~20~
Uproar filled the palace and city of Orynth once the news of Adarlan's forces marching north broke, but the palace council chambers remained oddly quiet. Subdued. Not out of anger at the news, not out of the shocked outrage that had spread over the city at the news, but the killing calm that had spread through the veins of so many of the elite warriors of the court at the news. At the threat implied to their queen and her consort.
"I don't know if I understand why Lyria deems it necessary to declare war," Darrow said softly, as they studied the maps spread over the large table in the council chamber. "I can't see it being worth her while to raise an army just to rescue a single spy that she hasn't heard hide nor hair from."
"That's because this is not about Sam Cortland," Chaol said almost soundlessly. "Not hearing from Cortland, that's just the excuse she's using in order to declare war. She doesn't truly care about him."
"Then what on earth is she raising Adarlan's army for?" Lord Sloane snapped impatiently, "if she's not going to declare war after all?"
"Because Lyria does truly mean to declare war on Terrasen," Chaol explained, irritated. No matter the kingdom, the fusty old doddery councillors were all the same. "Just not for the reasons she's claiming. She doesn't care about Sam Cortland. But she does want revenge on Rowan and Aelin for being happy whole she was so desperately unhappy."
"So the bitch is only doing this so she can get revenge," Darrow sighed. "So she can carry her death threats against their majesties through to completion."
"Exactly," Chaol nodded. "We've known for months now that Lyria wants Rowan and Aelin dead. But none of us ever thought that it would come to war. Especially not with such a feeble excuse in place. Lyria must be even crazier than any of ever thought possible."
"Lyria is more than just crazy," Endymion said bitterly. "She is clinically insane – the last two hundred years of 'abandonment' have warped her mind. At this point, Lyria is presumably as mad as Maeve was during the war. And you all know how that turned out for us."
There was a few minutes' of silence as memories of the recent Valg war pressed upon them, the grief and pain they all still felt reverberated through their bones. The siege Orynth had outlasted was still quite fresh in the minds of their army and the minds of the citizens of Orynth. No one was likely to forget the horrors that the war had brought, the horrors that had been inflicted upon the ordinary citizens of Terrasen just as much had it had wrought unimaginable nightmares upon its warriors and nobility.
What sort of horrors would this war bring upon the kingdom, Lyria's war of revenge? What horrors would occur before it was over? None of them knew. None of them even wanted to imagine it.
The silence started to stretch on too long, and Chaol shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He'd spotted several of them looking at him, pity in their gazes. He knew something was wrong. He knew that whatever was going on also had something to do with him. He just wished that they would stop beating around the bush and tell him. Honestly, Chaol didn't know how much longer he could handle the suspense.
"I know there's something that you aren't telling me," Chaol said, directing his gaze toward Rowan and Aedion. He doubted that Aelin knew what was being kept from him, for she was now looking at them in slight confusion. Besides, Aelin was his friend. She had always struggled to keep vital information from him in the past. "I would appreciate it if you didn't keep information from me right now. Especially when it may prove useful in whatever conflict that is approaching."
"I didn't want to have to tell you like this," Aedion said, slumping over in his chair. "But you have a right to know. When Lyria assembled Adarlan's lords in Rifthold to order them to assemble whatever forces they have, your father was among them."
"That doesn't entirely surprise me," Chaol shrugged. "My father has always been a bastard of the finest calibre. If you put Adarlan's crown on a sheep and named the sheep King of Adarlan, well, in that case he would probably consider himself duty bound to serve and obey the sheep's every command."
A ripple of laughter filled the room, none of them laughing louder than Aelin. She'd hated Chaol's father with a passion for years, for the poor way he had treated Chaol after he had abdicated his title of Lord of Anielle and joined the Royal Guard. Had hated the man for allowing Chaol to believe that his mother and younger brother had never written him a single letter. For making him believe that they had disowned him as thoroughly as his father had.
"All right, that's enough," Aedion said, the laughter dying down almost immediately. "While we can still enjoy a good laugh every now and then, I'm not finished yet." Looking at Chaol with pity and sympathy in his eyes, Aedion forced himself to continue. "According to our source, your father started questioning Lyria's methodology. There's no easy way to say this, but Lyria had Dorian kill your father for it."
"When did you find out this?" Chaol asked, eyes boring into Aedion's as he ignored the various lords and councillors as they quickly began to gather their belongings and file out of the room. Just how many of them had known about his father's death and hadn't told him? How long ago had they found out? Gods, Aedion had known all along, perhaps for days now, and hadn't even thought to tell him. Just how long had they been planning to keep him in the dark for?
"I only found out a couple of days ago," Aedion said, sighing. Having only lost his father during the Siege of Orynth, just after having had accepted the male as his father, Aedion knew exactly what Chaol was feeling.
Aelin knew what Chaol was enduring at the loss of his father, as well.
"And naturally, you did not think to tell him before now," Aelin said softly, grief filling her face as she took Chaol's hand. "Naturally your first instinct was to tell my friend that his father had died during a packed emergency council meeting."
"I realise I should have gone about this differently," Aedion said sadly as he took in the comforting arm his cousin had wrapped around her dearest friend. "But I guess I just didn't know how to tell you, Chaol. You can call me coward all you want over this, and you would be right. Just know that I will have to carry the burden of that cowardice for the rest of my life, and that we have a war to win first."
From the look on his face, Aedion knew that Chaol did not blame him for not telling him sooner – not really. It was the shock speaking. One look at his cousin's face, and he knew that Aelin still blamed him. Still believed that he should have told Chaol privately earlier. Aedion didn't know what sort of person it made him.
