Part Eight: Diplomacy
Chapter Twenty-Three
LEVERIA
"...do you see that?" A nasally voice cut through the darkness. The darkness had been pure bliss, a blanket of nothing to drape over my mind, gently dulling the cruel light of life. The voice was an interloper, a screeching rooster at dawn's window, rousing me unbiddenly from the deepest of slumbers.
"What is that?" Another voice asked. Oh, it was a sweet sound, a songbird's melody to announce the gentle rise of the sun, its warm rays filtering through my eyelids.
"The missile missed her right ventricle by a fraction of an inch." Glendian said, "That is her heart."
"Huh," Elena mused, "so she does have one."
"So do you." I grinned weakly, opening my eyes, "My savior."
"Ah fuck." Elena sighed, "I was really hoping you'd stay in that coma."
"It was quite nice there, actually." I groaned, shifting painfully in the bed.
Elena snorted. "There can't be a worse hell than being stuck inside
your
head."
"Not if you're the devil herself." I laughed, tasting iron. I looked down at my chest, where the wound was slowly closing beneath Glendian's glowing hand. The muscle stitched together, then the sinew fused, then the flesh reknitted, leaving only a thin white scar. "Did we lose Castle Thorum?" I asked.
"It didn't look good." Glendian said grimly.
"Adarian?"
"Captured or dead." Glendian said, guiding me to roll over so that he could treat the shrapnel wounds on my back.
"Shit." I mumbled. I reached for a hand mirror beside my bed, and palmed the glass. It blurred for a moment, then the portrait of a young high-elf officer appeared, backgrounded by an immense military camp.
"Your Highness." The officer nodded curtly, then immediately disappeared. A minute later, Field Marshal Droughtius appeared, his grizzled and scarred face adorned with an extravagant mustache.
"Your Highness." He bowed his head.
"Castle Thorum has fallen." I said.
The Field Marshall raised his white brows a fraction. "That is... unfortunate. So our intel was incorrect then; the Dark Queen has marshalled her army, and is attacking from the south."
"There is no army to face, Field Marshall, this was an expedition force led by the bitch herself." I said, "Still, the loss of the rangers leaves us blind to the Great Forest. You won't be receiving anymore reports from Adarian."
The general twiddled his mustache for a moment. "Castle Thorum was thought to be impregnable. What flaw did Yavara expose in its design?"
"The roof, apparently. She crashed through it and blew out the entire tower by herself."
Droughtius's brows raised another fraction. "Oh." He paused for a moment, "Your Highness, I would like to make a request."
"Anything, Field Marshall."
"Please have Headmaster Glendian send me all of his mages. The adepts, the red cloaks, the novices; all of them."
I glanced at Glendian's dour face. "Of course, Field Marshall. How goes your progress?"
"Ahead of schedule. We'll be crossing into the marshlands in three days. Five days to the Tundra from there, and two more days after that to Glacier Lake."
"Good. I will keep you updated as this new development unfolds. Thank you, Field Marshall." I palmed the mirror, and sighed as I rested my head on the pillow.
Glendian growled, "Leveria, I will not stand for you sending my students into the-"
"Thank you, Headmaster." I said, "Your services are no longer needed."
The bald little man huffed something under his breath, collected a pile of bloody rags, and left.
"Ten days from Glacier Lake?" Elena asked.
"Then it's just a matter of going around it," I made a circling motion with my finger, "and crushing the ten clans one by one. After that, we pacify the Pines, then the Spruces, then the Maples, and we call it a war and go home. Aren't you glad you hopped on the bandwagon before it was too late? And what a nice seat I saved for you."
"Are you going to make a habit of underestimating Yavara?"
"I could ask you the same question." I said, giving her a critical eye. "You seem to be under the illusion that Yavara is not a conqueror. Will she give back Castle Thorum, I wonder?"
"Castle Thorum was an offensive staging point. Taking it was a defensive maneuver."
"And she will use the victory to rally support from the Ten. Perhaps I underestimated Yavara's power, but I never underestimated her ambition. I brought the full might of the Highland nation to bear upon her because I knew that if I didn't crush the Ten before Yavara united them, then we'd need every able-bodied man and woman in the country just to hold our border."
"She would never invade!"
I smiled calmly at Elena's incensed features. "Perhaps she wouldn't if it were her choice, but it is not. You have a knack for diplomacy, Ambassador Straltaira, but I think you should've spent more time in court with your mother, and less time in the woods with your beloved; you're political acumen is lacking."
"I smell a soliloquy."
"Indulge me this one." I groaned, rolling over on the bed to face her, "Who do you think is the most powerful person in the Highlands?"
Elena rolled her eyes. "It's not you, is it?"
