30. Izzy
IZZY
Rook and Vyns had also returned, and the campus was now swarming with seraphim and demons. Thankfully, we’d planned for this and had them staying in different areas so they wouldn’t clash… too much.
We all met up for a debriefing in the room where I’d found Lhorine earlier, along with other leaders from the campus. Several other spies had returned, in addition to Myel, and they reported on what they’d seen of the forces marshalling against us.
The sheer number of the enemy was staggering, though given the masses of people I’d seen on campus, we had a lot as well, I didn’t know the exact numbers yet.
Then Myel spoke confirming those numbers from what he’d overheard in the palace, but more importantly…
“We have eight days before they march and they’ll be on campus that same day.
” He outlined their plan to teleport the forces in, then he spoke of the queen.
“She truly is insane. Her plan is… wild, and yet it just might work, given the animosities between the races and their tendency to follow elven orders no matter what.”
Still, the scale of her betrayal, how she planned to keep turning forces against each other boggled my mind. Every ally turned into an enemy, fighting for her, then being destroyed while they recovered.
“Could we use this to win over the titans?” I whispered to Bayn.
The massive man shrugged those huge shoulders. “It might work.” He didn’t sound hopeful. Yeah, we didn’t have any proof, just my word that Valnea was insane and would turn against them. Fuck.
The room was quiet after Myel finished.
It was Lhorine who took control. “Thank you, Myel.” She turned to the rest of us. “How can we use this?”
“I’ll return to the dwarves, try to convince them of the truth,” Svokol said. “And I’ll send word to the undines as well, but since Valnea doesn’t intend to betray them, they may not do much.”
“What are the exact numbers of our forces, now that the angels and demons have joined us?” someone asked.
Yeah, I was curious about that too.
“With the fifteen thousand demons and around forty thousand seraphim, that brings our total fighting force to over a hundred-and-twenty thousand,” Zora replied.
I loved how the hobgoblin was being given such a place of honor in this council and how so many listened to her and regarded her with respect.
Maybe, just maybe, I could pull off this equality thing.
Also… a hundred and twenty thousand? Way to go us!
But it sounded like Valnea had as many men, and mostly elves and dragons, two of the fiercest and strongest forces in all the three realms.
“Which means the titans are truly the deciding factor,” Bayn whispered, seemingly to himself. “Fuck.”
Yeah, I had to agree.
“How large is the titan army?” I asked Bayn.
“Roughly eighty thousand,” he whispered back.
Yeah… that many on Valnea’s side would completely crush us, whereas that many on our side would definitely give us a strong advantage.
After that, there was a lot of talk about terrain and defenses. I paid attention as best I could, but I wasn’t a tactician. I got the impression that despite us fighting on our “home turf,” it wouldn’t be a significant advantage. Especially with the forces against us coming in from all sides.
Then it came time for Bayn to speak. Everyone looked to him for an update on the titans and which side they’d be joining.
I stepped forward, saving the man from the shame of reporting his failure.
“Our initial foray into negotiations with the titans didn’t go as planned.
” I figured that was the most diplomatic way to say: we failed to get the titans.
“However, Bayn and I will be returning to their lands tomorrow to try again. Any and all suggestions for ways to sway them to our cause, are welcome.”
There, now I’d thrown responsibility onto everyone else to help us brainstorm how to do this.
It was Grandma Oli, who spoke first. Even here and now, in a dead-serious war council, she couldn’t be bothered to wear something modest. She was poured into skintight black leather pants and nearly bursting out of a cropped black halter top.
“Bayn, could you not challenge your father for the throne?” she asked.
He grumbled. “That… may be our only option now.” He gave me a sidelong glance filled with…
something, I couldn’t say what, maybe hope?
Though there seemed to be a fair amount of concern and resistance mixed in.
“The problem with that is two-fold. First, in our culture those who are challenged set the time, and it can be up to a week away, which would be cutting things close. Second, winning… may not be enough. I would almost certainly receive other challenges the instant I take the throne. The only way I can think to stop that… would be to have a quick and overwhelming victory over my parents, which…” he shrugged, “…honestly isn’t likely. They are as strong as I am.”
Oh…
That look made a lot more sense now. He’d been wondering if I’d help him. He didn’t know if he could trust me to fight beside him though.
Maybe it was time to show him I wasn’t going to betray him.
