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  Lynx shot forward in her seat. The atmosphere in the chamber changed from hostility to interest. Chad and Jerawin frowned, also leaning forward. Malika looked hopeful. Even Stefan raised an eyebrow.

  Only Axel remained unconvinced. He folded his arms. “Does Lukan know what you’re offering? He was the emperor, last time I checked.”

  “As Stefan can attest, the High Council has been murmuring for some time now that war has been too costly in lives and money.”

  Stefan nodded. “It’s hit their pockets, and I know they’d love to see it over.”

  “But is that enough to convince that moron Lukan?” Axel asked Stefan.

  “I think Lukan regretted killing my father. The High Council never forgave him for it.” Stefan’s voice dried. “Neither did I.”

  “He’s wary of the council,” Felix added. “With enough pressure from senior members, Lukan will bend.”

  Lynx—everyone—watched Axel as he watched Felix. How he wished he didn’t distrust his father so much. But what other option did he have but to run with this? Finally, he said, “Okay. So what do you want for this bending service?”

  Felix pulled out his handkerchief and took a moment to blow and wipe his nose and mouth. Then he took another few moments to stuff the grimy cloth back into his pocket. “You will agree to make peace with your family—including me, your father.”

  Axel shuddered at the prospect. “I am going to need much more than world peace if I am to befriend you. Nicholas must be released immediately, for starters.” He risked a derisive smile and fished for the truth behind Felix’s posturing. “And I don’t care how much pressure the High Council puts on Lukan, I can’t see him agreeing to that.”

  An impatient wave of Felix’s hand. “I offered sixteen years ago to have Morass arrest Lukan. You refused. That offer still stands. Our inglorious emperor can take Nicholas’s cell.”

  “Sixteen years ago, you wanted me to agree to genocide in exchange for that offer. I’m not yet convinced that your current offer doesn’t carry the same sting in its tail,” Axel replied.

  “Actually, Ax, when you know Felix, it all makes sense, in a weird, warped way.” Stefan shook his head at Felix. “You never change, do you?”

  Axel turned to Stefan, hoping he’d explain. And then understanding bloomed. He laughed at Felix. “Right. There were no willing heirs sixteen years ago that you could manipulate as regent. So, tell us, who rules Chenaya? Nicholas?” A caustic smile. “Or you?”

  “Crown Prince Grigor Avanov.”

  Lynx snorted her disgust. “What about Talon? The throne is rightfully his.”

  Even Stefan objected with a wave of his hand. “The princes are little better than wild animals. It will take a huge amount of effort to turn either of them into real leadership material.”

  Yet more untrained boys. Axel shook his head in despair that these three, almost useless, boys were all they had to work with.

  But this wasn’t the time to show his doubts. He fixed a determined expression. “But as he doesn’t want Grigor to be a leader, that serves him.”

  “In truth, Axel, Grigor is just young. Suitably malleable by someone with skill in such things.” Owl-like, Felix turned his head to look at Lynx. “Your son will be freed on condition that he leaves the empire.”

  “Leaves?” Lynx demanded. “Where would he go?”

  Felix placated, “And, of course, his mother will have freedom to travel anywhere to see him.”

  Lynx bristled. “Why can’t I live where my son lives?”

  Felix took a moment to smile. It looked disparaging. “I assume you will be living with my son. Here at the palace, with his entire family—including me, your new father-in-law.”

  Lynx grimaced.

  “Or do you not love him as much as he claims to love you?”

  Lynx blushed. “Of course I do.”

  Axel wasn’t willing to have these doubts spread. Lynx and he had conducted a private marriage ceremony in that ice crystal cavern. She would not have done that if she didn’t love him as much as he loved her.

  He stepped into the void of silence following Lynx’s outburst. “This is the weakness in your plan, isn’t it?”

  “What, that I doubt the empress loves you as much as you love her? That I doubt she will choose you over her son?”

  Tired of the manipulation, Axel held up both hands. “Lynx is my wife, and we will live where we choose, with our son, Nicholas.”

  Felix’s face darkened as he grasped that Axel hadn’t accepted his first condition.

