Through Wolf's Eyes (79 page)

"So it's over," Derian said for all of them.

"Not yet," Sir Jared replied with the sad wisdom of
one who had been through fighting before. "That battle is ended. Now we
need to know if the war is over as well."

A
LLISTER SEAGLEAM BRUSHED PEARL'S
hands away from straightening the bandage that still wrapped his head.

"Enough, dear," he said firmly. "I realize it is
hardly approved head gear for an audience with the queen, but the
doctors say I must keep the wound lightly covered. There is too much
risk of infection, especially here where the horses attract so many
flies."

Pearl folded her arms over her chest, just slightly
pouting. "I only wanted you to look your best for your meeting with
Queen Gustin, Allister. This is the first time in the two days since
her arrival that she has granted you a private audience. Given all you
have done for her, that is hardly just!"

Allister patted his wife's hand, thinking that for an arranged marriage really this one had worked out remarkably well.

Pearl was actually concerned about the slight to him,
not because it was a slight to herself or to her family, but because of
her fondness for him. How many couples could claim that after
twenty-two years of marriage and four children?

"My dear," he said, bending to kiss her round cheek, "Queen Gustin
wants
to play down her debt to me. You cannot have forgotten her reception when she arrived at the head of her marines, can you?"

"And I hope I never will!" Pearl laughed, her good humor restored. Then she frowned. "Though perhaps the townsfolk
throwing rubbish at her from the walls was a bit much."

Allister nodded. "It was, but who could blame them?
They are simple folk who place their trust in the Crown. This was not
the first battle fought in the shadows of those walls— only the
biggest."

"And the only one where Hawk Haven fought beside us
rather than against us," Pearl mused. "Yes, when an enemy turns out to
be a friend, is it any surprise that late-coming friends suddenly seem
like enemies?"

"No, it is not." Allister paused thoughtfully. "My
dear, what I want to say to the queen today may put me on the list of
those she sees as enemies. One word from you and I will hold my tongue."

Pearl raised an eyebrow. "That bad?"

"That bad."

"Have you spoken to the children about it? Shad, at
least, is old enough that you should consider his opinion before doing
something that will affect his future."

"I have. He encourages me."

As he should,
Allister thought,
for if I pull this off it will make his fortune
.

"And have you spoken with Tavis?"

"A little. Right now he is still adjusting to the
realities of war. He did not fight, but in acting as runner he saw
plenty of bloodshed. The concept that true heroism and true horror can
and do exist together is a large one for a romantic fifteen-year-old to
grasp."

Pearl nodded. "It is. I had wondered at him spending
so much time with the soldiers all of a sudden. At the ball he avoided
them; now he sits by their firesides for hours, listening to stories
and asking questions."

A discreet knock at the door reminded Allister that the time had come for him to depart for his appointment.

"Do you really want me to do this?" he asked, putting on his tricorn at a rather rakish angle over his bandage.

"Perhaps you should tell me just what it is you plan
to do," Pearl sighed, but something in her shrewd gaze made him think
she had guessed.

Allister turned back from the door he had been about to
open
and said softly, "I plan to tell Queen Gustin that she must make me her
heir and, if I predecease her, that my surviving eldest must take over
as crown prince."

Pearl stood on tiptoe to kiss him, her eyes very bright. "You saved her kingdom. What else would be reward enough?"

But as Allister went out the door he could not fail
to see that Pearl was trembling and knew that she feared she would
never see him again. Queen Gustin was not always a just monarch—only a
successful one.

After the second battle of what people were calling
Allister's War, the grateful town of Good Crossing had made much of her
defenders. Needing a secure command center, Allister had accepted the
loan of a mansion from a real-estate speculator who had imagined all
his investments torched and battered by Stonehold's invading army.

Flanked by his bodyguards, Duke Allister trotted
briskly down the mansion's broad, stone front steps. Cheering greeted
him the moment he passed into the sight of the people gathered outside
his temporary headquarters.

