Throne of Roses

Chapter 9

Silence swept over the meeting room when Lillian came in the next morning, apparently everyone was still afraid of a human woman. Lillian gave them a small smile that on anyone else would have been considered shy but on her was just plain terrifying.
'Shall we continue?' She asked sweetly as she sat down.

The meeting continued for about an hour before one of Tarquin's guards came in and whispered something into his High Lords ear.
'Send him to the prison.' Tarquin ordered his guard.
'Take who to prison?' Lillian asked.
Tarquin took a deep breath contemplating whether or not to tell Lillian but decided he didn't want to piss her off and answered. 'One of my people has gone crazy.'
'Bring him in, I want to see him.' Lillian said her voice unyielding. Tarquin only nodded for the guard to do as she said.
A few moments later the guard came in with a prisoner. Lillian walked towards them slowly after a few steps the prisoner realised who she was and started thrashing. Lillian smiled as she stood right in front of them.
'Let go of his hand.' She said and the guard holding the prisoners right hand let go. She took his hand and as she slipped a ring on his finger the prisoner fell to his knees and started screaming.
'Heal him.' Lillian ordered Feyre who came up next to her. Not long after Feyre began to heal him, he stopped screaming and a black ring on his other hand burst into dust, he calmed down after another few moments. Lillian stretched her hand out to him and he hastily took the ring of and placed it in her waiting palm. She placed the ring back on the pointer finger of her right hand. Everyone was silent.
'How did they take you?' She asked the prisoner once she was back in her seat. There were varying levels of confusion plastered on everyone's faces at Lillian's question but the prisoner seemed to understand as he answered her question.
'They came into my home in the dead of night and put the ring on my finger.'
'How many of them were there?'
'I don't know maybe five... in my home but there are hundreds in this court. They are gathering an army and there's more coming. When he possessed me they talked about hundreds of thousands of them coming here.' He said
'What are you talking about?' Baron demanded.
'Orcus. The king of a daemon race called the Valg it seems he has found a liking to your world.' She said as if she was talking about nothing of importance. Amren looked at her and swallowed, she heard of the daemon race and didn't seem to like it.
'Why was he so afraid of you?' The prisoner asked quietly as if he were talking to a feral beast that could attack at any moment.
'Because they were in my world and I fought them.' She said again as it fighting such creatures was nothing.
'You fought them!' Amren said, shock clear on her face.
'I did, in a war a few years back.'
'And will you fight with us?' Rhys asked cautiously. She gave him a wicked smile and he forced himself not to show his fear, having heard her story he knew perfect well what she was capable of and despite her offer to be allies he wasn't sure how much he trusted the assassin/ warrior queen that has destroyed gods.
She raised a brow 'why should I do that?'
'You are skilled and have experience dealing with them. According to your memories you led a legion and fought on the front lines against them.' Rhys said weighing every word and making sure no one except Lillian, Feyre and Nehemiah caught on to the lie of her leading a legion, she had whole armies at her command, legion was a severe understatement but if he said armies that would have raised too many eyebrows.
'You led a legion in a war?' Cassian asked.
Lillian shrugged as if getting a legion in a war was no big feed 'my Queen heard that I helped plan and fought on the front lines in the Battle of Mistward and then fought on the front lines in the Battle of Anielle and trusted me enough to give me a legion.'
'So will you help us?' Rhys asked again. The other High Lords despite resenting the idea of asking Lillian for help kept quiet knowing that if she really fought those battles and got a legion in the war, she would be of good help to them especially since none of them has ever dealt with the Valg.
'I think I will but my help will not come without a price, you all will owe me and my blood line a life debt.' She said.
All of the High Lords and the two High Ladies agreed to Lillian's term. The planning began shortly.