Page 36 of The Moon Blessed King
But they’re still back there, whispering, and it sets Fen’s teeth on edge. ‘I will support Elician in whatever he decides to do. Will you?’
‘Yes,’ Rodans says without a moment’s hesitation. ‘As long as it’s for the good of the nation.’
‘Thiswasfor the good of the nation,’ Fen replies. She pulls away. ‘I’m going to eat in my room.’
‘Sleep well, Princess,’ Rodans wishes. She gets her plate from the innkeeper and goes to bed. But his words lurk like a physical presence at her side.
As long as it’s for the good of the nation.
That’s the point, isn’t it?
But also.
Who gets to decide that?
For she is certain: it isn’t Rodans. And it isn’t her. But it doesn’t stop the whispers.
And the whispers are always dangerous.
At Elician’s bedside the following morning, Fen tells Cat and Lio about her conversation with the others. Neither looks surprised. ‘It was bound to happen sooner or later, someone commenting on him changing the law,’ Lio says, checking Elician over.
‘They’ll call for his removal,’ she replies.
‘They’ll try. But he just saved a city. Give his people a little credit; even they can admit this was a good job.’ King Aliamon himself couldn’t have orchestrated a better way of garnering public support. ‘At worst, he could be blamed for corruption. But he has always planned to abdicate eventually. He even has an heir publicly in place.’
‘Yes, and then you’ll be prince consort, won’t you?’ Fen asks. Lio sends her a sharp look, but he doesn’t get the chance to issue a retort.
A horn blows from the west, loud enough to tremble the walls of the city, repeating in an odd pattern that Fen doesn’t recognize. Cat stands, reaching for his sword.
‘Is it the rest of the Alelunen army? Are they here?’
‘No…’ Lio says, lips twisting from sharp irritation to something almost close to a smile. ‘That’s not one of our alarms. That’s…’ He stands up. ‘You should see this…both of you.’ He places a hand on Cat’s lower back and flicks his wrist towards the door. There are three King’s Guard in the hall already in position. Lio hurries them past the guards and out onto the street. ‘Don’t let anyone in,’ he calls to his guardsmen as they go. Then, he guides Fen and Cat through the rushing crowd of people towards the bridge separating the two halves of Altas over the stretch of the Bask River.
He shoos some people away from the edge of the wall, pulling rank and authority the whole time until they all can peer overthe edge at his excited gesturing. For there, down in the river, are whales.
Twelve of them, one right after the other, some already disappearing out of view beneath the bridge but the rest still swimming on behind. And the river is so clear, so perfect, that Fen can see everything. The grey of the whales’ skin, the white accents beneath their chins when they lift their heads, the tapering slope of their bodies, perhaps even the slight twinkle of their eyes. Cheers go up on the left, on the right. Chants. Prayers. Great guffaws of congratulations. ‘It’s a sign,’ Lio murmurs. ‘It’s sacred.’
‘It should be,’ Cat replies.
‘It’sbeautiful,’ Fen agrees. She wonders what it would be like to dive into that river, to press her hands against a creature that magnificent to learn what they feel like, to know how they live. They’re miraculous. Sublime. She has never seen anything so beautiful in all her life.
‘Thank you for showing us,’ Cat says.
‘Whales in the river means a pause in fighting,’ Lio replies, even though there already is a pause in the fighting. And the main force of the Alelunen army is still nowhere to be seen.
‘Where even is the army?’ Fen asks. ‘Hasanyoneseen them?’
‘Not since before the Kingsclave,’ Lio replies. ‘I found my parents last night—’
‘They’re all right?’ This is Cat – Cat, who should be more concerned with his own country’s fighting force than Lio’s parents but who asks the question that Elician would have. That Fenshouldhave, especially since Cat had said it was a priority earlier. She winces at the realization that it hadn’t even occurred to her to confirm that they were well.
‘They’re fine. They’ve got a cold of all things, but otherwise they’re fine,’ Lio says, setting the point aside with remarkable ease. ‘I asked them what they saw before everything happened, and they said the armywasthere. Just as it usually is, at the border of the Grünewaldforest. Our army was in its standard position, prepared to defend if anyone broke the truce. But then, that lot we have locked up in the school arrived. There was some kind of confrontation. No one knows what happened. But the main army leftbeforethat group attacked. No one has seen them since.’
‘Why would Gillage pull back the main army…why not have them attack with the others?’
‘No one knows.’
‘Do you think there will be a second attack?’ Fen asks.
