Lilah wore a worried expression. ‘And what did you see?’
Aisha swallowed a few times, her gaze flicking cautiously to the archway. ‘I saw… warships.’
‘Warships?’
‘War,’ Aisha said, recalling the bodies on the beach. ‘I saw war.’
Lilah searched Aisha’s eyes. ‘Here? In Avanid?’
Aisha shook her head. ‘No.’ Though she had recognised the beach in her vision.
Lilah waited.
‘Gruisea.’ Aisha’s voice cracked as she spoke. ‘Slevaborg’s going to attack Gruisea.’
Chapter 41
Tariq stood atop the northern wall, letting the wind cool him down after his training session. He was watching the movement in the barracks below. He hadn’t meant to stay long. Guards had come and gone in the time he was there, giving him a wide berth as they changed posts.
He was brought back from his daydreaming by the sound of his mother’s footsteps, measured and composed.
‘There you are,’ Farrah said. ‘Anyone would think you are avoiding court.’
‘Come look at this,’ he said, keeping his gaze forwards.
She approached the embrasure. ‘What exactly am I looking at?’
He closed his eyes. ‘Listen.’
She fell quiet.
The chaotic noise of the barracks drifted up to them. It was the sound of his childhood. He used to watch the soldiers from the walls when he was young, imagining what it would be like to fight alongside them, knowing they would protect him at any cost.
‘It is not a sound I thought I would hear again in my lifetime,’ Farrah admitted.
Opening his eyes, they watched and listened together for a moment.
Eventually, Farrah turned to him. ‘The stewards need your signature on the salt tariffs.’
‘I’m sure it can wait until this afternoon.’
‘It is the afternoon.’
He looked up at the sun, then at his mother. They had barely spoken since the visit from the Slevaborg delegates. There were so many things they needed to say but hadn’t.
Farrah let out a soft breath. ‘I am pleased to see soldiers back in the barracks, but we need trade to continue if we are to fund this new army of yours.’
‘New army of ours,’ he corrected, eyes returning to the barracks.
‘With so much uncertainty, you really must be seen at court,’ she continued. ‘They need to know you are reliable in order to trust your leadership.’
He rested his forearms on the stone embrasure. ‘I’ve shown more strength and leadership in the past few months than my father did in the last five years of his reign. The only person doubting me right now is you.’
She didn’t respond straight away. ‘It might seem like doubt, but it is, in fact, worry.’ She studied him a moment. ‘You forget that as well as being one of your advisers, I am also your mother.’
He continued to stare straight ahead.
‘Have you written to her?’ she asked after a long silence.
