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Luc took up his usual position on her right.

She said nothing, waiting, until eventually the noise died out.

“I have just come from the Jatan border,” she said, keeping her voice to a normal level, forcing everyone to stay quiet. But her words were too much for some of those present, and the chatter rose, then fell again when she said nothing more.

“Why weren’t we told?” Ava recognized Lady Elna, the noble who’d been speaking when Raun-Tu had first entered the room.

That was a good question. Or it would be, if she really had left a few days ago for the Jatan border.

Ava had a feeling she didn’t have enough information to answer correctly.

General Ru bent over as she hesitated, and Ava saw her hands were shaking, just a little. “Because some of the nobles have been conspiring against the Rising Wave, and they might have tried to make trouble with you gone,” she whispered.

Ava nodded.

“What’s that fork-tongued Venyatux whispering in your ear, your majesty?” Lord Haster was someone Ava remembered well. He seemed relatively forthright, but he was also power hungry and bitter that his power was about to be diluted.

“General Ru, who saved my life many times on my journey to Fernwell, and is an honorable and trustworthy ally, was updating me on what her intelligence agents have uncovered in my short absence.” Ava finally rose. “What do you think the nobles who do not want change to come to Kassia would have done if they had known I was traveling to deal with the Jatan?”

The councillors, made up of the normal citizens of the city and its surroundings, were on the right side of the room, the nobles on the left. Ava noticed the commoners looking across the aisle with speculation.

“General Ru has not produced an ounce of proof of any insurgency—”

“That is because I was the one who uncovered it.” Luc spoke for the first time.

A lot of the nobles jerked their gaze to look at him, then looked down. Ava wondered why they kept forgetting who and what he was.

The most dangerous and powerful man in the room.

It was as if they didn’t want to acknowledge that he had bested them.

“On my way to deal with the Jatan, I personally came across the troops who were lured off the streets of Fernwell to cause trouble in the countryside. They were instructed to shoot me on sight.” He turned to General Ru. “What has Lord Cynera had to say for himself about that?”

“He has gone on the run, rather than answer the questions we had for him.” General Ru rocked back on her heels.

“Have the soldiers we found come back to Fernwell, and given themselves in?” Luc asked Dak, who was still standing by the door to the antechamber.

“Some.” He nodded, and Ava thought she saw amusement in his gaze. “As well as some soldiers who fought us on the plains. They said you’d told them it was safe.”

“That’s good.” He let the silence stretch out.

“Why did you need to make a deal with the Jatan?” Lady Elna obviously saw the trap of pursuing questions about the nobles’ loyalty, and decided to move on.

“They had breached the border, and were raiding Kassian villages in the north, going down as far as Cervantes.” Ava clasped her hands together. “The Commander rode out to assess the situation, as you would be aware, and he sent back a messenger to say they were willing to deal.”

“You had no right to deal on our behalf,” one of the councillors, Jitco May, said, his voice cutting through the murmurs.

“I had every right.” Ava drew herself up, and turned to him. “The Jatan needed to be certain they were dealing with someone in a position to deliver what was agreed. They were killing Kassian civilians. We here in Fernwell were not at the point in our negotiations where a new governing body could ratify an agreement, and let me remind you, these talks are at my instigation. I am the duly crowned queen, and if I choose, I could remain so. This was not a normal succession. It was hard fought, and the people who led the fighting are standing on either side of me. I have offered Kassia a more collaborative system, in the interests of the whole region, but until that system is strong and fair, the hard decisions devolve to me. Or do you say otherwise?”

Jitco May watched her for a beat, then lowered his gaze. “No.”

“Good. Then I can tell you that the Jatan are returning to their side of the border with no more fighting, and they will pay reparations. We, in turn, will withdraw our claim to their mines, and return to our side.”

“Those mines are worth a lot,” Lord Haster muttered.

“Those mines are not ours,” Ava replied. “Now, I have been riding for days. Our supplies were washed away when we crossed a river in full flood, and for three of those days, there was no food.” She looked down at herself ruefully, lifting the loose fabric of her dress away from her body as if in illustration. “I will ask your leave for a day to recover, and then we can meet again to start our talks in earnest.”

There was a general murmur of agreement.