“My body assures me that’s a suitable age for retiring from being bashed by weapons, hurled against walls, and having dragons try to light you on fire.” He shifted to lean against a nearby tree, sticking his calf out to stretch it. “My muscles hurt, my joints ache, and old wounds throb. And that’s on a good day.”
“I do believe a less vigorous lifestyle might be nice for you, but I was thinking of offering you a position. As you’re aware, some have… opened up.” Syla couldn’t keep from grimacing. Even though shenow knew who’d been responsible for the murders, she hadn’t succeeded in convincing the various lords and military officers she interacted with that she hadn’t played a role in them. As both Fel and Vorik had pointed out, that wasn’t abadthing, since everyone had fallen into line and nobody seemed to be angling to dispose of her at the moment—not when they worried they would be targeted for the next throat-slitting—but she’d never wanted a reputation for being a ruthless killer.
“Not General Dolok’s position, right?” Fel asked. “I know he’s requested retirement, too, but you’ve left him in command for now.”
“Yes, he did tell me he hasn’t recovered from his various ordeals and wants to leave the office, but I wasn’t going to ask you to take over his job, no. Fortunately, he does seem to be done scheming against me. When lightning utterly destroyed thatlighthouse not thirty seconds after he walked out of it—he was lucky there—he took it as a sign that the gods wanted him to live in the Kingdom under my rule. It probably helped that we drove out the storm god too.”
“Good. It’s been twenty years since I served in the military, and I wasn’t an officer then.”
“I was thinking… Harvest Island needs a new island lord, someone who won’t be intimidated by having General Jhiton living on the other end of the island.” Syla doubted Jhiton would spend that much time there—he and his dragon had flown off together after they’d both healed, and she’d only seen him twice since then—but shewouldlike someone who could handle a lot and whom she could trust unconditionally as island lord there.
Fel’s mouth drooped open. “I’m not a landowner or lord or a former officer. Those are the people who are appointed as island lords. And… and… don’t they have to do the accounting for the whole island? And sendreportsto the monarch?”
“You’d have an accountant to handle the books.”
“What about the reports?”
“Goodness, Fel, you’re an intelligent man. I’m positive you can write me a little note to tell me about the crops for the year and to let me know if the stormers are behaving. And think how much your muscles will enjoy a life without constant battle and strife. I bet dragons would hardly ever try to light you on fire.”
“Island lords are considered politically important.” Fel looked darkly at her. “History is filled with accountings of them being assassinated.”
“But not by dragons.” Syla smiled brightly. “Once it’s fully repaired, the palace there will be lovely. It’s on a hill overlooking a beach. You wanted to retire someplace by the beach, didn’t you?”
“So I could walk naked on it without a care in the world. Island lords can’t be seen outdoorsnaked.”
“Yeah, but nobody wanted to see you that way anyway.”
“It was going to be a remote beach,” he grumbled.
“If you don’t want the job, it’s all right. I just thought I’d offer it. I suppose Relvin could take it if you don’t. I hear he doesn’t want to return to his family estate because his father was killed there. Bad omens abound.”
“You’ll not put that twit into a position of power. Besides, hecertainlycouldn’t handle General Jhiton showing up at his palace. He would wet himself.”
“Probably.” Syla clasped her hands behind her back and watched as Vorik, having finished delivering jars of treats, ambled up the slope toward them with Chieftess Atilya at his side. “Did I mention that Aunt Tibby is heading to Harvest Island to help with the reconstruction of the city? A couple of dams were destroyed, too, and that’s caused flooding of some of the orchards near Hazel Harbor.”
Of course, Tibby’s first order of business would be creating a new hidden chamber and moving the shielder to a location that the stormers didn’t know about and wasn’t near their camp; trust only went so far, after all, and Syla didn’t want to tempt any future insurrectionists. She’d already worked with Tibby to move the shielder on Castle Island. As safe as it probably was with adragonoccupying the nearby cave, too many people had known its location for Syla to sleep comfortably.
“The dragons and stormers had a lot of time to do a lot of damage there,” Fel said.
“Yes. I expect Tibby will be busy there foryears.”
“Hm.”
“Howwasthe meal you two enjoyed at Servanik’s Fine Dining the other evening? Did she call you a troglodyte?”
“She did not. I will consider your proposal.”
“Excellent.” Syla lifted a hand toward Atilya. “Good afternoon, Chieftess. I hope your people are settling in and find this area acceptable.”
“Any area that isn’t attacked regularly by wyverns and cloud strikers is acceptable. I understand there aren’t even lake krakens on any of the Kingdom islands.”
“There are not.”
“What a wondrous place. I’m pleased that you and the stormer tribes were able to come to an agreement.” Atilya watched as Vorik stopped beside Syla and clasped her hand. “I accept the invitation to your wedding. I suppose I should have known your marriage would be inevitable when you helped Vorik escape from my camp.”
Vorik raised a finger. “I refrained from drinking your drugged beverage and would have escaped on my own.”
“Afterward, you rudely forgot to tell your brother that you were safe and that he didn’t need to hunt us down and attack us.”
