The Mirror King (The Orphan Queen, #2)(101)
She nodded and wrote a note to herself.
“A waste of resources,” Harrison Symonds said.
I turned my glare on him. “The only other option is giving up, and I’m not willing to do that. Not when there’s still hope.”
“Is there still hope?” Lord Symonds rose and leaned forward, his hands flat on the table. His wife touched his arm and shook her head, but he ignored her. “Most of the continent has fallen to the wraith. A hundred years of wiser minds than yours have worked to contain or stop the wraith. The barrier in Liadia failed after only a year—”
“Then what do you propose?” My fingernails dug into my palms. “Should we sit here and wait to die? Tell thousands of people out there that we’ve given up? If you thought the riots were bad before—”
“I suppose you would know about the common people?”
“I know enough to tell you this: people are scared. In Skyvale, it was this constant, low-grade terror. Knowing the wraith was coming, knowing they could do nothing about it.”
“They could have stopped using magic,” Prince Colin said. “They could have turned in the flashers among them.”
“Some did.” My chest ached. “They told the police and left signals for Black Knife. But mostly, they wanted to be able to trust their king and queen. Their princes. They wanted to believe in the people whose responsibility it was to care for them. They wanted to trust that their leaders would find a way to keep them safe from the wraith. And now you want me to tell my people that we’ve given up.”
“Just two men.” Melanie’s words jerked me back into the present. The Grays, the Calloways, Lady Symonds, and even the guards—they were all staring at Prince Colin, Harrison, and me. Melanie’s tone remained level. “Not we.”
I shook my head. “No matter what I said, it would be we. No one would care about the difference. Besides, if I allowed that kind of announcement to be made, it would mean I’d given up, too. And I won’t do that.”
“You don’t have a choice.” Prince Colin strode toward me, just a hair too close for politeness. “You’re a queen in name only. I remain overlord.”
I stood, tipping my chair back, and closed the gap between us, suddenly in his space. “Wrong again. As you said, the Indigo Kingdom is gone. Your king is dead. You’re the heir to a falling kingdom, and your claim to the title of overlord is empty. That leaves you with two choices: leave Aecor, or admit you are now a refugee. In accordance with the Wraith Alliance, you are welcome to stay here as a ward of the independent kingdom of Aecor.”
The council room was silent, save Lord Symonds’s “I humbly respect my queen’s wishes.”
I wanted to see their faces, but there was no way I was turning away from Prince Colin. “Paige, prepare for my coronation. Tomorrow is the ten-year anniversary of the One-Night War, the anniversary of Aecor losing its king and queen. At noon, I will take the crown, and Aecor will have a queen once more.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“No. This is outrageous.” Prince Colin’s neck turned red. “This isn’t how the Wraith Alliance works.”
“Actually, it is.” James grabbed a folder from the center of the council table. “The Wraith Alliance states that if any kingdom and its sovereign should fall to the wraith, wards would be returned to their home kingdoms and be under rule of the rightful king or queen. The rightful Queen of Aecor is Wilhelmina.” He pulled a stack of papers from the folder: the revised Wraith Alliance. “It’s all here, if you’d like to refamiliarize yourself with it.”
Prince Colin snatched the document and skimmed through to the parts concerning wardship. “This is outrageous. I have been ruling Aecor Territory for ten years. I am the overlord—”
“Not anymore.” I made my words hard. “I won’t continue this conversation. If you continue to resist, you will be in violation of the Wraith Alliance, which your king signed in good faith that all his subjects—you included—would obey.”
From the corner of my eyes, I caught amused and amazed looks.
Prince Colin slammed the document on the table just as an explosion sounded in the northwest. Shocks rippled through the ground and floor of the castle.
People shouted, and guards rushed to protect their charges. I raced for the nearest window, ignoring James’s orders for me to find safety, and threw open the shutters to let in a rush of early spring air.
A pillar of deep gray smoke rose above Snowhaven Bridge.
Others weren’t far behind me. They gasped and swore. Someone started to pray.
“James, send rescue teams to the bridge. Everyone we can spare.”
“Right away.” His steps were clipped as he hurried from the room, calling a handful of others to join him.
“Oh, saints.” Melanie came to stand beside me, and together we watched the plume rise into the pale blue sky. “People are jumping.”
Small, flailing bodies dropped into the water. Even from this distance, we could hear the shrieking of metal as suspension wires loosened and the bridge couldn’t hold itself up. The deck was splitting apart, dripping toward the bay.
“They’re trying to swim to shore.” I leaned on the windowsill. “We need to get those people out of the water before the deck falls in. The suction will drown them. Boats. We need boats.”