"No. The most powerful person in the Highlands is the peasant. Yes, he must move out of the way when anyone above his station walks the same road, and yes, he must bow and grovel and beg for what he wants, but who is he responsible for? No one. He is at the very top."
"You mean the very bottom."
"It is imperative for us all that he thinks that." I smiled, "But the truth of power, is that it's not a pyramid, but an inversion of it, all balancing precariously on the tip. If the liege lord does not provide for the peasants he rules, they will not blame the baron for their plight. And if the baron does not provide for his lieges, they will not blame the count. If the count does not provide for his barons, they will not blame the nobles. And if the queen does not provide for her nobles, they will not blame God." I grinned at Elena, "And God is blameless, so I cannot lay the burden on her feet. Yavara sits at the same fulcrum that I do, Elena. The Great Forest wants Highland blood, and she will have to provide."
"Don't give me that bullshit." Elena snorted, "Yes, you must placate the Noble Court, but with every degree of separation down the hierarchy, you become more powerful. The counts, barons, lieges and peasants all grovel at your shadow, and they are where your true power comes from."
"Careful, Elena." I said, tapping the side of my nose, "Those closest to you require the least amount of space to slip a dagger into your back. Subverting them is a very dangerous game to play."
"You play very dangerous games, Leveria."
"I gamble, but I don't take unnecessary risks."
"You don't?" Elena asked. She sat on the bed, procured a cigarette from my purse, and lit it between her lips. She studied me as she pulled from the cigarette, letting the smoke fill the air with her silence. "Why did you save me?" She finally asked.
"You're too fun to let die."
"You almost killed yourself." She rolled on the bed until she was lying next to me, propped up by her elbow to loom. "Tell me the truth. Why am I so valuable that you would risk everything for me? What secret purpose are you keeping me for?"
"No secret. I laid it out for you already."
"Then why?" Elena hissed.
I shrugged. "I was just trying to get you out of the way. I guess I wasn't thinking."
She narrowed her eyes at me. "You're always thinking, Leveria."
"Not always with my head." I smirked, snaking a hand into her bathrobe.
Elena grabbed my wrist before I could touch what I wanted. "What am I to you?" She whispered.
"My prisoner, a tool to be used, a thrill when I need a good fuck." I whispered back, "Don't read too much into it, Ambassador Straltaira."
Elena opened her mouth, but a man's voice cut her off.
"Your Highness!" Sir Fraldias yelled from the next room, "Head-ranger Adarian is calling for you on your mirror!"
YAVARA
"I told you everything I know!" Adarian gasped, spitting a spray of crimson. He was suspended over the hole I'd made in the tower, nothing beneath him but two-hundred feet of blackness.
"Oh come now, Adarian," I sneered, "we still have so many teeth to go! There must be something you've forgotten; do I need to jog your memory?"
It alarmed me how easy it was to hurt him. I didn't hesitate; I only paused to consider which tooth would cause him the most pain.
He deserves it. He deserves worse.
Oh, Adarian probably had told me everything he knew; he certainly hadn't skimped on the details of what my beloved sister was doing to Elena. Maybe he should have. I reached with my mind into the very back of his mouth, clamped on his molar, and tore it from its socket.
Adarian's entire head wrenched with the extraction. "I! TOLD! YOU! EVERYTHING!" He bellowed.
"That was a very convincing reaction, bravo." I laughed, "But I still have more questions."
"What?!"
"Does this mirror work?" I asked, pointing to the enchanted glass on the wall, "Because I've been calling my sister for a while now, and she's usually pretty anxious to talk to me."
"It... works... fine." Adarian said through heavy breaths.
"Really?" I turned my attention to the mirror, "Leveria?! Leveria?! Your sister wants to talk to you! I don't think it works, Adarian; I think you're lying to me."
Adarian screamed again as a wisdom tooth shot out of his gums, and floated before his eyes. Despite the distraction of such agony, Adarian kept his thoughts sealed from me. He'd been trained. I could take his mind, but I could not read it; I was not Prestira Rasloraca. The very thought of her sent a bolt of rage through me, and I tore an incisor out to sound another shriek. The fox in my bag yelped and whined at the sound of her master's tormented cries, and I pondered if throwing April out of the tower window would incentivize him. But I wasn't that cruel; not yet.
"I don't know why she's not answering!" Adarian yelled.
"Being the head-ranger, director of intelligence for the Highland operations in the Great Forest, it sure seems like you don't know very much." I mused, "I can't tell whether you're that good under pressure, or just that fucking bad at your job." I picked up a pile of letters on Adarian's desk. "These," I said as I held up the letters addressed to Droughtius, "are something I know you know about. Decipher them."
"Pull out another tooth, you bitch." Adarian spat.