"My father was a bad man," Chaol said quietly that night in the palace suite that his family had been granted upon their arrival in Terrasen. "But does the fact that I don't grieve for him also make me a bad person? When I think of him, what he did to me, I just feel… nothing. I always have felt nothing when it comes to him. I don't know what that makes of me."
"I think it makes you human," Yrene said just as quietly as she rocked their infant daughter in her arms. "But I think this means that we need to be more careful than ever in regards to contacting your mother and brother."
"Mother and Terrin would probably be quite understanding about why we felt we had to leave Dorian's service for Aelin's. Leave Adarlan for Terrasen," Chaol said weakly, sinking down onto the lounge beside his wife. "But Mother would not be so understanding about why we just left my father there to his fate. Despite everything she has endured at his hands, she still loves him. Still adores him with the passion of a schoolgirl, though the gods only know why."
"I suppose love can be rather stupid as well as blind at times," Yrene said as she carefully passed their daughter into Chaol's arms.
Chaol instantly smiled at the small baby he held. No matter what was happening in his life, his small daughter always a put smile on his face. The baby cooed and giggled as he made funny faces at her. "No sleepy time for you today, sweet Charlotte, huh?"
"No matter what I try, Charlotte just won't go to sleep," Yrene bemoaned. "It's almost as though she understands something big is going on. Or maybe she knows her daddy needs one of her cuddles."
"No matter what is going on in my life, Charlotte is always able to cheer me up," Chaol murmured, cuddling the baby closer. "Maybe it's just because she's too little to understand why I'm so worked up about everything. Or maybe she's just at the age where all she knows is to make people happy."
"Maybe it's just because she simply loves her parents the why your mother still loves your father," Yrene said murmured gently, wrapping an arm around Chaol's waist. "Do you really feel so little in regards to your father?"
Chaol sighed before looking at her. "I hate to say it, but I just feel nothing when it comes to my father," he muttered. "I never have felt much when it comes to him. I used to hate him for what he had put me through when I was younger. But even that hatred has long since faded away to indifference. I just wish that Aedion had broken the news differently. That he had told me in private. I found Aedion publically telling my father had been murdered by my oldest friend just felt discomfiting. All I felt was self conscious. Awkward. Right now, I just don't know what to do with it all. I guess I just need some time to process it all."
Yrene sighed to herself. It didn't matter whether or not he was ready to admit it or not, but she was positive that Chaol still had some lingering feelings of hated for his father. Why else would he care so much about Aedion telling him in public?
Love or loath his father, when Chaol sorted out his feelings toward him, Yrene would be there for him no matter what.
Aedion groaned to himself as Aelin glared at him from across the room. He knew that she was pissed off about him breaking the news of Chaol's father's death the way he had. At the same time though, Aedion knew that that wasn't what Aelin was really pissed about. Deep down, Aedion knew that Aelin was just pissed off that none of his spies had managed to find and capture Lyria long before she had taken it this far and was taking it out on him.
And in all honesty, Aedion couldn't blame her, nor Rowan, for being so angry at the situation. After all, if the situation had been reversed and it was his life on the line, along with the lives of his wife/mate and their unborn child… Aedion would probably have slaughtered anyone and everyone who had stood in the way of him killing whoever the hell it was behind the threats. Probably would have done it long before now. In a way, Aedion had to greatly admire Aelin's restraint the last few months, considering the constant stress and strain she had to be under.
"I know you're angry right now, Aelin," Aedion said as calmly as possible, though his temper was starting to fray. "But you have to understand that—"
"I have to understand what?" Aelin snapped back. "That your first instinct was to announce to a friend that his father was murdered by his oldest friend? You yourself admitted that you had known for days before you told anyone. You could, at least, have told Chaol earlier. Told him privately! It doesn't matter how little Chaol felt about his father! He was still his father!"
"I know," Aedion said, growing more and more frazzled. "And I swear, I was going to tell Chaol about it after the meeting, but he had me backed into the corner. And you know that as well as I do."
"I don't know what I know anymore," Aelin hissed back. "I've been living in fear for months now! Months, Aedion! Do you know what constantly having to look over your shoulder, wondering if the next person you see is a double agent, if they're going slit your throat, does to a person? For months, now. I can't live like this for much longer, I just can't."
"And you shouldn't have to," Aedion said, shoulders sagging. "I assure you, though, that we've been doing everything we can to capture Lyria before she got this far. But she seems to have a gift for evasion, as well as making humans do whatever she wants them to. Every time one of our people manages to come close to it, she disappears again. Every SINGLE time. It's maddening."
"Easy for you to say," Aelin muttered bitterly. "It's not your life on the line here. Not the lives of your family."
"That's enough, Aelin," Aedion suddenly snapped. "You are my family. Your parents and Great Uncle were my family. Gavriel was my family. And I lost them all. Was as heartbroken as you were to lose them. So don't you go around pretending that I don't understand what you are going through. Because I do. You and that precious baby of yours are the only family I have left. And I cannot bear the thought of losing you. Or Rowan. As much as I hate to admit it, the bastard has come to mean as much to me as you do."
Aelin slowly sank to her knees, letting the tears fall for the first time in months. She hadn't cried once, despite the pressure she was under and the constant fear. But Aedion's words had just struck home in a way nothing else had. All this time, she had thought only of the fear she felt for herself, her child and for Rowan. She hadn't once thought of the fear Aedion was feeling. How scared he would have been of losing her. And every word he said was true – she, Aelin, and the child she carried, were his only surviving blood relatives. And Aedion himself was as scared as she was for the fate of her family.
