Chapter 6

Eimarille roused from sleep by a gentle hand on her shoulder. She blinked open her eyes, squinting up at Terilyn's face in the early light of dawn seeping past the edges of the curtains in their room. "Darling?"

Terilyn stroked the back of her knuckles over Eimarille's cheeks before slipping her fingers through Eimarille's loose hair to tuck it behind her ear. "I'm sorry to wake you, but Kote called. The operator has him holding for you."

Eimarille sat up, letting the thin, soft blankets they slept in during the summer months slide off her. "I'll take it in my office."

She'd gone to bed with a headache last night, and the taste of the potion she'd drunk to get rid of it lingered on her tongue. Terilyn must have handled whichever servant had knocked on their door before sunrise regarding the call. She still wore her sleep clothes, though she'd thrown a dressing gown over them, the silky fabric belted tight around her thin waist. Terilyn held up the same sort of garment for Eimarille, deftly helping her into it and tying the belt for her.

Eimarille bent her head and pressed a soft kiss to the side of Terilyn's throat. "Bad news?"

"I don't know," Terilyn admitted.

A pair of slippers were on the rug beside the bed; Eimarille slid her feet into them. She waved off the servant hovering in the doorway, the woman clearly eyeing the closet and wondering about the time it would take to get Eimarille dressed. While she rarely left the royal wing of the palace without being ready for the Daijal court, some moments necessitated speed over anything else.

The royal guard standing at attention in the hallway outside her private quarters paid her no mind as she and Terilyn left her private suite and hurried toward Eimarille's office. It took some minutes to reach it, but few people were around other than a handful of servants and the posted guards to see them pass. When they reached her office, Terilyn pulled out a key from the pocket of her dressing gown and let them inside. Eimarille switched on the gas lamp lights but left the fans alone. The end of Tenth Month was trending cooler, autumn soon to arrive, and she'd needed the fans less and less lately.

"I requested us some tea. It should be here shortly," Terilyn said as Eimarille went around her wide desk and sat on the leather chair behind it. "The operator is holding on your private line."

"Thank you," Eimarille said and picked up the receiver. She pressed the cold metal to her ears and pushed the button that would bring the operator onto the line. "Put the High General through."

The operator said nothing, but a faint clicking sound filled Eimarille's ear for a moment, and then the line hummed with a solid connection. She could hear voices in the background on Kote's side of the call, but his voice came through the loudest. "Your Royal Majesty, I'm sorry to wake you. I know it's early there in New Haven."

"It's not a hardship. I know you wouldn't be calling if it wasn't important. What news have you from Ashion?"

"It's not Ashion I bring news about." Kote's tone was harsh and grim, making Eimarille sit up straighter, one hand curling into a fist over the cleared-off desk. She never left reports lying around. "It's the Gulf of Helia."

"What?"

"For the last day, the Daijal navy has been the recipient of coordinated attacks from Tovanian ship-cities. The Urovan submersibles that had joined the blockade of the Gulf of Helia haven't been spared either. They've taken hits from depth charges, and we've lost contact with more than a dozen submersibles in critical travel areas, as well as confirmation we've lost two of our flagships."

He gave the report in his usual clipped tone that had no room for emotion. Kote was very good at distilling war updates to the bare-bones information that Eimarille needed to know. That still didn't make it easy to digest the news.

She tightened her grip on the bronze handle of the receiver, half rising out of her seat. "The Tovan Isles have allied with Ashion?"

"All indications point to that."

"How did their representatives even reach the shore to initiate talks? The Tovanians wouldn't have gone to them in Cosian. It's too far from any water."

"We believe they used Solaria as an intermediary. Solaria already had an alliance with the Tovan Isles to patrol their shores, though they were too late getting into position on the east coast to stop our attack on Rixham. Ground troop movement has been in flux for the past several weeks between both countries as the front lines have been pushed back west. Ashion could have moved a battalion through Solaria to reach a western port. Oeiras seems most likely."

Terilyn stood rigid in front of Eimarille's desk, dark eyes narrowed and focused on her. The only thing that got her moving was the rapid knock on the door that heralded the arrival of their early morning tea. Eimarille waited until Terilyn had retrieved the tea tray and shut the door again before speaking again.