  Before he could respond, Axel said, “Now, back to this poorly thought out plan of yours. Regardless of how you scheme with Grigor, the imperative of the Dmitri Curse remains. Nicholas will always be a threat to you. I don’t trust you to do anything other than to try to neutralize him.”

  Felix fixed Axel with a sharp eye. “Which brings me to the second part of what I want. Axel, regardless of where you live, you and Lynx must agree to prevent Nicholas developing delusions of grandeur. He is a forest boy who cannot even read or write. Don’t let him get ideas of governance in his head.”

  “But the curse—”

  “My dear Lynx, despite Axel’s claims to the contrary, Nicholas is Lukan’s son. And the wording of the curse is very clear. The Light-Bearer will destroy his emperor father and overthrow the empire. If Lukan is safe in jail, Nicholas will have no incentive to murder his cousin. Not unless you continue to set him up for it.”

  Axel glanced at Lynx for confirmation because she knew the curse better than anyone. But Lynx’s face gave nothing away.

  Felix added. “Even though my son seems unwilling to meet my simplest terms, as an act of my good faith, I will give you access to the data from the Final Word so you can monitor the Light-Bearer’s progress until he is freed.”

  Axel’s heart leaped. An audible gasp ran through the chamber. Lynx looked stunned.

  “The Final Word? In Nicholas’s neck? You will give us access to that?” Axel demanded.

  “The data on his health, yes. The ability to hear his thoughts, yes. His location, no. I have to keep some bargaining chips.”

  Axel couldn’t believe his ears. Just that alone was huge. Contact with Nicholas would make life easier for Lynx. And perhaps he could piece together where Nicholas was from the information streamed to them.

  Unable to keep the excitement from her voice, Lynx asked, “Can I speak with him?”

  Felix’s smile looked positively reptilian. “No. I don’t think having you communicate with the Light-Bearer would serve anything.”

  Lynx clenched her fists.

  As disappointed as he was, Axel brushed Lynx’s arm with a gentle finger. “While dubious of your motives, I accept your offer to have access to Nicholas. However, after a lifetime of dealing with you, it is not quite enough.”

  “Oh?” Felix shuffled in his seat, looking more startled than Axel had ever seen him. “What more can I possibly give you?”

  Axel considered quickly. He needed some way of verifying Felix’s intentions before he allowed anyone here to get their hopes up that Nicholas could soon be freed. Especially Lynx.

  He glanced at her, wondering if he should halt this meeting to share his thoughts with her. He decided against it. Either she trusted him, or she didn’t. If she didn’t, then her tenure guarding doors and vents would be a long one.

  “I want Meka. Call it a down payment. If you deliver him to my mines, I will agree to everything you propose. I’ll even come to your and Grigor’s coronation.”

  Felix swallowed, making his throat bob. “Meka? Why would you want him?”

  “My reasons, like most of what you haven’t told us, are my own. From what I know from Stefan, Lukan keeps both princes under lock and key. If you can spring Meka and deliver him here, I will believe that you have the ability—and the integrity—to release Nicholas into my care.”

  Felix steepled his remaining fingers. “This is no easy thing you ask.”

  Ah. The
truth is finally coming out.

  “Now you know how excited I feel about making friends with you.”

  “I, however, will do all I can to oblige you. It remains to be seen if you afford me the same honor.”

  “Don’t hold your breath. So when can I expect delivery of my package?”

  Another sigh from Felix, except this time he looked decidedly troubled. That expression didn’t fade. “I am as anxious for a handover as you are, but giving you Meka will take time. As you yourself say, Lukan keeps the princes behind bars. But I will give it my most urgent attention.”

  “Seems like that will have to do,” Axel said, aware of Lynx fidgeting next to him. Given her blindness over Nicholas, she probably thought he’d negotiated away any chance of a swift delivery of her son. But he was grateful she kept her thoughts to herself. That was progress indeed. “Send the codes we need to get access to Nicholas’s ice crystal.”

  Felix took a moment to study Axel. Then he turned to Stefan. “Despite your determination to play the double agent, I know you to be an honorable man. I am relying on you to ensure that my son is equally as honorable.”

