The Art of Blood and Power (Book 2 in The Gifted Trilogy)

19- The Earth Court

Only a week had passed before we traveled to the Earth Court to propose an alliance. While I had forced myself to be hopeful about our chances of convincing Orion, I quickly gained a sense of deja vu as, only ten minutes into our meeting, our conversation began to sound painfully similar to the one we'd had with Calius.

    "I'm sorry, but I won't pull my kingdom and people into a useless war" Orion spoke with a finality to his voice that told us we were nearing the end of our discussion and we had failed to convince him.

    "If you wait for Nox to make the first move, you're only hurting your kingdom," I tried to reason with him.

    "Look, I like you Wren, but to be honest with you, this rivalry you have with Nox does not concern this court-"

    "Doesn't concern this court?" I looked up in shock. "Nox attacked a village on your land, he murdered hundreds and destroyed my entire home!"

    "And that is a devastation that I will never allow to happen again!" he raised his voice. "I've already dispatched part of my army to the non-Gifted villages for protection, but if we decided to go to war over every single death that happens, we'd never know peace."

    I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath as Porter's head dropped in defeat and Kess got up from where he had been sitting beside me, exhaustion and irritation clear on his face. Ash and June followed him out of the room as Cicero remained seated on my other side.

    I'd done everything to try to convince him. I'd shown him my memories as I did Calius, I'd begged and pleaded with him, tried to make him see reason and realize that the attack on my village would not be the last one on his land. It felt like I was treading water, fighting with every ounce of strength, yet getting nowhere in all of my struggles.

    "Is this the type of example you want to set for your daughter?" I asked him, my voice barely above a whisper. "To shove her head in the sand at the first sign of danger? To allow people to walk all over her, murdering her people, without saying a word?"

    "Don't you dare bring my daughter into this" he snapped. "It's her future I'm preserving. I will not leave her a kingdom scarred by the ruins of war. Nox will answer for what he's done, and we will make him pay, but it won't be at the cost of any more Earth Court citizens. There will be no more bloodshed on my land, ours or otherwise."

"It's a nice sentiment," I replied bitterly. "Too bad I stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago."

Orion didn't dignify my snide remark with a response. Instead, he pushed his chair from the table and stood. "It's already pretty late," he noted. "You and the rest of your entourage are welcome to spend the night in my guest rooms until the morning when it is safer to travel. I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help to you."

"Yeah, I'm sorry too," Porter muttered, leaving the room without pushing his chair back in. Cicero placed a steadying hand on my back as we left, but I could hardly feel it over the pressing defeat weighing over my shoulders.

******

    I sat on the guest bed, staring at the ceiling for a few hours. I knew trying to fall asleep would be no good, especially in a castle I wasn't familiar with. At any moment, soldiers could crash through my doors and attack me. I doubted a man as honorable as Orion would do such a thing, but the possibility never left my mind.

    At some point in the night (or perhaps it was already early morning) I decided a walk might help clear my head, lifting the sheets from my clammy body. Leaving my room, I took the same path the escorts had led us down before. Kess was in the room beside mine. I placed an ear to the door and heard nothing but silence. Assuming he was asleep, I decided not to disturb him and continued down the hall.