The Seamstress

Chapter 19

Draven's POV

King Lamin of Diano was persistent. Instead of sending his advisors, he and his wife came to make an offer, they think I can't refuse. 

This time Harmony and Kya were with me. Harmony was clearly out of her element and I knew she much preferred being in her work room, working on the clothes she was making us for her coronation, but I had confidence in her. Kya seemed rather annoyed since I knew she had other ideas of how she was going to be spending the day. 

We sat on our thrones, their thrones on either side of me, as King Lamin and Queen Artilia entered. 

"Thank you for seeing us King Draven," King Lamin said with a smile. "You didn't give us much choice," I told him blandly.  

"We came to discuss the details of an arranged marriage with your first born son and our daughter," he said and I nodded. 

"I'm aware of why you are here, and as I've told your advisors my mates and I are against the idea of an arranged marriage," I declared. 

"But think of all the possibilities it can open up," King Lamin said to me. "You could get access to our resources." 

"Your resources are coal and diamonds, which we produce ourselves," Kya said to him with a bored wave of her hand. 

"We also have various silks, inventions that are ahead of their time, and an army that will be ready if you need it," he said to us. 

"But we already have a trading deal with the Loochin Kingdom for their silks which are much softer than any other silk," Harmony told them. "I've handled your silk many times and it's far too difficult work with and frays rather easily." 

"It takes an expert to handle them," the King boldly argued. 

"My mate is an expert when it comes to working with various fabrics," I told him with a slight warning growl. "She worked as a seamstress the last one hundred fifty years, I'm positive her opinion on the quality of your fabric is much more than talk." 

 I watched as his jaw clenched and unclenched. 

"Didn't you say you had an offer we wouldn't be able to refuse," Kya asked them. "If so then why don't you present it already?" 

The King then nodded and pulled a vial out of his inner coat pocket. Inside the vial was blue flames. I felt straight fear from Harmony through the bond. "How do you have Hell Flame," she asked, her voice cold, her face not giving away her true emotions. I was on edge. Who knew what kind of memories were going through her right now as she looked at the vial. 

He smiled, "I have some demons employed to me." 

"For what exactly," Kya asked him. 

"They're a part of my army," the King answered. "Have been for a while. You're the first kingdom I have shared this with." 

"Was the Torto Kingdom your doing," I asked him. 

He nodded, "They declared war for me not staying out of their seas, looking for crystal coral. So I decided to just eradicate them then look freely for the crystal coral." 

I felt Harmony's anger as well as Kya's. "So you carelessly killed hundreds of people over crystal coral," Kya asked him. 

"You've been using the Hell Flame as a weapon for a while," Harmony noted. "Several kingdoms have fallen victim to it. Tell me, what happens to our kingdom if we don't give you what you want?" 

"This is one of the few remaining kingdoms that will have a full blooded royal," King Lamin said. "I'll just try to push the matter with your child once they're here if you do not agree." 

I nodded, "How do you keep demons employed to you?" 

"Blood contract," Harmony answered instead. "Meaning he is paying them something worth it to keep demons entertained." 

"Unfortunately due to the contract I'm bound to not reveal what it is," King Lamin informed us. 

"That's because the demons fear someone will want it for themselves," Kya said while crossing her arms. 

"We are going to discuss your terms," I told him. I feared if we gave an immediate answer, that he would unleash the Hell Flame on our kingdom. He says he won't but who knows what he may or may not do. 

He seemed happy with that decision and I had servants show them where they would be staying. 

Neither of us spoke till we were in the room. "We can't risk him unleashing that Flame upon us," I told them. 

"Yes but what are we going to do," Kya asked him. 

"We find his source and take them out," Harmony suggested. 

"Or we take what he's paying them," I suggested instead. "He could always summon more demons who may agree to a contract with him for the same thing. Take his payment and they'll leave him." 

"That could work, but it's too risky sending anyone in," Kya said. "The magic wards they have around the city will alert them to anyone entering the city." 

"I could go in," Harmony suggested. 

"No," we said in unison quickly. 

"In my shadow, magic wards can't detect me," Harmony told them. "They won't be alerted once I appear because those wards only sense those that pass through them." 

Kya and I shook our heads. "There has to be underground tunnels," Kya said. "We need to have our men look into it." 

"We can't take too long though," Harmony said. "They'll suspect something." 

"We can find a way to stall them," Kya offered. 

"How about this," Harmony then suggested. "We ask him to show us, to make good on his word. After all, who's to say what's in the vial is all he has or not. We take a trip to his kingdom, and I hide your men in a shadow. Once we're in their kingdom, I'll the shadow they're in, out of the carriage so they can be released from it so they can properly search the kingdom during our stay." 

I ran through the other possible scenarios and saw how that one was best suited for this. We had to act fast though. Kya sent word to my cousin for our possible plan while Harmony and I went over how we were to get him to agree to it. 

Once we were in the throne room I looked over the King. "Your offer sounds rather compelling. However, I worry that little vial is all you have to show of your offer." 

"It's not, I promise you," he said to us. 

"We would like to see for ourselves, as well as inspect your army," I suggested to him. "What we find there will stay between our kingdoms though. If everything is up to our liking then you will have a deal. We would also like to meet the woman who our first son will be possibly mating with." 

The King and Queen shared a look with each other before they were nodding. The king was desperate, that much was obvious, but we know he will be suspicious of us and have us watched during our visit to his kingdom. Let's pray our people can work swiftly enough to avoid issues. We were playing a dangerous game. One wrong move will set fire to everything and we couldn't risk that.