“No one else,” Shadi said. “Misae is here because I don’t know who else to trust. The council is too divided, and we don’t have the time to waste.”
Misae said, “Inola has gotten into everyone’s ear, and they waver. Fear for her son has made her desperate.”
Back in the center of the room, the man shivered and stared down at his feet.
Kai asked, “Do we know his name?”
“Raphail Demas,” Tse said. “A commander in the Perean military. Their orders were to take the mountain and our mines for Perean.”
“Why? Perean doesn’t need more wealth, and certainly not from a country weeks from their doorstep by sea.”
“Those are the sort of details I want from him,” Shadi said. “Who gave these orders? Why us? Has he made contact with someone inside?”
Misae added, “Did Usti know he was coming, and does he know of any further plans to sabotage our way of life?”
Kai met Shadi’s steely brown gaze. “You should be the one to question him.”
“You are the Stormguard commander and First Daughter of Silver Wolf.” Shadi’s chin lifted. “You are my heir and the future of our people.” She touched the underside of Kai’s chin. “I have to let you lead if you are to learn.” A smile touched her lips. “I will be here if you need me. Not that you will.”
Only a few weeks ago, Kai would have argued against this. She never wanted the role of Grand Matriarch.
Today, she thought only of protecting her people and would gladly take the lead her mother offered.
Kai faced the prisoner. Despite being chained and stripped and alone, he had yet to realize he was no longer in a position of power. It seemed the only logical place to start.
“Surround him,” she whispered to her parents. “At a distance, but in his line of sight. I want him to see your weapons.”
Shadi pulled the sword from her back; the sound rang through the room like death. She stood directly in front of the man at a small distance and looked him dead in his eyes, rarely blinking. Tse and Doli took the corners, while Misae stayed behind with Atsadi and Fala. She was of no use here.
Kai left her weapons sheathed but paced the pale, goose-fleshed man in a slow circle. He was covered in bruises ranging from yellow to dark purple.
Finally, she knelt in front of him, and he stared at her through lowered lashes. “You honestly believed you could take my warriors? You think us beasts, but are we not known the world over for two things? Our gemstones and our strength. It seems to me that if you had considered that, you mightnot be here right now. You might have approached things a little differently.”
He lifted his chin, and his jaw muscles pulsed. “You were meant to be distracted.”
The attack on the aqueducts. Usti thought to hold her attention elsewhere, but he’d acted too early. It was true that she and her warriors had been distracted for a while following that act of violence. Kai’s focus had remained on the internal issues inside the mountain, not out.
Obviously, that didn’t last as long as Usti or this man had needed.
Kai rose and circled him again. She’d gotten through using his pride once, but she doubted he’d fall for that again.
“The rulers of several nations owe my mothers and father a life debt,” she said on her second rotation. Across the room, Shadi nodded confirmation to the man’s raised eyes. “An assassination attempt at the games in Perean many years ago.”
Kai didn’t know the details behind this event but had heard enough over the years to use it now.
“What would these nations think of your new king once they learn he has initiated a war with one of his allies?” She knelt to face him again. “They won’t trust him. Any past or future negotiations will fail. He will be left to the sharks.”
“Dimitrios Vidalatos doesn’t rule Perean,” he spat. “He never will.”
“Who would dare try to rule a country over its blood-born king?”
When he didn’t answer, Tse pulled his sword, letting the slice ring slow and true.
The act drew the man’s attention, and he shivered. “You don’t understand our ways. Dimitrios isn’t king yet.”
Misae, who made it her job to know such things as the matriarch over commerce and trade, inserted herself here. “The High Chancellor rules in the place of a king when there is a break in the line of succession. You speak of Leonidas Primakos.”
Raphail’s eyes lowered, and Kai had her answer.
