Lore gave him a scornful look. “Since when has that worked in the past? She followed you onto that train, remember? Mother didn’t want her to go with me, but Caris said it was her cog who brought the information, so it was her responsibility to see this through.”
“Your mother is Ashion’s spymaster. She handles cogs, and Caris is one such piece. Make her stay put.”
Lore made a cutting gesture with her gloved hand. “The North Star wishes Caris to handle this mission.”
Blaine rolled up the blueprints and tucked them back into the leather tube. “Does she, now? And your mother is fine with such a plan?”
“The North Star was present at the ball. She met with Mother in the gardens. I was not privy to their conversation, only what my mother would share after the fact.”
“Which is?”
“The North Star wishes Caris to fight.”
Blaine’s mouth curled at the corners, but it didn’t feel like a smile. “The star gods didn’t fight for her during the Inferno, yet they wish her to take up their idealist mantle now?”
“Theysavedher. She is why we fight.”
“You fight for a memory. Caris was raised in Cosian. She is of the Eastern Basin and all that entails. She is a child of the borders. The four years you’ve spent trying to teach her the ways of high society and a culture she doesn’t feel in her bones won’t make her what you wish her to be. Even I can see that.”
“She is meant to be queen.”
“Yes. For everyone in Ashion, not just those whose bloodlines are written in the nobility genealogies.”
“If you have such little faith in what we hope for her, why do you stay?”
“Because she is my duty, even if she is not what my heart desires.”
“Ah, yes. You Westergards did your duty well during the Inferno when the lot of you died.”
Stung, Blaine stood so they were on even footing. “My father died to see her safe. Don’t belittle his sacrifices.”
“Then don’t mock our hope. Caris is who we’ve been waiting for.”
Ashion needed a queen, one who could claim the throne and put out the starfire that burned on it. Blaine knew that. Not even Eimarille dared sit on the relic the Rourke bloodline had once ruled from. That veneer of hesitancy was what kept half the country’s noble families from caving to Daijal’s promises, but it was a constant battle. The duchess had promised them the impossible, and at some point, she had to deliver.
At some point, she would have to introduce Caris as someone other than her ward.
Blaine knew the day that happened was the day a war would start.
He ground his teeth, hating that he couldn’t argue against a star god’s decree. He wanted Caris to have a choice, but at the same time, he needed to keep her safe to make it. “If the North Star wants Caris to join you on this endeavor, then I suppose I’ll act as escort.”
Lore smiled thinly. “You’re too kind. Were all Westergards so attentive?”
“That bloodline is dead.”
Lore flicked her gaze from his head to his toes and back up again. “It looks perfectly alive to me. We leave in an hour. It’s a long walk through the catacombs to get where we need to be.”
With that said, she exited the study to go handle whatever needs the Auclair household currently had. Blaine knew Meleri was in parliament with Brielle, overseeing whatever damage Eimarille sought to do to their country and try to mitigate it. They’d left after Blaine had arrived from the catacombs, heading off to deal with a problem that had no easy answer. Ashion’s government was a slowly eroding puppet that had given up power too easily over the years.
The Auclairs were determined to stop that slow death, and if stubbornness could fix anything, they’d fix this. Blaine had come to understand over the last few years why that family fought, why the Clockwork Brigade existed. It wasn’t just to free debt slaves but to push back against laws that would harm Ashion.
Blaine sighed, rubbing at the back of his neck. He knew the Auclairs saw Caris as their savior and didn’t want her to fight. Keeping the young baroness from the line of fire was becoming more difficult by the day. Caris was stubborn, and that trait was on display hours later when he and Lore met her in the basement.
“What ishedoing here?” Caris asked with a scowl as she glared at Blaine, the gas lamps in their sconces turning her skin sallow.
Lore shrugged. “He’s our escort.”
Caris’ eyes narrowed. “Do we really need one if we’re going as someone else?”
