Heir Apparent

Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

Jade

When I heard the door latch behind me, I stepped away from the map table, eyeing the Icarius before me. He wasn't anything close to the courtier I knew, who had so brazenly quipped at me during my meetings with the others. He was still just as arrogant, but gone where the gaudy clothes and in its place were hints of battle scars, a scruff around his cheeks, and an edge that I could recognize. Many soldiers in the 51st were just the same. In that, it was an odd sort of comfort.

"Sybilla wasn't happy to be sent away." He remarked.

I had noted the slight stiffening in her shoulders when I had turned my head toward her. She had done so much for me since the bridge, but I couldn't help it. There were some things that I could not bring her into, and a deal with a pirate was one of them regardless, in the current Sybilla was still very much his spy. The Sybilla I knew seemed to be beyond Icarius, and I would not be the cause of that backtrack.

"You wanted it to be just us," I spread my arms wide to the empty room.

"I think she thought she'd won you over enough to insist she stay."

I felt a ping near my heart. Resisting the urge to rub the spot, I wandered around the map, stopping near the top corner where the details trailed off to the edge, the top of the Northern border. I let myself wonder what it would be like to venture so far, if only for a moment. To be free to wander so far and discover new knowledge for myself instead of bartering for it.

"Name your terms. I'm a busy woman."

"Are you?" He wasn't trying to tease me. That still remained the same. "The old emperor is deposed and a new empress in place. A regime has changed. Wasn't that your sole purpose?"

It had been for most of my life. When my father had decided to fight for his throne once more, he had always said it was to give the people a better life. To change their world. There were times when I had questioned whether it was to give them a new life or to simply give them the life he wanted for them. As I grew, however, I saw how he honestly wanted to make changes for the better. There were not always the changes I would have made, but they were for the better. When he was murdered I took up the cause, but I had never wanted to orchestrate it all. I had always imagined it was my mother who would wear the crown. By the time it would come to me, we could have made enough progress to give it away to someone else altogether. Perhaps Icarius was right. Perhaps this was the opportunity I had always wanted: a regime change without the crown on my head.

"Thinking about it, aren't you?"

I snapped back to the lantern lit room. "What?"

The corners of his lips twitched toward a smile, then dropped away. "Not fighting for that stupid chair. I see it." He walked over to the farthest wall from me, pulling a wooden chair from the edges and dropping it by the map table. As he lowered himself into it, he waved a hand at the map, "All this. Just walking away from the weight of it all. I know the look."

I sighed, coming to the edge of the table and leaning my elbows down upon it. "The Amalthea I know is a good person. I wouldn't have pegged her for the political type, but-"

"Perhaps her goodness will be good?" He finished for me. I nodded. "Well. That remains to be seen. In any course you choose, you will still need to get to your armies, whether to convince them to surrender or to rally them against a new enemy."

"One will be easier than the other."

He hummed. "Yes, indeed it will be. Your armies fight for you, not some ideal. They follow you. Not even your father had that following. And people like me have invested a lot on that crown sitting on your pretty head."