WAR STORM (Red Queen 4// Alternate Version)

Chapter 28

Iris

When the letter reaches my hands, I can barely force my eyes to read it and my mind to take it in.

Dearest brother,

I am tired of your unwillingness to act. You gather allies, you steal my allies away from me, but it is not enough. I write to you from here in Whitefire, where my counselors and Lords are weary and grow angry. We plot and plan, but there is little to do from the supposed safety of this palace. I wait for the day that you do something, anything really at this point. Perhaps a bomb would be stimulating.

Moreover, I have come to the conclusion that this agonizing waiting is your very strategy. To take all the allies I have left from me until I stand alone in a palace that was never supposed to be mine. I wasn't aware that you pegged yourself for a coward, Cal.

So my advisors and I propose: allow our warriors to war-as warriors do-in a neutral territory. A final, great battle, that determines the future ruler. If you are truly the better king, then let it be you. I don't ask for life if I do indeed lose. And if you are the failure in this great war, brother, do not expect the same mercy you may grant me. We suggest the Choke, due to it already being destroyed beyond measure, but if you have a better locale, do tell.

If you haven't yet reached this conclusion, let me enlighten you: both of us will not survive this war. It is impossible. For that reasoning, I would like to see you again on the evening of the war. Please, brother.

This message will be later released to the public. Do not be a coward, Cal.

All is fair in love and war.

Sincerely, King Maven.

"Iris," Bart nudges me. "The others are waiting."

I look up from the lettering, to find a line over my shoulder. "Oh," I exclaim, blindly passing the parchment to Evangeline, who returned from Norta with Welle and Arven days ago.

"He's out of his mind," Bart whispers to me, and I cannot help but nod. Wagering his life on a battle most likely balanced against him is the work of an insane man. I almost long for him to have some sort of trick up his sleeve. I gulp. He must.

"There's something about this that feels terribly off, Bart. I have this sick, sick feeling in my stomach that hollers at me to run from this battle. There's a missing piece that nobody here can see."

The Swift grabs my hand and smiles, and I return the gesture, but the grin doesn't reach my eyes.

We stand on the glass balcony that reaches towards the beach. Volo, Laurentia, Cal, and Anabel huddle around a glass table with chairs, speculating amongst themselves. The way their expressions changed as the message was passed around their circle... they are as disturbed as I am.

"Will you fight, Bart?"

Bart looks at me, surprised, far away in a daydream. "Yes. But nobody said we're going to accept Maven's request."

"Of course we will." I haven't known Maven or Cal for long, but I have a close relationship and understanding with politics. Cal cannot reject. It would rattle his regime, crack a couple of his alliances in half, and bluntly, he would be frail to reject. It would show Maven that Cal isn't as prepared as he seems, and it would show the Silvers that Cal would be a king of weak mind and conviction. "Maven has shoved his brother into a tight corner."

"Maven's quite talented when it comes to manipulation," Evangeline says, turning away from Elane to speak to me. "He may be clinically insane when it comes to the little lightning girl, but he wouldn't do this if he didn't have a reason to know he's going to win." She loudens her voice and directs it to the table of four.