“It appears that way,” Sara said. “Princess, you know you are always welcome at our palace.”
“I do,” I admitted.
“The King wanted me to extend an invitation to you,” Sara said. “If you return to the Vittra to take your rightful place at his side, he will offer amnesty to F?rening and everyone who lives here.”
I faltered for a moment, unsure how to respond. I didn’t want to go there, and I certainly didn’t trust the King, but it was hard to pass up. It would protect everybody I cared about, including Matt and Finn.
I glanced at Loki, expecting him to be grinning or teasing me to join him, but instead, his cocky smile had faltered. He swallowed, and his caramel eyes were almost frightened.
“Princess.” Tove touched my arm, just above my elbow. “We have other business to attend to this afternoon. Perhaps we should see our guests out.”
“Yes, of course.” I smiled thinly. “If you’ll forgive me, I do have things I need to do.”
“Of course.” Sara smiled. “We don’t need to take up any more of your time.”
“It’s just as well.” Loki looked relieved and smiled at me. “Ondarike is no place for a Princess.”
“Markis,” Sara said coolly.
She did another curtsy, which I reciprocated, then turned away. Ludlow the hobgoblin never said anything, but he gathered up her train so it wouldn’t drag on the ground. As they walked to the door, Loki started to say something, but Sara silenced him.
He glanced over his shoulder once, his eyes meeting mine, and I was surprised to find how much my heart ached at seeing him go. We hadn’t spent that much time together, but I’d felt oddly connected almost since the moment I met him.
Then he was gone out the door, and out of my life, and I actually wanted to cry.
Once they were gone, I let out a deep breath.
“That wasn’t so bad,” I said. It wasn’t bad at all, really. The nerve-racking buildup had been the worst part.
The Chancellor was sweating like a pig, but this was nothing new. I smiled gratefully at Tove. It had been nice having him at my side. Backup and support were never a bad thing.
“Those little hobgoblins freak me out.” Duncan shuddered at the thought of Ludlow. “I don’t know how they can live with them.”
“I’m sure they think the same thing about you,” Finn muttered.
“I think we all know what we have to do,” the Chancellor said, wringing his pudgy hands together.
“What?” I asked, since I had no idea what we had to do.
“We need to attack them while the truce is still in play,” the Chancellor said. Sweat dripped down into his beady eyes, and his white suit had wet circles all over it.
“The whole point of the truce is that we have peace,” I said. “If we attack them, we negate that, and we’re back at war.”
“We need to get a drop on them when they’re not expecting it,” the Chancellor insisted, his jowls shaking. “This is our only chance to have the upper hand!”
I shook my head. “No, this is our chance to rebuild after the last attack and find ways to handle this conflict peaceably. We need to work on uniting the Trylle and being as strong as we can be. Or coming up with something we can offer the Vittra to get them off our back.”
“Well, we know what we can offer them.” The Chancellor eyed me.
“We’re not negotiating with them,” Finn interjected.
The Chancellor glared at him. “Of course, you’re not negotiating with anybody for anything.”
“We can’t cross negotiations out,” Tove said, and before Finn could protest, he went on. “Obviously, we’re not giving them the Princess, but we can’t rule out other options. Enough people have died already. And after fighting for all this time, nobody has won. I think we need to try something different.”
“Exactly,” I agreed. “We should use this time to figure out what that might be.”
“You want to find something new to barter with?” the Chancellor scoffed. “We can’t trust the Vittra King!”
“Just because he plays dirty doesn’t mean we have to,” I said.
“And the only reason we won this last fight is because it happened on our turf and they left their strongest players at home,” Tove said. “If we meet them at their house, they have the advantage. They would crush us the way they have every other time. We need to learn from our mistakes.”
“Fine!” The Chancellor threw up his hands. “Do what you want! But the blood will be on your hands, not mine.”
The Chancellor stalked off, defeated. I smiled up at Tove.
“Thanks for backing me up,” I said.
Tove shrugged. “It’s what I do.”
TWENTY-THREE
proposal
After Sara and Loki left, I went up to report to Elora how I’d done. Garrett was sitting with her in the drawing room, where Elora was lying down. Her skin color had brightened, but she was still out of it.