My companions and I marched through the streets of Custanov, and Risthan led the way to the palace. We passed through an even nicer neighborhood than the middle-aged man was from after we left his parents’ house, and then the houses resembled mansions the deeper we traveled into the city.
“It’s so beautiful!” Caelia gasped.
“Isn’t it?” Evangeline agreed.
I chuckled with amusement as I watched their reactions, but I fell in love with them a little bit more.
Caelia and Eva gazed around in awe at the extravagant wooden structures on either side of the cobblestone street, but even the stones became higher quality the closer we got to the palace. The sailors of The Quest were no less impressed than my women, and my group splintered apart as the sightseers slowed their pace to look around.
The Arajians seemed less than amazed by their probably familiar surroundings, and they didn’t comment on the others’ reactions, but they murmured amongst themselves as they pointed to various buildings.
“It’s really cool everyone has spoken the common language so far,” I observed in an effort to make conversation with the Arajians. “Is there another tongue you guys speak as well?”
“Our people have an ancient language, but it was lost long ago,” Sarosh explained. “The common language was brought to us by sailors before we closed our shores to visitors.”
“So, there was a time when people were allowed to come to Arajah?” I frowned. “What changed?”
“We aren’t the best record keepers,” Risthan said with a wry smile. “Even I, though educated as well as any nobleman’s son, couldn’t find a record of the Merchant Era.”
“Fascinating,” Eva breathed. “Much of your own history is a mystery, even to the residents of the island?”
“Indeed.” Sarosh’s smile was bittersweet. “Some theorize a great tragedy occurred, something that destroyed our records and instilled a fear of the outside world deep in our hearts.”
“Whoa.” I whistled in appreciation of the story. “Sounds like there’s a lot for everyone to learn about Arajah. Maybe we can begin a new era of expansion and growth.”
We walked in silence for a time, and I memorized the trail we took through the city, but it was laid out in a fairly simplistic circular grid as far as I could tell, so it would be easy enough to find my way back to the walls.
“What do you suppose the king is like?” Eva asked after a time.
“He could be benevolent, like King Frederick,” Caelia mused.
“I do not believe any of us know His Majesty well enough to judge his character,” Risthan said over his shoulder without taking his eyes from the path ahead of him. “We should withhold our judgements until we can make up our own minds about him.”
“That’s all well and good if the realm is thriving,” I said. “But Arajah is obviously suffering. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out where the problem lies, and it’s not with the population of poor people. The leaders and influencers of Custanov play the main role, and they’ll be the ones I hold responsible for the state of Arajah.”
My companions didn’t respond to that, and we walked a little further in silence. But I meant every word. It was up to the heads of the kingdom to ensure even the lowliest peasant had a good life, and if they failed, well, the rulers were the ones responsible. I was just here to deliver the consequences of their own actions.
The God of Consequences had a nice ring to it.
But I still preferred the God of Time over everything else.
“What happens if they don’t let us in to see the king?” Sarosh’s voice belied her concern.
“Oh, they will.” I grinned.
Even if it took a thousand resets, I would get inside the palace to see the king.
The palace walls suddenly came into view, and my jaw fell open as I gazed up at the thick, steel border. An iron portcullis closed off the archway at the top of the street, and the metal walls reached toward the sky to dwarf all the neighboring structures entirely.
The pacifists were certainly a tad defensive.
How the supposed pirate king had managed to penetrate the king’s palace walls was beyond me, but maybe the threat of Custanov’s destruction was enough to get the king to open the gates to his home.
I made a new save point with a wave of my willpower, and then I called my group to a halt.
“I want to approach the gates alone first,” I explained. “But I don’t expect a warm welcome, and if there’s a chance the guards are no longer pacifists, then I need the women far away from the walls.”
“That makes a lot of sense,” Torin mused, and he ushered the other Arajians into an alleyway nearby. “We will wait here for you.”
“Perfect.” I nodded, but then I turned toward the portcullis and lifted my chin with determination.
I’d find a way inside the walls of the palace, even if I had to spend a thousand lifetimes figuring out how to do so.
