Page 6 of Lies That Bind
This was it. My first war room meeting. My father used to spend hours here with Jace’s dad, planning what the next move in the war would be. Then he’d come home and tell me over dinner about the different battle strategies our fleet used and why. I’d literally been training for this my entire life, and yet I felt so small and wildly out of place at that moment. I felt like an imposter. The only reason I stood here was because I was born of my father’s bloodline. That was it.
“What is a lieutenant doing here?” Admiral Mirza asked as he eyed Elaine’s rank pin.
Elaine opened her mouth to speak, but I beat her to it.
“She’s my most trusted advisor,” I told him, daring him with my gaze to fight me on this. My father told me that one day, when I took over for him, I’d have to push to gain the respect he had. That his men wouldn’t follow anyone weak.
The admiral cleared his throat but nodded.
I approached the table. “I’m eager to listen to all of your ideas on how we can make the Luskins pay after what they did in Riverine, so let’s hear it.”
The large oak table looked like it had seen hundreds of hours of battle itself. It was covered in knicks, scratches, and coffee cup rings, but I felt so honored to stand over it. It came to about waist high, with no chairs, and right now it was covered with maps of Luska and figurines that signified their army and bases.
Three hours, dinner, and two cups of coffee later, I’d heard every idea. I listened with rapt attention and head nods, giving my opinion and hearing theirs. My team of advisor’s best idea was something they had argued over for nearly an hour. It involved sending in a lethal team of a dozen assassins via a ground assault to plant explosives at the Red Palace in Luska Square. But I nixed it because there was no way a dozen men with a dozen creatures were getting clear into the capital without getting caught, tortured, and eventually killed. There was a reason we hadn’t tried that before. I didn’t want to lose men just for the sake of trying something new. The Luskins would hang their bodies on the Wall to humiliate us. No, it needed to be a plan we could execute perfectly.
“We could poison the river. It flows that way, and we would warn Imbria not to drink from it or bathe?—”
I cut Commander Ledger off. “No way. That would kill innocent civilians. Luskin children play in the river. We abide by the War Code even when Luska does not,” I warned.
Rule number one: No killing civilians on purpose.
I had never faulted Luskin citizens for their war-thirsty rulers.
The commander glared at me. “Luskin children who will grow up to be Luskin soldiers.”
I nodded. “Andthenwe will kill them, but not a moment before.”
I wasn’t sure what kind of ship my father had been running, but poisoning children wasn’t going to happen under my rule.
“There has to be another plan,” I said, starting to feel my mind fraying at the edges. How long ago did I see my father’s dead body lie in the morgue with purple lips? Was that just this morning? It felt like ages ago. I hadn’t slept in what felt like years, and I still had to see my sisters and name a successor and?—
“We need to go back to the idea of sending in an elite team,” the commander said. “A dozen of my best men. They know the consequences. They are willing to die for revenge.” Many of his generals grunted their agreement.
I rolled my eyes, losing my patience with this plan. “You seriously think that after what they did in Riverine, they won’t be watching the border like crazy? They will have checkpoints every quarter mile, creatures patrolling with super-smelling capabilities. It’s reckless, it won’t work, and it will make us look like fools.” I’d been taking battle strategy training since I was a child, from my own father. It was a bad plan.
My advisors didn’t like my calling their plan reckless. I could tell by the steely gazes they were giving me.
“What do you suggest then, Empress?” Admiral Blade asked. “We shoot some fire over the Wall like usual and hope we hit something?”
He was condescending, and I didn’t appreciate it.
‘They will be watching the ground, but they won’t be watching the skies,’Liana interjected.
I cocked my head to the side.‘What do you mean?’
I had long come to terms with the fact that my creature could listen in on my conversations, or read minds, or both.
‘I can fly, so can Onyx. We can deliver the payload to the Red Palace and blow it sky high.’
Chills raced the length of my arms. Kohen and I? Fly into Luska and blow up the Red Palace? It was crazy. Or genius. Or both.
“They won’t be watching the skies. I could fly on my creature and deliver the explosive over the Red Palace,” I told the surrounding men and women.
Eyes widened, mouths opened, and several ‘No’s’ were uttered, but the commander appraised me with a head cocked. “You’re our empress. You could not go alone.”
I hated what I was about to suggest and how they would react to it.
“Kohen Badshah also has a flying creature,” I said. The worst part was that I knew he’d do it, too. For me. For my dead father. For Amersea.
