So was I.
“Is that what you want?” I desperately wanted to know. Because if it was, that would change everything about our relationship. I loved our free and open love, but marriage… how would that work? We’d just have a bunch of mutual lovers we shared in our marriage bed?
“I… I…” he stammered and looked at me and Silence. Then the bluster seemed to blow out of him and he shrunk down on himself. “I do want that, more than anything. I want to marry you and not have to marry any other. I want to be with you always, even if that means sharing you. But once I’m married, that’s it. I can’t be with anyone else after that… and neither can the woman I marry.” He turned away. “It’s what Silence and I were talking about before you came out.” He stepped away, down toward the waterline. “I… I can’t stay here forever. This feels like home to me, but I have a country which needs a king. And that king will need a queen and an heir and… By all the gods, I want you to be my queen, but if you were… I don’t know if you’d be able to keep these others, whom I know you love as much as you love me. I don’t want you to have to give them up, but you would have to change if you were my queen. Otherwise, the line of succession would always be in question.”
Damned lines of succession. I was so very glad Elista had done away with those many, many years ago.
“I love you, Legs, but…” He gave a self-deprecating, harsh laugh. “Now I’m the one saying ‘but.’”
And I saw all of this from his perspective for just a moment: his love for me, but his duty to his country. I couldn’t be his queen, no matter how much either of us wanted it. I could be his mistress, his lover, perhaps, but nothing more than that.
What was more, “If you married me, especially now, that would only solidify me and my House as traitors,” I said softly, seeing how horrid this all truly was. “That wouldn’t bring our countries together at all, but divide them all the more.” And yet my plan was sound. “Alvere, I love you and I don’t want to lose you, but don’t you see? You have it in your power to start the peace process. Even just suggesting the idea will show your people and mine how much you want peace, which means if Merlin turns you down, it will show them how much she wants war.”
“And what if she accepts?” Alvere said sourly.
Spirits, I couldn’t imagine what he’d go through if he actually married that woman.
He went on, tone still bitter. “Legs, I can see where you’re going, but there is one flaw. If Merlin accepts my proposal, she could very easily turn that to her benefit. She becomes the benevolent peacemaker. She could blame the war on you or the previous queen and say this is what she wants. That wouldn’t achieve what we want at all. There would be peace, but the maniacs in power would still be in power. And…” He shuddered. “Once I’d given her an heir, I wouldn’t be needed. She could easily do away with me and have control over both countries. I’d be dead and nothing would have changed except we’d have handed Vauphan to Merlin!”
I nodded. “You’re right.”
“But…” Silence drew out the word. Alvere and I both turned to him. “What if it became known that Maverick House didn’t betray Elista? What if everyone was told that we were the ones who began the peace talks?” He didn’t seem entirely sure of his idea. “I don’t know how we’d spread the rumors, but… we could suggest that our House went to make peace with the Vauphani and were betrayed by our own… who didn’t want peace?” He was still questioning his own idea. Then suddenly he blinked, and seemed to light up. “Yes! Something like… Vauphan is suing for peace, at the behest of Maverik House, now Spider House, and the prince wants to come in person to seal the alliance. A Royal marriage isn’t out of the question,butonly after the question of how the war started is put to all the Nobles of Elista… because… someone in Elista tried to sabotage our house from pursuing peace. We act like we don’t know who that was, and we just want to come before all the Nobles to work out what’s going on. That way, Alvere could bring us into the peace talks with him, not as traitors, but as peacemakers and yes Merlin could spread rumors about us being traitors, but that would make her seem like the warmonger. Wouldn’t that work?”
I thought about it. There was something in that idea. It was close, it had something to do with putting Merlin in a corner. If she wanted peace, she’d have to acknowledge us as peacemakers, not traitors, and if she didn’t want peace, she’d be seen as the warmonger. Yet…
“There is still a lot that could go wrong with that,” I said slowly. “Depending who is on her side and loyal to her. She could have Fang or whoever is the new leader of Panther House vie for war and claim we’re traitors, that way she stays clean and untouchable.” I sighed. “And there really isn’t anything to stop the other Nobles from still thinking we’re traitors that just felt like we were going to lose the war so we changed our tactics to peace, which, is sort of what we’re doing. How do we prove we’ve always wanted the best for Elista?”
“What about Ursa?” Silence said.
‘Ursa,” I said, repeating the name. I sighed heavily. We’d trusted her so far. Could we continue to do so? I’d rather not put all of our eggs into that one basket, but…A smile spread slowly on my face. “Yes, Ursa.”
Auwei giggled.I sense a crazy plan coming on!
“You have an idea?” Alvere said. I could hear the hope in his voice, he didn’t want any of this to end, even though we both knew it would have to, someday.
“Yes…” I spoke slowly as the plan clarified in my head. “You send a letter to Merlin, tell her you want peace and that a political alliance, perhaps a marriage of some sort is on the table, but… you won’t make any decisions until the new queen or king of Elista is elected.”
“Right!” Alvere breathed.
“Oh, yes!” Silence said at the same time.
It seemed we’d all forgotten that Merlin wasn’t officially queen yet. She had to be elected first.
“Tell Merlin you would like to come to peace talks, but only if all the Nobles are gathered and have a say on the outcome; that you want to see the election process.”
“But wait, what if the Nobles actually do elect Merlin?” Alvere asked.
“That’s where Ursa comes in. Before those talks a small group of us go with Ursa to several Nobles whom she thinks we can trust. You go with her, tell your story. I don’t know yet if it would be wise to have me there or not, but we can figure that out. If we can sway four Noble Houses, then that would create a stalemate at least. That’s assuming the Nobles don’t let me vote, which I’d fully expect.”
But in the case of a stalemate the current Royal House is the tie-breaker,Auwei added in.
So, my plan’s not perfect, but it’s close, perhaps we can flip more than four houses? Who knows. Or perhaps they’ll let me vote.
That is unlikely.
Still… do you have a better plan?
… No.