I approached the portcullis with my hands hovering threateningly over my panabas, but I didn’t release my weapons just yet. I wanted to try every available option before I resorted to violence, and even then, I would do my best not to harm any innocents. I still had a repertoire of magic at my disposal, too, so I was confident I’d hack the gate eventually.
“Stop right there!” a stern-sounding voice called out from behind the steel-plated wall. “State your business in Arajah!”
“You’d think you would have asked that before I got this far,” I pointed out. “Where are the guards on the coastline? Or does your king not care about the people living outside the city walls?”
“State your business,” the voice repeated.
I had a few options to choose from for my first attempt. I could do blunt honesty, bribery, trickery, or intimidation, so I figured I might as well start with the easiest one: honesty.
“I am Sir Sebastian, the Archduke of Sorreyal, Dragon Slayer, Red Hands the Pirate Bane, and the God of Time,” I said in a loud, clear voice. “I am here to free your people from the pirate terror plaguing your land. Open the gates so I can speak with the king directly.”
“We were warned of strangers from distant shores,” the guard’s voice called through the iron holes of the portcullis. “You cannot sweet talk your way inside to kill our king.”
“I wish no harm upon your leader,” I assured the man. “I merely wish to help Arajah.”
“No one does anything for free,” the guard argued.
I could tell this wasn’t going anywhere, but I’d already used up precious time arguing with the man behind the wall, so I reset back to my save point.
Chime.
“You guys should go hide in that alleyway over there while I try out a few different approaches,” I said as I gestured to the corridor between two nearby buildings. “This could take a while.”
Someone had warned the guards of my arrival, and there were only a few people who could have done so. Either the guards at the city wall weren’t as convinced by my pirate ruse as they let on, or Risthan’s father had alerted the palace of our plans.
“Hello!” I greeted in a friendly voice as I approached the gates for a second time. “I am an embassy from the pirate king sent to speak to the leader of Arajah.”
“You do not fly the banner of the pirate king,” the guard observed from behind the wall. I’d yet to see his face, but judging from his voice, the man was around my age, but he could be a little bit older. “Weren’t you supposed to be returning slaves?”
“I stashed them nearby,” I said with a dismissive wave of my hand. “I want to see the king first, but I don’t want my slaves to escape my possession until I have their replacements before me.”
“Return with the flag of the pirate king,” the guard commanded. “Or be gone.”
This was going to be harder than I thought.
Good thing I had all the time in the world to try every angle.
I reset over and over again as I tried out different ideas, but each option ended much the same as the one before, and I soon began to lose my patience with the faceless guard on the other side of the wall. He was smart to keep himself out of my eyesight, but that meant I wasn’t able to cast any spells on him.
I even attempted to bind the hands of my Arajian friends to pass for a pirate again, but once more the guard mentioned the tip that had alerted the palace to my arrival.
It had to have been Risthan’s father. The man gave me backstabby vibes from the start, but I’d trusted him not to turn on his own son.
I reset again and again as I tried bribery, threats, flirting, and everything in between.
Chime.
Chime.
Chime.
I lost track of how many lives I spent walking up to the portcullis, but each time I reset, I jumped back to the alleyway entrance once more. I was starting to get bored with it, so I stopped resetting and just lobbed different ridiculous statements at the guard until one of them caused a reaction. The guard was stoic and unresponsive, though, even when I told some really funny jokes, and I was running out of ideas. A couple of hours passed, and then the guard suddenly strode in front of the portcullis to gaze at me in a taunting manner.
He was enjoying this.
Almost instinctively, my left hand shot out with the palm raised toward the portcullis, and I found myself muttering the words of power for my ice spell. The icy shards darted between the holes of the portcullis to drape across the guard’s form, and soon his body was spotted with huge chunks of frozen liquid.
“If you promise to let me in, I’ll unfreeze you,” I said.
“It would violate my sacred duty,” the guard managed to say despite his lips being covered in a thin layer of ice. “Please, unthaw me, and I will take word of your arrival to the king to decide.”
The guard appeared to be around my age, and his blond hair was cut close against his scalp, but he had a long, feathered mustache and beard. I couldn’t see what color his eyes were beneath the ice, but his build seemed to be muscular and fit. I wondered what a pacifist would train for, but I supposed heavy labor could cause the same muscle density.
