A Promise of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles, #1)(116)

“Or more,” Griffin says, not helping my nerves. “What about the projects and responsibilities we announced earlier?” he asks.

I shrug. “More surprise than real resistance. Interest, really. Some people, like Agatone and Urania, seem to think the ideas are good and that Sinta will be stronger for them.”

“And here you thought the nobles would all have internal fits when Egeria said they were to spearhead opening healing centers in their areas.”

“They did. Sort of. They got over it faster than I thought they would.”

“What about my requirement that they begin taking more responsibility for shoring up the defenses of their local towns and cities?”

“Same reaction. Mostly surprise. They’ve never been asked to do anything before except pay their taxes and sit around being superior.” I worry my bottom lip, contemplating the possible outcomes we’ve been discussing for days. “I still think letting them build up their own forces is a risk. They might turn into rebellious city-states. They could become too powerful.”

“And I told you, I’ll give them incentives to stay loyal: gold, privileges, my ear so they’ll know their voices matter.” Griffin looks beyond me, surveying the crowd. “Everyone showed up tonight. No one has done anything offensive. You haven’t uncovered any plots to murder or overthrow us. They just want to maintain their status. Otherwise they would have done something by now.”

He’s probably right. “At least Mylos doesn’t need extra protection.”

“No, but it needs a healing center.” He winks. “I’ll personally ask Calandra to be in charge of it.”

I snort. “She’ll love that.”

“She’ll love having a say and getting to push healers around. Most of these people are just bored. It’s up to me to get them doing something useful rather than something destructive.”

My temples are throbbing, but I find a smile for him. “And that is why you’re a wise ruler.”

Griffin draws me farther into the alcove, saying quietly, “But beyond all this, we can’t just sit on our hands if Alpha Tarva is preparing to move against us. We only delayed his plans at Ios. Galen Tarva won’t give up that easily.”

“What if it’s not Alpha Tarva? What if it’s his sister, Acantha? She might have planned it all.”

“You have a theory?” he asks.

I always have a theory. “She eliminates all of you and then sets herself up as Alpha Sinta. That way, she doesn’t have to kill her brother or her nephews, which could prove difficult, she ends up with allies next door, and she still gets her own throne, which is all she really wants.”

Griffin frowns. “Alpha Fisa won’t want two realms allied against her. Would she attack?”

I’m having trouble thinking over my excruciating headache. I take a deep breath, but it doesn’t help. “She’d strengthen her border, but I don’t think she’d attack. She’d probably think no one would dare invade Fisa, and not be too worried if they did. Fisans are pretty convinced of their own superiority.”

“You don’t say?” Griffin drawls.

I give him the evil eye. It doesn’t feel very evil. “Magic is strongest in Fisa. It has the biggest chunk of the Ice Plains, and the Fisan royals are the only ones still blood-related to the Origin.”

“The Origin? You mean the first king of Thalyria?”

“He was a God, remember. Zeus’s son. Half-Olympian, half-Titan. A combination of the old Gods and the new. Zeus created Thalyria for him.”

Griffin curses. “Does that mean Andromeda has God-like power?”

I shake my head. “She’s very powerful, but the line is too diluted for that. It’s been thousands of years. Gods are immortal, not unkillable. The Origin’s demigod offspring, two sons and a daughter, turned on him. They beheaded him and then fell into war with each other, eventually splitting their father’s kingdom into three realms: Sinta, Tarva, and Fisa.”

“And Andromeda is the only living descendant of the Origin?”

“Andromeda…and her children.”

His lip curls in distaste. I think I turn a shade whiter, but I was probably pretty pasty to begin with.

“Does she hold Zeus’s favor?”

I swallow, my chest tightening with indefinable emotion, the echo of a booming voice swelling in my head. “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” Griffin asks. “She’s his blood relation.”

She’s not the only one…

Griffin is so capable that I sometimes forget we come from completely different backgrounds. In the south, people learn to fight and survive, farm and build, make and trade. Everything is like the climate, gritty and real. Ancient history is irrelevant, and Gods are worshipped, not studied. “Zeus hates infanticide because he was almost swallowed whole by his own father. In my opinion, Andromeda has brought about the death of too many of her own children to hold Zeus’s favor,” I explain.

Griffin looks out over the crowd, his eyes cool and assessing, his bearing confident and proud. People watch us curiously, but no one dares approach our private alcove. The guests here aren’t stupid enough to bother the Alpha wolf in his den. “The Power Bid is in motion. There’s no turning back.” Griffin shifts his gaze back to me. “So let’s do it our way.”