Belvedere cleared his throat, recovering before anyone else. “The First Daughter is correct,” he said. “We want the Florish to work with us. If not happy to be part of Valleyda, at least willing. Killing civilians will only turn public opinion even more sour than it is.”
Tealia looked cowed, but Zophia only waved a hand, as if the murder of Florish insurrectionists was of little importance to her either way. “Then we marry Neverah off to Arick. Make Floriane’s provincial status official, so the harbor becomes ours. The people loved his parents before they passed, so it’s possible him marrying into the Valedren line might change minds, or at least distract them with a spectacle.” Rheumy eyes turned to Neve. “Within the week.”
Her mouth was too dry to say anything, consent or denial or otherwise. Neve’s marriage was something she’d been able to push off for four years, far longer than she should’ve been allowed to, but with the encroaching sacrifice of her sister to the Wilderwood, no one had paid the preparations much mind. It seemed an abstract and distant thing, something to be dealt with later, always later.
Later was now, and Neve wanted to do nothing so much as bolt from the room and keep running.
“Let’s not be hasty.”
Kiri’s voice was quiet, but it echoed against the walls. She sat with her hands folded in her wide white sleeves, her head deferentially tilted toward the High Priestess. “I understand your reasoning, Holiness, and in any other circumstances, I’d agree. But Tealia is correct, at least on one thing.”
The other priestess’s cheeks colored.
“Piety is higher now than ever before,” Kiri continued. “After the birth of a Second Daughter, after sending her to the Wilderwood as intended. And look!” She spread her pale hands. “No monsters. Once again, we’ve kept the continent safe.” Her hands folded again, eyes glittering. “Perhaps the sacrifice didn’t bring back the Kings . . .”
Neve thought of the Shrine, of branches and blood, and the bark-shard pendant hidden in the drawer of her desk.
“。 . . but still, her birth was a sign that they are listening. That they long for freedom, that they send us sacrifices in the hope that one will be enough to placate the Wolf. And they trust Valleyda— trust us— with that holy mission.” Fervent words, but delivered evenly. Kiri’s cold eyes slid once more to Neve. “If we remind them of that, effectively, Alpera should do anything we ask. And so should everyone else.”
Silence as they all weighed Kiri’s words. The High Priestess shifted in her seat. “True enough, Kiri,” she conceded. “But how do you propose we remind them?”
For a stretching, awful minute, Neve imagined the possibilities, the things she knew could be done with the strange yielding of their time in the Shrine. Magic. Magic Kiri claimed they pulled from the Shadowlands itself.
It was still hard for Neve to swallow— even with proof staring her in the face, years of quiet agnosticism were hard to overcome— but there really wasn’t any other explanation, and the results were undeniable. The small experiments she’d seen were convincing enough. With that power, trees could be withered, fields stricken dead, fertile farmland turned dark and cold.
Kiri’s lip rose in a smirk. “Prayer, of course.”
The tightness in Neve’s chest eased, but only slightly.
“Since his return, Arick has been far more pious,” Kiri continued. “He spends many nights in prayer in the Shrine, meditating on how best to help our countries. I believe he would be glad to help us, even before his marriage to Neverah.”
Tightness, coiling again.
“I propose that Arick accompany me and a selection of others to the Florish coast,” Kiri continued. “We will hold a prayer to clear the harbor.”
Widened eyes all around the room. Floriane’s harbor was in a picturesque bay, and the mouth of it often became choked with seaweed in the summer, sometimes so much that it blocked traffic. When that happened, workers had to dive in and clear the mess by hand. The Order prayed for it to remain clear at the beginning of every summer, for the Kings to somehow prevent the seaweed from overgrowing and blocking the ships. Some summers the growth was a problem, and some it wasn’t. Neve thought the prayers had very little to do with it one way or another.
Zophia raised a grizzled brow. “Prayers are most effective in Shrines, Kiri, not harbors. And the prayers for a clear sailing season were already made weeks ago, when Floriane sent their tax.”