“Of a magnitude that we would pay in blood with. I wouldn’t even think about moving battalions unless ink was drying on an alliance treaty. Aside from that, we’d have to move our people through Solaria to reach the Gulf of Helia if we were to get land forces on the Tovanians’ ship-cities. I am doubtful the Imperial emperor would approve of such staging, not to mention it would tip off Daijal as to what our plan was.”
“It’s a viable option,” Meleri said.
“It’s suicide without an alliance.”
Caris listened to them argue back and forth for a moment before she raised a hand, catching their attention. “Attacking New Haven should be an option, and so should freeing Amari. If not right now, then later. It’s something we should instruct our envoys in Solaria to ask about.”
Clarence shook his head. “I would counsel against that.”
“Then if we persist on trying to hold an ever-moving line, we need to have a backup plan.”
“If you’re worried about your extraction from Cosian in the event of a full-frontal attack?—”
“I’m not,” Caris said sharply. “But my status is the issue I want to discuss. If you would be so kind as to assess who has the highest security classification for this conversation, then please do so.”
Clarence narrowed his eyes while Meleri looked slightly alarmed. Caris ignored the duchess’ attempts to catch her eye, turning her head to watch as Clarence ordered officers away from the table with a sharp wave of his hand. They filed out, some appearing disgruntled by the order. By the time the door closed, the only ones at the table with her were the Auclairs, Clarence, and Colonel Taiwo Esina, recently back from the front bearing many of the reports scattered on the table between them.
“We are doing everything in our power to keep you safe, Caris,” Meleri said.
Caris tried not to hunch her shoulders. “Yes, by keeping me in Cosian.”
“It’s for your own protection.”
“It makes me feel like a prisoner and a sitting target.” Caris drew in a deep breath and lifted her chin, meeting Meleri’s gaze. “I think it’s time I met my brother.”
“No.” Meleri’s refusal was automatic and fierce.
“Yes.” When Meleri opened her mouth to argue, Caris cut her off. “This isn’t up for discussion. I am going to the Warden’s Island. If anything happens to me, Ashion will need someone else to take up the claim to the Rourke bloodline and the starfire throne and fight against Eimarille.”
“He is a warden. My understanding is he refuses to be anything else. Trying to convince him otherwise is a wasted effort. It will only make him and the wardens a target, and they have suffered enough.”
“Are you worried for the wardens or worried about Alasandair having a right to the starfire throne that supersedes mine?”
Meleri pressed her lips into a thin line before raising her chin. “There is no witness to his claim.”
“Blaine says the resemblance to me is uncanny. We take after our birth father that way, while Eimarille looks like Ophelia.”
Caris had never quite looked like Portia or Emmitt, but their coloring was close enough no one ever questioned it as she grew up. They’d loved her so much, doted on her without question, that she had never thought differently.
“Appearances are meaningless. He can say he’s Prince Alasandair Rourke all he likes, but he has no claim to it, not like you.”
“Some say I don’t have any claim.”
“Caris—”
“You want to put me on the throne by risking the lives of every soldier in our army. You want to lay siege to a city that Daijal has controlled for my entire life. All that risk just to put me on a throne you don’t know if I can take. How many have tried to sit on the starfire throne and died for it?”
“None of them were Rourke.”
“And if I die, you still need one.” Caris leaned forward, pressing her hands flat against the table as she stared Meleri down, Lore and the officers quiet and still in their seats. “Am I to be your queen or your puppet? Would you have me be nothing better than arionetkafor your dreams?”
Meleri flinched, the flush of angry determination washing out to a sickly white. “Caris, I never meant?—”
“You never meant a lot of things while I was your ward and your cog, and I have forgiven you for that. But if you want me as your queen, then you need to treat me as such. I am the age of majority in Ashion, and I amtiredof people trying to bend my road to theirs.”
Silence settled between them, and Caris pushed her fingertips against the wooden tabletop to keep her hands from shaking. Meleri looked away, gaze momentarily downcast, something like shame in her voice when she finally spoke. “I only want you safe, my queen.”
Caris briefly closed her eyes at the honorific before opening them again. “We’re at war for our country, not for me. If Ashion is to survive, then we must bring Alasandair on board.”
