“Or not so mysterious,” I add. “Certain clues might point to a member of the Kaiser’s personal guard.”
Already I’m thinking of just what those clues might be: a scrap of an undershirt sleeve with the Kaiser’s sigil on it, ripped off in the scuffle, one of the leather ties the Kalovaxian men use to hold their hair back, a Spiritgem that fell out of a scabbard. Of course, to make it convincing, someone would need to pick one of the Kaiser’s guards to frame. His undershirt would need to be ripped, his leather hair tie stolen, a gem pried from his scabbard. Heron could turn invisible and do it easily, so could Art if she were wearing a different face, but being able to control their gifts for ten to twenty minutes won’t be enough this time. They would need gems.
“How would the court react to that?” Blaise asks, half to himself and half to me.
I purse my lips and turn the question over in my mind. “The Kalovaxians value strength, but the Kaiser has grown lazy since Astrea was conquered. He just stays in the palace letting others fight for him. Letting S?ren fight for him. The Kalovaxian people love the Prinz—he’s exactly what they think a ruler should be. If they thought the Kaiser killed him, at least half the court would revolt. It’s happened before in Kalovaxian history—a weak ruler being overthrown, a new family fighting their way to the crown. It always starts with a civil war, those who are content with the current regime versus those who are not. We can flee the country after killing the Prinz, and while they pick each other off, we gather enough allies to come back and destroy them all.”
The thought of it causes a smile to rise to my lips.
“Could you do it?” Heron asks from behind the wall.
“Do what?” I ask.
Heron clears his throat but doesn’t answer.
“I think what Heron’s asking is…,” Blaise starts, but he trails off. He opens his mouth and closes it again, dropping his gaze away from me.
“They want to know if you can actually kill someone,” Artemisia says. “But I don’t think they wanted to bring it up, since the only time you’ve taken a life, it was Ampelio’s. I doubt the Prinz will lie at your feet and let you do it, and you can hardly overpower him, can you?”
She has a point, though I’m loath to admit it. “It’s just the next step in a plan we already had in place,” I say instead. “If I could overpower him, do you think the rest of the plan could work?”
The three of them are quiet for a moment. Next to me, Blaise’s eyes are fixed on the wall in front of him, seeing nothing. I can practically see him thinking, running through the scenario in every direction.
“Yes,” he says after a moment.
“It actually could work,” Artemisia admits, sounding somewhat impressed.
“It will work,” I say, my confidence growing. I feel buoyant suddenly, like my feet aren’t quite touching the ground. We can do this—take our country back. Admittedly, there is only a slim chance of it working, but it’s significantly more than it was before, now that we have a plan. It’s a glimmer of hope in the pitch dark.
I don’t let myself think too long about what, exactly, I just offered to do. S?ren is my enemy, even if he’s only ever showed me kindness. And now I know what it means to take a life, that it’s something more than a blade and blood and a heart gone still. Now I know that it takes something from you in return.
There is something else nagging at me, too. I clear my throat. “On a separate note, I’ve been thinking about Vecturia a bit more—”
Blaise groans. “Theo, we agreed—”
“I never agreed,” I interrupt, squaring my shoulders. “I’m not content to brush the death and enslavement of thousands of people off my hands like they’re nothing but flecks of dirt.”
“They did that to us when the Kalovaxians came to our shores,” Heron says.
“And I’m sure they’ll regret that decision when S?ren and his men attack. But the fact remains that the more the Kaiser digs his roots into the area, the more difficult it’s going to be to remove him. When war does come, we’ll already be fighting a difficult battle, but if they have a stronghold in Vecturia as well, they’ll be able to attack from both sides and crush us easily. It won’t be a fight; it’ll be a massacre.”
I wait for protests, but all three are silent. Blaise’s eyes dart around the room, his mouth pursed. I don’t sound like my mother this time, I realize. I sound more like the Kaiser or the Theyn dictating battle strategies, and I’m sure my Shadows notice that difference as well. Blaise is grasping for an argument, so I push forward before he can find one.
“And we are leaving here eventually. When we do, we’re going to need to gather more forces, make stronger alliances. I know the Vecturians aren’t enough, but they’re a start. They’re more than we have now, and they can do more than we can from here. I’m not suggesting that we send what few people we have into an impossible battle, but Artemisia said that Vecturia’s weakness is in the distance between their islands, right? If we can get a warning there and give them the chance to unite, it would become a more difficult fight than S?ren is anticipating.”
Blaise nods slowly. “He might even turn back once he realizes he’s lost the element of surprise.”
“Is there a way to send warning?” I ask.
Blaise’s brow furrows and he glances at Artemisia’s wall. “Will your mother do it?” He sounds wary.
She hesitates. “It might take some convincing,” she says. “And I’m still not sure it’s the best idea.”
“If you have any better ones, I’m open to considering them,” I tell her.
Silence. Then, “I’ll try.”
“Thank you,” I say, feeling a few inches taller. The threat of the Kaiser recedes a bit in my mind. I can do this. I can act like a queen.
It takes a few seconds for the implications of what they were talking about to hit me. “Wait. What does your mother have to do with anything?” I ask her.
Artemisia laughs. “She is the most feared pirate on the Calodean Sea. You might know her better as Dragonsbane.”
For a moment, I can only stare at the wall she’s hidden behind. The rebel Astrean pirate is notorious, but I’ve always heard Dragonsbane referred to as a he. It never crossed my mind that it could be a woman. A mother.
A surge of hope bubbles up in my chest and I can’t help but laugh. If Dragonsbane is on our side, our chances just greatly improved. But when I turn back to Blaise, his jaw is set and he looks anything but relieved. I remember what he said about Dragonsbane in the cellar. She is not on our side, not really, even if our interests sometimes align.
But Astrea must be our common interest, right? This is her country, too, and she’s done so much to help it. We have to be on the same side. After all, what other side is there for us?
Before I can ask Blaise more about it, he stands up and holds out a hand to me.
“We can’t dawdle all day,” he says, pulling me to my feet so that I’m facing him. This close, I can feel the warmth rolling from his skin. Even though he hasn’t been outside in days, he smells like the earth after a rainstorm. He cups my cheeks gently, running his thumbs under my eyes to dry the leftover tears there. It’s a surprisingly intimate gesture, from Blaise of all people, and I hear Heron cough awkwardly to remind us of his presence. Blaise clears his throat and steps back. “You have a prinz to charm,” he reminds me before hesitating. “If you can hide a weapon where no one will find it, I can get you something. A dagger, maybe?”
Relief floods me even though I doubt I would know what to do with a knife if the moment came. Still, having it will make me feel better.
“A dagger would be perfect,” I say as a gust of wind blows through the window and raises goose bumps on my skin, bringing an idea with it. “The season is turning. I’ll need my cloak soon.”
His brow furrows. “I suppose so,” he says.
I smile. “How are your sewing skills, Blaise?”