Page 17 of Of Steel and Scale

“They had the advantage of surprise,” Aric said. “Why wouldn’t they use it to destroy the major ports both here and in Zephrine? It would have crippled our trading routes and hampered the efforts of any allies we might have called on for aid.”

“Perhaps it was merely some sort of preemptive strike,” Damon said. “A means of testing and perhaps disabling any sort of defenses they might encounter.”

Aric glanced at his son, a hint of... perhaps not contempt, but something close to, in his eyes. Which was odd, given Damon was his heir. “Again, why Eastmead? We’re alerted to their presence now, even if the disadvantage of not knowing who they are or where they come from remains. Why would they forsake such an advantage for a place such as Eastmead?”

“As Damon has already said, as a means to draw out and examine a response?” I replied.

“Very likely,” Mom said, her gaze on Aric, not me. Though her voice was even, there was a spark of annoyance in her expressive eyes. While she’d always treated Aric with the respect due to him as Zephrine’s king and commander, she’d never warmed to the man. Ever. “But until we know more about this situation and indeed what happened in Eastmead, those are not questions we can definitively answer.”

Aric bowed his head in polite deference. Mom’s eyes narrowed. I couldn’t see Aric’s expression from where I stood, but I doubted he’d be so foolish as to allow his well-known prejudice against women in any sort of authoritative position to show. Not when my father was in the room.

“Anything else, Captain?”

My attention snapped back to my father. “I don’t believe so, no.”

“Then you’re dismissed,” Rion said. “And I do believe you have a marriage to get ready for.”

Unfortunately. I somehow managed to stop that escaping, but when my gaze met Damon’s, the gleam in his eyes left me in no doubt he knew exactly what I’d almost said.

I saluted and left. Damon rose and followed me out of the war room.

“You’re not staying?” I asked, surprised.

“There’s nothing further I can contribute at this point in time, given how little any of us really know of the situation.” He slanted me a sideways glance. “And you’re not the only who has to get ready for our nuptials.”

I couldn’t help smiling. “Somehow, I’m not seeing you being bathed, pampered, and otherwise fussed over.”

“I could return that statement twofold.” He paused at the exit and motioned me to precede him. “I think it safe to say you’re the least ‘princessy’ princess I have ever met.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Given I’m an only child and your father mainly has sons, I think it safe to say you wouldn’t have met all that many.”

“In that, you’d be wrong. Our trading partners have daughters aplenty, and they certainly wouldn’t mind an alliance with a kingdom as rich in mineral wealth as Zephrine.”

“And were you forced to give up one of these daughters to marry me?”

“No, I was not.” He paused. “What about you?”

I snorted. “It appears the only prince who’d have me had to be forced into it by treaty and tradition—and even then only because his younger sibling found a way aroundit.”

“Yes, but that sibling is a fool now caught in his own deceit.”

I swung around to face him. “And did you say that to him?”

While a smile teased one corner of his lips, there was something hard in his eyes. It would have been very easy to believe the two brothers didnotget on, though there’d been no whispers of such a division between the two legitimate sons on the military grapevine. But then, it didn’t have a whole lot of gossip about the illegitimate sons, either.

“No, I did not,” he replied.

“Why not, if you truly do think that? And why then did it take ten years to haulyourass into treaty negotiations?”

His hesitation was brief, but nevertheless there. “I had a life?—”

“Suggesting I haven’t?”

“No—”

“Then tell me,” I continued, “what was so damn important aboutyourlife that only a threat to halt trade between our two nations dragged you and your father back to the table?”

His expression hardened. This was not a subject he wanted to talk about. “I was studying offshore.”

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