Page 118 of Shadow Queen
Caspian’s lips formed a thin line. “You should come.”
She’d thought it wasn’t possible to feel any more anxious. She’d been wrong.
Norah quickly followed Caspian to the stables with a looming sense of dread. When she saw Soren and Adrian, she let out a breath of relief. But her relief quickly turned to anger. “Where have you been?” she demanded before she even reached them. She looked at Adrian. “I’ve been avoiding your brother like the Cold Death.” Turning her attention to the commander, she said, “When I mentioned that you should go hunting, I didn’t mean immediately. And what took you so long in returning?”
“We didn’t go hunting,” Adrian said.
She paused, her eyes bouncing between the two of them. “Then where have you been?”
“Doing as you requested,” Soren answered. “Finding a solution.”
Norah felt a weight in her stomach. “For what?”
“Your pirates,” he said, and motioned to a group of boys in one of the horse stalls awaiting their fates.
She raised a brow. “Those aren’t pirates.”
“No,” Soren said, “they’re the sons of pirate captains. And while in our care, the North’s ships will no longer be attacked.”
Norah looked at him, bewildered. Her bewilderment turned to a sickness rising up in her throat. “Where did you get these children?”
“The inlet port city,” he said matter-of-factly.
Norah shook her head, a horror swelling inside her. “They’re hostages?” she stammered.
He shrugged. “Wards,” he suggested.
She brought a hand to her head, trying to calm her breath and think. “Wait, there are many more pirates than just those out of the port city.”
“All you need is a few,” he told her. “They’ll keep the others away.”
She shook her head again. “What happens if a Mercian ship is attacked?”
The commander frowned. “Salara, you knew my methods wouldn’t be favored, yet you asked me regardless.”
She huffed a small breath. “I didn’t mean—”
“You said you needed the Destroyer. I’ve provided you a near guaranteed solution with no lives lost.”
“Unless a ship is attacked!”
He shrugged. “I doubt that will happen. But if it does, then yes, and only one will be required to send a message.”
“We won’t harm a child!” she snapped.
“Then how many men are you willing to lose? Is one pirate boy worth the lives of twenty-eight soldiers? Is he worth all the men you lost before, or those you’ve yet to lose?”
“I can’t answer a question like that,” she whispered.
“You need to do what’s necessary. That’s the worst case. It’s most likely these boys will be kept safely as wards of the crown, as their fathers won’t seek to put their lives in danger, and then they’ll be exchanged in a few years.”
Norah looked at the boys with a heavy weight in her chest. “I can’t do that.”
“Is that not why I’m here?” he growled. “Consider this situation resolved.”
Norah forced out a breath. “You will not, under any circumstances, harm a child.Ever. Pirate or no.” She turned to Caspian. “Have the men see them fed and placed somewhere safe,nota horse stall, until I can figure out what to do with them.” Then to Adrian, “I would advise you not to announce your part in this to your brother.”
Adrian nodded. “I kind of figured.”