“Unbind me, please,” the guard asked politely. “And I will deliver your message to the king.”
“Pinky promise?” I asked as I stuck out my smallest digit, but of course, the frozen man couldn’t return the gesture just yet, so I let my hand fall back to my side as a smirk twisted my lips.
“I do not understand.” The guard attempted to shake his head, but only his eyeballs moved.
It was weird.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said. “Just make sure you return to us with the king’s answer, too. Can’t have you running off and never coming back for us, after all.”
I used my fire spell to gently thaw the man from his icy prison, but he began to kick away the chunks as they started to turn into slush. His clothes were soaking wet, but he trampled away from the gate toward the tree lined driveway beyond. I couldn’t see any details of the palace, but a golden color acted as a backdrop between the tree trunks, and I imagined the entire castle was made from the soft metal.
The guard ran down the driveway into the shadows of the small trees, and I turned back to update my companions about what was happening, but I found the alleyway empty. I glanced all around in both directions, but I didn’t see them anywhere, and my brain began to form worst-case scenario visions.
Caelia and Evangeline could both be pregnant with my babies.
If they were in danger…
Then I realized I could just reset back to my save point, and then we’d all be reunited again anyway.
Chime.
“We’ll have to wait a while for the guard to show his face,” I said. “But then I can blast him with magic and use it to help me negotiate with him.”
“So, you want us to sit back and do nothing?” Eva crossed her arms over her chest.
“I’ll need you to give testimonies to the king when he asks questions about me,” I reminded her. “It sounds a lot better to my ears when the stories come from your lips.”
“That’s impossible to believe.” My wife snorted. “You’re the best storyteller I’ve ever heard.”
“She’s right,” Caelia agreed instantly. “But we are more than happy to give witness to your greatness.”
I brought my companions with me to the portcullis this time in the hopes that seeing the Arajians with me would make the guard pause in his haste to deny me access, but if he noticed their presence, he didn’t mention it.
I received the same greeting as I had before, but I wasn’t daunted. He would show his face eventually, and I just had to be patient. I waited and waited, but then the moment struck, and the guard popped his head into my line of sight.
I was ready with my spell when it happened, and I blasted ice at his feet first to hold him in place, but then I stepped closer to the iron gate to coat his arms and legs in ice. Once he was firmly rooted in place, I flashed him a cocky grin, and I planted my hands on my hips.
“I demand to see the king,” I said. “You will remain frozen in this place until you agree to open the gate.”
“I am willing to die for Arajah,” the guard muttered around the ice spreading across his face. “Do what you want to me.”
A martyr and a pacifist. Interesting.
“There’s no need for anyone to die today,” I argued. “In fact, I’m here to save all of your lives. All you have to do is let me in.”
“You’re here to kill the king,” the guard countered. “We were warned of strangers coming to assassinate His Majesty.”
Risthan’s stupid dad had really screwed up my chances of getting inside the palace, and I resisted the urge to shoot his son a heated expression. It wasn’t Risthan’s fault his dad betrayed us, and in the end, the old man had done it because he thought he was protecting his homeland.
“I suppose we’ll just have to wait for you to have a change of heart,” I said, and I squatted to the ground.
My companions shot me confused glances, but they mirrored my motion, and a moment later, my entire group sat cross-legged on the road in front of the portcullis.
“What are we doing, Bash?” Sarosh asked in a quiet voice so the guard couldn’t hear.
“We’re experimenting,” I said. “Soon, I’ll have this hacked. Don’t worry.”
“It is unusual to see you so challenged,” my priestess observed, and the confusion in her eyes hurt my heart.
I wanted my first priestess to have one hundred percent faith in me.
“Eva,” I said. “Why don’t you tell this guard how we met?”
“Happily!” my wife giggled, but then she pushed herself to her feet and took a position between the gate and our group. “I was losing hope of ever seeing beyond the walls of Bullard Castle when a dragon attacked the city. My husband, Sebastian, went out to fight the beast, and he ended up blinding it in one eye!”
