"You have it?"
He nodded.
"Let me see." Blade handed her the map, and she stared at it, becoming paler. "Lord Mordon."
"Is it his writing?"
"I would know it anywhere, I have seen it often enough on petitions and letters. How dare he?" She flung the map aside. "He will pay!"
"Why would he do it?"
She gestured, turning away. "He owns a large armouring business. An end to the war would ruin him. Obviously he suspects that I try to talk peace with Prince Kerrion. By killing him, he would end any hope of it."
"Do you think he acted alone?"
She shook her head. "I doubt it."
"Then you should arrest him, and find out who his collaborators are."
"No." Minna wandered over to a pile of gold-embroidered crimson cushions and sank onto them. Shista watched from her place by the windows, her eyes wide at the tension. "If I arrest him, he must go before the courts, and it will become public that I am protecting Prince Kerrion. The people still expect his execution any day. They will not be happy to see one of their lords punished for trying to kill an enemy Prince. There will be riots."
"But he must be stopped," Kerrion said. "Or he will try again."
"Killing one wolf will not stop the pack," Blade remarked. "We must find out who the others are."
"He will be punished," Minna stated. "And sometimes killing the leader does stop the pack, if they are clever. Blade, you will see to it."
"You want him dead?"
"Yes. I do not care who his collaborators are, his death will dissuade them."
"It may not."
"I will double the guard on the Prince, and place a man in his room."
Prince Kerrion stepped forward, frowning. "In view of this, I must ask you to return me to the desert. My life is in danger here, and if you do not intend to execute me, then send me to safety."
Minna turned to him. "No. The time is not right. You will be returned a moon phase from now, not before."
"Why? What are you waiting for? We have agreed that no treaty can be made between us, so there is no point in my staying here."
"I have decided when you will return," she declared, "and it will be in a moon phase, no sooner. I shall ensure your safety. Once Mordon is dead, the others will lose heart, for they will be lost without their leader."
"How do you know that he is their leader?" Blade enquired.
His question clearly surprised the Queen, who stared at him. "He must be. He is a senior lord, he drew the map."
Blade nodded, accepting this, for he knew little of politics. It was not his place to argue with the Queen, and he did not care if Kerrion lived or died, nor whether the war ended. The prospect of an assassination gave him a sense of purpose, and something to occupy him. It would require some planning, Lord Mordon was heavily guarded.
"Do you wish it to be quick or slow?"
She tried to hide a shudder. "Quick."
He bowed. "My Queen."
She waved a hand. "You may go, My Lord Conash."
After the assassin left, Minna turned to Kerrion. "Is there something else, Prince Kerrion?"
He looked away, unable to meet her eyes. "This is madness. Why keep me here, when you have no further use for me?"
"Are you in such a hurry to return to the desert?"
"If I am to keep my throne, I must do so soon. Lerton will be plotting against me in my absence. Every day I am away strengthens his position. In a moon phase he could declare me a traitor and usurp my crown. My people expect you to execute me, just as yours do. If I stay here too long and return unharmed, they will be angry and suspicious."
Minna studied her hands. "And is there nothing here that makes you want to stay?"
"How could there be? Everyone here hates me. I am the enemy. I am a prisoner, no matter how well I am treated."
She looked up at him. "I do not hate you."
Kerrion swung away to pace. "Then you are the only one. Do you think that keeping me here will change my mind? We have agreed that there is no hope of finding a way to make peace between us."
"Do you hate me?"
He stopped and turned to her. "No. But we are the rulers of two kingdoms at war. No matter what we may think of each other, we cannot be friends. Neither of us can afford to go against the wishes of our people, and start a civil war. You are in a stronger position than I, for your people do not have a horde of siblings with whom to replace you. I, at least, can promise to try to lessen the war effort, stop the atrocities. If my brother takes the throne, it will intensify."
"I do not wish your brother on the Cotti throne. Nor will I be satisfied with anything less than peace."
"You are a stubborn woman, true to your race. Yet your wishes can never come true, I am afraid."
Minna-Satu rose to her feet, her expression cold. "I bid you goodnight, Prince Kerrion."
He stared at her, stunned by her dismissal, then his eyes filled with anger. "I am no flunky for you to dismiss, Minna-Satu. Grant me the respect owed to my rank, if you wish civility from me."
"Your civility is optional. You are my prisoner, and have no right to demand anything from me."
"If you wish a lessening of hostilities between our kingdoms, it would be as well to start between the two of us. My tolerance for your games grows thin. This exercise in futility threatens my position amongst my people."
She glared at him. "Yet you have no option but to accept it, Prince Kerrion. You have no hope of escape or rescue. The only way you may return to your people alive is through my generosity, and you would do well not to forget that."
"I have not forgotten, and you would do well not to forget who I am. For the moment I am your prisoner, this is true, but once freed, I command the greatest army ever assembled. Do not imagine that all of my warriors are at your border. Half as many again fight trivial battles with invading desert nomads to the east and keep control of the mud people in the west. Should I choose to throw everything at your borders, you will not survive the onslaught. You remember the invasion of Ashtolon? All your border towns were wiped out in that offensive, and my father's army took land up to the Lelgala River."
"And my mother's army drove him back," she retorted.
"With huge losses, yes. This war has ever been thus. We take a little of your land beyond the mountains, then you push us back into the desert. Yet you have lost forever certain tracts of land to the east, have you not? Those lands have been settled by the Cotti and used to supply my armies with food. We have a foothold in your kingdom, and, in time, your army will fall. Is that not why you wish so desperately for peace?"
"No. My people will fight to the bitter end, and you will win nothing but rotting corpses and salted ground. I wish to put an end to this for the sake of the innocents, the widows and orphans, the cripples and dead children whose unmarked graves litter our lands. What is the point of fighting a war that neither of us can win?"
Kerrion shook his head. "That is just the point. I could win it if I chose, whereas you cannot. You have a land rich in bounty for my army to plunder on the way to your city. I have a hundred and seventy leagues of pitiless desert guarding mine."
"Then why have none of your forefathers done so?"
"Because it would be uneconomical. An all-out offensive would severely weaken the desert armies, leaving us vulnerable to the nomads and start another war with your ally to the west, King Jan-Durval. You think the carnage is bad now, but we are only fighting a low-grade war, little more than a border skirmish. You may lose a thousand men in a moon, more or less, but a full Cotti invasion would cost you more than that in a day.
"Yet neither of us can afford to call a truce, for that would put twenty, thirty thousand jobless men on the streets of our cities. They would become thieves and murderers, or band together as brigands and outlaws. Our foundries would collapse and our mines close, putting more onto the streets. Men who know nothing but how to dig ore, smelt metal or make weapons."