  Stefan nodded and then gestured around the chamber. “We are all party to what has been agreed. No one on this side of the divide will double-cross you.” His face darkened. “Please afford us the same courtesy.”

  Stefan’s informa vibrated. A deep breath, and Stefan pulled up a beam of light next to Felix’s face. But instead of seeing Nicholas in that space, all Axel could discern was darkness.

  Before Axel could stop her, Lynx flung herself at the informa to get to Felix. “You said I would see my son. You lied. Again.”

  Felix raised a hand. “Enough, tigress! If he cannot even see himself for the dark, how can you?”

  Understanding struck Lynx like a kick. She fell back onto the floor. “He’s in the dark?”

  Axel knew Nicholas was colorblind, with a very limited view of the world, but this had to be torture of the worst kind. He laid a gentle hand on Lynx’s back, hoping she’d sense his support and care through her anguish.

  She leaned back against him and moaned softly so only he would hear, “Do we really need Meka?”

  He whispered back. “Trust me, my love. Please. I know what I’m doing.”

  Her jaw clenched, but she remained silent. He led her back to their bench.

  “Not in total darkness,” Felix said. “There is a sliver of light from a vent in the roof. But you only see it if Nicholas goes to that corner.” A grim smile. “All the more reason to cooperate with me so we can free him.” A scowl at Axel. “Asking for Meka is not helping. Care to reconsider that demand?”

  Axel had some insight into why Felix had been so eager to share this data. “My interest in Meka has just intensified. Deliver him as agreed.”

  “So be it. I offer you the Light-Bearer’s data as a sign of good faith.” Felix spoke some code to Stefan.

  Stefan listened and then began to fiddle with screens spilling from his informa. Lines of text appeared, which Stefan read off in a monotone voice. “Temperature: 97.5 degrees. Weight: 132 pounds.

  Lynx gulped. “My son has lost four pounds in just over a week? You’re starving him.”

  Felix remained emotionless.

  Stefan continued heavily, “He has a cracked rib.” He cleared his throat, his attention on everyone except Lynx. Even in Stefan’s impassive eyes, Axel knew he was hiding something.

  “There’s more, isn’t there?” Axel demanded; Lynx had the right to know what was happening to her child.

  Stefan almost whispered, “There’s a linear fracture in his frontal skull bone. It’s causing nausea, intermittent vomiting, balance loss, impaired vision, and headaches. Without treatment, the diagnostics are predicting a forty percent chance of lasting brain damage.”

  Tears welled in Lynx’s eyes, and she looked at Axel beseechingly.

  Axel had sudden doubts about demanding Meka. He suppressed them. Foregoing the delivery of Meka wouldn’t necessarily hasten delivery of Nicholas, and if Felix couldn’t hand over the prince, then all the skull fractures in the world would not make him hand over Nicholas. He turned away from her and faced Stefan and the informa.

  Stefan’s fiddling produced Nicholas’s voice. It sounded odd.

  “Something scratching. Is it Lukan? Is he back? I told you, you bastard, get out of my head. I’m not listening to you.” A long pause. “Wait. The sound isn’t in my head. It’s . . . outside my head.” A rustling of clothes as if Nicholas moved. A slight laugh. “It’s a roach! Hello, nice to meet you.”

  “What you hear are his thoughts,” Felix said softly. “The boy has yet to actually speak.”

  Lynx closed her eyes. She wasn’t the only one in the cavern who looked shocked that Nicholas seemed to be hearing voices. Already. It had been less than a week since he’d been captured. And to be pleased to discover a cockroach? How lonely must he be?

  Axel stood. “Anyone got anything else to add?”

  Looking aghast at the darkness, the two kings shook their heads in the negative.

  “Stefan?”

  “I will see Felix at the next High Council meeting. We can talk if anything comes up.”

  “Mali?”

  Anger radiated off Malika. “More than you can imagine. But nothing I will inflict on the rest of you.” She scowled at her father. “You make it very hard to love you.”

  Felix’s eyes fluttered closed. When he opened his mouth to speak, Axel cut him off.