Eva continued to tell the tale of the first time we’d met, and the guard’s eyes flicked to my face after every few words as though to check the validity of my wife’s claims. I nodded along in agreement with her tale, and I didn’t feel the need to add any details or clarifications.
When she finished, the guard wasn’t the only one staring at me in awe, and I realized my Arajian friends had just gained a new perspective of me.
“There’s a reason they call me the Dragon Slayer.” I smirked. “A few pirates will be a cakewalk.”
“Can I tell a tale next?” Kipper asked, and I lifted my eyebrows in surprise but nodded in agreement, so the young man pushed himself to his feet and cleared his throat. “Red Hands warned us of an impending pirate attack hours before they set upon us. We were outnumbered, and outgunned, but thanks to the God of Time’s quick thinking, we managed to not only defeat the pirates, but turn their own ships against them. The man’s a pirate killing genius.”
Risthan stood without saying a word, and he exchanged places with the young navigator. He made eye contact with the guard through the holes of the portcullis, but then he turned his gaze to the former slaves among us.
“The first time I met Sir Sebastian,” the Arajian began. “Felt like coming out of a dream. I don’t remember much about my time being held captive by the God of the Purge, but when I snapped out of it, I saw Bash standing over the man’s corpse. He freed hundreds of people from the captivity of an evil god. He can free Arajah from the pirates! I, Risthan amu Radamash, believe in the God of Time! I say let us through!”
The others cheered at the Arajian’s words, and my heart swelled with pride. The man had needed my help and attempted to seek me out, but it had still been difficult for him to trust me with his sacred duty. I was honored he now thought so highly of me, and I made a mental oath to never let him down.
“What do you say?” I asked the guard with one coolly arched eyebrow. “How are you feeling about your decision to keep the God of Time locked away from completing his mission?”
“You will not harm the king?” the guard questioned.
“I swear I will not harm the king today,” I said very carefully.
I wanted to keep my options open, after all.
“I will open the gate,” the guard said in a hesitant tone. “But I cannot guarantee you will be allowed access to the throne room. The king is heavily guarded these days.”
“I suppose there’s a good reason for that.” I scratched my beard. “It’s a deal. You let us in, and I will take care of the rest.”
“First, free me from this frozen prison,” the watchman requested, and I obliged by slowly melting away the ice with my fire spell.
The guard did as he’d agreed, and the portcullis rose a few moments later. My companions and I swiftly crossed beneath it before he could change his mind or make any demands, and I waved goodbye to the watcher as we turned toward the courtyard gardens.
The palace was barely visible through the shade and fruit trees that lined the path, and the structure looked both dainty and imposing at the same time. It was only three stories tall at the front, but it clung to a hill that descended down behind the building out of sight.
Several Arajians with silver hair and gray robes rushed through the courtyard to meet us, and we came to a halt between a row of flower bushes. The buds emitted a strong aroma, but it wasn’t unpleasant, and I sniffed a few of the flowers while I waited for the king’s men to cross the distance to us.
“State your business on the palace grounds,” one of the men commanded as soon as he was within earshot of us.
“We are here to see the king,” I called out loudly.
“King Idinavisth is not taking visitors this day,” the other servant hollered back.
“He’ll see me,” I said, and I drew myself up to my full height. “I am Sir Sebastian, Archduke of Sorreyal, and the God of Time.”
The guards hesitated and exchanged a look, but I decided I’d had enough waiting and talking, so I began to march toward the front doors of the palace. My companions walked behind me, and we passed by the slack-jawed watchers without giving them a glance. The two Arajian men stared in shock for a moment, but then they fell out of sight behind me, and I paid them no mind.
“Wait, you can’t do that!” one of the guards shouted as he rushed to catch up with my group. “You must wait to be announced.”
“I can announce myself,” I said. “If you get in my way anymore, I’ll have to resort to magical means, so this is your one warning.”
The men trotted to get ahead of our group, and they placed a flat-palmed hand up as though the simple gesture was enough to stop us. I’d already warned them, though, so I didn’t even bother saying anything before I raised my palms.
“Chs,” I hissed under my breath as the icy shards erupted from my hands to bathe the Arajian guards’ feet.
