“You ask me to condone your potential death?” Joslyn’s tone turned icy. “I do not.”
Tasia looked away. “It is one thing to lack the support of the council, half of whom still see me as a whimsical girl who treats a crown as nothing but an ornament. It is another thing to lack even your support.”
“I do support you. I’ve believed in you from the start – you know I have.” Joslyn kneeled before the place where Tasia sat. And it seemed appropriate to be on her knees, because she was about to beg. “But you yourself have said you must lead. Lead from here. Be the Mother of the Empire’s children by staying in their home. Send Alric, send Mace – maybe send them both. It doesn’t have to be you.” Tasia opened her mouth to argue, but Joslyn pressed ahead. “If you have an army perched upon a mountain ridge, and the vale below is obscured by morning mist, do you send your cavalry charging into that mist? No, you send scouts. The scouts report back to the commanding officer, and the officer decides if the troops obscured by the mist can be defeated or not.”
“Sending scouts all the way to the Kingdom of Persopos and waiting for them to return before I act …” Tasia shook her head. “What kind of damage could the Kingdom do in the meantime?”
“Better temporary injury than permanent death.”
“I do not march to my death,” Tasia said firmly. “I am smarter than that. And neither will I charge into the Kingdom of Persopos without first sending scouts. But I cannot wait for a scout report here, in Port Lorsin, while –”
“Alric has a lifetime of experience, Tasia!” Joslyn shouted. One hand curled involuntarily into a fist. “Between him and Mace, there is no need for you to be there. You cannot go yourself. You cannot!”
Tasia’s face went stony. “Mind to whom you speak. I am still your Empress.”
The words hit Joslyn like a slap in the face. After a long, tense silence, Joslyn got to her feet and took a step away from Tasia.
“I beg your pardon, Your Majesty. Clearly I forgot myself.” Bitterness painted a thick coat over each word.
With one deft sweep of her arm, Joslyn gathered up the armor sitting beside Tasia and proceeded to put it back on.
Tasia frowned. “What are you doing? Are you leaving?”
“I will make the rounds through the palace once more before I sleep,” Joslyn said, keeping her eyes away from Tasia’s. “I should like to check on Brick. As he manages the night shift, I do not speak to him as often as I would like these days.”
“So I make a decision you do not agree with, and you storm off like an angry child rather than having a logical conversation?”
Itried having a logical conversation. But you have not tried listening, Joslyn wanted to say.
“Joslyn?” Tasia said when Joslyn did not reply. She waited, but still Joslyn held her tongue. “And now you will not even speak. How mature.”
Tasia crossed her arms against her chest.
Joslyn already had her hand on the door to the antechamber, but now she looked back. “Do you order me to speak, Your Majesty?”
Tasia glanced over. Her green eyes brimmed with tears. “Just go.”
“As you command, Majesty,” Joslyn said, and she stepped out of Tasia’s bedchamber, slamming the door closed behind her.
Linna, reading some Wise Man’s text by lantern light in her cot, immediately sat up at the sound of the slamming door. “Commander? Is there something wrong? I heard raised voices.”
“No,” Joslyn said. “There’s nothing wrong. I’m sorry for startling you.”
But the girl’s perceptive eyes missed little, and they studied Joslyn skeptically. “Where are you going?”
Joslyn had made it halfway to the door that led out of the antechamber and into the corridor, but now she hesitated. Where was she going? She said she was going to see Brick, but that was merely the first thought that had come to her mind. She hadn’t actually formulated a plan.
“I am going to the beach to train,” she said after a moment’s thought. “It is good to practice the dance in all conditions, including moonless nights.”
Linna slid from the bed. “I have never trained in full dark. May I come with you?”
“No, the Empress may yet need you.”
Linna glanced uncertainly over her shoulder at the door to Tasia’s bedchamber. She looked like she might argue, because it was rare for Tasia to make requests of her at this time of night, but she thought better of it.
She bowed her head respectfully. “Yes, Commander.”