Chapter 33
One of the advantages of being a dragon companion, Frederica reflected, was that no one argued with her when she asked for a meeting with the Prime Minister and the king.
Instead, they simply arranged it, and here she was back at Windsor Castle.
And with her father by her side, which was still such a radical change of affairs that she could not quite believe it.
He never agreed with her – and least not until she could offer him the glory of having a daughter who was a princess and a chance to save Britain all at once.
Now the question was whether they would listen to her – and how desperate they would be for Jack’s powers to be unlocked.
“Now, Lady Frederica, how may we be of service to you?” the Prime Minister said, only a slight bit of condescension in his voice.
“How kind you are! I assume you are aware of the matter of Mr. Jack Darcy and the King’s Bond,” she said.
He frowned slightly. “I understand that his abilities are limited by his lack of experience, but I hope he may be willing to help us as he can.”
“Oh, Jack’s eagerness to stop Napoleon is unbounded! What if I told you there is a way to unlock his Talent so he can use the full power of the King’s Bond?”
“That would be good news,” Lord Liverpool said cautiously, “assuming he has no ambitions of his own.”
“We trust him implicitly,” said the king. “What would we need to do?”
“That is the tricky part,” Frederica said. “The powers can only be unlocked by someone else with a King’s Bond of his own. It used to be done, so I am told, from father to son, but of course we have not had a monarch with the King’s Bond for centuries, so we would need to import one.”
“Are there any left apart from the czar of Russia? So many royal families have been overthrown in the wars.”
“I have managed to find one, a fellow dragon companion. The problem is that he is unwilling, to say the least. He perceives England as his enemy and has no desire to strengthen us. If he were to help us, we would have to make it worth the risk he is taking.”
The king frowned. “Not French, I hope.”
“No, he is British, just not English.” She smiled, waiting for the question.
“Good Lord, not an Irishman!” Lord Liverpool ejaculated.
“I do not have his permission to disclose his name at this stage.” She left it at that. “The question is what you would be willing to give for his services – and whether I can convince him to accept it, which will be a challenge.”
The Prime Minister tapped his fingers on the table. “What can this King’s Bond actually do? The old stories were rather ridiculous, if you ask me. Hills marching across the landscape and giant waves drowning the land, indeed!”
“I can only report what I have been told. He has mentioned causing landslides, swamping the shore, and throwing up fortifications in minutes. If the Bond is strong, it could cause earthquakes or tear holes in the earth under enemy soldiers. In peacetime, it can be used to make the land more fertile and to prevent floods. When England is about to fall to Napoleon, it may be very close to our last hope.”
Lord Liverpool asked, “What does he want of us, then, this dragon companion with the King’s Bond? Riches, jewels, land? We might as well give them to him as have that French bastard steal them. Pardon my language, Lady Frederica.”
“Sadly, he has no interest in money. I can tell you what he wants, and also what I think I can get him to settle for, but you will not like it.”
“Is it worse than losing to Napoleon?” the king asked heavily.
“It depends on how you look at it.” Frederica took a deep breath.
“What he wants is Wales to be free, an independent country again.” Actually, Roderick had asked for far less, but he had no understanding of how to hold a negotiation.
Not that this would have been possible at any other time in history.
The government would never give up an acre of this island unless England’s very survival was at stake.
“Never!” cried Lord Liverpool. “We will not break up Great Britain!”
“Better to let Boney do it for us,” her father said acerbically, and received a glare from the Prime Minister for his trouble.
“As I said, I think he might accept less. His bond is to a particular mountainous region in Wales, and he is a descendent of the old princes there. If we offered him an independent state, and perhaps some minor concessions for the rest of Wales, that might do it. And part of unlocking the King’s Bond means taking on a deep magical alliance for life, which could be an advantage to us.
Especially since there are several Nests of dragons in Wales. ”
“I do not like it,” Lord Liverpool pronounced.
“The British Empire cannot allow it. The mere precedent of giving up our own land, here on this sceptered isle – it cannot be.” The fatal flaw of truth-casting – he could not lie to her, but there was nothing to stop him from spouting utter nonsense as long as he believed it.