Day and night, idlers waited outside the place,
hoping for a glimpse of the Pledge Child, the valiant commander in
chief. Winning the battle had made Allister a hero—nor had it hurt the
duke's prestige that both himself and his eldest son had been injured
fighting in defense of Bright Bay.

However, what had helped Allister Seagleam's
reputation the most was that Queen Gustin IV had not been present for
either battle. When rumors had spread that she had not been fighting
pirates but had been within a day's ride of Good Crossing for several
days before the fighting began, escorted by a host of blooded marines
drawn from her best ships, Allister's reputation had soared even as
hers had plummeted.

Waving to his admirers, Allister accepted a hand up
into the carriage that would rattle him through the cobble streets to
where Queen Gustin resided in sumptuous quarters in the Toll House. In
the carriage, he made casual comments that he could not remember a
moment later, his thoughts focused on the meeting to come.

It was not as if he hadn't seen the queen in the days since
her
arrival. There had been countless meetings: with King Tedric and his
officers, with General Yuci of Stonehold, with members of the local
guildhalls. During all of them Queen Gustin had been faultlessly
courteous, deferring to her cousin's greater knowledge of the situation
while making clear that she was his ruler and that she believed that
his triumph was best seen within the context of her reign.

Allister supposed it had been that attitude—that
combined with the current situation regarding King Tedric's own heir—
which had made him consider what he would demand as reward for his
services. He knew that he was being foolhardy, but he also knew that he
could not go back to his former situation. It had taken him over forty
years to be something more than a failed pledge. The need to continue
building the bridge between Hawk Haven and Bright Bay was a desperate
fire within him, hot in breast and mind.

Cheering admirers ran alongside his carriage and
greeted him as he dismounted from it at the Toll House. Even while
acknowledging their good wishes, Allister knew that those noisy praises
were doing him no good with the queen.

Arriving at the tower room where Queen Gustin IV was
holding audience, he was admitted at once. Queen Gustin rose from her
paper-strewn desk, holding out her hands to greet him in a familiar
embrace.

"Welcome, cousin," she said. "I am so glad that matters of state at last relent enough to permit us a private talk."

Queen Gustin IV was regarded by many as a lovely
woman. Certainly her eyes were the blue of oceans and her hair the
red-gold of honey just as the ballads said, but a calculating
expression rarely left those blue eyes. At twenty-eight her figure was
still firm and buxom and her smile merry, but that smile came
infrequently these days and to him, who had known her since she was a
child, it possessed a studied cast.

"I am glad to see you, too," he replied.

"And Shad, is he recovering?"

"Nicely. He took a solid blow to the head, but
several of the medics possessed the healing talent. Give him a couple
days bed rest and he will be up and about—though the doctors
suggest he do nothing too strenuous for a moon-span or so if at all possible."

"I am glad to hear he is doing so well. Sit down, Cousin Allister. We have much to discuss."

Allister did so. An unobtrusive servant took his hat and set out a tray with peach cider and cups.

"Leave us now," Queen Gustin ordered.

The man—a marine, Allister thought—bowed and departed.

"I don't know how to thank you for the work you have done for me these past days," she began.

Here is where you could make your demands, Allister,
he thought, but all he said was:

"Thank you. Bright Bay is my country, too."

"There are those back at court who are remembering that Hawk Haven is your country, as well," Gustin said, just a bit slyly.

"My mother's," he replied. "I have never crossed its borders, not even as far as over this bridge."

"Yet report is that King Tedric embraced you like a long-lost son."

"King Tedric was kind to me for his sister's sake and for the sake of peace between our nations," Allister replied.

"And has he made you any offers?"

"We had not reached that point before Stonehold grew nervous and our negotiations were suspended."

" 'Grew nervous'—that's an odd way to say 'Declared war.' "

"They did not declare war," Allister said, "until it was evident that Your Majesty was not going to treat with them."

"They had no right to meddle with a completely internal issue!"