Once they were frozen in place, I continued down the path through the courtyard gardens toward the front doors of the palace. We weren’t harried any further, and after a couple more minutes of walking, even their loud protests grew hard to distinguish among the birdsong filling the air.
The palace doors grew steadily larger in my field of vision, and as we drew closer, I realized they were carved wood sanded and smoothed to a brilliant shine. It had appeared to be metal at first glance, and I marveled at the craftsmanship. The building attached was regal and ancient-looking, but it was quite different from the palaces and castles I’d visited in Sorreyal. It didn’t hold a candle to the Grand Occulta Athenaeum, but I supposed Arajah wasn’t as wealthy of a kingdom as the Zaborial Isles.
It was hard to be a thriving society without trade and alliances with the other kingdoms around you.
I pushed open the wide double-doors with both hands, and they swung so hard they slammed into the walls on either side of the entrance. The front corridor was well-lit and carpeted in rich maroon rugs, and I glanced around in search of soldiers or servants coming to stop me.
I didn’t see anyone directly inside the palace doors, though, so I pushed onward. The hallway ran straight back for quite a ways, but archways and doors veered off from the main corridor. I peered inside a few of these, and I saw sitting rooms, studies, libraries, and other such spaces.
Logically, the audience chamber would be easily accessible from the front doors, but there was no guarantee the king of Arajah was currently inside the throne room. I was confident he’d come to greet us, though, so I set a quick pace down the hallway toward the giant archway at the very end.
The hallway stopped at the entrance to a massive room, but the interior was dim from the thick velvet curtains covering all the windows. A few candles were lit along the path to the dais at the far end, but the throne-like silver chair was unoccupied.
“King Idinavisth!” I shouted as I spun in a slow circle with my arms extended to either side. “Come and greet the God of Time!”
A troop of Arajians trotted into the room and surrounded us, but like the other guards we’d encountered, these men held no weapons. The pacifists didn’t have a lot of options for self-defense, but they could certainly annoy someone away.
But I was patient, and I didn’t let their faux-intimidation daunt me. I would see the king, even if I had to hunt him down in his private bedchamber.
I stayed my ground while the Arajians surrounded us, but my companions tensed at my sides. Eva fingered the hilt of a throwing star, and Black-eye’s hands hovered near his sword sheath as well. Kipper’s fists were clenched into white-knuckled rocks, but the former slaves shrunk away from the Arajian guards.
“We aren’t going anywhere,” I said, and I stared into the steel-colored eyes of the man closest to me. “Not until I speak to the king. Don’t make me hurt you to get my way.”
“Kill us if you will,” the man said. “More will take our place. It is our sacred duty to protect the king of Arajah.”
“I’m done wasting my time,” I said, and I blasted the man closest to me with my ice spell. “Chs!”
My companions took my action as a cue, and everyone shoved the Arajian guards back until we’d claimed a large circle in the center of the throne room. I coated three men with ice before I felt a fourth jump on my back, but Black-eye was there a moment later to rip the man off me.
A short while later, the Arajian guards were bound by either ropes or ice, and I stood back to admire our handiwork with my hands on my hips. We hadn’t bothered putting the guards in the most comfortable of positions, so it was comical to see the misshapen forms they created with their prone bodies.
Then I explored the throne room for any signs of ways to get to the king. I easily found a side entrance behind the dais, and it had all the makings of a secret tunnel directly to the king’s personal quarters. My companions and I squeezed into the small hallway, and we traversed the fifty or so feet to the next door.
It was the only door along the corridor, so I was pretty confident about our chances of finding the king as I pushed it open, but on the other side of the portal was the kitchen.
We backtracked to the throne room again, and I considered resetting to my save point so as not to lose face with the exploratory trip down the tiny hallway, but in the end I decided to let time continue until I located the king. Then I could reset and lead my party straight to him, just as the God of Time should.
Everyone separated as we searched the throne room for other hallways, and I checked behind the thick velvet curtains covering the windows. One humongous stretch of fabric wasn’t in front of a window at all, and when I pulled it to the side, I revealed a small, plain, wooden door.
