Page 25 of Return of the Vengeful Quee

Charis let her lips curve into the smile that never failed to inspire instant obedience in those who’d earned her anger. A queen would not address a delegate, especially before being formally received by the chancellor. That Jhi had sent a spokesperson rather than greet the queen himself was very telling.

Maybe it was a foolish power play.

Or maybe even Embre had heard of Calera’s fate, and he wanted no involvement in a potential conflict with Te’ash.

She spoke rapidly to Holland without breaking eye contact with the woman on the dock.

Holland’s voice filled the space between the two parties. “Chancellor Jhi is either a friend to the alliance of Calera, Montevallo, Solvang, Thallis, and Verace, or he is our enemy. We will give him an hour to make his choice before sending pallorens to the rest of our armada with news that they must change course from their intended target and visit Embre first.”

The delegation erupted into furious whispers. Charis remained still, pride and fury glittering in her eyes.

The key to selling a lie was to speak it once, with conviction, and then behave as though no other explanation was needed. Those who rushed to pad their words with justifications and excuses were easy to see through. Those who spoke as though they’d just had the final word on the matter sowed a seed of doubt, and the line between doubt and fear was thin and fragile.

“I think they believe you,” Ayve breathed quietly from Charis’s left. Beneath her heavy cloak, she also wore a dress with a sword strapped to her waist. Her skills as a seamstress had certainly served her well. The quality of her dress was easily equal to what the nobility wore, and it helped sell the idea that Charis was here on official business.

Two members of the delegation peeled off from the rest and hurried toward the town whose rooftops were just visible past the craggy rocks that comprised Embre’s shoreline. Charis stood with Holland, Ayve, Reuben, Orayn, and Finn beside the lowered gangplank, waiting silently for the chancellor’s response.

Charis kept her expression cold and distant as her thoughts raced. What would she do if the chancellor called her bluff? Her crew couldn’t fight their way through the town until they found Jhi’s home. And they certainly couldn’t force the Embrians to sell them their supply of moriarthy dust. If Jhi didn’t respond to Charis’s threat, she had precious little room to maneuver.

Her hope was that the palloren Jhi had already received from her, which included one of the letters from King Gareth, would lend credibility to the idea that she’d managed to form an armada with the help of her allies.

Time passed slowly as they stood waiting, cloaks pulled close to shelter them from the frigid gusts of wind that stung their cheeks and numbed their noses. Dread crept into Charis’s thoughts as the hour she’d given played out with no sign of Jhi.

She was going to have to somehow appear to make good on her threat.

“Captain,” she called with bold confidence, “send pallorens to every admiral in our armada and instruct them to send a contingent of warships to Embre. Let them know we will wait in this harbor until they arrive.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Orayn didn’t hesitate. Turning, he shouted, “Ready the pallorens!”

“Wait!” The spokeswoman for the Embrian delegate stepped forward again. “Chancellor Jhi will not allow you to disembark, but he will grant you a brief audience aboard your ship.”

Relief rushed through Charis as she nodded to Holland. He said, “We will welcome Chancellor Jhi and assure his safety while in our presence. Captain, stay those pallorens until we speak with the chancellor.”

Orayn yelled his counterorder as just beyond the craggy shoreline, a retinue approached the dock.

Chancellor Jhi was a short, middle-aged man with a graying black beard, brown skin, and a wickedly curved axe strapped across his back. His dark umber robe was embroidered with intricate swirls of peacock blue and brilliant yellow. Five guards in peacock-blue uniforms edged in scarlet accompanied him as he made his up the gangplank with measured, stately steps.

Charis appreciated a show of power when she saw one, though the effect was somewhat diminished by the fact that he’d come to her because his warriors had been unable to force her to comply. And because he was afraid of her nonexistent armada.

“Chancellor Jhi.” She extended her hand.

“Queen Charis.” He took her hand and raised it to his lips. His mustache scraped across her skin, and she suppressed a shiver of revulsion.

“Please, join me in our mess hall. I’m afraid it isn’t as elegant a meeting place as I’d hoped to enjoy for our first conversation, but it will have to do.” Her words were barbed beneath their polite veneer.

“Elegant surroundings are reserved for our invited guests.” Jhi’s polite veneer wore as thin as her own.

That was fine. Charis was well versed in navigating tricky political waters with an opponent who thought they were the predator and she the prey. They never realized their mistake until it was too late.

Jhi sat on one side of a long wooden table, his guards standing at attention beside him. Charis sat opposite him, Holland and Ayve standing to her right and on her left, Orayn, Finn, and Reuben forming a protective semicircle around the group, with Reuben close to Holland in case he needed to leap across the table to meet an oncoming threat.

If you needed information from an opponent, you waited to see how they would steer the conversation and played a careful game of cat and mouse, hunting for the crumbs they unwittingly dropped. But if you wanted to establish dominance and quickly maneuver an opponent into a corner, you went for the jugular and held your grip until they surrendered.

Charis needed Jhi to feel backed into a corner, and she needed it fast. Before the Rakuuna who hunted her closed in, making a safe transfer of the poison impossible.

“I trust you received the palloren with messages from both me and King Gareth of Solvang. Because you understand the severity of the situation Calera faces, I will do you the courtesy of coming right to the point.” She leaned forward, her words sharp as a blade.

“Every allied kingdom in the east and the north has made a commitment to drive the Rakuuna from Caleran lands except you and Rullenvor. Rullenvor has been overtaken by the Rakuuna, and we believe their High Emperor is dead, so I expected no help from that quarter. However, I certainly expected the kingdom closest to Te’ash to be concerned about the Rakuuna’s colonization efforts and to join forces with the rest of us to defeat them. But you didn’t, did you?”

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