Allied (Ruined #3)(23)

“Of course,” Franco said.

“Em and I were discussing a few things, and I thought it was best if you all be involved,” Cas said. He turned to Em expectantly, and she quickly looked away from him. Galo would have been able to tell that things were strained between them even if he hadn’t known Cas was upset.

Em sat up a little straighter. “The Ruined would like to stay in Lera. Ruina is destroyed, food and . . . everything is scarce there. I’ll be honest with you, Olivia feels the same way. She plans to stay. But she intends to take cities by force.”

Danna shifted nervously in her chair.

“She’s planning to take over cities one by one, until all the humans have fled here to Royal City. She’s already started.”

“With Fayburn,” Violet said.

“Yes. I couldn’t stop her, and I don’t think I’ll be able to stop her in the future, unless Ruined and Lerans work together. But the Ruined have some conditions before that can happen.”

“What are the conditions?” Violet asked.

“Wait,” Danna interrupted. “When you say Ruined and Lerans work together, do you mean we’ll fight Olivia together?”

“Yes. And the Ruined loyal to her. I didn’t want it to come to that, but . . .” Em looked down at the table and let her voice trail off.

“How will we do that?” Danna asked.

“The Ruined will be a major help to you,” Em said. “We’re working on figuring out how many Ruined will stand with me, but I have thirty for sure, and we think it will be at least sixty when we’ve finished talking to everyone. Do you have any Weakling?”

“I don’t think so,” Cas said. He looked at Galo. “Do we?”

“No, we had some in the fortress, but none here.”

“There are fields of it in Ruina,” Em said. “And there’s no one there to stop you from taking it.”

“Do we have anyone we could send?” Cas asked Galo.

“I think so. It wouldn’t be many, but a smaller group could travel faster.”

“Is it worth it?” Cas asked Em. “Does Weakling even work on Olivia?”

“Barely, but it does slow her down. And it certainly hurts the other Ruined. We could line shields with it, put it in necklaces like your mother used to. Even stitch it into clothing. I would recommend it, regardless of our agreement,” Em said. “Olivia will come after you.”

“We’ll send someone right away, then,” Cas said. “Now tell us your conditions.”

“We want reparations,” Em said. “Homes to replace the ones that were lost, money to start rebuilding a life.”

All heads turned to Cas.

“I think that’s reasonable,” he said. “But that’s not the condition they’re going to care about, Em.”

“They want to strip the monarchy of some of its power,” Em said.

“No,” Violet said immediately. Cas looked at her in surprise. “The people love you. Absolutely not.”

“I agree,” Julieta said. “Jovita has just attempted to take over the throne, and she probably will again. Removing power from the monarchy right now could be disastrous.”

“The Ruined won’t help you if Cas goes unpunished,” Em said.

“You think he should be punished?” Violet said.

“I’m not completely innocent here,” Cas broke in. “I never even tried to stop my father from attacking the Ruined.”

“You’d agree to this?” Violet exclaimed.

He sighed. “Maybe?”

“Jovita will be delighted,” Julieta grumbled.

“Why does Cas need to be punished, but you don’t?” Violet said to Em. “You destroyed our alliance with Vallos when you murdered their princess. You led the attack that killed half the people in this castle. But it’s only Cas who needs to pay for their actions?”

Em stared at Violet solemnly, almost devoid of emotion. Galo didn’t think Cas particularly loved Em’s ability to push aside emotion to get things done, but Galo admired it.

“We want to open negotiations with you,” Em said. “If one of your conditions is that I also need to be stripped of power, then I can take that back to the Ruined.”

“I don’t think it’s much of a negotiation if your starting offer is to make Cas little more than a figurehead,” Franco said.

“That wasn’t our starting offer. I talked them down. They wanted Cas to give up the throne entirely.”

Galo looked at Cas. There was a time, only a few weeks ago, when Cas would have gladly given up the throne. He’d made that offer to Em. But Galo suspected that Cas wasn’t so willing anymore. He’d worked hard to take the throne back from Jovita, and he’d earned the respect of his people.

Violet let out a long sigh.

Em turned to Franco. “Didn’t you oppose King Salomir’s decision to attack the Ruined?”

“Yes,” Franco replied.

“But the king didn’t care. If we limit the monarchy’s power, that won’t happen again. Other people will be involved in the decision. Why is that so bad?”

“What other people?”

“We were thinking of elected representatives. Ruined and Leran. They would have certain powers that the monarchy doesn’t. They could overrule the king or queen.”