Page 40 of Ruling the Green

“Precisely. The more I think about it, the more I think this move of putting you in his daughter’s place was less about saving her from me and more about keeping her for his own future plans. Perhaps a political marriage to another of the power families.”

“But he had to know I’d speak eventually.”

“Not if he thinks whoever he has on the inside of the palace is still drugging you. I doubt his plan is for this to go on forever. He likely has a scheme that takes place within the next few weeks. A poisoning or an outright attack to take the palace by force.”

“Wouldn’t he need more than one person on the inside to do that?”

She wasn’t wrong.

It was something I had mentioned to Vishen briefly—the possibility of the entire staff at the palace being turned against my father and by extension, me. He saw my staff concern and raised me the military.

“If worse came to worst, the soldiers will go with who makes them the biggest promises. Whether or not they have any intention of making good on them.”

And as talented as Vishen was—and, if he approved of her, Nira was—they stood no chance against an entire army.

“Are we in danger?” Serin asked, likely reading the play of emotions across my face.

“Probably.” Then, not wanting her so scared that she fled and fucked things up before I could work them out, I added, “That is why it is important we found your lake, and that you continue to drink from it to keep your strength up. If at any point we need to flee, I need to know you can keep up.”

“Okay. But what is your plan?”

“It’s still in the beginning stages. Now that your situation is figured out, I can dedicate more time to working on the possible coup.”

“Can I do anything?”

“Not that I can think of right now. But I might need you and Nira at some point. I’m a little short on allies right now.”

I was hoping to change that soon, though.

I already had a way in with a lot of the common fae, since I’d been letting out prisoners and forgiving astronomical debts my father had placed on others.

But I needed better allies. Ones with coin and power. I was hoping to work on that over the next few weeks—if I had that long. There were several royal events coming up: a royal feast, a tournament, and a ball.

Everyone important would be showing up.

Which made it extra dangerous for me if there were enemies all around, but it was also my only chance to reach out to others and curry favor. There was no other way for me to get away from the castle with my father’s redcap spies tracking me down.

“What can we do? As allies?”

“Nira will protect you for me.”

“While I just stand there like a target?”

“Do Daughters of the Lake have any skills?”

“I have… water skills.”

“What does that mean?”

“I can sense things through water.”

“Sense what? Who has visited the water?”

“Well, yes, but also, I can sort of read the emotions of others through their water.”

“Their… water?”

“Tears or sweat.”