Black Crown (Darkest Drae, #3)(51)

Hold up.

“What plan?” Tyrrik beat me to the question.

Dyter glanced at us. “Using Azule’s fleet to bring back the young men from the emperor’s war overseas. Our numbers would be greatly increased by doing so.”

I stared at him, my eyes narrowing the more I heard. Finally, I snapped. Doing my best to control my frustration, I asked, “How long has this been Calvetyn’s plan?”

The tent hushed, and the tension ratcheted up a bajillion notches. Dyter looked at me, and I looked right back.

The man who had always been my mentor and protector scanned my face, no doubt picking up on the unstated accusation and my irritation for being kept out of the loop.

Dyter squared his shoulders and said, “Since Calvetyn was sent to the frontline by his father. To die. He ended up meeting several key people, and the army has been ready to return and fight with us. It is why the rebellion first accepted Calvetyn into their midst. He merely required the means to bring the army back, but Azule has more than enough boats to achieve this. Our army could be increased within a few days, doubled within a month if the plan is undertaken immediately.”

I clenched my jaw, holding Dyter’s gaze. At what point was he going to tell me all of this? He’d found time to tell the Gemondian’s. He’d obviously known Cal’s plan before leaving Verald. Dyter had travelled for months with me, with the specific intention of opening negotiations with Azule for this very purpose.

I was a part of this. Not to toot my own horn, but I was a big part of it. By the end of the war, I’d either be slave to my father or finally free. I was investing my powers, my life, and my mind to the cause, risking every single one of them. At one point, months ago, I hadn’t wanted to know anything, but that time was long gone, and I knew Dyter knew that.

“I don’t appreciate being kept in the dark,” I said, in what I believed to be a mostly calm voice.

No one else spoke.

“There’s hardly been time,” Dyter countered.

One minute in the last three weeks. That’s all it would have taken to say: Oh, and Calvetyn-will-be-asking-Azule-to-send-their-boats-and-retrieve-the-overseas-army. I pursed my lips, wanting to call Dyter out on it, but I wouldn’t embarrass him in front of the other rulers. He was worthy of more respect than that. I just needed him to acknowledge I was no longer the same oblivious-Ryn who’d worked for him in the tavern all that time ago. I tilted my head and asked, “Do I look the same as the girl in The Crane’s Nest?”

He sighed, unsurprisingly understanding my unspoken context. He scrubbed his palm down his face and then said, “You don’t, Ryn. And I apologize. It was remiss of me not to ensure you knew of the plan.”

I searched his gaze, seeing only the same Dyter I’d always known. His sincerity rang true, and his eyes were filled with love as they always had been for me and my mum. I decided to take him at face value, literally. I nodded and admitted, “We have been busy.”

Tyrrik leaned forward, tapping a black talon on the wood. “Is there anything else Ryn and I haven’t been informed about that you would like to tell us now?” He looked at Zakai, Zarad, and then Dyter. No one spoke, and Tyrrik nodded. “Let’s make sure we all act in good faith moving forward.”

“How will Azule react when an army shows up on their doorstep?” I asked. “Do we know how Queen Mily thinks? What she will do?”

The tension in the tent lowered somewhat, the Gemondians talking over the top of each other about how little information we had about the Azulis.

Was I overreacting? I seized the lull to ask Tyrrik.

No, Tyrrik responded immediately. But you’re not the only one who needs to accustom themselves to the changes in you. I believe Dyter just saw that. And those who knew you before you went to the forest.

I exhaled slowly and studied the group.

“I had planned to send an envoy ahead of the army,” Zakai replied.

Because I was watching the group, I saw the woman who’d challenged me flinch. I crossed my arms and asked, “You don’t agree with that, Commander?”

She jerked in her seat, her attention jumping to me, and then she darted a look at Zakai and wet her lips. “Not exactly. I mean, no. I believe arriving with the army might come across threatening, but to send in a single emissary is just a different risk. We don’t know how an envoy will be received any more than the army.” She shrugged. “How could a message convey what we need to say? How can we be certain of Azule’s allegiance or whether they’ll trick us? I think it wiser to see their eyes when brokering for the freedom of nations.”

“What are you proposing, Commander?’ the prince asked. “You want to send in how many?”

Tyrrik shook his head. “She doesn’t want to send in a group of messengers; she’s proposing we go ourselves.” He grinned. “I like it.”

“We don’t send an envoy. We send a small show of power,” Dilowa added. “Not enough to threaten but enough to make them pause if they are considering foul play.”

“I like it too,” I said. “I’m going.” There’s no way I wasn’t meeting the Azule leader to get the measure of her. Or him.

“As am I,” Tyrrik said. “If we wait to leave until the army is within a day’s walk of Azule, Ryn and I can be here in a couple of hours or so if Draedyn attacks.”