“Five,” I interrupt, biting my bottom lip, deep in thought.
“Excuse me?”
“You forgot Veteria,” I correct him.
“Okay, one of five people in this entire realm who knows that the truth. The Kilandrar have returned. You’ve seen what one can do. Imagine hundreds of them. Everyone is in danger, including your sisters, your father, your precious tavern.”
“What about what Veteria said? Not to seek out the mad king. Aren’t you afraid?”
“The Usurper has shown his hand. All I know is that if I don’t return the Rings to my father, there’ll be nothing to stop them—all of them. They’ll remake the world, just like they did in the age before memory. Everything, everyone, will be destroyed.”
I gnaw on my lip some more. It’s all true. But…
“I can’t help you,” I say finally, with a shake of my head. “I’m sorry. I can’t marry you, even if it’s just pretend. Find another girl who doesn’t have responsibilities. I’m needed here. My family needs me. I can’t abandon them, even to save them.”
He presses his lips together and closes his eyes, pain flitting across his features before subsiding. “Truly? Aren’t your sisters off to the capital? Aren’t they already taken care of?”
“There’s still my father,” I say weakly. “I can’t leave him. I’m sorry.”
“I’m sure Jared would be happy to bring him along, and your sisters and their new staff would take wonderful care of him.”
It’s tempting, I’ll give him that. I imagine my father ensconced in a palace, waited on hand and foot. I imagine him, at his age, plucked away from everyone he’s ever known.
“He’d never leave Evandale, and what kind of daughters would force him?”
Dietan continues to look at me, and when I stare right back with no sign of budging, he heaves an enormous sigh.
“All right, then.” He groans as he stands, limps to the counter to the right of the wash basin and wraps his hand around a bottle of Alarician ale left over from last night. He swirls the contents and takes a long swill.
I stare at him, aghast. “That’s it? That’s your answer?”
He lolls his head tiredly toward me, inspecting me with those bright blue-green eyes, like he’s surprised I’m still here. He was so adamant earlier about getting me to marry him, going so far as to propose in front of everyone in town—so adamant that the fate of kingdoms depended on my decision—and here he is now, pretending it doesn’t matter.
Of course it doesn’t matter. I’m just someone for him to use, like all the rest. He’ll find another woman.
“After all that, you’re just…fine?” I accuse.
He winces as he lowers himself back into the chair. “I’m not going to force you to do anything you don’t want to do. I’ll just have to find another way to get to the Great Waste by myself… But for now, I’m going to get very, very, very drunk,” he says. Then he adds, with a wink that isn’t fooling anyone, “For the pain.”
I throw the rag down on the counter. “Dumbass.” I leave him to his own devices in the kitchen and start sweeping up the ruined dining room.
While Dietan is drinking himself into a stupor instead of plotting his way out of imminent peril, my mind whirs.
Marry him?
No way. Not even as a lie, not even to save the world.
I’ll admit it. I’m terrified.
I’m no warrior. I’m not some brash adventurer like in the stories I used to make up for my girls when they were little, dreaming of daring heroics and happy endings. I’m just a plain-faced barmaid in a small town, with no prospects and no great future except for the tavern. But isn’t leaving Evandale and traveling all across the kingdom the very thing I’ve always dreamed of?
That dang prince doesn’t really want to marry me, and that’s why I said no in the first place. Plus, why is saving the kingdommyproblem? Isn’t that what kings and princes and armies are for?
And there’s still Father to think about. If I’m to travel the world instead of staying in Evandale to take care of him, I could never stray too far. He needs my care. My apron strings will always be tied to the front door.
But I can’t stop thinking about what Dietan said. Let my girls take care of Father for a change. They’ll have the means.
Like it or not, he was making sense.