“Could I fight with you… as your queen?”
It was so quick I nearly missed it, but the flash of a smile over those hard lips gave me my answer.
“Yes, that could work,” he replied slowly, carefully. “Together we could take them, I’m certain. The only question would be, whether our victory would be overwhelming enough to quell any others from challenging me… us.”
My turn to smile. That little word at the end, “us,” meant a lot to me and I wanted him to see it.
Bayn nodded, acknowledging my smile, then turned back to the others. “This is probably our best chance. Even so, some titans still may not follow me if they’ve been poisoned by Valnea’s lies.”
Lhorine, who was clearly the one in charge of this meeting, nodded. “Proceed with that plan and… be careful. We need both of you back in one piece. Our strategy hinges on Izzy being alive and well for this fight.”
Oh… did it?
“And what is our strategy, exactly?” I asked with a fake smile.
“Cut the head off the snake,” Oli responded. “You and an elite team—” which I took to mean my guys, since they’d never let me fight on my own, “—will face Valnea directly. The hope being once she’s dead, the rest of her force will see no reason to keep fighting.”
There were nods all around.
I mean… okay, sure, I was probably the strongest one in this room, and hopefully stronger than Valnea, but still… sending me into the heart of the enemy camp?
“I may need more than my… elite team,” I said, hopefully the guys didn’t take any offence to that. “As I’m assuming Valnea will have a lot of guards around her.”
Lhorine smiled. “Your team will be the ones facing the false queen directly, while a strike force will distract those around her.”
Thank heavens.
“But,” Olinara added, giving me a stern look, “the survival of that strike force depends on you, Izzy.”
Sorry, what now?
My grandmother explained. “They will be keeping away many times their number in Valnea’s forces, especially as word gets out that you’re attacking their queen. The longer you take to defeat Valnea, the more of them will die.”
Well shit-fuck-damn. There weren’t enough curse words to express the heaviness falling on my shoulders.
This was what it meant to be queen. People would die serving me. In fact, more than that strike force would die. We’d lose others, from all our forces, the longer I took to win.
I swallowed hard.
“Understood.”
There was a little more talk of strategy after that, but I barely heard any of it, too preoccupied with the burden of leadership sitting all too heavily on me.
Myel came to me, slipping his hand into mine and instantly I felt better, soothed. Comforting warmth seeped into my spirit as Vyns wrapped his arms around me from behind. Rook took my other hand and whispered a soft, you can do this, into my mind.
I breathed out my worries in a long sigh.
It was a lot easier to handle things when you had others to help you. Not so long ago, I wouldn’t have wanted to believe that, but here and now, I accepted the truth.
As the meeting broke up, Myel whispered, “What do you need?” but through our bond, he was really saying: we’ll take care of you.
“Let’s all go back to my residence and figure that out,” I whispered back, with a significant look at Bayn when I said “all.”
The massive man seemed a bit taken aback by the invitation but followed us.
Grandma Oli called me over before I left, though.
“It seems your harem is growing,” she whispered, pulling me away from prying ears.
“Is it that noticeable?”
“Only to me. I have a sixth sense about sex.”
That didn’t surprise me.
“Take it from someone who’s lost more than a few friends and lovers: appreciate every second you have with them, all of them.
” There was a note of sadness in her voice.
I recalled she’d been one of Queen Leastrine’s lovers, the head of the inamorati, the queen’s harem.
Until now, I hadn’t really registered what my grandmother had lost when the previous queen died: a friend, a lover, more?
I hugged her tightly and whispered a soft, “Thank you.”
I hadn’t had many tender moments with Oli, usually too put off by the fact that she looked like my younger sister and dressed in a rather immodest way most of the time.
I pulled back and held her at arm’s length. “How are you doing?” I asked.
She smiled. “Oh, I’m well enough… just… remembering old times,” she breathed. Then she drew a long breath and the slight gloom over her faded.
“Any advice on fighting Titans?” I asked her, since I had her here and I’d be heading off soon to do exactly that.
“They respect strength, and you’re stronger than most. Don’t hold back.”
I nodded. That seemed wise.
“Thanks.” I hugged her again. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have lovers to appreciate before I leave tomorrow.”
She laughed at that and waved me away.
I rejoined the guys, and we returned to my residence… going directly to the bedroom.