Gail surveyed her thoroughly for a beat, and she didn’t dare blink. “My guess is you’ve heard of our new friends on the western shore,” he said.
Nyssa went rigid.
So he was planning on taking her to Man.
“I have,” she answered.
He picked his teeth with the bone in his hand. “There is a Noble there,” he continued. “His people were the first to arrive and settle on our shores without a fight from the Honest. Across the seas, they are calling him the conqueror of ghosts.”
Draven’s plan rang in her mind, the memory of Dorian telling her about it. What he’d said about a settlement they’d missed. She pushed it to the back of her thoughts, not allowing the knowledge of anything to rest on her face.
“What does that have to do with me?” Nyssa dared to ask.
“You will be my bartering chip,” he informed her. “A princess of what will soon be a forgotten race will be very rare to him, so rare he’ll likely present you to the King as a gift. He’ll give me anything I want.”
“And what do you want?”
A coy smile rose on his lips as he threw the bone he’d been sucking on into the fire. “You and your people bowing at my feet,” he answered, hanging his arms over his knees. “Allies across the seas. A place in the new King of Haerland’s court.”
“My life cannot buy you all that.”
“No,” he agreed. “But it can buy me a place at the table. One step closer to the crown.”
Nyssa considered his words, the stillness of the cold air sweeping her muscles. “My brother’s crown is practically in ruins,” she finally said. “Why not take it instead of bowing at another’s feet?”
He paused as his eyes moved over her in a manner that should have made her uncomfortable. She wondered if he were determining whether she would be of more value to him in Man’s hands or in his own.
“Because the races of Haerland will soon be under the rule of Man,” Gail answered. “Why would I take a crown that would mean my fighting against them? Why would I not leash myself to the ones who will inevitably take over this world?”
“And what? You’ll take his crown when it’s the right time?”
Another pause.
Another pause long enough to let her know he was genuinely debating telling her his plan or if he should keep her in the dark. But Nyssa knew the game. Males hungry for power liked to talk. To boast. To have confirmation from a beautiful woman that they are smart and mighty and all-knowing. That their plans were brilliantly thought out, and the reward for such bravery should be a wrap of the woman’s lips around his cock.
So she would let him talk.
“You’re smart,” he noted. “Tell me,Nyssari. Have you never wanted the power of the High crown?”
“Never.”
“Liar,” he accused. “I can see it in your face. You want power just as I do.”
But the truth was, he was right.
Of course, she had thought about it.
Standing at the back of the Council Chambers during meetings. Listening and watching Rhaif’s every move. Calculating just as he did. Watching the members and noting the tell-tell signs of their lies and exaggerations. She knew Councilwoman Reid was lying when she scratched behind her ear. She knew something made her uneasy when she would touch the bracelets on her wrist. Councilman Asherdoe always exaggerated about the splendor of his water culture crops; she knew he blinked two times before assuring Rhaif of the seasonal bounty. And Rhaif… Rhaif’s left eye would twitch when he knew something was out of turn.
She knew every flinch of every person on that Council, and she could read them as well as she could read a book.
Nyssa had dreamt about hauling over the entire Council, tiring of their games and lies… Slicing Rhaif’s throat in the knowledge that although he seemed to know how to keep a kingdom prosperous, she was always in the negotiations with him. He’d grown to count on her tapping twice on any surface or giving him a slight move right of her head when someone was lying.
Until the Gathering.
That was the last time he’d allowed her into negotiations and meetings. Something had changed that day. Whether it was his knowing she had consorted with the Commander of the Honest or if he’d been jealous of her and Aydra, she wasn’t sure.
But he didn’t trust her after that day, and the end of their relationship had been explosive.
