Page 148 of Chaos and Destiny
They turned and followed the soldiers to the dungeon.
Umari moved to my side. “What will you do with her?”
“I’d slit her throat right now if I could. But, if I did that, the Wind Court would rain down upon us, and I don’t believe we are ready.”
“They would never know,” she countered.
“When a king or queen dies, all of their people feel the loss at once. The sea fae will know when their queen is dead. You likely didn’t feel the loss of your former king because you had already made the conviction to leave before he died. The loss of a king or queen—no matter how horrible they are—is still a great loss to the fae.”
She studied the ground and the faces of the stilled crowd.
“Will you join me?” I asked. “I’m going to tell Efi we’ve finally avenged her.”
“Not this time.” She took my hand. “I’m taking the draconians and the cetani back with me. It’s time to prepare our fae for battle.”
“Thank you, Umari. I couldn’t have trusted anyone else with the task I gave to you and the draconians these past days. You’ve saved us all.”
“It’s what she would have wanted. What she deserved.” She walked away.
I knew then that Umari and I had a new respect and understanding for one another, and we would forever be bonded not just because of Efi, but also because we were both leaders who had opened up in our most desperate time of need and helped each other.
“Inok, call the small council into the study for a quick meeting.”
I turned to the crowd and raised my voice. “Please help yourself to food and drink. Dance and celebrate this night, my kingdom. Today we have won. I think together we have learned that individually we may not always win, but when we come together with conviction, we can change the trajectory of a losing battle. Let this night be a reminder that in the south, we do not bow down. We will never stop fighting for our lands, our people, and the kindness this world needs now more than ever.”
A bit later I sat at my desk as the council, short two members, entered. “I’ll start from the beginning.” I walked them through the discovery of the cetani and the realization that the fae in the kingdom were being enchanted.
“But I still don’t understand how you were able to pull off her capture,” Adom said.
“Well, we knew Morwena had been sending selkies through the crowds, and each person she enchanted had been told they could not see them. I can see through her enchantment though, so I knew they were growing into a problem as we realized they were spying and reporting back to the queen.
“I ran into one in the tavern, and that’s when I knew. So, during the Trials, the draconians hunted through the crowds and captured them. I snuck away, as I was able to without raising suspicion. I took a page from Morwena’s book and enchanted the selkie in two batches. The first batch were to convince the queen not to come to the Trials. That she would risk being caught by the draconian fae if she did. The second round of fae were to convince her that her tactics had been so successful that the guards had agreed to leave the front gate unattended at the castle tonight, so the entire kingdom could ambush me. They were told to wait until the moment they heard Umari’s signal, and then they were to step away from their queen and remain still until I released them.”
“But how did you know she wouldn’t enchant her own selkies.”
“I didn’t. It was a risk we had to take. If nothing else, they wouldn’t have shown up, or we would have had to fight the selkies first. We considered the risks and decided to take the opportunity. And as I’m sure you guessed, the cetani were there to mute her until we could capture her. It wasn’t graceful or pretty, but now we have the sea queen captured in the dungeons.”
“And Madu and Igrer?” Sabra asked.
“Ah yes. I will question Igrer, and if he was only enchanted and holds no ill will of his own, he will be forgiven. And Madu?” I pinched the bridge of my nose and thought for several moments, considering the right course of action with him. “Madu will divide his lands along the border and donate them to the northern fae who enter this kingdom with nothing. He will learn the hard way what it means to have nothing, as they do. Sabra, I will put him in your charge and ask that you report to me with any problems.”
She bowed her head. “And your wound?”
“I will recover. I think we can all agree that Igrer isn’t the greatest warrior. I’ll be right as rain before you know it. Unless anyone has any questions, that’s all for now.”
They filed out of the room, and I wandered down to the kitchens. Loti was darting all over the place, barking orders to her staff as she tried to keep food hot on the trays before sending them out to the hungry crowds. “You could have warned me you invited the entire kingdom,” she snapped as she lifted a whole chicken and dropped it on a plate. “The cooking isn’t pretty, but at least it’s food.”
“Should I apologize now or later then? When you have more time.”
“Best make it both,” she answered, pausing long enough to smile at me. “I won’t feed her. She can sit in that hole and rot for all I care.”
“So, you heard about the queen?”
“Well, I’m only in the kitchens, Your Grace. Word spreads like butter in a hot pan around here.”
“I’ll be back in a while, Loti. I’m going to visit a pretty girl, but I wouldn’t be too upset if there was cake when I got back.” I smiled.
“A girl?” she asked.
