Chapter 107
CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED SEVEN
“ W hy hasn’t he made a move yet?” Rowan asked on our way to the war room.
I knew she was thinking about Iiro. Things had been far too quiet on that front, but I was taking that as a positive for the time being.
“I can’t say for sure, but I’d be willing to bet he lost a lot of support when they lost the last time.” I grinned down at her, lacing my fingers through hers as we walked. I was struck all over again by the way she’d been able to call the weather to do her bidding, to decimate our enemy enough to turn the tide of the battle. “You did that, Lemmikki.”
“ We did that,” she said, squeezing my hand. “I knew the men I brought wouldn’t be enough to turn the tides, but I also knew that if I distracted the enemy soldiers, if you were...still alive...”
She stumbled over the words, her jaw set, her eyes pinched briefly before she regained control of her expression.
“I knew if you were still the one commanding, you would take advantage of that,” she continued. “And you did. If you had reacted any less quickly, it wouldn’t have mattered what I did.”
My footsteps nearly faltered. “You had that much faith in me, even then?”
“In your brilliant mind? Yes,” she said, arching a mischievous eyebrow before going on. “In your ability to not be a massive aalio ? No, I had rather lost that.”
A quiet laugh escaped me. That was…fair enough, I supposed.
We rounded the corner of the hall, taking the stairs down to the main level of the castle. I waited until we were out of earshot of any soldiers or servants before continuing our conversation.
“And now?” I couldn’t help but ask.
She ran her thumb along my palm, offering me a quiet smile.
“And now, you’re slowly building it back.”
That was enough for now. Though I would certainly show her later just how much of an aalio I could or couldn’t be. The insult didn’t land quite as hard when she was delivering it in a gasp.
I let go of her hand long enough for us to stride into the war room, taking it back under the table once we were seated.
“Have we heard back from any of the spies?” I asked to begin the meeting.
Taras scanned the sheets of parchment in front of him before shaking his head. “Nothing yet.”
Der’mo .
I had gotten one man across the borders, but now even he had gone silent.
Until we knew what had become of our spies, we couldn’t just keep replacing them, especially now that Iiro’s paranoia was likely at an all-time high. We needed to find out if they were still alive, if they had abandoned their loyalties, or if they were simply biding their time, waiting for the most opportune time to send word.
None of those options boded well for us in the interim.
“He has to be plotting something,” Rowan mused, not for the first time. “He knows once the pass opens, Lochlann will be able to get through, and that will not end well for him.”
It had been impossible to send word to her family with the mountain pass closed off and Iiro’s men keeping strict watch over the tunnels. Once we had our first thaw, the birds could get through, and she was right. Lochlann would not stand for a threat to their princess, no matter where she lived.
“Since the pass could open anytime in the next couple of months, he’ll be planning something soon, then,” I added.
My words were met with silence. None of us were eager to race right back into war, especially one we weren’t sure we could win.
“How many forces would we need to take this fight to him?” Rowan asked, her thoughts clearly going in the same direction.
I considered that briefly, wishing I had a different answer. But even though Iiro had sustained as many casualties as we had, attacking him outright when he would be expecting it would be mass suicide.
“More than we have,” I said vaguely, still running the potential numbers in my head. “All the military tactics in the world won’t make up for the fact that he’s holed up in a veritable fortress, and we have no allies to the east anymore. Crane’s forces have been decimated, and our own weakened. Armies on the march aren’t exactly subtle, and I suspect we wouldn’t get further than the border before we were summarily slaughtered.”
“Well, that’s...promising,” my wife muttered under her breath before Taras’s father spoke up.
“All of this is assuming he even attacks again.”
That was less of an assumption than a guarantee.
Rowan shook her head, expression grave while she echoed my thoughts. “Iiro is never going to let this stand.”
Her auburn brows furrowed, her lips pursing in thought.
“You have something in mind,” I guessed.
She nodded, taking a moment before answering. “The Unclanned. They move about unseen.”
I cast a glance around trying to read the reactions of the room. Unlike before, there wasn’t as much anger at the concept of working with the Besklanovvy, but there was general concern.
Taras was the first to give voice to it.
“But a few hundred men wouldn’t be able to overtake the castle, even in a surprise attack,” he said gently.
But my lemmikki would have known that. I studied her face, watching as she quietly calculated her plan.
“Those were only the men I could reach on the way here, in less than a week, in a small section of Bear. I could probably get…” she trailed off, doing the mental arithmetic. “Five times that many? Would that be sufficient?”
That was well over a thousand soldiers. An entire regiment at our fingertips, that my wife was simply offering—if they agreed, of course.
I gave her a small nod. There were still so many variables with her plan, but she had successfully done it before. Considering the way Andrei and the others respected her and rallied around her, there was no reason to think she couldn’t do it again.
“Get them how?” Lord Belova asked dubiously.
“Sir Evander offered reintegration into the clan in exchange for fighting. Surely, that will bring them here,” Taras began before I cut in.
“They don’t trust the clan, or…me,” I said matter-of-factly. This offer would only work if they believed in the person presenting it. If they trusted them.
I steeled myself, glancing at my wife again. “What did you have in mind? Sending one of them out?”
Surely, they would trust another Unclanned. Andrei was loyal to Rowan, so he would likely be a good candidate for the mission. But something told me that was not her plan.
“To some extent, they trust each other, or at least, will listen to each other, especially Andrei. But they won’t follow him,” she said, sitting up a little straighter in her chair before continuing. “They will follow me.”
Der’mo .
I kept my features neutral, offering her the same respect I would give any of my other lords or captains at this table.
“You want to go out to recruit them yourself?” I asked carefully, ignoring the unease twisting at my gut.
She nodded.
“Alone?” My free hand clenched into a fist, my throat going tight as I pushed the word out.
Her eyes didn’t leave mine, and she didn’t hesitate to respond, like she already had followed this idea through to the end.
“I would take a small contingent of my men. Including Andrei.”
It took everything in me not to say no. To demand she stay here with me, or that I accompany her myself. To remind her that I had only just gotten her back and the roads were dangerous, and Iiro still wanted her head and…then I thought of the betrayal in her perfect eyes, and the way she had made me promise to give her a voice.
A choice.
The rigid set of her jaw, her stiff posture and challenging expression told me she was thinking the same thing. Waiting to see if I would go back on my word so soon.
I swallowed, forcing the question past my lips, even though it went against everything I believed in to stand back and watch her march directly into danger.
“When do you leave?”
Her shoulders relaxed a little and she squeezed my hand.
“The sooner the better,” she said, shooting me a mischievous grin. “And, of course, you would be welcome to accompany me.”
Clever little lemmikki. I was torn between irritation at her game and relief that that’s all it was. Still, I shot her a small smirk.
“I’m sure that can be arranged,” I said casually.
I glanced up at my cousin then, letting him know we would need to have runners in place in addition to messenger birds. I didn’t want to take any chances when it came to our communication, not when we needed every minute to eke whatever advantage we could get.
“Of course, Your Grace,” Taras said, looking a little too entertained by the way my wife had just so obviously played me.
I dutifully ignored him, still clinging to my wife’s hand under the table as I laid out several strategies we could employ to make this work.
For the next hour, we discussed each one, testing their merits and challenging them to make sure there were no obvious holes, nothing we were missing. By the time we were finished with the meeting, everyone seemed almost hopeful.
Like for the first time, they believed we might actually be able to win this war.