Page 67 of Bloodwitch

“The… troops?” She angled back. “I don’t understand, sir.”

He snorted, a sound that suggested Vivia was being intentionally obtuse. “As Admiral, I decide when, where, and how we face this Raider King. So I have done just that.” Without waiting for Vivia to respond to such an announcement, he launched into a description of his plans for advancing troops into the Sirmayans—plans he’d made with generals and lower admirals in the Royal Soil-Bound and Navy.

Plans he had apparently made over the last two weeks. Without once consulting her.

And all Vivia could do was stare. Serafin clearly didn’t realize she had gone to Marstok yesterday. In fact, he seemed to have no idea she’d left the city at all.

More importantly, he was not Admiral of the Royal Forces. As Queen-in-Waiting, Vivia was the one who appointed that position. As of yet, she had named no one—and as of yet, she still wore that title herself. Meaning all of these plans he had made were both unwelcome and unhelpful.

She couldn’t say that, though. Not to Serafin. Just the thought of raising such a point made her heart quake like a field mouse. Which was ridiculous, of course. Everything her father did was for her sake.

Is it, though?nudged a new voice.Just because he says that doesn’t make it true. After all, he did steal your speech—

No, no. Vivia snapped her head sideways. She wouldn’t think like that. She had been upset yesterday because she had been surprised. She was better now.

Serafin rambled on, thoroughly oblivious, lifting papers off his desk and rattling them in the air with all the emphasis and power the old Serafin used to command.

“At their current pace, the raiders will reach our borders in four days. His Icewitches are powerful, so we will need to eliminate them first.”

“Ice… witches?” Vivia heard how stilted she sounded, but she had no idea what her father was talking about. Nor any idea what all these papers he was shaking actually said.

And for the first time since Vivia had entered the room, her father’s expression relaxed. “Of course, of course. You have not read all the missives from the watchtowers.” He smiled, a warm, charming thing that was so different from the man of two weeks ago, still bedridden and scowling.

Vivia ought to love seeing her father smile like that. She ought to love seeing him stand tall and true. Instead, nausea gathered in her chest.

She swallowed. “What missives from the watchtowers? Why have I not seen these?”

“Because I am Admiral.”

“I am Queen-in-Waiting. They should come to me.”

“Hye, Vivia, hye. If you truly wish, I can have them sent to you. I only want what’s best for you.” He flashed that smile again, but now it was tinged with condescension. Like she were a child insisting on eating supper with the adults. “Your mother never did want them, though, so I assumed you wouldn’t either. You are so very like her, you know.”

Her mind blanked out at those words, her throat went dry. She didn’t want to be like her mother, with madness in her brain. She wanted to be sure and strong like Serafin.

Do you, though?the voice persisted.Just because he has always told you that you do, doesn’t make it true.Yet again, Vivia thrust that thought aside. “What,” she forced out, “do all these messages say?”

“That the Raider King has begun his advance.” Again, Serafin shook papers at her. “That his Icewitches freeze the Timetz, and that his forces are vast. However, we Nubrevnans know that terrain better than he or his raiders. But I just said all this—were you not listening, Vivia?”

Hye. She had been listening, and now she had enough information to fill in the gaps and understand the full meaning behind his strategy to topple the Raider King.

He intended to send all of their forces, soil-bound and naval, to the northern borders. He intended to use their knowledge of the terrain against the raiders, stopping them before they ever reached Nubrevna. And on the surface, that strategy was a sound one; Vivia would have expected no less from her father. But there was also one gaping hole in it.

“What happens if you lose? Then there will be no soldiers left to defend the city.”

“That won’t happen.” Serafin chuckled, a sound to make others feel small. “We will face him, and we will win.”

But what if you don’t?

Had this exchange happened two years ago, before the wasting disease had struck, Vivia would have gone right along with her father’splans, no questions asked vocally or internally. Right now, though, all she could see were theholes.

If all of their troops died, then Lovats would once more be under siege. And while siege had always been Nubrevna’s salvation during wartime, this city was not the city it had been twenty years ago. The storerooms werenotthe storerooms from twenty years ago.

Vivia knew Lovats, inside and out. From its buildings, stacked atop one another and growing higher every day, to its inner veins and passages and waterways. She had explored and studied every inch, first with her mother as a child, then on her own. And what she had learned after twenty years was that, when Jana had died, any concern for the city’s infrastructure had died too.

Serafin had seen how easily the dam had broken two weeks ago, yet somehow, he still believed these walls and bridges were strong enough to hold back an army. And somehow, he believed these walls and bridges were strong enough to support hundreds of thousands of refugees.

“I have dealt with raiders before, Vivia.” His patronizing smile left his eyes. “I understand exactly what awaits me at the border.”