“Emeline, can you help me?” he asked. “Asha is looking into my thoughts.”
Emeline came over, giving Stonehome’s co-leader an unfriendly look. Sebastian felt something settle around his mind like a cloak, and he guessed that she’d blocked Asha out.
“I could break through that block,” Asha said.
Emeline smiled tightly. “No you couldn’t, and if you had any manners, there would be no need for it.”
“Why would people want to hide their thoughts if they’re not thinking anything wrong?” Asha countered, but she sounded as if her heart wasn’t in it.
“We are finding whatever spaces we can for people,” Vincente said. “You are our king, Sebastian.”
Asha looked at him with obvious surprise, and Sebastian had the sense of a silent conversation taking place between the two. Emeline supplied the content of it for him.
“Asha is claiming that Sophia might be their queen, but you are the Dowager’s son, and she cannot follow you. She says that they both know that Violet is their real queen.”
Emeline smirked as Asha glared over at her.
“I won’t be embarrassed by it,” she said. “Princess Violet is one of us. She belongs here, and will be a great queen.”
“One day,” Sebastian agreed. He didn’t like the way Asha said it though. She made it sound as though he and Sophia didn’t matter; as though they existed just to bring Violet into the world.
“Sebastian is our king,” Vincente said aloud. “Sophia is our queen, and Stonehome supports the crown. They will create a world where we can live, Asha.”
“They don’t even have a world where they can live,” Asha said, gesturing to the tents. “We saved them, but they complain. ‘We only have tents’, ‘why isn’t there more food?’, ‘what if they’re reading my thoughts?’ We exhaust ourselves to protect them, and they wonder when we will turn on them.”
“It will take time, Asha,” Emeline said. “It will only take-”
Sebastian saw her freeze in place, her eyes unfocussed and looking past him. Sebastian knew what that meant: she was seeing something well beyond the confines of the hidden town.
“What is it?” Sebastian said when he saw Emeline blink her way back to herself . “What did you see, Emeline?”
“It isn’t safe here,” Emeline said. “I saw… I saw the shields falling. I saw the New Army sweeping in.”
“Impossible,” Vincente said. “The shields are unbreakable. We turned back the enemy easily last time.”
“I saw it,” Emeline insisted. When she focused on Sebastian, he could see how serious she was about this. “We have to get Violet out of here.”
Sebastian blinked at that, but he could only agree with her. If the Master of Crows was going to get into Stonehome, then he needed to get Violet out of here. They all needed to get out of here.
“But you can’t take Violet,” Asha said. “She’s one of us!”
Sebastian turned to her, surprised by the suddenly protective note. “Violet is my daughter,” he said. “And I will not put her in danger.”
He saw Asha shake her head. “She’s not in danger. Vincente is right. No one could get into Stonehome.”
“I saw it happening!” Emeline countered.
“Where could we take her?” Sebastian asked. If they could make it to the coast, then maybe they could get to Ishjemme, but that would mean abandoning the kingdom that they had only just won. They would lose it before Sophia could even get back to it.
“There’s barely anywhere as strong as here,” Vincente said. “The only place that might be stronger would be Monthys back in the day when its defenses actually stood and Monthys has fallen.”
“Which means that the enemy aren’t there now,” Emeline pointed out.
“It still wouldn’t be strong,” Vincente said. “In the days before the civil wars, it had layers of magic and stone, but now…”
Sebastian had heard from Sophia what it was like now, damaged, almost ruined. Ulf and Frig had gone up to try to rebuild it, but they were dead now, killed by the Master of Crows. The New Army had probably passed it by, but to think of it as a safe place would be madness.
“Monthys will draw people,” Emeline said. “And the bones of the magical defenses will still be there. They can be reactivated.”
“We have magical defenses here,” Asha insisted. “Violet is the whole reason that we allowed you to come here.”
“Not the whole reason,” Vincente said.
Asha gave him a sharp look, and Sebastian had the feeling that this was an argument between them. He was more interested in what Asha had said.
“You only took in the refugees because of my daughter? Because of some flash of vision that you’ve seen?”
Asha seemed defiant. “Not just that I’ve seen. Everyone who catches flashes of the future has seen the queen to come. You can’t deny that.”
“My daughter will choose her own future,” Sebastian said. “I will do whatever I have to do to keep her safe, and to give her those choices. I’ll fight for that, if I have to. Don’t forget that, Asha.”
“We’re not enemies,” Vincente said. “We’re-”
Sebastian didn’t get to learn exactly what they were, because in that moment, bells sounded to signal that something was happening beyond the walls of the town.
“We need to go,” Emeline said. “It’s coming.”
“We’re safe here,” Asha insisted. “This is just some plan to take Princess Violet away from her people.”
Sebastian ignored that and ran to the walls of Stonehome. The shield the inhabitants had put in place was up, held by the efforts of those townsfolk who stood in the stone circle at its heart.
A battalion of the New Army stood before the town, cannons levelled, cavalry spread out like a net. Sebastian was more interested in the figures who stepped forward. He recognized the Master of Crows at once. The shaven headed man standing next to him was harder to identify, but he stood almost as if he were the Master of Crows’ equal.
“That’s Endi,” Emeline said, “Sophia’s cousin.”
“The one who betrayed us by dragging away half of the invasion fleet?” Sebastian said. He’d heard the stories, even if he’d never met the man.
“That’s the one,” Emeline said.
“What’s he doing with the Master of Crows?” Sebastian asked.
“Nothing good,” Emeline replied. “Sebastian, we need to get out of here.”
Beside them, the warriors of Stonehome and those of the refugees who could fight started to move into place. They did it with a surprising sense of confidence, but then, Sebastian thought, they were behind the shield. As long as it held, there was nothing to be afraid of. They were safe.
So why had Emeline seen destruction?
Sebastian stood there, trying to show confidence even while he felt it ebbing away. In Sophia’s absence, he was the ruler of this kingdom, and he had to provide strength for everyone else to draw from. If he showed fear, there would be panic.
Slowly, Endi started to walk around the perimeter of Stonehome, stopping every few paces to do something that seemed to involve ingredients carried by a pair of servants. He made marks with a golden rod, reading from a book as he went.