  “If anything happens to our boy, I will not only flay Lukan, but I will rip every inch of skin off your body, too.”

  Axel cut the link to Felix.

  No one moved. Or spoke. Or even breathed.

  Axel supposed they all listened to Nicholas’s slow, labored breaths.

  King Chad turned to Axel and said in a strained voice, “You have a plan in bringing Meka here? To me, it seems all we are doing is holding up Nicholas’s release.”

  Lynx furiously twirled her feathers.

  When Axel spoke, he looked at Lynx, not at Chad. “My Lynxie, all Felix has to do to deliver Meka is to arrest Lukan. He could have that done within the hour. The fact that he didn’t make that offer suggests to me that he will never deliver Nicholas.” He brought Lynx’s hand to his lips. “I’m sorry, my love, but I had to test his integrity. Asking for Meka was the only thing I could think of.”

  Lynx nodded, but her eyes shined with the tears she held at bay.

  Softness gone, warlord in stance and voice, he faced the rest of the room. “The more assets I can snatch from Lukan, the weaker he becomes. Meka is one of those assets. If by some miracle Felix delivers, it is better having him here than at the palace, fighting against us.”

  Stefan stirred, looking agitated—if two raised eyebrows warranted agitation. “The boy is more than just an asset. He’s Tao’s son.”

  Axel cocked his head at Stefan. “A sudden flurry of emotion, Stef?”

  Stefan’s raised eyebrows morphed into an actual frown. “As it happens, yes. Every time I see those two boys locked in that cage, it kills me inside. All I want is to rip Lukan apart with my bare hands, but instead I play the game my warlord commanded me to play. I go to Lukan’s council meetings and his luncheons like a loyal servant. I listen and I come back and report to you. I have done that for sixteen years.”

  Stefan waved a hand at the image of Nicholas’s cell, still beamed above the informa. “Despite the horror of this, I will continue to do it for another sixteen years, if you need me to. But I can’t—won’t—listen to you calling Tao’s caged wretches ‘assets.’ They need help, just as much as Nicholas does.”

  Axel studied Stefan for easily a full minute; Stefan was right. Grigor and Meka had value beyond their utility—they were Tao’s sons. Sometimes leadership of an army obscured affection for friends and family; protecting the many had overshadowed loving the few.

  “I stand corrected. Sometimes I allow this war to harden me, and I forget what we a
re fighting for. That said, my goal to weaken Lukan remains unchanged, but I accept that Meka is more than just a tile on the map. I will treat Meka like my own son. As for Grigor—” His shoulders slumped. “Like Nicholas, he is out of our hands.”

  “May the Winds protect all our boys from Felix’s conniving,” Lynx whispered.

  King Jerawin added, “The stars and the spirits of the dead, too.”

  All that remained was to see whether Felix would deliver Meka or not. If he did, perhaps Felix was the way to free Talon after all.

  Chapter 21

  Felix slipped his informa into his dressing gown pocket. He was about to go to bed when a whisper of air stirred the drapes. He frowned; before calling Stefan, he had checked that no one lurked in the bay window. And the windows were locked against a beating rain storm, one of many that had ruined summer. He hefted his cane and quietly extracted the sword. A quick thrust between the velvet curtains, followed by some rapid slashing, revealed no one.

  A familiar voice spoke. “Really, Felix, such a show of dramatics.”

  “A simple hello will do.” Felix scowled at Dmitri, suddenly sitting in the chair opposite him, partly to hide how much the visitation rattled him. He shoved his sword back into the cane and thumped it against his chair. “What do you want?”

  “So you have chosen to lie to our allies.”

  Felix huffed. “I’m supposed to tell them the truth that Lukan wants to gas the whole world? Better I spew some tripe about using that urchin Grigor as a tile in a throne grab.” He laughed self-deprecatingly. “At least it’s believable.”

  “Yet the truth is what was required if you are to redeem yourself. How else will they believe you are on our side?”

  “My redemption matters nothing if my wife is gassed because Lukan discovers I told Chad and Jerawin about his outrageous plan. It’s not a risk I could take.” He snorted. “They hate me enough to leak the truth just out of spite.”