Page 69 of Knight's End
Not scared?
Resigned. She’s hoping there aren’t too many rats in your dungeon. She’s hoping that since she didn’t start the war, you’ll kill her quickly.
Not hoping for a rescue?
Nope.
Any sense of calculation? Any plans?
She wants to see if she can get Harsh—her bunny … she calls him Ed—back.
That was interesting. So little for a princess to wish for, so little calculation involved. I was surprised she wasn’t thinking about her own freedom.
Prisoners become resigned to locks, Bloss,Blue told me.Before I was sent to the army, I didn’t think to run. A prison isn’t just physical. A true prison is a mental cage as well.
I turned that over in my head for a moment. Would someone who’d been a prisoner make a good ruler? A good ally?
Does she know the bunny is a man?I asked.
She suspects he’s more than just a rabbit. He’s too smart, she thinks. But she thinks of him as a pet … and it’s a bit sad, but her only friend.
Well, if she suspected the rabbit already, then Corinna wasn’t a complete dunderhead. There was potential there.
I asked Corinna, “Your mother pretended to visit here to ask about some additional water sources, when really her intent was to capture my knights and set off explosives.”
Tell me what she thinks about that,I commanded Blue.
She’s mentally rolling her eyes. Her mother was always obsessed with taking more instead of managing what she had. Corinna is picturing some guys—maybe her husbands? —and thinking they’re the same. She’s thinking about some asshole named Firden, and how stripping him of his title would solve the resource allocation problem—
I eyed Corinna. “How’d you like to make an alliance?”
Her court face didn’t hold up. Her jaw dropped. She stared at me a long moment, trying to decide if I was serious.
I stood and put my hands on the table, asserting dominance even as I kept my tone even. “My war was with your mother, and to be honest, I didn’t initiate it. I have no interest in slaughtering both our populations. Both our countries have far less magic than Cheryn or Sedara, and I think that we should end the fighting so we can do what we were meant to do—take care of our countries.”
Corinna tried to stay still but I noticed that she chewed the inside of her lip.
What’s she thinking?
That there has to be a catch. She doesn’t trust that there isn’t a catch.
There is no catch. I really want her to get her giants and soldiers off my land.
Quinn chimed in as he sent an image of him setting down the frozen woman with her skirts bunched up on a settee so that her frozen neighbors got a gander at her bloomers,Can I just say how much I hate not being able to hear her? I feel useless. This is shite.
First off, put that woman’s skirts down! And you’re not like anyone else, dear. You’re as unique as Donaloo.
Hey! I know that was an insult. I’m hurt. And trapped. And I can’t hear anyone but you few idiots. You should feel bad for me, not insult me!Quinn sent me an image of a caged baby deer, batting its eyes plaintively.
Blue interjected,I hate to interrupt your attempt at getting pity sex, but Corinna’s suspicious, Bloss. She won’t believe you or trust you if she doesn’t know the catch. She’ll always be waiting for the other shoe to drop. She’s more like my family that way.Blue added.
She wants me to be a bitch?
Blue gave a single nod of his head.
Finally, something I can excel at,I thought.
I gave Corinna a nasty smile. She wanted our deal to have a catch? Fine. I’d give her one. I slowly traced a nail over the woodgrain of the table. “Of course, in order to agree to a ceasefire—I will need you to cede a hundred miles along your northern border, from my land all the way to the sea. Since I’m fighting Cheryn and a sea witch, I want unfettered access to the ocean.”
