“What do you mean?”
“Those who crave power tend to be too selfish to have the empathy they need to be good leaders. But you care about your people as individuals, not some teeming mass to be reclaimed and ruled. Even before all of this started, you loved your Ospreys. They were never expendable to you.”
No, they weren’t. Not like they were to Patrick, just faces with sets of skills, ready to be deployed at his convenience.
My throat was tight. “You can’t know how much it means for me to hear you say that.”
“I’m not just saying it, Wilhelmina. I believe it.” He walked toward me, his face shadowed as he turned from the light. “You will be a good queen, and I will gladly follow your lead now that I am a ward of Aecor.”
Oh. He was a ward of the kingdom. Just like everyone else who’d crossed the bridge, the Wraith Alliance allowed him to retain his titles, but none of the power unless I granted otherwise.
Tobiah was a ruler in name only, as I’d been just yesterday.
He studied my face, and though I hadn’t spoken or given any sort of reaction, he still read my thoughts in my eyes. “The Indigo Kingdom isn’t all gone. Not yet. But the valley is. That was the heart of the kingdom. The rest will fall until there’s nothing left. I can only hope that all my people find somewhere safe.”
“There’s nowhere safe,” I reminded him.
“But there’s still hope.”
“Optimistic Knife strikes again.”
“That menace.” He dared a smile, but it was quickly put out. “My uncle is missing. After the meeting this afternoon, I had him followed.”
“I remember.”
“Well, they lost him. And now no one can find him. Nor can they find his supporters, the men who were stationed here under him, and even some of the loyalists you freed when you arrived.” Tobiah leaned his weight on the desk, shoulders hunched and head bowed low. “It’s about five thousand people, total. Nothing we can’t defend against, but just the idea of my uncle marching through your city, tonight of all nights—”
“We can defend against it. Did you tell James? He’s in charge of castle security, though I suppose you’ll want him back.”
“James knows.” Tobiah closed his eyes, and his throat jumped. “He also told me about the Red Militia—your maid moving information between Patrick and the others, and this looming threat the Militia poses.”
“Tonight,” I whispered. “It will happen tonight. Patrick needs to make a statement.”
Tobiah bowed his head. “That’s why you didn’t want the coronation ball. What would you be doing instead, though?”
“Denying a pleasure to my friends and guests so that I could indulge in worry and paranoia.”
“Indeed. You already have police and military on duty. This is one of those times you need to let other people do their jobs, while you do yours. Right now, your job is to be the great queen people expect you to be.”
I didn’t feel like a great queen. Or a queen at all. Just a girl dressing up for yet another deception.
“After the wraith came though Skyvale, I felt so helpless. It made me think of you and the One-Night War, and the two of us watching my father’s army burn through your city. I couldn’t stop wondering if you felt the same hopelessness that night.”
“Yes.” I almost reached for his hand, but his face was dark and downcast.
“When I left Skyvale, I could have sent someone else for my mother in Hawes. I could have sent someone else to Two Rivers City.” He pressed his mouth into a thin line. “But I’d never seen either city before, let alone any of the small towns and villages between. I wanted to go because I needed a memory of my kingdom before the wraith covered it.”
“Are you glad you went?”
He opened his eyes and nodded. “The Indigo Kingdom is magnificent.”
“Yes, it is.” Easily, I could recall the rolling blue mountains, the Midvale Ridge, the glorious valley. It was a place I’d always denied was my home, but now that it was gone, I missed it. I didn’t blame Tobiah for taking the time to create one last memory. But . . . “Why didn’t you write back to me? Or James? What about the Ospreys? Did you lose the notebooks?”
“No,” he said. “We had them. We never let them out of our sight.”
“Then you know what you put us through.”
“I know.” Darkness passed over his eyes. “I had to make everyone believe I was dead. I traveled the Indigo Kingdom under disguise, revealing my identity to only those necessary.”
“Why?”
“The Wraith Alliance. I knew James would make the argument for your coronation as soon as my death was presumed. I hoped it would be sooner, but I suppose people don’t give up on kings easily.”
“You could have waited until you were here. The Wraith Alliance holds even when you’re alive.”