I exchanged an excited look with my women before I pulled it open and slid into the hallway beyond, but this corridor was lined with other doors, so it took us a while to get to the end. The corridor seemed to connect to every other section of the palace, and after several hours of exploring each option, we finally arrived at an opulent sitting room.
Inside, an elderly man with pure white hair hanging to his waist sat sipping on a tea cup made of the whitest porcelain I’d ever seen, and his flowing golden robes were dotted with gemstones and metallic embroidery.
Had we found the king at last?
“Your Majesty?” I asked in an experimental fashion.
The old man’s head snapped toward us as his gray eyes widened, but he choked on his tea in the same instant, and he dabbed at his mouth with the sleeve of his fine robe.
It was confirmed.
I’d found the king.
Now, all I had to do was reset back to my save point and go through all the motions again until my every move was as smooth as melted butter.
Chime.
I froze the guard at the gate and debated with him until we gained access to the courtyard, but I didn’t even give the next two guards a chance to stop us. I blasted their feet with ice without saying a word to them, and I led my party inside the massive wooden doors to the main entrance of the palace.
I didn’t pause as I crossed the threshold, and I made my way down the corridor to the throne room, but I went straight for the hidden hallway behind the velvet curtain. The Arajians with me murmured in surprise as I revealed the secret entrance to the audience chamber, and everyone followed eagerly behind me as I took them straight to the king’s private quarters.
“King Idinavisth,” I said as I pushed open the door to the sitting room. “I’d like to have a few words with you.”
The King of Arajah leapt to his feet, and he immediately turned to the doorway behind him as though he intended to escape me.
There was no way that was going to happen.
I let out the series of grunts of power to summon my plant familiar, and the vines burst from the wooden planks of the floor like the boards were fertilized soil, but they didn’t stop growing like they usually did. The stems stretched toward the ceiling rapidly, and the leaves burst forth in a dazzling spectacle of magic-fueled growth.
The king gaped at the plant suddenly filling his sitting room, but he didn’t have time to react much more than that before the vine began to twine around his body.
I sensed my connection with my summoned plant friend, and I guided it with my emotions as I visualized what I wanted. I pictured the king wrapped in vines thicker than any man-made ropes, and a moment later, my vision became reality. The magical plant even managed to maneuver the king back into his chair, but the vines quickly encased the older man completely.
He was immobile. A captive audience.
Just the way I wanted him.
I took the seat opposite him, and my companions filled the two couches on the other side of the table from us. Everyone stayed silent as I stared into the king’s steel-gray eyes, but to his credit, the man showed very little fear in his gaze.
“Do you know who I am?” I asked as I picked a grape off the food tray and popped it into my mouth.
“Evil incarnate,” King Idinavisth spat. “A demon in a human’s body. Soulless murderer. Pirate.”
“I am none of those things,” I laughed. “But you’re quite eloquent, aren’t you? I thought the pirates were your friends. You can’t surely think so low of them if you’re helping them conquer Arajah.”
“I am protecting Arajah!” King Idinavisth hissed as he narrowed his eyes to mere slits. “Who are you to enter my palace and threaten me with violence?”
I drew myself up as tall as I could, and I stood with straightened shoulders and my chin lifted as I gazed down at my captive audience of one. Then I put on a godly expression as I towered over him in silence for a long moment.
“I am Sir Sebastian, the Archduke of Sorreyal, Dragon Slayer, Red Hands the Pirate Bane, and the fucking God of Time,” I said as I crossed my arms over my chest. “I have brought dukes and wizards to their knees, destabilized religions, and beheaded a god. Not to mention the countless pirates I’ve killed since coming to this part of the world.”
“You’ve spilled more blood than I have,” the king said. “Yet you stand above me in judgement. I have done nothing to deserve this treatment, and you will free me at once!”
“Nah,” I chuckled and shook my head. “We’re going to sit here and chat until you realize the error of your ways. Then, once you subjugate yourself before me, we can discuss our plans for ending the pirate king’s reign.”
“What?” King Idinavisth gaped at me. “You cannot possibly think you stand a chance against the Demon of the Eastern Ocean!”
