Passive (Volume 2) - ON HOLD

4-Declan

*Declan*

7th Wolf Moon, 436 AC, Royal Palace, King's City

Declan wasn't sure if it was just him, but his sister's court had become stifling. With Lord Roland staying in the castle and cropping up everywhere, Declan was struggling to retain the mask of civility that was expected in polite society.

And, to top it off, Elizabeth had been on edge since her confrontation with Lady Mary. The Solstice had passed rather uneventfully, but the tension between Jon Larieux and the queen had been palpable. Declan, for his part, admired his friend's defense of his bride, but, with Elizabeth on a tear, didn't think it was wise for him to be acting so provocatively.

Declan, for his part, spent his days in the training yard, working the new recruits to exhaustion with Hadrian's help. He even took to skipping council meetings just to avoid a repeat of the carnage of the day Elizabeth had found out about Grace and Rose. It was just their luck that the news about both of them had come at the same time.

Occasionally, Declan found himself wondering if someone could have planned for both Rose's rebellion and Grace's arrival on Turtle Island to coincide, simply to unbalance Elizabeth, but he made himself shake it off. There was no way Grace could have coordinated with the rebels who'd taken Rose, when, in truth, there was no way Grace could have known where Rose was being kept. And the same was true of the rebels: they couldn't have known that the Warlord would gift Turtle Island to Grace as a birthday present.

Really, Declan couldn't imagine how much the Warlord must care for his former ward to have given her a kingdom for a birthday present. Then again, he'd grown up not exactly poor, but definitely not wealthy, either, so the entire concept of being involved in any type of governing hadn't exactly crossed his mind until...

Well, until Elizabeth had come to him and told him that she was the heir to an entire kingdom that needed her because its current government and future prospective rulers were unstable.

Sometimes, on his darkest nights, he wondered if Valoria might had been more stable if they'd stayed in Evis, if, perhaps, Grace or Mary or Ella or Roald or Christopher or Rose would have been better on the throne than Elizabeth. But then, morning would come, and Elizabeth would do something good, and his faith would be restored, even if "something good" was coming around less and less frequently. As Jon had begun saying, it was hard to do good with war looming and the kingdom divided.

Declan pushed his men hard that day, hoping for a distraction, but the more he pushed them, the more it became apparent that they were the definition of incompetence of the highest order. There was a war coming; that fact grew more and more irrefutable with each day that passed. If his men weren't ready to fight when the time came...

He was halfway through demonstrating a new swordplay drill with Hadrian's help when the news he'd been dreading came. Idris hurried across the dusty yard, his normally tea-colored skin pale with a grayish hue.

Declan disengaged himself and vaulted the fence that separated the ring from the rest of the yard. "What's happened?" he called.

Idris grabbed his arm and drew him aside. "Lord Westover's sent his terms. We're meeting now, urgently."

Declan's heart sped up. "Lord Westover?" he asked. His hands were shaking so he wrapped one around the pommel of his sword, praying Idris wouldn't notice.

Idris shrugged. "Well, technically, it was Aileanna. It's signed with her seal, and she claims to be sending it on her husband's and father-in-law's behalf."

Declan swore, turning the air around them blue. "We should have married that woman off while she was at court. To someone high enough ranking that she'd take the bait, but not so high as to be a threat."