“Well, it seems the King has made the decision for us,” Magnus says.
This time, we four unfortunate souls are meeting not in the mezzanine of the Great Hall, but in what I can best describe as a situation room; long wooden rectangular table takes up most of the physical space in the room. There are also severe and uncomfortable-looking chairs ringing the table, but we’re all collectively ignoring them in favor of staring nervously at each other. Or, in Magnus’s case, glaring at all of us.
I’m pretty sure he chose on purpose to stand at the head of the table, facing the door, so that he could have the full force of the Silverwood crest painting1Amazingly, it is even larger than the one in the guest quarters. glaring down at us with him.
“What do you mean, my dear Duke?” Valeria says. She sounds calm, but there’s a tenor to it that make me glance at Alex from the side.
I’m right too; Alex visibly sharpens to attention.
I mean, I knew when we were relaying the royal to Magnus, Aurelia, and Luke that it wasn’t good news, since like, the collision course between the Silverwoods and the royals has accelerated very fast with the message. But what’s there to fight about? Chop chop. Let’s organize the defenses, send us to the coven, and otherwise try our best to give the Silverwoods their best chance of surviving.
Magnus folds his arms. “I mean, my dear Duchess, His Majesty’s order renders whether or not to trust this girl“—he waves his arms at me distastefully—“no longer a decision of significance. I will go the Augusta, and I will bring this girl. There, we will discern the truth.”
Oh. My. God.
I thought we’d settled this! Is Magnus literally delusional, or does he have a faulty memory? How are we taking three steps backwards from yesterday’s conclusions?
“Father, had we not decided yesterday that we would not put our family at risk in such a way?” Luke intercedes. Of course, he says it much more diplomatically than I would’ve. But I know deep inside, his internal monologue’s probably more along the lines of: “What the ****, dad?”
Magnus shakes his head. “We agreed not to send Alex and the girl. I would have a much different status, as a Court guest whom the King himself summoned. Even if the King is truly as dangerous and intractable as this girl claims, it is highly improbable that His Majesty would take action against me at Court. It would be too suspicious. And if there is any danger… I’ve dealt with Court politics longer than Alex has been alive. I am better positioned to handle it.”
“Surely you can see this edict is a trap? The last time you were summoned to the Court was when you took over your father’s title! Surely the King knows that you are most needed here, that you would be best able to investigate rebel movements by dispatching troops from here,” Valeria sas. “And for this, for your own pride, you’d abandon your lands?”
Luke and Alex are both nodding, so clearly, they agree with their mother. Alex even runs his hand through his hair and says, “It was delivered by the King’s spymaster. And the tone of that missive, Father. It’s both warning and coercion.”
Magnus narrows his eyes. “As I said, Alex, I’ve dealt with the Court for longer than you’ve been alive.” Alex flinches. “Sometimes the best move is a calculated risk. While I am gone, you all will investigate the matter of the attack further and notify me of anything of relevance. There is no other option. Our house cannot ignore a direct edict from the King. It would be treason.”
He looks around the room, and says the next sentence with all of his gravitas, like it’s his trump card: “It would be treason.”
Unfortunately for Magnus, it really doesn’t act as a trump card.
Both Valeria and Luke open their mouth at once—and I look up at the walls, letting their words drift me by.
God, this room is gloomy and airless. Even though it’s early in the day, the room is lit artificially by lighting stones. The only windows are slits high enough up the ceiling to stop anyone from looking in or out—though they’re so small I’m not sure if I’d be able to see anything even if they were at eye level.
On and on, this argument goes. I can almost hear yesterday’s conversations regurgitated all over this one. Alex was right, confiding in Luke—if it comes along with more of these useless debates—is absolutely not the right thing to do.
I sneak a look at Alex. As someone who knows the (mostly) full truth, he knows that Magnus really ought not to go. Not to mention Alex still need to bring up going to the Seer coven, he’d promised to finagle that trip.
But Alex seems to be doing exactly what I’m doing. That is, moping. Or maybe being deep in thought, I don’t know. His eyes are fixed away from his family, and I’ve no idea whether he’s thinking about his dad’s rebuke, or about the situation, or nothing at all.
He’s got to speak up some time very soon though, no? Else the time’s going to pass. It’s not even that hard. The solution here is prettyyyy obvious, even to me.
But they keep arguing, and Alex keeps mulling over whatever, and finally I just can’t take it anymore. You’d think for nobles who’d been doing this their “entire life,” they’d be a little more decisive and clever—
“Okay, what if do what the Duke suggested we do before?” I say out loud. “Alex and I can head towards Augusta to appease the King.”
All three pairs of eyes snap straight to me.2To be honest, I think they’ve forgotten I’m even there. Which is kind of offensive. I know I snuck into the room behind Alex, and really I’ve got no particular status or position in this tug-of-war, but I am the one who’s going to be in danger as much as Magnus if we head to the capital. Plus, I’m a whole person standing in the room!
I put pleading hands up before any of them can snap at me to shut up with the ridiculous ideas.
“Not like, go go, for real. We’re just buying time while pretending to follow the royal edict. We can say that the Duke was hurt in battle, or can’t leave the lands or something, so his son’s going in his stead,” I continue. “It’ll be two birds with one stone too, Alex and I can investigate as we go—there’s a route that’ll take us through rebel-held territories right?”
I remember Alex Prime set up camp with the rebels in the middle of Mediusterra, where he got into all those fights that skyrocketed him up the rebels’ hierarchy—and caused him to discover his magic. Alex Prime then took a short horse ride away to the Seer coven.
Which means the coven should be close enough for Alex and I to take a little detour there on our decoy trip.
Of course, the rest of the Silverwoods don’t need to know that we plan to do that just yet.
Magnus makes to speak. Before he can, I add, “We can do exactly what the Duke suggested before too, of course! We’ll keep in touch. You guys can stay here and try to uncover more yourself. Then we can decide what to do. If you really want to bring me to Augusta for questioning then, you still can.”
Though you will find out it’s all true and there’s no choice but to oppose the King, and that moment will be so so sweet for me, I add silently.
“Of course you can’t expect more than an obvious ploy from an educated peasant girl. Do you think the King would accept Alex as a suitable replacement for me, just like that?” Magnus snaps.
Oof. I give Alex another glance. I can see his temper warring with his concern for his dad on his face warring with his better angels. I almost feel bad for the dude.
“The King will if I join their party,” Luke says.
Huh?
Luke gives me small smile. “Alex alone won’t be enough. But I am heir of Silverwood Keep.” He turns to his mother. Probably correcting that she’ll be the hardest sale. “It will also be better for someone to accompany the two of them on the journey. They so often have the same opinion, a companion who can check their impulses will valuable. It also gives us options for action as well. If we discover anything, we can make two decisions and split up, for example, one of us riding back to Silverwood Keep while the other seek the cooperation of our allies.”
I look over at Alex. Alex looks back at me, his lips pressed thin. But then he shrugs.
I suppose there’s nothing else to do. It gets us very close to what we wanted. And Luke’s reasonable. What we need to do on the trip, we should be able to convince him on the road.
Magnus and Valeria beat us to the decision.
“That is the best that can be done for now,” Valeria says, opening her eyes again after long moments. “But you’ll take disguises and go in cloaks of stealth. I doubt that with such a high-profile summon, you will be attacked. But just in case, we can notify the Crown that you will be untraceable, as a precaution against the danger of the rebels in addition to the normal dangers of the road, you will be untraceable.”
The last part is asked as a question-not-question of her husband.
After a pause, he nods his assent.
And it’s decided.
Let that be the last circular debate we have. Please. At this point, I'm desperate to leave Silverwood Keep.
