Page 37 of With Wing And Claw

Until they knew how successfully the three new courts would be ruled. Until they could be sure Thysandra would not lead this one into flaming disaster. No one spoke the words out loud, but she could read them in every pair of eyes in the room.

She cleared her throat. ‘But say we assume that roughly a third of them will choose to stay allied to our court …’

‘We never produce much in the winter,’ Gadyon said, shaking his head. ‘A few carts of cabbages aren’t going to keep this castle fed. So even if we can double domestic production for next year’s spring and summer – for which we should start taking measures soon, if that’s what we need – we’re still left with a gap of a few months between our provisions running out and the new harvests arriving.’

A few months.

Thysandra hadknownit would be the likely outcome of his research, and all the same, a stone sank in her stomach at the confirmation.

‘Thank you,’ she forced herself to say, calm and stoic, fighting to keep the dread from her voice. She did not wantto know what the likes of Bereas would say if they heard about these numbers – something about armed raids and conquests, in all likeliness. ‘It’s good to know what we can expect, at least. In that case, it seems to me that our only reasonable option is to swallow our pride and reach out to the other magical communities, isn’t it?’

‘Good luck with that,’ Inga muttered under her breath.

Nicanor threw her a quick glance, then raised a silvery eyebrow at Thysandra. ‘I agree, but speaking as your Lord Protector, be careful with how you spread that news. Plenty of people would rather take that food by force.’

Inga’s muffled cough sounded suspiciously like a scoff.

‘Yes, thank you,’ Thysandra hurriedly said, before Nicanor could do worse than narrow his eyes in annoyance. ‘That was going to be my next question, as a matter of fact. What approach would you recommend to communicate the decision?’

‘We should probably keep the matter quiet for now,’ he said, rubbing his fingers over his sharp jaw – visibly making an effort to rein in any biting remarks in Inga’s direction. ‘At least until we have some idea what price the rest of the archipelago will demand. If the court finds out about the plan before that time, the scaremongering and speculation will run wild, and I can’t guarantee that I’ll be able to keep that in check entirely.’

Sensible. She looked at Gadyon and Inga, who both nodded – the first more eagerly, the second with a scowl that suggested she’d have loved to disagree.

‘Alright,’ Thysandra said, straightening her wings and spine. ‘I’ll start reaching out to some of the other peoples, in that case – I think it’s best I do that in person. Gadyon, could you get me an estimate of the minimum we need until spring and an overview of the tribute volumes we’ve received per island in the past decade?’

He nodded again, then added a slightly redundant, ‘Of course.’

‘Good. Other than that, please continue the work on the list of fallen warriors I asked for and have it sent to Nicanor once you’re done. Nicanor, could you reach out to Orthea and come up with some fittingmemorial ceremony together? Please remind her that noteveryoccasion requires wine and orgies.’

His sour grin broke through, sharp as a dagger but seemingly genuine. ‘Will do.’

‘Excellent.’ She braced herself, then added as calmly as possible, ‘That leaves only the matter of the humans for now.’

All eyes shot to the slender figure perched on her chair by the desk.

‘Oh, well done,’ Inga said testily – the bite in her voice not enough to hide the tension beneath. ‘You’ve all successfully identified the human in the room. As I informed Her Majesty yesterday, I’m here to ask for full citizen’s rights, legal protection, and decent wages and housing. I don’t need to elaborate on that, do I?’

What had she said, a few minutes ago?It’s best to sneak in before sunrise and out during dinnertime …

‘No,’ Thysandra said, suppressing the confusing twinge of her heart. ‘No, you don’t need to elaborate, thank you.’

Inga clenched her jaw, waiting. Gadyon was nodding again. Nicanor sat leaning forward, his blue wings splaying out ever so slightly behind his shoulders … but like last night, when she’d summarised the matter to him, he did not object.

Did he have the faintest idea ofwhyshe was going along with this, of the threats haunting her every decision?

‘I intend to honour the requests,’ she added, almost blurting out the words. ‘And I will do so as soon as possible. That said, we may need a little time to figure out how to best go about it. We can introduce wages rather easily, but as for housing, we’ll have to decide on a suitable location that doesn’t force us to relocate too many fae.’

‘Ah, yes,’ Inga said bitterly. ‘Imagine that, relocating people against their wishes.’

There was nothing Thysandra could say in response to that.

Shetried– she opened her mouth in the hopes that some counterargument would come to her all by itself – but none of the words welling up in her held water in the slightest.That’s different, she wanted to say.That’s not at all the same thing as recruiting servants from human isles… but it was, wasn’t it?

If anything,the fae would only be made to move across the same island. The humans had been taken from all over the archipelago.

And that difference hardly strengthened her position.

‘Yes,’ she said numbly, a full five seconds too late. ‘Yes, good point.’