There was no harm in letting her think I was worried about Cassius—even if it wasn’t for the same reason as everyone else. I nodded.
“Well, to start, it was the desert.” She made a face. “I never got the appeal of miles and miles of sand.”
“And that’s important because…?”
“Whoever serves in that regiment is mad.”
“Very helpful.”
She grinned. “You are welcome.”
“Anything else?”
“That desert is the best defense Jerar has. It’s just a shame we don’t have the same in the north.”
“How so?” My logic was failing me. “Ferren’s Keep is the largest city regiment we have.”
“You are forgetting the Red Gate. If anyone tried to invade the capital from the south, they would be limited to the pass.” Paige knelt to the ground to begin her next exercise. “If we had the same wall in our north, we wouldn’t need the Pythians to win a war… We’d just line up our army at the gate, waiting for the enemy to enter, one by one.”
The northern border was a forest, that strategy would never work… but the south was a desert bordered by red bluffs. The only way through was the Red Gate.
And suddenly everything Paige was saying made sense.
She hadn’t given me the answer I needed, but she’d given me something much better.
Cassius had asked for a way to hold off the Crown’s Army.
What if his ships staged an attack on one of the southern desert ports?
What if Blayne sent half his army south to save Jerar’s most precious commodity? Salt was the main source of Jerar’s economy—hadn’t the rebels taught me that during that year of the apprenticeship?
And then the rebels and Caltothian forces could storm the capital and send some of their men to barricade the Red Gate. The Crown’s Army might have more men, but by blocking the pass, we would have the upper hand.
We’d have enough time to place a Pythian on the throne. I could find a way to distract Darren while the others imprisoned the king. The Black Mage would never see betrayal coming from his own wife. There would be minimal bloodshed, and we’d win a war that never had time to start.
I had found the solution to Cassius’s riddle.
“You are right, Paige.” I kept my face impassive, fighting hard to keep the elation from reaching my lips. “It’s a shame we don’t have the same in our north.” I started to gather my things.
“You are leaving? Now?” Paige lifted a brow. “You usually train for three hours. It’s barely been one.”
“I’m going to see if I can dig up any more information in the library.” I needed to get to Cassius. Now, while everyone else was occupied. It was almost time for dinner; the ambassador always insisted on taking a stroll around the gardens before. It was the best time to meet—there were too many eyes in the palace itself. If I timed it right, I could still reach him before he returned to his rooms.
“We spend so much time trying to appease these Pythians.” She looked angry. “I don’t trust that duke at all. We should just go to war without them. For all we know, they’ll turn again and demand something else.”
She wasn’t wrong.
*
I found Duke Cassius just in time. We met behind the stables, and I tried not to think back to my last meeting here, when it had been Derrick instead. I wished my brother could see me now. I wished he could see I was a part of his cause.
“I wasn’t expecting to meet again so soon.”
“I have the answer you want.”
“I’m eager to hear it.” The man folded his arms. “Let’s hope this one is better than the last.”
“The Red Gate. It’s the only passage in or out of the desert to our south. If your men attack the ports with enough force, Blayne will dispatch the Crown’s Army to help. All we need is to get them through the gate, and then we can barricade the army in. The mountains, they aren’t like the ones in our north. They’re impassable—”
“An interesting theory, but already you have neglected one of your country’s most notable features.”
“What?” My skin was starting to heat, and my pulse rose. “What is wrong with this plan? You haven’t even let me finish!”
“The Red Tunnels, my dear. Or did you forget that your king has countless tunnels hidden away at the base of that infamous range?”
“I…” How could I be so stupid? It was how they named everything. The Red Desert. The Red Gate. The Red Tunnels. “I forgot.”
“Yes, well, a Pythian doesn’t forget his enemy’s best hand. Your boy king’s father made sure every one of us knew those were there. Just in case we ever considered raiding his south.”
I couldn’t bear to listen to the rest of the duke’s response. Frustration was a crushing blow, and it was building with every second that passed. I thought this time would be different. The last time we spoke, I’d been so built-up with rage I had shattered what should have been—according to all measurable accounts—an unbreakable glass. The indoor training courts had been treated with the best potions an Alchemy mage could brew.