“He is in league with the Medes,” said the magus.

“You have no proof,” my father countered while I was still reeling at the idea that Eurydice and Ina and my mother were somewhere living and not dead in the destruction of the villa on Letnos. It was a moment before I paid more attention to the exchange of fire between my father and the magus. They were deep into what was obviously a familiar rut.

“Surely this is my uncle’s decision,” I pointed out. Their argument cut off more sharply than I anticipated.

My father said, “Your uncle is dead.”

The magus said, “You are Sounis.”

CHAPTER TEN

I should have stayed in Hanaktos and built walls. “More than a month ago,” the magus said when I asked him how long it had been since the death of my uncle. “Sounis had a fever before a day of hard riding and died that night.”

The magus and my father had told no one except a few officers. To the men in the army they had said the king was elsewhere, raising more forces.

“Your Majesty”—the magus addressed me, and I flinched—“we are near to being overwhelmed by Eddis and Attolia. They only wait for us to be at our weakest. We have lost the navy and most of the islands. Eddis has fortified the ground at the base of the Irkes pass. The Mede emperor and the prince of Melenze are also waiting. There is a chance that if Melenze knew your uncle who was Sounis had died, they would not wait to make an alliance with us; they would attack.”

“Attolia and Melenze will tear us apart between them,” said my father, and got a glare for it from the magus.

“We need to make an alliance with Melenze before the news gets out,” said the magus while I stared at him like a pilchard.

“We need to make an alliance with the Medes before war breaks out between Melenze and Attolia with us in the middle,” my father said more forcefully.

“The Medes,” the magus countered, trying to keep his temper, “started this rebellion, direct this rebellion, and nearly saw you dead tonight!” He pinched his nose and drew a deep breath. He said to my father, “Hanaktos will be on your heels.”

“Hanaktos, thanks to my son, doesn’t know where we are.” He told the magus of our trip through the dark.

“Thanks to His Majesty,” the magus said, and my father seemed startled at the correction but not displeased. On the contrary, he suddenly looked much like Ina when she has all her embroidery threads arranged to her satisfaction. He looked so pleased that I checked over my shoulder to see if there might be someone else behind me who had drawn his attention.

“Your Majesty,” said the magus deferentially, trying to restart the conversation. “I am sorry to put you in this position, but I believe Hanaktos might still attack.”

“He has no idea where we are!” my father argued.

“The Mede will have told him!” said the magus.

“The Mede again!” my father said, throwing up his hands.

“The Mede what?” said a voice behind me. “What will I have told whom?”

I spun around to see a man standing in the open doorway of the tent. Only the lack of reaction from my father and the magus stopped me from jumping at his throat. He was clearly a Mede.

“Aah,” he said in theatrical delight. “The rumors running around the camp are true: Your lost lamb has been found.”

Then he looked at the magus and said pointedly, “Won’t you please present me to your king?,” confirming that he’d been listening outside the tent and had heard everything that had been said within. Which is a reason you should not discuss important business in a tent or at least should keep your voices down if you do, as my father and the magus emphatically had not. The Mede was pleased at the magus’s discomfort, and his saturnine smile showed it.

The magus stiffly said, “Your Majesty, permit me to present the ambassador Akretenesh from His most Excellent and Sovereign Majesty Ghaznuvidas, emperor of the Mede.”

Good thing that I hadn’t strangled him, I thought.

“I am most honored, Your Majesty,” said Akretenesh, with a deep bow.

“You are welcome, Your Excellency,” I said, tilting my head, probably a little too far. “I am of course gratified, though very surprised, to receive you in such”—I couldn’t think of a diplomatic word and settled for—“unusual circumstances.”

“Allow me to say, and to speak for my master when I do, how pleased we are to be introduced to you in any circumstances. We are delighted that you are found safe and returned to your anxious parent.”

He turned to my father then. “And your wife and daughters are as well, I trust?”

“No,” said my father. “It was a trap.” He told him of Hanaktos’s treachery.

The Mede was horrified, stopping just short of saying that it was the sort of thing one could expect from barbarians like us. He asked how my father intended to free my mother and sisters, and my father had no answer except, “They do not matter. Only Sounis is important.”

I glared at him, but he would not meet my eye.

“Indeed,” the Mede murmured, forfeiting any tolerance I might have had for him. He turned to me and said earnestly, “Your Majesty, you can count on our support. We have the ships to patrol your coast and to retake your islands from Attolia. We have the armies to aid you here on land. With our help, you can be secure on your throne.”

I said, “Our thanks, Excellency. I believe we would benefit more from your gold…as Attolia did.”

Akretenesh’s expression didn’t change, but it was a hit. We both knew that the Mede emperor had provided gold to Attolia, thinking he was buying control over her country from a foolish queen. If he had been successful, Akretenesh wouldn’t have been in a tent in the dark with me, offering his emperor’s support. Instead, Attolia would be a subject state, invading us with those very same Mede armies at her back.

“Permit me to say that your youth is refreshing, Your Majesty, but perhaps it should be tempered by experience. Will you have a regent?”

“Nonsense,” said my father.

“Surely he is not confirmed king? Not yet elected by your barons?”

It’s true that the kings in Sounis are confirmed in a meeting of all the barons, but I was the appointed heir. My father explained that in such cases, the Barons’ Meet was a formality.

He extolled my many virtues in the fight at Hanaktos and the escape afterward. A year earlier I would have been gratified. Contrariwise, all I felt was resentment at being talked of as if I were a tent pole. Behind my father, the magus was signaling. He hadn’t liked my comment about the Attolian gold, and he didn’t want me pricking the ambassador.

“He is a fine king already!” my father said in conclusion.

Eyeing the magus, I demurred. “His Excellency may be right, Father,” I said. The magus nodded, and my father stared at me.

“Perhaps the right regent,” hinted the magus.

My father opened his mouth to call me a fool and froze. As the magus had pointed out earlier, I was his king. His ambitions had elevated me beyond his dictatorial control. He turned on the magus instead. “This is your doing,” he snarled. “You have corrupted him with your incessant nattering. Next he will say that we go to Melenze.”