Something With a Prince

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The "I" in "Alliance"

Arlyn

I sent our fastest rider with a letter for Lansing and Thea's return first thing in the morning. With luck, they will be intercepted at the palace. Taking the main road will cut travel time considerably, but not enough. Cassida called off her manhunt and instead began organizing her forces into battalions and companies to be sent to Tuisedor, rounding out numbers up enough to stand a chance against Dominic.

There was absolute silence on his end of things since Oveda, no more notes or threats. Just the impending sense of his arrival and doing everything in my power to slow him down. We needed to take first claim, stake our chances on having the upper ground and letting the rest play out as it will. Still, he was moving fast and despite sending numerous spies and scouts into the forest, fewer seemed to come back. Dominic had to be setting traps, taking captives, and there was little I could do about it until my resources could come through. The helplessness, the waiting of it all was driving me insane. I was lucky to get more than two hours of sleep a day, but after Cassida's little visit last night, I suspect that the numbers would grow slimmer.

Keep your enemies closer. How close exactly?

It was stupid to let her in my room, to allow her into my space and head, but it got me results and an army. When the other shoe drops on these decisions, then I will let myself be ashamed of what happened, but until then, the Queen and I were going to be thick as thieves. Now how to break that information to my mother, Elleanor, Niklaus, Lansing, and Tallethea when they arrive.... I haven't figured out that part yet and I don't think that Cassida is inclined to let me.

We were sitting together now in the war room, my side of strategists and captains glaring at hers and vice versa. Nobody could seem to agree on where the posts should be, especially the ones Oveda had chosen.

"We all know she was a spy for King Dominic, those posts are useless now. We'd be walking into a death trap." Cassida's General, Tomas, sneered, pressing his finger into the map. He was a burly man, with short blonde hair and searing grey eyes that, to any other person would have dominated the conversation, however, Oveda's second in command, Rai, was not going to hear any of it.

They were romantically involved before her death, Rai and Oveda. Which would explain Rai's ferocity in defending the late General's memory, but I think that ferocity was more motivated at being talked down to by a man who served the enemy. Well, until about six hours ago.

She pushed her lower jaw forward, narrowing her own pair of blue eyes and folded her arms across her chest. She was just as muscular and intimidating as Tomas was, even their temperaments were the same: belligerent, dominant, stubborn. It was easy for the room to see they're the best at what they did, it was also easy to see they were enjoying the battle.

"We do not know that." Rai announced to the room coolly, "We don't know what role Oveda played, if any, involving Dominic. There are scouts looking into her predictions as we speak and it would be stupid to discount good land on the suspicions of a half-wit, pompous, loud-mouthed-"

"Commander," I interjected sternly, "Not helping."

She buttoned up as Tomas smirked at her, I almost expected Rai to leap across the table and start a war in this very room, which would be appropriate. My side of the table shifted into tense positions, as if reading her very thoughts. She sucked her cheeks in, as if it would stop the slew of words, she was thinking from being unleashed. A deadly glare was the compromise for silence. Cassida's side took up the same defensive postures as the Queen and I looked at each other.

Rai finally cleared her throat; everyone saw her knuckles flex. "My apologies, Your Majesty."

"Don't apologize, just work together." Cassida took her first words since arriving in the room. "That goes for you too Tomas, don't forget that Tuisedor isn't the only country that has something to lose should this not go our way."