“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.
“I won’t agree to this.” There was a beast trying to claw its way out of Talasyn’s chest, some vile, ugly thing birthed from anger and disbelief, but she might as well have been the sea, crashing desperately against the insurmountable rock that was her grandmother’s iron will. She turned to Elagbi, who had also gotten to his feet at Urduja’s declaration but was otherwise not saying a word. “You can’t make me do this!” Talasyn snapped at him. “All your talk about wanting me to be happy, to have what you and Hanan had. I won’t find it with that—that monster—” Her voice broke. “Please—”
After Mathire’s aetherwave transmission, Talasyn had returned the dugout to its proprietor and then rushed back to the palace on foot. Common sense had kicked in long enough for her to pretend that she’d still been laid up in bed when Jie came knocking to say that the Zahiya-lachis had summoned her. She hadn’t been all that confident in her ability to act surprised as she sat in her grandmother’s salon and was told about the Kesathese flotilla and their weaponry, but then the offer had come up and there was no longer any need to feign shock and horror.
“Talasyn is correct, Harlikaan,” Elagbi told Urduja quietly. “She has already assumed her role at court under duress, and now you are offering her up like a sacrificial lamb to the Night Emperor.”
“The alternative is to fight a war that we cannot win,” said Urduja. “This is what is best for our people.”
“Then you marry him!” Talasyn spat.
The Dragon Queen raised an eyebrow. “I am not the one he chased over the Eversea, the one he crossed blades with and met his match in. Who better to keep a Shadowforged husband in line than a Lightweaver wife?”
“With what training?” Talasyn let out a harsh, humorless laugh. “I haven’t fought in months and I can’t even commune with the Belian Sever. Your terms made sure of that!”
“And you accepted those terms, did you not? To save your friends. Tell me, what do you think will happen to them if the Night Empire attacks us and finds out that they’re here?” Urduja asked pointedly. “With Alaric Ossinast as your consort, you will have greater control over where his forces may go. We will retain sovereignty of the archipelago and we will be able to keep the Night Empire away from Sigwad, where your comrades are hiding. If you won’t do this for Nenavar, then do this for Sardovia.”
“You have all the answers, don’t you?” Talasyn narrowed her eyes at the woman whom she just couldn’t bring herself to like, even as she’d come to grudgingly respect her power and political acumen. It was a sad thing to realize that the family she’d been searching for was a far cry from perfect—sadder still that one of them was actually capable of making her vision go dim with rage. “Did you know that this would happen? Were you plotting to use me as a bargaining chip right from the start? Did you anticipate that the Night Empire would come calling?”
“I suspected that it would be a possibility,” Urduja said with maddening calm. “New empires are always so eager to make their mark, and who could resist the siren song of the Dominion? A strategic halfway mark between Kesath and both the southern and eastern hemispheres, oozing with precious metals and fertile land and advanced technology . . . Yes, I suspected. And I planned accordingly, because that is what a leader does.”
“Leaders fight for their people!” Talasyn yelled. “They don’t unlock the gates and welcome the enemy with open arms!”
“You foolish child,” Urduja hissed. “Don’t you understand yet? This is how we fight. We give them the foothold that they’re after, but we dictate how they move.”
“You’re using we an awful lot, considering that I’m the only one who’s going to be a tyrant’s wife!” Talasyn’s gaze shot to Elagbi once more but he remained silent, the look on his face conflicted. Her shoulders slumped. Her father might profess to love her but, in the end, he would never go against his own mother, his queen. The Zahiya-lachis was as good as a goddess, her word law.
“You promised, Alunsina,” Urduja reminded her quietly. “You swore that you wouldn’t give me any trouble if I agreed to shelter you and your comrades. I am holding you to that now.”
In spite of her defiance, Talasyn knew that she again had no choice. This time, it wasn’t just the continued survival of the Sardovian remnant that was at stake, but all of Nenavar as well. Even if by some miracle she and her comrades managed to escape from the Dominion unscathed, she would be leaving an entire country at the mercy of the regime that had thought nothing of wiping entire cities from the map. She was well and truly ensnared.
“Take heart, my dear.” Urduja must have sensed Talasyn’s belligerent acceptance, because she now sounded marginally more sympathetic. “Many empires have come and gone since the first Zahiya-lachis took the throne. Nenavar has watched them rise and she has watched them fall, and she will outlast this one, too. The Night Empire will not destroy us, and neither will they destroy you, for you are of our blood. Now—save us all.”
Chapter Fifteen