Queen of Summer's Ice (Book 2)

Chapter 37

     I nodded at her, and it looked like she was relieved at not getting in trouble. With her head lower than usual she then left the room with the kids. As they left, it wasn't Ivory with her head turned around at Clovis, giving a look that said he was always being watched, it was Dax. His head nearly went around his head like an all knowing owl.

     "Let me guess the others," I said to the room as I took my seat back next to my husband. "Yana, no question about it, probably held a dagger to your throat."

     "A little more south than his throat," Yana muttered into the piece of bread she was about to eat.

     Of course it was a little more south.

     "I wan to say Zinnia, and Alagan."

     "Two out of three isn't so bad," Clovis replied back, as if we were discussing a game of cards and not threats. Then again, threats were being handed out like cards nowadays.

     "It was actually me," Aunt Palma said.

     That shocked me a bit, but I didn't let it show so much on my face. If anything I let the amusement of it show across my honey toned skin. "You threatened him?"

     "It wasn't a threat-"

     "It was a threat Palma," Clovis assured. He seemed calm enough around us to continue his dinner. Aunt Palma told me that her and Clovis had actually known one another before all this, vaguely because Clovis lived in a party and careless style that was completely opposite to hers, but still. They were both years older than I was, so it was not a shock that they have been on another good side before I came along. I'm sure whatever she had to say, he trusted her more than me, because Palma was the way she was. She always sided with the right cause.

     "More of a warning, and you know it. And a voice of reason." Aunt Palma sat like a Queen, not a Princess. It made my heart ache thinking that it should be her on the throne, not her oldest brother.

     More Queens, and Kings, needed her love. Her joy, her all around care for the people. She had no greed in her bones. If every royal was like her, then there really would be peace all around the seasons.

     "And how did you take all of these 'warnings' to be Clovis?"

     Ray held my hand above the table. His calloused palms lightly graced my knuckles until he settled to caressing his thumb along them. His had was warm against mine. Clovis looked at where our hands met at the table before looking at me to answer.

      "You want my honest opinion?"

     I nodded instead of rolling my eyes.

     "I think these people really love their Queen. And that I may have made an error about winter." Any other man would have cowered under my look if they were admitting they were wrong. Instead Clovis held my gaze, as a fellow royal he did not quake under someones stare. "You told me you wanted peace, and I believe it now. After being here, after seeing how the people go about their days with a smile on their face, and fat on their bones, I believe you, Queen Evie."

     "Thank you, for believing what I have been saying these past five years," I tried to say it with a lot less bite, "but forgive me if you believing is not enough. Seeing as how you are not the King of a season."

     Or ever will be the King of a season, so long as Alagan lives.

     "Nor do I ever want to be," Clovis snorted. Well, a relief that he didn't want to be. "I will though, talk to my father. I think it's about time we settle this. He will take some convincing, might even think its another trick from you, but I will convince him."

     Taking a deep breath I smelled the scents of the kitchen all the way in the dinning room. The cooks were prepping dessert, white chocolate to be dipped in the plumpest cherry's we could find here in winter. Yana's favorite.

     "Thank you for seeing the truth Prince Clovis," without looking around the table, I could feel everyone trying not to stare at me, because the plan was finally moving forward. "I think you're father would need more convincing though, than just yourself and your word. I want to go with you."

     If he had been drinking, I'm sure he would have choked. "You want to go to Spring?"

     I shrugged as if it was no big deal. "I've been thinking about it," Have really been thinking about it, "and I think I should finally see this land. Aunt Palma has told me stories that the mountains were the greenest she would ever lay her eyes upon. And the amount of flowers there would give me head aches from the thousands of scents. Spring has my interest."

     "You want to go into Spring, alone? With just you around a room of royals who would rather see your head of a spike?" He generally looked concerned for me. Even more so as he looked at Ray, as if he could talk me out of it.

     "Oh, I wouldn't go alone. I'd be bringing one of them." My chin nodded to the end of the table where Yana, Hudson, Zinnia, and Alagan sat. I wouldn't let him know which one just yet.

     "...And one of them would be commanding the army?" He still ask unsure.

     "No army. No spies. No one else but the Queen of winter and her advisor to enter Spring to discuss a peace treaty."

     "You're insane," he whispered.

     I couldn't help the smile that twitched across my lips, because he had no idea how true he was. But even more so, the smile he missed was my brothers, which was identical as mine. If Clovis would had seen that, then there would have been no denying that Alagan and I were siblings. But he'd find out soon, everyone would, because the peace treated wasn't for winter, it was for all the other seasons.