Chapter 6

Joelle sat in her office, holding the telephone to her ear with a shaking hand, the horrified fury she'd felt since learning of Rixham's final fall still eating through her. The line clicked over from an operator, and then Eimarille's calm voice slid through the wire, fueling Joelle's temper.

"I understand you wish to speak with me?" Eimarille asked, voice pleasantly cool in the way a viper might be right before they struck. Only Eimarille already had.

"Do you not understand what you have done?" Joelle rasped out.

"I don't believe I know what you are referring to."

Joelle clenched her left hand into a fist, joints aching with the pressure. "Your people brought down Rixham and freed all the revenants there."

"Daijal has made no inroads into Solaria."

The sheer gall of the other woman to deny what had occurred this week left Joelle momentarily speechless. When she found her voice again, it came out strained with incredulity. "You've damned the country I was supposed to rule."

"Did I?" Eimarille asked in a faintly lilting tone. "Were you? Everything was predicated on you using your vasilyet as a foil to keep the Legion occupied. Instead, the Imperial emperor offered his forces to Ashion in an alliance."

"So you thought destroying Rixham's walls and releasing the horde of revenants there a valid response?"

"There will be no evidence showing my supposed involvement in that attack. There are other Houses who do not support the House of Sa'Liandel. Perhaps your country's investigators should start there."

They both knew the words Eimarille spoke were a lie. No House, no matter their stated opposition to the one that had ruled for centuries now, would ever target Rixham's walls. They all knew the danger that city presented, like the Wastelands in the south. While Bellingham was one of the most northern cities in Solaria, the revenants would claw at their city walls eventually, and her people would have nowhere to run.

"I never agreed to this."

"You agreed to turn your back on your country for a chance at the Imperial throne. I agreed to aid you in that endeavor, but it is not my fault you've yet to ascend it. You've sacrificed a granddaughter and a son in your desperate ploy to take back something your House hasn't held in centuries. What makes you think it was ever going to be easy? What makes you think the Houses you hope to rule will ever believe you are innocent of all that has occurred? They all sided with Vanya during the Conclave over you."

Eimarille's words made Joelle flinch, glad the other woman couldn't see her reaction. If the Conclave had turned in her favor, if she'd managed to get Raiah into her arms—if, if, if. So much of what she'd fought and schemed for had crumbled around her, the situation made worse by Eimarille's orders and not hers. First, the Warden's Island, and now the attacks in Solaria and E'ridia, all of which could be traced back to Joelle in some way, she was certain.

She'd treated this alliance as if it were one with a House, something Joelle could control, when in reality, it wasn't anything but a trap. Eimarille had plans, and they did not include a Solaria ruled by the House of Kimathi, Joelle realized with a dawning sense of shame she would never admit to anyone.

She wondered if the Twilight Star would hear her prayers and would answer them. Considering he'd given his blessing to Eimarille and promised to guide her road, Joelle doubted any of her own would be listened to.

Perhaps she should never have forsaken the Dawn Star after all.

"You think once you kill Caris Rourke, you'll be in the clear," Joelle said slowly as she unclenched her hands, knuckles throbbing. "But your attacks on other countries, while damaging, have done the opposite of what you hoped for. You wanted to isolate Ashion. Instead, you've ensured the countries with the most formidable land army and air force will face you on the battlefield."

"Daijal is prepared to win."

"Killing your sister won't give you the crown nor the right to the starfire throne. Not with your brother still alive."

Joelle knew of the North Star's decree. For all that Innes had shown favor to Eimarille, Aaralyn had given it to no one. It could be inferred that Eimarille would not have it, so long as others of the Rourke bloodline lived. Holding the prince would be leverage against Eimarille in the future, leverage Joelle could use to keep her vasilyet and Solaria free.

"News out of Calhames states he is still missing. Caris has no heir."

"Of course," Joelle demurred. "But you can't win so long as one of them still lives."

"And what have you done that makes you so certain I won't win?"

"Ensured someone will always be a challenge to your right to the starfire throne if you are ever able to claim it."

The silence that settled over the call was charged, and when Eimarille finally spoke, her tone was glacial. "You have Alasandair."

"I have a threat to your rule if you seek to ruin Solaria any more than you already have. If you don't wish that to happen, then you will leave me the Imperial throne."

Another fraught silence settled between them. Eventually, Eimarille said, "You will regret defying me."

"I doubt that."

Joelle set the receiver on the cradle, ending the call. She closed her eyes and pressed her fingers over them, wishing she could wipe away some of the decisions she had made in her youth, knowing she could do nothing now but own them. This was her road to walk, and she'd been the one to build it.

Joelle reached for her cane, using it and the desk to lever herself up. She'd taken the call in private, her handmaidens waiting out in the antechamber. The trio on duty stood at her entrance and bowed to her.

"Let's see to our guests, shall we?" Joelle said.

Eimarille could think she had the upper hand, but Joelle was vezir of the House of Kimathi. She knew the games the Houses played in her bones. She had spent her entire life owning debts, claiming loyalty, and gaining blackmail material.

None was as important as the prince she'd stolen.