"I agree, Your Majesty. I was merely responding to your statement."

Queen Gustin IV glowered at Allister, reminding him
irresistibly of the autocratic little girl with whom he once had played
at make-believe. She hadn't liked being criticized then either—not even
by implication.

That very well might be the problem of raising someone
to know that she can expect to rule someday,
Allister thought.
Of course, the opposite problem is what King Tedric faces—choosing a successor from those unprepared for the responsibility
.

"Negotiations with Stonehold are progressing," Queen
Gustin said, "slowly, but progressing. A pair of ministers empowered to
sign a treaty should arrive tomorrow. They are bringing with them a
fine sum to compensate us for our losses in soldiers and goods. If all
goes well, Stonehold will begin withdrawing the following day."

"Very good."

"Although we have promised her a share of the
compensation, Hawk Haven is being a bit more difficult about stating
exactly when her troops will withdraw," the queen continued
thoughtfully, "and I am not in an advantageous position to set dates
and times. Even with the reinforcements I brought with me, the
Stalwarts of the Golden Sunburst are less impressive without Hawk
Haven's army intermingled with them. Without Hawk Haven's support,
Stonehold might decide not to depart after all."

Allister forbore from commenting.

"Indeed, I would have Hawk Haven's troops remain
until Stonehold's are gone and Mason's Bridge secured, but I can
extract no promise that they will withdraw at all." Queen Gustin
frowned. "Have you any suggestions as to how we might resolve this
problem?"

This is it!
Allister thought, taking a deep breath.

"Yes, I do," he said, and was amazed that his voice
did not shake. "Hawk Haven has proven a true friend to us. They need
equal proof that we will be a true friend to them."

"And," Gustin said, her tone just a touch sardonic, "do you have any idea what we might do to give them this assurance?"

"Make me your heir," Allister said coolly, "for I
have shown myself their friend. In the event I predecease you— as is
likely—my heir must take my place as your heir.

"In return, I will convince King Tedric to wed to his
own heir one of my children—who I will immediately designate my own
heir. Thus, upon Tedric's death—which sadly can
not
be too far away—a child Bright Bay born will sit upon the throne of
Hawk Haven. When I become an ancestor, the reverse will be true. By
then our nations will have grown accustomed to—perhaps even come to
anticipate—the idea of a union between our peoples and all should
progress smoothly."

Allister managed to complete this long speech mostly
because Queen Gustin was far too astonished to interrupt. When he
stopped, she exclaimed:

"I should make you my heir? Why should I care for a union?"

"Promise of a union will permit us to forge an
alliance with Hawk Haven, an alliance that will give King Tedric's
people the incentive to provide Bright Bay with military support
without taking the further step of becoming conquerors—a thing that is
otherwise far too tempting.

"If my plan is followed, you will reign as long as
you live. Then I—or more probably my heir—will assume the throne. Since
that same heir will quite likely already be king or queen of Hawk
Haven, our kingdoms will be reunited under one ruler and my royal
grandparents' dreams will at last come true."

Queen Gustin was too self-disciplined to start out of
her chair, but she did slam her cup of peachy down with such force that
the tray rattled. "This plan is insane! I forbid you to mention it to
anyone."

"I'm sorry, Your Majesty," Allister replied levelly.
"I have already discussed something like this with King Tedric in the
context of my permitting one of my children to marry his unnamed heir."

That's stretching the point a bit,
he thought,
but
the clerk who attended the meeting will not be able to say for certain
that something of the sort was not discussed in private. There is no
need for her to know that I've written Uncle Tedric telling him my
plans and nearly begging for his support— and for sanctuary for me and
my family if I fail.

"Oh, you have . . ." She fell into thought. "And has this tasty bit of treason been mentioned to anyone else?"

Allister answered calmly. "Not in so many words, but several
of
my callers these past days have expressed hope that some such plan may
be in the making. I have only been able to say that I believed Your
Majesty a good and wise ruler with the best interests of her nation at
heart."