“What are we supposed to do then? Wait for them to invade us? Hope that they decide to stop killing people? That we’ll be safe somehow?”
“No. We can’t be those people, either. We can’t pretend that we don’t see what’s coming. That would be worse because then it would be our people who were murdered in the meantime. We can’t pretend that nothing bad is ever going to happen. We just have to go out and meet it, and when we’re face-to-face with it, we have to be brave enough to be better than they are.”
“You think that’s going to win us a war? Being good? Being merciful toward our enemies?” I sniffled, feeling tears prickling at the back of my eyes.
“Aquella told me today that the Nymphiad can no longer sit back and watch as the world burns. We have to go out and face evil so that we can stop it, but the only way we could do that was if we didn’t become evil ourselves in the process.”
“What did Boreas say?”
“Nothing.” She shook her head silently. “He didn’t say anything at all.”
“So what am I supposed to do then? March the army to the border and then sit there? To lay siege to her border and just wait again?”
“No.” Mercedes lifted her head from the bark and stared, her silver eyes piercing me. “No siege. Take the army to Bavasama. March across the border and take the army directly to the Palace of Night. Tell her we’re not going to put up with her crap anymore, and if she doesn’t knock it off, you’ve got an army to stop her. A big army, full of lots of very angry soldiers.”
“Okay, how’s that different from my plan?”
“Before you give the order to attack the Palace of Night, give her the chance to surrender. No matter how angry she makes you, Allie, give her the chance to surrender to you peacefully. Make her give up her crown, if you want. Put her in her own dungeons. But before you attack, give her a chance to save her soldiers’ lives.”
“She won’t.”
“That doesn’t matter.” Mercedes grabbed my hand and gave it a squeeze. “You’re not giving her the chance because she’ll take it. You’re the queen who holds the Great Relics of Nerissette. You can afford to be merciful. And if that’s not enough, give her the chance because it’s who you are.”
“I don’t know who I am anymore.” I leaned my head against her shoulder and tried not to cry. Sure, I was able to destroy the Mirror that gave a direct path into the World That Is, and I used the Dragon’s Tear to trap the Fate Maker in the Bleak—things that couldn’t happen if I weren’t the rightful queen—but that was just a title.
“You’re my best friend, who also happens to be a queen.”
“I’m not a very good queen, though, am I? Ever since I took the throne, all anyone has done is try to overthrow me somehow.”
“So what?” Mercedes bumped her shoulder against mine. “I’m green. Nothing you can come up with will ever top that. According to Dryad legends, I’m part plant. So take your whole, ‘poor me, everyone keeps invading my kingdom, and my boyfriend turns into a big, gorgeous dragon to protect me’ and stuff it. I’m a plant woman. You can’t beat me in the freakstakes after that.”
“Well, at least you’re a pretty shade of green,” I said, nudging her shoulder. “Sort of a minty color.”
“Spring leaf,” she corrected. “I am spring-leaf green.”
“Whatever, at least you’re not the color of pond scum.”
“Yeah, thank the trees for small mercies, huh?”
“Yeah.” I leaned our foreheads together.
“Allie?”
“What?”
“I miss home. I miss Mr. Brinnegar and his stupid assignments that have no bearing on the real world, and biology class on dissection days when the cheerleaders would whine about how gross cutting something open was while you tried not to pass out or barf. I even miss gym class.”
“Me, too.” I pulled my best friend closer, staring out into the dark nothingness of the night surrounding us. “I miss it, too. Well, I don’t miss gym class, but the rest of it I miss. No one who ever actually had to play field hockey in gym class could miss that.”
“Are you really going to find some way to get us back home?”
“I’m going to try.” I squeezed her tighter. “Did you really copy all your gym class reports from Wikipedia?”
“Every single one.”
There was a crunch of leaves to our left, and I instinctively reached for the sword I’d gotten used to wearing at my hip after so many months of war. I wrapped my hand around the hilt, and shifted my weight, putting my body between Mercedes and whoever—or whatever—was coming toward us.
“Your Majesty?” Kitsuna called out a moment before the red-haired wryen, the daughter of two different types of dragons, melted out of the shadows. She’d been acting as my fiercest bodyguard this past year, even though she didn’t possess the ability to transform into the dragon inside her.
“Hey, Kit.” I took my hand off the sword and patted the ground beside me. “Come hang out with us.”
“I can’t.” She shook her head. “You’re needed.”
“Why?”
“Your Royal Council of War has arrived. The army is mobilizing, and the Town Watch for Neris has sent all their spare men to help guard the castle.” I watched as she shifted from foot to foot, not meeting my eyes. “You need to come.”
“That’s not all, is it?” I asked, my stomach filling with dread.
“Allie.” Her shoulders slumped.
“It wasn’t just the Forest of Ananth,” Mercedes said, her voice low. It wasn’t a question, and my heart clenched. “Bavasama’s troops, they didn’t just raid the border at the Forest of Ananth. That’s why the members of the War Council all came so quickly to Allie’s summons. Bavasama’s army didn’t just stop with us. They invaded somewhere else…. Didn’t they?”
“You need to come now,” Kitsuna said, her voice hollow.
Chapter Seven
In the ten minutes it took for me to get to the throne room from the back garden, the palace had filled with people. It sounded like a dozen high school pep rallies being blared through fifty-foot speakers at the same time.
“Everyone, please!” Rhys yelled over the screaming and the arguing and the general noise pouring out of the room. “Let’s all just settle down and talk about this!”
“There were ravens over Meridoc. They were carrying fire wizards. Meridoc is burning, and you want us to be calm?” Lady Arianna, steward of the Veldt, snapped, her face red and her normally sleek, blond hair standing up in tufts all over her head.
“The desert near Caradocia has ogres amassed on their borders,” Melchiam, the Rache of the Firas, said, his maroon robes rumpled and his long black hair hanging loose against his shoulders instead of tied back like it normally was. “We’ve had to strike our camps and go in search of water elsewhere. Lands we’ve held since the First Rose are no longer in our control.”
“We can address all of this—” John of Leavenwald began from near the throne.
“Shut up!” I yelled, letting my voice carry across the room as I swept out of the main doorway and through the rapidly parting crowd, trying to project my faux queenly confidence. I made my way to the huge, intricately worked throne. “All of you. That’s an order. I need all of you to just shut up for five minutes.”
“Your Majesty—” one of the men started and tried to reach for my arm. Instead of letting him grab me, I picked up my pace and kept moving.
“No bowing.” I stalked up the three steps to my throne and turned to plop down on it. “You all know how I feel about the bowing that takes place around here. We get nothing done if you spend the next half an hour bowing and ‘if you please, Your Majesty’-ing me. Now, someone—someone calm—tell me what we know. Where have there been attacks?”