Page 157 of Shadow Queen
His eyes blazed a dark fire, ardent and fierce. “You just saw the best warriors of the Kharavian army call for a Northman to receive a position of status and a most coveted entitlement.” He paused, almost seeming proud. “He rises.”
Norah sat in the throne room, nearly suffocating from the tension of the air. Mikael sat beside her, facing his nobles who filled the room in front of them.
This was her doing.
At her insistence, Mikael had declined Gregor’s invitation to visit Japheth. Surely it had been a trap. His words were too kind, too flattering, very unlike what he had shown in Kharav. He was wooing Mikael to come. And she didn’t trust him. In response to the offense, Gregor stopped all trade—to wait until they discussed it in person, he said. Of course, this reached the nobles, who demanded an audience.
The relationship between the royals and nobles was different in Kharav than in Mercia. They held more power here; and the nobles weren’t happy with Mikael. They didn’t approve of his marriage to her, especially after he annulled his marriages to several of their daughters and executed a member of a noble family. And they most certainly didn’t approve of his jeopardizing the alliance with Japheth.
They blamed her. Of course a marriage between Kharav and Mercia would offend Japheth. Mikael had told her Gregor had been upset that they hadn’t attacked the Mercian army right after her capture. It was a prime opportunity—perhaps the only opportunity—to defeat her army and leave Phillip without an ally by his side. Alexander had driven her army across the Tribelands, and they were weak and vulnerable. She remembered the army of Japheth had been ready to unite with Mikael and attack, only for Mikael to send Mercia home to safety.
Then came the incident that killed King Gregor’s nephew, which they blamed the North for, followed by Norah’s confrontation with Gregor in protecting Soren. In their eyes, Norah was threatening the alliance between Japheth and Kharav, and Mikael was letting her.
“Your actions weaken us,” one of the nobles said to Mikael sharply. Narsing was his name, and Mikael’s previous wife Heta was his daughter. Norah had seen him only a few times before, but she knew him enough to know she didn’t like him, and enough to fear him. He was one of the more powerful lords, and his lands stretched a good portion of the border between Kharav and Japheth.
“We give the North provisions, men, horses,” he said. Then he looked at Norah. “And what does she give in return? Nothing, no steel goods—although they readily sell them in Tarsus. They don’t even allow us the ability to forge what we need if we were to buy it ourselves. It doesn’t feel like an alliance. The North Queen doesn’t even give an heir.”
Mikael rose abruptly, and Soren moved forward from where he stood beside the king. Fear flashed through her. They had enough to face from outside threats. They didn’t need a battle within as well.
Norah rose from her throne, and all eyes turned to her. “I understand your frustrations, Lord Narsing. But I assure you, Mercia is Kharav’s ally.”
“You don’t act as one,” he challenged.
Anger heated her blood. “I’ve returned Bahoul.”
“So you gave us what was already ours,” he countered. “Is this all the strength Salar has?”
Narsing was faulting Mikael—judging him—for what they saw as her shortcomings, and giving ever so subtly the threat of what his failure could bring. Regardless of how subtle, that threat brought her blood to a boil.
“I gave you what Mercia took from you, and what I can take again,” she snapped back. She was not a weak queen to be bullied, and Mercia wasn’t a weak kingdom. They would do well to remember that. But she didn’t care for what they thought of her, more that they supported Mikael. They needed to believe in their king.
“Salar has also spoken to me of shipments of steel trade,” she said, “to which I have agreed.”
Murmurs rippled across the nobles in approval. Mercian steel would be of great importance to them. Mikael hadn’t discussed this with her, but she knew it was on his mind and that he wanted it. He needed it now, and he would have it.
“That’s a start,” Narsing said as he looked back at Mikael. “When can we expect the first shipment?”
“I only await word from my council on mining status.” Her stomach twisted as she thought of her council. They would never agree.
She needed to make them.
Chapter forty-eight
Alexanderstoodoverhisdesk, resting his weight on his palms on the corners. He stretched his neck to one side, then the other; he’d been sitting all day.
“You’ve not moved since I saw you this morning,” came a voice, and he looked up to see the Kharavian captain in the doorway.
“I’m standing this time.”
Her eyes smiled. “Barely.” She tossed an apple at him, and he caught it. “So many papers. Now I see why you Northmen can’t fight. You spend all your time doing this kind of work.”
He chuckled. “I don’t know about that—we’ve done a pretty good job fighting back you lot over the past ten years.”
“Luck.”
He chuckled again. But if he was honest with himself, he’d certainly had luck on his side. The Shadowlands were the fiercest of kingdoms, and it had taken everything he’d had to hold the mountains. In truth, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could have sustained.
The Shadowmen.For so long, he’d known them as enemies. But he didn’t truly know them. He looked at Katya, and he couldn’t deny the questions needling him. He wanted to know them more. He wanted to know her more.
