He might have laughed if she didn’t sound so serious. Instead, he crooked a brow, a challenge rising in his voice. ‘Has it indeed, Mother?’
Lief drained his goblet and poured another. ‘So fragrant,’ he said, between gulps. ‘You canreallytell it’s vintage.’
Undeterred by the frigid snap of her son’s mood, Valeska went on. ‘We are teetering on the verge of war. Queen Regna has been watching our borders for months, coveting our ore. Our mines. Our very kingdom.’ Alarik’s lips twisted at the salient reminder of his own weakened position. As if it didn’t already plague his every waking thought. She set her goblet down. ‘What do you plan to do about it?’
He didn’t miss a beat. ‘I plan to butcher Regna’s soldiers with my beasts, then storm the border and take her head as a trophy.’ Lief quailed, shrinking back into the cushions. Alarik curled his lip as he spoke his next words. ‘Or would you prefer I bend the knee to the queen and marry one of her odious daughters instead?’
‘Of course not,’ said Valeska, wrinkling her nose. ‘I’d sooner see you wed an elk than a princess of Vask.’
‘So thereisa standard,’ remarked Alarik.
‘Of course there is a standard. You are a formidable prize, my son.’
He recoiled from the words.
‘You must see the sense in making an alliance,’ Valeska went on, an old fire inside her rekindling. ‘Gevra’s position on this continent is the weakest it has been in centuries. Vask’s designs are just the beginning. Our enemies will soon be clamouring at our doorstep.’
Alarik flinched at her hidden meaning, whether she intended it or not. That he was as weak as his kingdom, that he was bowing under the pressure of King Soren’s legacy. ‘I have it in hand.’ He shot to his feet and went to the window to keep from hurling the tea tray in a tantrum. He was trying to cut back on those. The last time he punched a suit of armour in a rage, it’d nearly shattered his fist. ‘I am preparing for war.’
‘It will take more than a new wrangler, Alarik.’
Alarik couldn’t keep the bite from his voice when he turned on her. ‘Whatwillit take, Mother?’
‘A wife with an army at her back. A kingdom of her own.’
‘And a heart as pure as a lark’s song!’ said Lief, perking up.
Alarik turned his blistering glare on the steward, who shrunk back into his seat.
‘Or just the war stuff,’ Lief squeaked. ‘A big, scary army with lots of stomping soldiers. In a way, that’s just as romantic. Dare I say evenmoreromantic than—’
‘Stop talking.’ Alarik’s nostrils flared.
‘Stopping. I’ve stopped.’
Valeska laid a bracing hand on Lief’s knee. ‘Alarik’s heart is his own business.’
The king didn’t give a damn about his heart. He cared about his reputation. He cared about his kingdom and its future. And his mother, wise as she had always been, even in her sorrow,knew there was a greater chance of the Fovarr Mountains splitting open than Alarik Felsing ever making a love match.
He turned back to the window, gazing out at his beloved mountains as they glistened under the pale sun. ‘Who do you have in mind?’ he said, if only to satisfy his curiosity.
There was a long breath of anticipation.
Lief rattled his hands against the table, using it like a drum.
Alarik rolled his eyes.
‘Princess Elva of Halgard!’ announced the steward.
The name frittered past Alarik like a cool wind. ‘I am not familiar with Princess Elva.’
Nor do I plan to be.
Though he knew Halgard well enough. A verdant, wealthy country of rolling hills and pooling lakes, silver mountains and bustling farms, where the livestock outnumbered its people three to one, and the rivers were so clear they glittered. Halgard was his mother’s home country. As a favoured third cousin of the queen there, she had been a member of court before marrying Alarik’s father almost thirty years ago. While Vask hugged the north-west of Gevra, Halgard shared a smaller mountain range with Gevra to the north-east, and though it was barely half the size of Alarik’s kingdom, Halgard was well-armed and twice as wealthy. It was undoubtedly the best-placed kingdom to help him stave off the threat of invasion from Vask.
The alliance made sense.
But the idea of a wedding, of an entiremarriage, sent a shudder skittering down Alarik’s spine.
