Page 54 of Shattered Stars
“There has always been a threat,” I can’t help but growl. “There have always been attacks.”
It’s been many years since these older, high-born magicals ventured anywhere near the front. They’ve forgotten the horrors there. Not me though. I remember.
“Yes, at the border,” the woman persists. “Never to our country. We drove them out. We drove them away. We destroyed them.”
“That was long ago,” I say quietly. The West is a barren wasteland with few resources and little wealth. Those banished there long ago were never going to be content with remaining there forever. The threat they would return has always been real.
“We will double our forces at the border – call up our reserves,” the chancellor says. “I reassure you all, we are safe.”
“Safe?” my uncle says with undisguisable amusement. The chancellor scowls at him but my uncle simply smiles. “My sources tell me that the West is not as ill-equipped or as poorly organized as it once was. That their forces have regrouped and rearmed.”
There are more gasps and whispers around the chamber.
“Then we ought to strike them,” the woman says, “strike them before they strike us. Before they are allowed to grow any stronger.”
The chancellor goes to speak but my uncle cuts him off. “Now, now, Dorothea, there’s no need to be alarmed. No need for an offensive. I’m sure the chancellor has things under control – or he will have given time.” He nods at the chancellor as if he’s being gracious.
The chancellor growls.
“But how has this happened?” the woman says again. “Who is leading them? Do we know?”
I shake my head. What information I have gleaned from sources closest to the border, from the western soldiers we havecaptured, has been sparse. If there is an individual leading and organizing the forces in the West, they are keeping themselves well hidden.
“I intend to find out.” He holds the gaze of each council man and woman in the chamber. “And again, I assure you all, there is no need for worry or concern. We have our force of highly trained magicals stationed at the border, protecting this republic. The western forces cannot and will not pass them,” the chancellor bellows, ending the council session with a flick of his wrist and marching to the door, motioning for me to follow him. “Let’s go somewhere more private to speak,” he says to me lowly as we pass beneath the menacing dragon.
I nod and follow him up the sweeping staircase and through into his office, my grandfather’s face staring at me from the desk.
He doesn’t offer me a seat. We remain standing, him with his hands clutched behind his back, mine by my sides.
“You think the threat grave?” he asks me.
“I … I don’t know. Gaining information about the West has always been difficult. Illegal dealings happen between the gangs and traders in the West. Sometimes I can obtain information that way. But this time …”
“You need to do better,” the chancellor says with menace. He doesn’t like the way my uncle humiliated him in the chamber. He doesn’t like that I saw it.
“There are two other things I wish to speak with you about.”
I nod again. My heart begins to race again. I’m sure he must hear it but somehow I keep my face blank.
“You are headed to the western border again tonight as instructed?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Then I would like you to take the youngest son of the Moreau family with you.”
I frown. “Because?”
“He will be joining our forces there.”
“Is he not enrolled in Arrow Hart Academy?”
“He was, but he’s earned enough credits to graduate from the academy early and I received a request from his family yesterday that he be given special dispensation to join the forces immediately. Given his … abilities,” I frown, “I think he will be of use there.”
“I see,” I say. The Moreau family, though mysterious, is also powerful and the different generations have always made names for themselves in the force. The opportunity to take another of their powerful sons must have seemed opportune for the chancellor. Especially given the current circumstances. “Would it not be more usual for him to travel with the fresh reinforcements?”
“There are none due to leave until the end of the week and I see no reason to keep the boy waiting, particularly as you are heading that way anyway.”
I nod a third time. The arrangement sounds less than ideal to me. The boy thinks he’s a prince and probably expects to be treated like one too. He’s going to receive a rude awakening when he joins the forces at the front.