“This sceptered isle is about to become part of the French Empire,” Lord Matlock snapped. “This nephew of mine, this royal bastard, offers us the only weapon that Napoleon cannot counter. Give up some impoverished, God-forsaken Welsh mountains for a chance to save England? That is a bargain.”
Frederica offered, “Napoleon would likely give him all of Wales simply for staying out of the war. Boney has no illusions about the sceptered isle.”
Lord Liverpool stiffened, as if he had never realized there might be a counteroffer. “Does he know about this?”
Her father sniffed. “I would hope not, but his spies are everywhere. And this Welshman may realize which side his bread is buttered on – especially if my daughter is correct that he hates England.”
Well, it was true that Roderick would not mind seeing England fall to France, but he did have feelings about the mad dragon. No need to point that out, though.
“How can we be sure he will not turn his dragons against us if we give him his freedom?”
Frederica only just kept herself from rolling her eyes, but her father stepped in first. “Give him a reason not to. Make part of the price be that he must take an English bride. Let the next Prince of Gwynedd be half-English.”
The king nodded slowly. “It is what we have always done to make alliances.”
“Would he be willing to do that?” Lord Liverpool asked Frederica.
“I do not know,” she said honestly. “I could ask him. It might depend upon the woman.”
Lord Matlock snorted. “Give him Freddie here. It would serve her right.”
“Father!” she cried in protest. “How dare you!” It was a good thing truth-casters could tell lies with the best of them. Especially since she and her father had planned this out.
“Why not? You must marry a mage, and you keep refusing Mortimer Percy. This Welsh fellow may be far beneath you, but he is still a mage and a dragon companion. And it would get you out of my hair at last.”
She shuddered, which was easy enough to do when thinking of her usual suitor. “He is better than Mortimer Percy, I will grant you that much,” she said disdainfully.
The king leaned forward. “Are you willing to serve your country that far, Lady Frederica? To marry a Welshman?” He said it as if it were a synonym for country bumpkin.
She drew herself up straight. “I have always served my country.”
“I have no idea how we will manage the legalities of this,” Lord Liverpool grumbled. “It may take some time.”
“Time is the one thing we do not have,” King George said solemnly.
Frederica glanced at the half-circle of empty chairs sitting across from them in the massive castle courtyard.
She said quietly to Roderick, “Now remember, whatever they offer you, you must look displeased and ask for more. They will have no respect for you if you do not, and they will try to give you less than promised.”
“I am displeased,” Roderick whispered. “I cannot believe I am considering making an alliance with the English. Or even telling them of my existence. You are a bad influence on me.”
She beamed at him. “Yes, but you may be surprised at the deal I got for you. You might even think it worth it.”
Then there was a rustling to one side, and a handful of figures appeared in one of the arched doorways. The king, the prime minister, and most of the Privy Council – and her father, of course. Enough to badly outnumber them, except for one thing. Rowan, who perched a few dozen feet behind Roderick.
As the newcomers took their seats, Frederica made a court curtsey to the king and a shallower one to Lord Liverpool. “Your Majesty, my lords, may I present to you Mr. Roderick Glendower, commonly known as Roderick ap Rhodri of Gwynedd?”
“Ah, yes. We remember you from our days at Pemberley,” the king pronounced.
She shot Roderick a questioning – and annoyed – look. Why had he not warned her?
I will tell you later, Roderick said inside her head. Aloud, he added, “Your Majesty has an excellent memory. You are most gracious to agree to having this meeting out of doors, so the Honorable Rowan may attend.”
As if Rowan could not have heard every word of it through his bond with Roderick, regardless of his location!
No, Rowan was there solely to protect Roderick and to provide an escape for him, should it be needed.
Frederica was not enough of a fool to think that the ministers would not be tempted to seize Roderick and force him to do their bidding.
But not with a full-grown dragon looking on.
Lord Liverpool cleared his throat. “Mr. Glendower, thank you for coming. I understand you possess the ability to allow Mr. Jack Darcy to utilize his King’s Bond in defense of England.”
Frederica was pleased to see Roderick looking down his not insubstantial nose at the Prime Minister of Great Britain. “The ability, yes, but I have no inclination to hand over vast magical power to the oppressor of Wales.”