"What is their objective?" she asked, watching Terilyn set the tea tray on the desk but refrain from pouring in favor of coming around to stand beside her. Eimarille shifted the receiver against her ear, angling it so they could both hear.

Kote let out a harsh breath that crackled like static. "Breaking the blockade is obvious. But I've had my best strategists and tacticians run the numbers and extrapolate on current movement. We believe the Tovanians are intent on making it to shore for the Ashionens with them to storm New Haven. Which means you need to leave the capital."

Terilyn's arm wrapped around Eimarille's waist, pulling her close. Eimarille leaned against her, finding comfort in her embrace. "We don't know for certain that New Haven is their target."

"No, but it's the most likely one. The majority of our forces are in Ashion, along with every war machine coming off the production line. I will have to pull battalions from the front line and send them back west to fortify the capital, which means we'll have gaps in our forces."

"You're pulling back."

"We're coordinating a calculated defense."

It still sounded like a loss after months and months of victories. "If you do that, it will lessen our ability to keep the Ashion army and their allies from reaching Amari. That's been their target all along."

Because the Ashion capital held the starfire throne, and Caris couldn't be queen without it, the same way Eimarille couldn't.

"And if we lose Daijal's capital, that will be a blow we can't recover from," Kote said. "Regardless, it's not safe for you to remain, not with the Tovanians intent on reaching the shore."

"If I leave this city, there is only one place I will go."

"Your Royal Majesty, I must insist?—"

"You can insist all you like, but I will be going nowhere else but Amari during this time. I will not give up the starfire throne to an imposter."

The last word nearly stuck in her throat, a knot of fury that she had to force past her teeth. She—who remembered the palace she'd been born into before the Inferno, who had crowned herself, who had carried the Rourke name all this time—she was meant to be queen. Eimarille would not willingly give up what she'd been born for: Queen of Maricol.

"Very well," Kote said after a strained silence. "I will meet you in Amari in two days' time to ensure your safety while in that capital. I will notify the royal guard stationed there to expect you in my absence, as I am assured you will be leaving today."

"Terilyn will handle our travel itinerary while I deal with the Daijal court. I can't have it seem that I am fleeing New Haven."

"Which you are, because you must. There is no shame in that."

Eimarille ground her teeth, glad no one but Terilyn was present to see her temper. She wasn't in the mood to wear the neutral political mask she'd cultivated since she was a child. "War is your specialty, High General. Politics is mine."

"Of course." Kote paused before continuing with "Perhaps we have the Klovod activate the remaining rionetkas in the field and issue a kill order, as we did in Bellingham. Doing so might disrupt more of the fighting and cause the Ashion army to lose some of the ground they've recently gained."

Doing so would also tip their hand in how deeply Eimarille's effort had burrowed into their enemies. But considering the new front they had to fight on, she supposed there was no time like the present for such an attack.

"If you think doing so will be favorable to our war efforts, then do so."

They had little to say after that, and Eimarille ended the call a minute later, dropping the receiver onto the telephone base with a hand that shook ever so slightly from pure, unadulterated rage. Terilyn grasped her fingers and squeezed them tightly, causing Eimarille to jerk her gaze to her lover.

"We'll leave in the late afternoon. A night flight will make you less of a target when we finally cross the central border on the way to Amari. I will see to it the airship is readied for you and Lisandro," Terilyn said softly.

"And yourself, for you will be coming with me."

Terilyn smiled, her dark-eyed gaze softening with a love that had sustained Eimarille since they were both young girls after meeting on that long-ago train ride, each of them on a road guided by a star god. "I will never leave you."

Eimarille closed the scant distance between them to kiss Terilyn fiercely, bringing up her free hand to frame the other woman's face. Terilyn's hands gripped her waist through the thin fabric of the clothes she wore, her touch everything Eimarille would always want. She twisted so her neck wasn't angled so cruelly, allowing her to deepen the kiss to something possessive.

