“You are now four days’ ride from your army,” Grudin said, at last, fury in his voice. “With your Southern whore prize still in tow, and you have brought her here to my court?” He leaned forward. “Tell me, Sedrak, that you wish to make a gift of her to me, for if I hear another thing from your lips I am likely to squeeze the life from you myself.”
Sedrak stood tall, and to Leola’s surprise, he made a joke. “You are too old, Uncle, to squeeze the life from me, and far too old to take on my treasured companion.”
There was a very tense, terrifying moment, in which neither man moved a muscle, and the armed guards at Grudin’s side moved their eyes nervously from man to man.
Grudin, however, barked a laugh and slapped his thigh. There was a round of nervous laughter all about, before he glowered again. “Name your business, nephew. I grow tired of these games and I grow anxious to hear that my kingdom shall pass into property and peace before I die.”
“Uncle,” Sedrak said, stepping forward. “I come to you to humbly beg of you, sir, that you release me from my oath—”
“Nonsense again!” Grudin hollered, rising from his throne and filled with a fierce, awful vitality that made Leola’s knees shake. “You dishonor yourself, and you throw away your kingdom’s prosperity—”
“Uncle, listen—”
“I shall listen to nothing!”
“Sir! King… Grudin. Please, listen!” Leola found herself interrupting.
The effect on Grudin was powerful, and a fearsome interest built within him, long enough to silence him. He turned his gaze upon her and he looked like the fabled great monster of the western mountains, a dragon.
“I am, like your nephew is to you, the last of the descendants of my grandfather, the former king of my land. I am a woman, and so I am no heir. But any legitimate male child of minewould beheir to the kingdom of the South.”
Grudin raised an eyebrow. There was a long and tortured silence.
He sat back down. “The South is no great land. Not like the East. You raid our lands, child. Is that not why your uncle was found pillaging our kingdom? The East is wealthy. United we will be a great kingdom.”
“It is true,” Leola said, her voice faltering. She gathered courage. “It is true, we are a land of few resources. But against the East, our two kingdoms together shall deter their aggression.”
Grudin stared at her. Then he looked at Sedrak.
“The South is bounded by the great mountains, no invaders dare to cross. Their land is impoverished because their crops have failed, but their army is worthy and fierce. The Eastern kingdom is not reckless. They will maintain their peace with us if we are greater than they are, and threatened by one less enemy,” Sedrak told him.
Grudin glared at them for a long time.
“The Eastern kingdom shall be displeased. What will stop them from carrying on a war in the name of their displeasure?”
“Uncle, they are less bellicose than any of our neighbors. They fight only when they have the upper hand.”
Grudin, to Leola’s surprise, laughed heartily. “They are cowards!” he yelled. He nodded. Then his face soured. “This… plan you have concocted, it is contingent upon the birth of a male heir. The South will not pass their crown to a woman, only to a male child.” He shook his head. “There are too many fortunes flapping in the wind, nephew.”
“Is not the Eastern crown,” Leola interrupted, her own voice loud in her ears, “to be passed on to the brother of the princess Havorka?”
Grudin looked at her and scowled, but a faint smile turned up the corners of his mouth.
“The Eastern alliance brings great promise, but it is also uncertain,” Leola said. “My child, if male,willinherit the kingdom, and so you will not need trust the whims of another king, nor his love for his sister, to deter a war. Sir. If you unite our kingdoms thusly—”
Leola had her mouth open to add more, but Sedrak put a hand on her arm to stop her.
Grudin sat back, putting his fingers together in a steeple.
“Leave me to my nephew,” he said, looking at Leola. Then he turned a sharp eye to Sedrak. “If you wish me to consider your request, hold your tongue and remove her from this room, this time, you foolish boy.”
Sedrak squeezed Leola’s arm.
She left, hoping that the hope she felt was not foolish.
* * *
Grudin and Sedrak spoke for a long time, and Leola was escorted to a great room to wait, until hunger gnawed at her insides and she needed to relieve herself but dared not ask the dour guards near the door who had escorted her there for permission.
