares over at him, and he tilts his head in deference.
“Fushi is an important partner of Pyka. He has managed to secure supplies for us during this terrible blockade, but he would do well to remember his place in our hierarchy.”
“As you say, ma’am,” says Fushi. “I merely meant to help.”
“Help” my ass. He wanted any excuse to kill us.
Ronan has not forgotten. He regards Fushi icily, waiting for an excuse of his own.
“We mean to break the blockade,” says Ronan, reluctantly turning to Karis, not wanting to miss his opportunity.
“Allow us to leave on one of the new ships, and we’ll return with a navy and an army from one of our allies abroad.
We’ll end the blockade, and then, if you’ll agree to it, we’ll retake Faros from the north. ”
Karis taps her long, slender fingers on the dark wood of the chair. “I do need the blockade broken. And you know there’s no one who wants to carve that Verran woman up and feed her to the crows more than me.”
“Want to bet?” says Quinn.
Karis smiles. “But the last we heard, the brother was on her side. Is he your prisoner? He wasn’t restrained when we found him.”
“No,” says Ronan. “He is loyal to…well, not me exactly. But he has sided with his other sister. I trust him.”
“I trust him as well, sentsis.” Taran steps forward. There’s some tension between him and Karis, but she nods without anger.
“Will you speak for him, Taran, son of Orin? Will you vouch for him while he’s on our lands?”
“I will.”
They say something to each other in Orsan. It’s an oath of some kind based on his delivery, and she seems satisfied with his response.
“But the other, Larus Adama. He has been an enemy to us for more than a generation. My people want justice, and I’m not sure I can deny it to them.”
Larus looks up defiantly from where he stands bound next to my brother, whose bindings are being cut.
“It’s true, I’ve fought and killed many of your people.
But I’ve watched just as many of my own people die at your hands.
If this is the end of me, so be it, but I will not apologize for upholding my oath to House Verran. ”
My heart pounds as I hear his defiant words. I wish he were a less honorable man. I wish he’d have the sense to lie.
Ronan interjects, keeping his face carefully neutral.
“Karis, you and I share a vision of a world beyond these feuds. It’s why you stepped up to support me when my father fell.
It’s why we’ve worked well together for more than six years.
This man is under my protection. Your friendship is important to me, but so is he. I cannot leave here without him.”
Karis considers for a long, silent moment. The room is so quiet that a cough from Seth makes all of our heads turn in alarm. This decision will cost Karis something either way: the respect of her people, or a potentially powerful ally in Ronan. She doesn’t make the choice lightly.
“Larus may go, but on one condition: you must stay. Send whoever you like to negotiate on your behalf, but you must stay here through the winter and help us train our people for the fight. Because if I choose to support you and you fail, they will be the ones to pay the price. You must not fail.”
“You have a deal,” says Ronan, approaching the great chair to shake Karis’s hand.
“Tell me who is going, and I’ll have Fushi escort them to a ship. I suppose you’ll want to try Brakkar first?”
With Larus released, the rest of us group together to decide what to do. “Typhon and Octavia, I’m sure you’ll want to go with Larus. Quinn?”
Quinn looks at Octavia and then down at her legs. “I’d better stay here with Bitey. I don’t want to be in the way.”
“You wouldn’t be in the way, Red. Do you know how many people at sea are missing a leg?” Octavia laughs, but Quinn shakes her head.
“Probably a lot more missing one than two.”
“Bring the griffin then. They eat fish anyway. And he can take someone’s hand off if we get into a fight.”
I would worry about separating the griffins from each other, but to be honest, I think Kira will be happier without him around.
Assuming we can find them.
“Seth, you’d better go too,” I say. I know Taran will stay here with Ronan and me. It’s definitely for the best for everyone involved if Seth leaves.
“No, I don’t think I will.”
Godsdammit, what is wrong with him? “Seth, they want to kill you.”
“He vouched for me, or whatever it was that he did.” Seth looks at Taran with a truly nauseating affection. “Besides, if the goal is to retake Faros, where do you think I’m more useful: out there negotiating on Ronan’s behalf, or here training an army?”
“He has a point there,” says Quinn.
“Fine,” says Ronan. Then he addresses Karis. “We’ve decided. Larus, Typhon, Octavia, and Quinn will go, the rest will stay. May we have a moment to find our griffins before they depart?”
“You may,” says Karis. “You must tell me how you managed to tame them. We rarely travel south far enough to encounter them, but everything I’ve read suggests they’re wild and ill-mannered.”
“Well, some of them are more so than others,” I admit. “But our griffin Kira is really sweet.”
“Somehow, I don’t find that surprising if she chose you.”
I’m surprised by how kind Karis is, but then I probably shouldn’t be. If out of all the Orsa, she’s the one Ronan chose to ally with, it makes sense that she would be reasonable.
Octavia, Quinn, and Taran leave to track down the griffins, the rest of us staying behind to discuss logistics.