Wraith Walker

Chapter 18

     Tamsin barked a laugh, caught off guard by the ridiculous request. 

     "You're joking." She said, laughter filling her voice. It was ludicrous. What a stupid thing to think. She draped a casual leg over the arm of the chair, relaxing a bit. Merrant wasn't asking for something nefarious, he was asking for something impossible. "You want to rule the Taigslands They've been free for thousands of years. They'll never come under your rule."

     Merrant sat in the chair at his desk, smoothing his shirt. "Sasha, despite his weakness as a ruler, is a popular King. He is well liked within rulers of the territories, especially within the Taigslands. If he submits Tyanth to the rule of the Continent, if he shows the other rulers what benefits Tyanth reaps from such an arrangement, the Taigslands will join as well."

     "To what end?"

      He leaned back, studying her over the top of his glasses. "The magic there is powerful. I'd like to take advantage of it. I can make Tyanth wealthy beyond measure. Can you imagine having such resources that no matter the curses the Seer might lay upon your land, you and your people continue thriving. So wealthy that while the Seer may flit here and there as he pleases but any action he commits warrants no more than a passing word among the gossiping hens?"

     Tamsin gave him a look. Gods, he was serious. He actually thought he could take Tyanth, could take the world under his rule. She shook her head. "The Western Covens will never bow to you, they barely bow to Aresvine."

     "What would you need to convince them?" He leaned forward, rifling through the parchment until he found what he was looking for. Grasping a large feathered quill from the container on his desk, he dipped it in the inkwell and began to scribble notes.

     "They want to be free of Tyanth." Tamsin explained. "They've wanted to be free of Tyanth for a thousand years. They won't be convinced to join. You'd have to take them by force but—" She trailed off as his eyes met hers.

     Merrant paused and lifted his head to look at her, tip of the quill in his mouth.

      "I can provide you with twenty-thousand men, would that be enough? They can establish rule in the Western Covens and wherever else Sasha requires them. Of course, I would prefer for them to come willingly. I don't like fighting to keep my possessions."

     Tamsin stared at him. She couldn't form a sentence. Couldn't find the words. He had twenty-thousand men ready to march on Tyanth, ready to conquer the Taigslands. How long had he been planning this? How long had he been waiting Tyanth out, waiting for them to buckle under the curses they had been subject to? And when he saw they wouldn't break, that Sasha had saved them all? This. This is what he had done, set them up, force their hand. Make them bow to him. Bastard. Fae bastard. She'd skin him, she'd gut him. She'd kill him in his bed and plant his head on a spike for all to see.

     Merrant was watching at her, head barely cocked, a polite smile on his face. She considered launching at him. She'd snap his neck before he realized she'd left her seat. The dagger in her belt could find its mark in his eye. She'd flip the desk and throw him out the window behind him.

      But she couldn't. Not with Sasha and Helisant in the palace. Killing Merrant would mean war, but Merrant wanted war anyway, just a different kind. No. She would wait, but she would kill him, she promised herself. She would kill him before she handed Tyanth to him.

     She straightened, a plan forming quickly in her mind.

      "I don't think you know what you're asking." Her words were panicked, desperate. "You cannot take the Western Covens. There are thick mountain ranges. Caves. Tunnel systems that run hundreds of miles. They'd lure the soldiers down, let them get lost, trap them, starve them."