I shook my head. “Only because I underestimated her.” Not a comfortable admission, certainly, but a necessary one. Better to name it here, in the dark with the one man who would carry the truth quietly, than to lie to myself and pay for it later. “I thought the exposure in front of all the men of the court, the public humiliation... I thought it would strip the ground from under her. Force a reaction I could use.”
“Instead?”
“Instead she stood there and let me look upon her... letus alllook upon her as if her nudity was the latest in women’s fashion.” I picked up my wine again. “Like she was unbothered to be gazed upon by the hungriest of wolves. Part of me wonders if she actually enjoyed the attention,” I grumbled that last bit.
“I don’t believe she enjoyed it.” His comment was quick, but then he seemed uncomfortable with having said it and was quiet for a long moment. The fire breathed softly beneath the grate.
“We have to constantly remind ourselves that she isn’t Lioran.”
“I know she’s not Lioran, Arthur.”
I nodded. I understood why this subject rubbed him the wrong way. We’d all trusted Lioran. We’d welcomed him. I’d thought of him as a younger brother or even the younger version of myself. What was more, I’d viewed him as the underdog, and I’d taken pity on him. I’d rooted for him throughout the Shadow Trials, and when he’d emerged victorious, I’d been proud of him. I daresay Lance had felt the same way. We’d all been won over by Lioran in some way or another, only to realize he was an imposter.
“She’s going to be harder to break than I imagined,” I said as I turned the goblet in my grip. “Which means I need to adjust the approach. I don’t need her shattered.” He didn’t comment, so I continued. “Shattered women tell you what they think you want to hear.” I’d learned that lesson expensively, yearsago. “Shattered, no, but I need her broken down enough to beinvested.Convinced that cooperating with me serves her better than loyalty to a father who used her like a blade and aimed her at a king.”
“Did she not already agree to your terms? That she’d become your spy against her father?”
I nodded. “She agreed, but in word only. In all other ways, she continues to defy me.” I took a breath. “I attempted to interrogate her, but I didn’t get very far. It was difficult to tell what was truth and what were lies. It could have all been lies, for all I know.” I paused and took a breath. “And that’s why I need to break her.”
“And if she can’t be convinced or if she can’t be broken?”
I looked at the coals.
“Everyone can be convinced, and everyone can be broken.” I took a long drink.
Lance stared into the fire with the look he got when he disagreed with me but had decided the argument wasn’t worth having. “I don’t envy you this task, Arthur.”
I nodded. “I don’t envy myself, truth be told.” Then I emptied the glass of bitter wine down my throat and wiped my sleeve against my mouth. “But break her, I will. It’s only a question of finding the right pressure. And I believe that pressure begins with Galahad.”
Lance’s head turned slowly as he faced me with his brows drawn. “Galahad?”
I nodded and, setting my wine down, stood, moving toward the narrow window. The courtyard below sat empty and silver-washed under a half moon, the fountain’s cascade a soft, constant murmur in the dark. “She can’t remain in the dungeon forever. But she also can’t be left to her own defenses when she’s as magically devastating as she is.”
“Did Mordred not bind her magic?”
I looked at him and nodded. “He did, but I worry it’s not enough. And it doesn’t address the fact that I can’t keep her in the dungeon forever.”
“Why not?”
“Because if I want her to become my spy, I have to treat her as such. I have to show her that I’m bending, that I’m softening toward her so she softens toward me, even if the truth is the opposite. I still need to play the part. This constant standoff between the two of us isn’t working. But if I remove her from the dungeon, she needs watching.”
“Watching?”
“She needs a warden because she can’t be left alone.”
He nodded. “That’s true.”
“And the guards?”
I shook my head. “I don’t trust them against her magic. They are just regular men, and if something were to happen to Mordred’s binding, they would be helpless against her. No, her warden needs to be magically able.” Lance nodded again as I chuckled. “Now name me a man I can trust behind closed doors with a woman who looks like that.”
Lance’s jaw tightened.
“Exactly.” I looked back outside at the dark of night.
She should be here. With us.
“Every knight in this castle stared at her in that hall,” I continued, ignoring the dragon because the only words I had for it would no doubt send it into a rage. “I daresay half of them fell in love with her the second she stepped foot into the room, and the other half are simply better at hiding it. I put any one of them in a room alone with her, and I’m not gaining intelligence; I’m losing another soldier to a pair of violet eyes.”
