The Orphan Queen (The Orphan Queen #1)(30)

Ah, now I recognized the land. There was the Indigo Kingdom’s western reaches—West Pass Watch—and Liadia and other fallen kingdoms covering most of the paper. The bands of hashes were twelve different colors, one for every month of the year, presumably. “The bands get narrower.”

The captain tapped the map. “Because the wraith’s progress has slowed. It doesn’t cover as much new ground every month as it did previously.”

I dragged my gaze over the colored ink. There were small scribbles on the northwestern end of Liadia, hard to read from this distance. “What’s that in Liadia?”

“Unfounded rumors.” Clint returned to his seat. “Nothing you need to worry about, Your Grace.”

The crown prince glared at the map a moment longer before he continued his earlier lecture, as though I’d never interrupted. “There are pockets of magic use in Skyvale and the rest of the Indigo Kingdom. They’re why the wraith magic still creeps toward us. They’re why it hasn’t halted its approach. But if those pockets were stopped—well, smoke eventually dissipates.”

“Dissipates, yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s vanished. Like magic, it cannot be destroyed.”

He regarded me with a carefully neutral expression. “That is true. However, we have no reason to believe the wraith won’t settle or ease, and the world will be safe to live in again. The fact remains that magic use will only draw the wraith closer until the Indigo Kingdom is the wraithland.”

Could that be true? It seemed unlikely wraith would ever just go away, but could halting all magic really allow the wraith to settle enough so the world became livable? It was hard to believe there was anything but darkness in our future.

“Not everyone with magic will want to stop using it,” I said, and the others nodded agreement.

Some people couldn’t stop. Though it sometimes took all my will to avoid using my power selfishly, there were others compelled to use their abilities selflessly—to help and heal. Surely, healing couldn’t be wrong.

“That’s why they’re arrested when they’re caught,” said Clint. “Because they won’t stop.”

My voice came as thin as silk. “What happens to them?”

Silence fluttered through the room.

“They’re dealt with.” General Adam Goldberg’s voice was gruff. “Let’s move on.”

I drew a shaky breath. “Beyond putting a stop to magic use, what is being done to combat the wraith? General”—I turned to Fredrick—“you said you have men at West Pass Watch and all along the western border.”

He nodded. “Brave men from all over the Indigo Kingdom.”

“Supplemented,” added Colin Pierce, “with draftees from Aecor Territory.”

My mouth went dry. Patrick had been right. “They’re taken against their will?”

If my question offended him, Colin didn’t show it. “Aecor was responsible for so much wraith. If they’d joined the Wraith Alliance when it formed one hundred years ago, Liadia might still be here.”

I couldn’t speak. Lady Julianna wouldn’t be able to, either. But for such different reasons.

My fingernails dug into the seat of my chair, aching.

“We’re giving Aecorians a chance to redeem themselves. We’re giving them a chance to help keep the Indigo Kingdom—and Aecor, of course—safe.”

Dizziness pressed inside my head. Hearing the horrifying rumor confirmed made me sick. My people. Thrown onto the front lines to be slaughtered.

“My lady?”

I held up a hand, but couldn’t speak. Angry tears crowded my throat, and I had to look down before someone saw them threatening in my eyes.

The prince stood. “We’ll adjourn until next week. I’m certain by then Lady Julianna will feel more able to withstand these talks.”

There was grumbling, but a few minutes later, the generals, Colin, and Clint filed out of the room; the last paused just before laying his hand on my shoulder, like he thought better of it at the last moment.

Finally, the room was empty, except for the prince, his bodyguard, and me.

Tobiah didn’t move from his place. His tone was hard and unimpressed. “I invited you here because I believed you could handle the discussion.”

I mustered my voice, because I had to give some kind of excuse for my reaction. “It will never be safe.” The words came roughly. “Not the Indigo Kingdom. Not Aecor. Liadia has already shown that kind of faith to be a lie.”

Tobiah and James exchanged a look, and finally Tobiah said, “I know how difficult it can be to move beyond traumatic points in your life.”

“Not everyone has the luxury of being able to move beyond them,” I rasped.

“When I was younger,” said the prince, “something happened to me.”

Oh yes. I knew. But Tobiah had had a family to return home to. He’d lost nothing beyond his innocence of what people could do to one another, and that innocence had only fallen away on the ledge with me while we watched his people massacre mine.

“It isn’t something I speak of often, but it left a mark. I don’t know that we ever fully move past that kind of trauma.”

I pushed myself up, palms flat against the table. “I think I should retire to my quarters for now.”