“Is your pirate friend going to save you from me?” I asked as I looked pointedly around the room, but of course, there was no one else there besides me and my companions. “I don’t see Arajah benefiting from your deal with them. Why let your people suffer so much for so little?”
Risthan and Sarosh stiffened, and I half-expected them to argue for their king for a moment, but they didn’t say anything. The former slaves stood silently as well, but they knew first-hand what the deal with the pirates entailed.
“What was I to do?” King Idinavisth moaned. “We are not violent people, we do not practice martial skills, and there is no Arajian army to command. The pirates almost outnumber us, and they would march over my people like rugs if they only knew…”
King Idinavisth fell into silence, but the end of his sentence hung unspoken in the air, and I couldn’t resist poking the bear.
“If they only knew of the secret magic hidden on the island?” I finished for him, and the king’s eyes bulged in surprise.
“How did you know?” King Idinavisth’s steel-gray eyes flicked to the Arajians in my company, and they all fidgeted beneath his hard gaze.
“Quit glaring at them,” I said as a frown creased my eyebrows. “None of them told me shit. I figured it out on my own.”
“But how is such a thing even possible?” The king shook his head. “You must have been given the information by a traitor.”
“No one in my group betrayed Arajah.” My voice was hard. “As far as I can tell, the only person in this room to act against the island’s best interests is you, Your Majesty.”
Risthan inhaled sharply, and the other Arajians tensed, but Sarosh’s face remained as serene as ever. Eva, Caelia, Black-eye, Kipper, and the others mirrored my hard gaze, but I could tell they were itching for a fight.
The king of Arajah wasn’t our enemy, though, the pirates were.
“I have done nothing but act in the best interests of Arajah,” King Idinavisth argued. “Free me at once if you consider yourself to be so valiant.
“Have I hurt you?” I pointed out. “Or any of your people? You can ask my friends here about how I got past all your guards without injuring a single one. It is not my intention to hurt anyone except for the pirates who terrorize us all. They won’t stay placated with slaves for long, and then they’ll trample Arajah into the dust. Are you ready to be the one responsible for that?”
“I have done what I must.” The king stubbornly lifted his chin. “What would you have done in my position?”
“I would have asked for fucking help!” I snapped. “I would have trained my people to fight back in whatever ways they could. I would have built up my defenses, fuck, you have big enough walls around the city. Why haven’t you evacuated the villages?”
“The people agreed to our course of action.” The king’s voice was more hesitant now, but he still stubbornly kept to his decision like his life depended on it.
“Which people?” Risthan suddenly interjected, and he cast a sideways glance at Sarosh. “All of Arajah? Or just the nobles?”
The king had no response to that, and I smirked.
“What kind of king lets his people become slaves just to prolong the inevitable a while longer?” I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “You’re lucky I don’t kill you just to put a better leader in your place.”
“Why have you come here?” King Idinavisth’s voice was barely audible, and he hung his head in despair. “Just kill me and be done with it.”
I let him sit with his emotions for a long, silent moment. The fool had to see the error of his ways if things were going to change around here, but I was still willing to supplant him with someone more likely to listen to reason.
“I’m here to help you,” I said in a calm, quiet voice, but it filled the silence as though I’d yelled.
King Idinavisth looked up to meet my gaze, and tears brimmed in his steel-colored eyes. I knew then that I’d gotten through to him, and I nodded in understanding.
“Name your demands,” the king of Arajah insisted. “Anything.”
I grinned as I weighed out my options. There was no way I was going to settle for the first thing the king agreed to, so I’d have to go through some options.
“I want the secret magic,” I said, but I tried to hide the eagerness from my voice.
“Done.” King Idinavisth nodded decisively. “Once the pirate king is dead, and the rest of his men as well, then I will show you the secret magic our people have been guarding for three thousand years.”
Whoa.
That was fucking easy.
A little too easy.
I didn’t trust King Idinavisth not to double-cross me, but it was tempting to believe him since he didn’t have a lot of other rewards to offer me.
I was just going to have to keep an eye on him and play it by ear, but first, I wanted a perfect run through of the palace invasion.
Chime.