“And what are your islands compared to Kesath’s ordnance?” Alaric drawled. “I have the advantage. I have the stormships and your magic. I could decimate the Nenavar Dominion’s army in a fortnight using only half of the imperial fleet.”
“You could, but then you will be king of ashes,” Niamha shot back. “We would sooner salt our fields and poison our waters, burn our castles and bury our mines, and kill every last one of our dragons before we let any of it fall into the Night Empire’s hands.”
“While that would certainly be tragic, it’s still a preferable outcome to Kesath having to share this corner of the Eversea with an independent, uncooperative monarchy. One that sought to destroy us nineteen years ago,” he retorted. “We are wasting time, Daya Langsoune. I expected us to either discuss surrender or to declare hostilities, not to posture and play word games.”
“I did not come here to surrender, Your Majesty. And only a fool would declare hostilities while behind enemy ranks.” Niamha’s ink-black eyes gleamed. “Queen Urduja wishes to avoid bloodshed, same as you. Luckily enough for all of us, Nenavar has a time-honored tradition of settling differences between rival factions via one very efficient method.”
Alaric’s jaw clenched. “Which is?”
“I bring you an offer from She Who Hung the Earth Upon the Waters,” said the envoy. “An offer of marriage to the heir of her throne.”
At first, Alaric was absolutely certain that he’d misheard. After several moments passed with Niamha watching him patiently, he found his voice, his brows knitting together. “Over the years, we have been gathering what intelligence we can on the Nenavar Dominion, as I am sure that the Dominion has done with Kesath.” She smirked, giving away nothing and everything all at once, and he continued, “According to these reports, you have no Lachis’ka. Elagbi’s daughter disappeared during a failed uprising and is presumed dead.”
“Your reports are outdated,” Niamha declared with relish. “Alunsina Ivralis was returned to us some time ago. A union between our two realms would be beneficial for all, don’t you think? The Dominion retains its autonomy and the Night Empire gains access to Nenavar and the riches within.” She stood up. “I’ll take my leave before I outstay my welcome, Your Majesty. We shall await your response to either begin marriage negotiations or exchange broadsides, and rest assured that we are prepared to do either. But do take your time—you have the advantage, after all.”
Niamha swept out of the room in a rustle of silk, leaving Alaric alone and stunned, wrestling with the enormity of the choice set before him.
“They want something.”
His father’s voice echoed low like distant thunder through a place that was not a place. A room that did not exist in the material world.
Gaheris called it the In-Between, this pocket dimension accessible via the Shadowgate. He had found it when he began delving deeper, past the known boundaries of magic. It was a space that could be occupied by more than one aethermancer at the same time, facilitating a method of instantaneous communication across even the vastest distance. The In-Between required tremendous focus and effort to maintain, and thus far Alaric was the only one among the Legion who had mastered such an art.
As a child, he’d clung to the fanciful notion that the In-Between was special, something that belonged to him and his father alone. Perhaps there was a small part of him that still believed so now.
Amidst flickering walls of shadow energy and aetherspace, Gaheris was deep in thought, head bowed, long fingers curled under his chin, unmoving. By contrast, Alaric was restless even as he stood respectfully still, his gauntleted fist clenching and opening at his side in slow, tentative spasms.
“The Dominion wants something from us,” Gaheris repeated. “Given how quickly they responded, they had their offer ready well before we made contact. I must admit that I’m curious.” He looked up, his gray eyes holding Alaric prisoner in their murky depths. “But, in any case, Daya Langsoune is right. A conjugal union between the Night Emperor and the Lachis’ka of the Nenavar Dominion would be most pragmatic.”
“Father.” The protest was ripped loose from Alaric’s throat before he could stop it. “I cannot marry a woman I do not know.” He couldn’t marry at all. A wife had never figured in his plans, and he had no wish to be shackled by the same sort of arrangement that had hung his parents out to dry.
“We must all make sacrifices for our cause. It would not do to falter now.” Gaheris’s tone took on a sinuous cajolery, sinking its thorns into Alaric’s soul. “It is your destiny to rule. With the wealth of Nenavar at your disposal, with the Huktera at your back, you will build an empire on a grander scale than even I could have ever dreamed.”
“It won’t be my wealth, it won’t be my fleet,” Alaric muttered. “It will still belong to—”
“Your bride. Who will one day be the Zahiya-lachis. Who will be all too eager to share her earthly possessions with her husband if she is properly wooed.”
Alaric grimaced. Pride kept him from saying it out loud, but Gaheris seemed entirely too confident in his son’s abilities to woo anyone. “I don’t know if it would be advisable to wager the future on a woman’s heart,” he remarked instead.
“What about a woman’s duty to her people? A woman’s sense of self-preservation?” Gaheris asked, changing tactics with the usual abrupt sharpness that always threatened to draw blood. “Once we have established a foothold in their archipelago, the Dominion will not dare test us. After your marriage, we shall be in a position to hold the sword over their head.”
“Romantic indeed.” Alaric flinched the moment that the words rolled off his tongue, caustic even to his own ears. His stomach dropped once he realized what he had just done, and he immediately sank to the shivering ground, prostrating himself at the regent’s feet. “I apologize, Father.”
“It would appear that you have gotten quite drunk on the power that I deigned to bestow upon you, my little lordling,” Gaheris said coldly. “While you may be the face of this new empire, I am its architect. Your word is law but it is I who speaks through you. Have you forgotten?”
“No.” Alaric squeezed his eyes shut. “It won’t happen again.”
“I should hope so. For your sake,” Gaheris rumbled from his throne, thousands of miles away yet inescapable. “If you insist on acting like a petulant child, then I shall order you around as if you are one. You will marry this Alunsina Ivralis and form an alliance to herald the dawn of a new age, or you will suffer the consequences.” Alaric lifted his head to nod, and Gaheris’s next words were softer, the line of his mouth twisting into a smile laden with dark humor. “Do not fret, my son. You spoke of romance and I would be the first to tell you that such feelings have no place in this, but I’ve heard it said that Nenavarene women are the most beautiful and well-mannered in all the world. It might not be as unpleasant as you fear.”
“I won’t do it!”
Talasyn shook with fury, aiming a virulent glare at the Zahiya-lachis, who, in turn, regarded her with an impassive expression from the scroll-wing chair in her private salon.