She let her hands fall to Terilyn's thighs, fingers gripping the colorfully patterned dressing gown and dragging it upward. She only let go long enough to undo the thin fabric belt tied around the other woman's waist. Terilyn hummed against her lips, ceding to Eimarille's desire, allowing herself to be turned and pushed down onto the desk, long legs splayed wide. Eimarille dropped gracefully between her legs, hands catching the hem of Terilyn's dressing gown and sliding it up pale, scarred thighs to bunch around her waist.

Eimarille kissed her way up every mark that was revealed, dragging her tongue over the pale, puckered scars that were all her fault. Terilyn never blamed her for those moments where the Blade had fought for her, defended her, killed for her. Eimarille was meant to rule, and Terilyn was meant to see she lived to do so, but she wished it didn't have to hurt her lover so.

"I love you," Eimarille murmured against the soft skin high up on Terilyn's inner thigh. "I love you so much."

Fingers stroked through her hair, trembling in a way they never did when holding a weapon as Eimarille licked over wet heat with a sureness that came from years of doing so. "Show me how much."

Eimarille smiled as she dipped her tongue into Terilyn's slick entrance, feeling as much as hearing the soft moan that escaped her lover's mouth. She slid her left hand higher, slipping two fingers inside Terilyn where her tongue had been. Eimarille rose to her feet, letting the soft fabric of Terilyn's sleeping gown fall around her wrist as she kept her hand where it was. She pressed the heel of her palm against the sensitive clit there, grinding down against it even as she wrapped her lips around one of Terilyn's nipples through thin fabric.

Terilyn arched into her mouth and hand with a gasp, having to brace herself against the desk with one hand. The other was tangled in Eimarille's hair, gripping the long locks as if they were an anchor against the pleasure Eimarille knew how to give her. Eimarille dropped her jaw a little to bite at the tender flesh beneath her teeth, flicking her tongue against the damp fabric molded around the taut nipple. Terilyn jerked beneath her, hand sliding a little against the desk. Her chest heaved, pressing her breast more fully into Eimarille's mouth.

"Don't stop," Terilyn gasped.

Eimarille hummed and lifted her head, kissing her way up warm skin and the line of Terilyn's throat to her mouth. She kissed her deeply, tongue moving at the same languid pace of her fingers as Terilyn ground down against her hand. Her breath came in ragged gasps when Eimarille finally tore her mouth away, staring at Terilyn's flushed face and kiss-swollen lips. She reached up and hooked her fingers around the loose collar of her sleeping gown, dragging it down to reveal one breast to the cool air of the office.

"When I have the world, you'll be right beside me," Eimarille promised before bending her head to bite at that tantalizing nipple, increasing the movement of her fingers, curling them through clenching heat.

Terilyn choked on a cry, hand flying to Eimarille's shoulder as she rose on her tiptoes. Eimarille followed her with hand and mouth, relentless in the pleasure she wanted to give, heat pooling in her own body. She didn't stop until Terilyn came undone around her fingers, clenching down around them as her release spilled around Eimarille's fingers. Her quiet keen in Eimarille's ear ended in a hitched breath as Eimarille kept her hand where it was between her lover's thighs, fingers stilled, releasing the soft skin she'd bruised with her mouth.

She lifted her head, staring at the only person other than her son who had ever held her heart. Terilyn's eyes were closed, dark lashes flickering as she came down from a pleasure high. She was a mess in a way no one else would see, and Eimarille held that gift close, as she always did. Eimarille ghosted her lips over Terilyn's cheek, finally pulling her fingers free, splaying them over Terilyn's thigh.

After a moment, Terilyn cracked her eyes open, the dazed look in them pleasing to Eimarille. Terilyn straightened up, lifting a hand to touch Eimarille's hip. "I could?—"

Eimarille shook her head, stealing another quick kiss. "No, darling. Later. My pleasure will keep."

Terilyn sighed softly and allowed Eimarille to put her clothes to rights. By now, the tea had grown cold, but the servants would take care of that, just as Eimarille knew they'd have taken care of preparing a bath for them back in her suite.

Eimarille twined their fingers together and lifted Terilyn's hand to her lips, kissing her scarred knuckles. "When we get to Amari, I want you to execute Caris' parents."

Terilyn smiled softly, leaning forward to press their foreheads together. "Your will is mine."

As it always had been.