“My people won’t—”
“They will,” Cora said, tone firm. “You will make them agree. Tell them anything, I don’t care what it is. Tell them I’m exactly what they fear me to be, an evil witch bent on taking Lela for her own. Tell them I’m a bloodthirsty worldwalker, and the only way to keep the peace with me and defeat your brother is to give me what I want.”
Ailan set down the spray bottle and folded her arms. She paced before the climbing vines before she spoke again. “I can get the tribunal to agree if you proceed with your plan to push themoraback to us at once. You will secure Mareleau and Larylis’ word of abdication—”
“So soon?” Mareleau straightened. “That’s all it would take? Just a word of abdication, no formal process? No coronation? Just like that, she’s Queen of Lela?” There was no ire in her tone, only curiosity.
“This is a matter of themora,” Ailan said. “Fae magic. While it will likely take more work to formalize Cora’s position in terms of human politics, the magic will recognize her role once you and your husband state your abdication, just like the role of the Morkara can be relinquished upon a single verbal statement.”
“That may be true,” Cora said, drawing Ailan’s attention back to her, “but I am not going to push themorato El’Ara while Darius still lives. That would trap him in the human world and leave us to deal with him.”
Ailan arched a brow. “Then what exactly are you proposing?”
“You said we need to outsmart Darius to defeat him, so we will. All he truly wants from me is the location of the tear. So I’ll give him a false location. I’ll lead him to a predetermined place where we will ambush him.”
“You’re forgetting he has no reason to stay and fight once he discovers he’s being ambushed. He can worldwalk away before anyone can lay a finger on him.”
“He will have a reason to stay if you’re there.”
Ailan’s eyes widened. “You want me to serve as bait.”
“I’m acting as bait myself by bringing him to the ambush site. The least you can do is face him. You have the one thing that can stop him, don’t you?”
Ailan thinned her lips as she reached into the folds of her flowing robe and extracted the magic-suppressing collar. “Yes, though I failed the last time I tried to trap him with it. I got only a single talon hooked into his skin, but he merely tore it out, tossed it aside, and worldwalked away.”
“Then you’ll have to try harder this time. Unless…there’s more of those?”
“No, this collar is one of a kind. Berolla sacrificed two talons to create it, and it can’t be replicated, even if she were still alive.” At Cora’s questioning look, she went on to explain. “She was trapped on this side of the Veil when my mother died. According to Fanon, she took Last Breath shortly after.”
Damn. There went the possibility for more magic-suppressing weapons.
“This,” Ailan said, holding up the collar, “is our best hope. Our best chance at preventing Darius from worldwalking while I land a killing blow. And you’re right; he won’t resist the opportunity to face me if I confront him. But that doesn’t mean he won’t first worldwalk away to bring an army.”
“So we’ll station troops from our human and Elvyn forces that will be ready to fight,” Cora said. “How many soldiers can Darius travel with?”
“During the war, he often brought in upwards of two dozen men at a time.”
Cora’s mouth fell open. “Two dozen? At once?”
Ailan nodded.
She couldn’t imagine worldwalking with that many people in tow. Still, even with those numbers, it would take far too long to bring his entire army. “He’ll be eager enough to face you that he won’t risk your retreat. He’ll only bring in enough soldiers to even the odds.”
“Perhaps.” Ailan rubbed her brow. “When do you expect this confrontation to take place?”
“He agreed to wait three weeks to hear my answer to his offer of alliance. I can pretend to agree to his terms and take him to a false tear location. But we can’t rely on that timeline or that circumstance. In less than two weeks, a rebellion in Norun will cut off his reinforcements, leaving him with fewer soldiers to face Khero with. He might grow desperate to act, or suspect Khero’s involvement with the rebellion. If that happens, he may revoke his offer of alliance and use threats against me until I take him to the tear. Our plan will remain the same.”
“Based on the passage of time in El’Ara, we have at most three days,” Ailan said, voice tinged with panic. She resumed pacing, the butterflies fluttering over her head flashing between yellow and orange. “There’s still so much more to figure out. We’ll need to establish a location, a way to communicate while we secure our plans, and a signal to alert my people that the ambush must begin…”
Cora had ideas for the latter. Berol had already been passing letters between Larylis and Teryn over the last couple of weeks. The falcon was small enough to fly through the tear without attracting the attention of potential spies. Moreover, Cora suspected the Elvyn would have less qualms about using an animal to relay communications as opposed to a human.
Ailan halted and faced Cora once more. “I have one final condition. I will convince the tribunal to accept your terms to keep Lela in the human world, but you must proceed with pushing themorathrough the tear as soon as the ambush begins. I’ll station wardweavers inside the tear who can get to work sealing it as soon as they feel the return ofmora. That way you have our aid in fighting Darius, but we can take comfort in sealing him out while he’s distracted.”
“And if you fail,” Cora said, leveling a pointed look at her, “the human world will be left to clean up your mess.”
“If I fail, it means I’m either dead or he’s made his way inside the Veil. Either way, you and I will have done our parts.”
“Darius…inside the Veil,” Mareleau echoed, shaking her head. “No, that can’t be an option. You said El’Ara was the safest place for Noah.”
