The Bastard Queen (Viciously Yours #2)

Chapter Twenty-Eight: An Insomniac's Plan

Three marble sized balls rotated in a quick rhythm above my head, the blue metal glittering in the dark. Watching them spin until they began to blur together, I was forced to blink when my eyes dried out. Sighing, I wiggled my shoulders further into the furs and twisted the metal into odd spinning shapes. Following Lilly's instructions after the Cluiche Grudge, I had taken a warm bath and drank the soothing tea his mother had prepared for me. It was supposed to lull me to sleep but every time my eyes had closed, images of my time with Fearghas would flash across the inside of my eyelids. After the fourth failed attempt to sleep, I gave up and tried to keep myself entertained throughout the night. I did everything from flips to warping the wood of the desk which is how I ended up spinning metal over my head.

Low voices coming from the front of my tent informed me of the guards changing shifts which meant it had to be past midnight. Groaning softly, I pushed myself up into a sitting position and looked over the room. What to do...What to do... Like a weight lifting from the top of my head, it suddenly hit me as hard as Lilly had earlier. What the hell was I doing just laying around, when I had an entire war to plan?

Leaping from the bed, I slid onto the desk chair and pulled the drawer open. Taking out the necessary items, I spread them out over the surface of the desk. With a tap of the pointed stylus in the small jar of ink, I began drawing up possible war plans. Currently we had three hundred Fae, five thousand Banshees, and as roughly as many Trolls with the Clan Kings promise of bringing more soldiers into the fold. Drawing a little picture of each species on the tan paper, I drew a few other pictures of Trolls with lines leading to the Clan King.

Mmmmm.

Dipping the stylus into the ink once more, I tapped it against the edge of the small jar as I thought. Soldiers. I needed a lot more soldiers in order to match Oberon's army soldier for soldier. I could go to Afric and ask him to rally support from the other Banshee Dens....Nodding to myself, I drew a few more stick figure-like Banshees. With one last flick of the stylus, I looked over the rough strategy plan once again. The bigger question at the moment was where I was going to get more Fae support from...it was a Fae War after all.

The most effective way to go about it would be to talk the Noblity into fighting on our side. Unseelies will be harder to convince because of their fear of Mab but the Outerland Nobles should be more willing if they didn't completely hate me. Which meant I needed to start making an organized list of who to go to first. Scribbling Macha's Outerland Hit List in the corner of the paper, I swiped a line underneath it and started writing names.

1). Lady and Lord Dunn: Because it'll be entertaining. Also they have 1500 soldiers

2). Lord and Lady O'Sullivan: 2000 soldiers

3). Lord and Lady Murphy: 600 soldiers

4). Countess and Count MacDuffy: 5000 soldiers (Tricky)

5). Baron O'Ceallaigh: 3000 (Old)

6). Lady and Lord Walsh: 5000 soldiers (Manipulative)

Pausing, I looked over the six families I had listed. During my reign as their Queen, these were the six major families that had influence over the others. If I got these Fae back in my corner the rest of the Nobles would follow along without resistance. Hopefully after all this time they still held sway over the others or I was screwed. As soon as I started to make the public rounds for allies, Mab was going to come after me with everything she had. If she followed the same routine she was doing now, she was going to try and kill me before the war started.

A smart play for her because everything about who I really was, was bound to come out and make her look bad. Not to mention all the die hard religious Fae who believed in the virtues and words of the Divine would come running to my side. Which just left the Unseelie Nobility... I had a few old friends in Mab's Court, spies that are hopefully still alive. But even if I got them working for me again I still needed soldiers...So I had to flip Fae from her court to my side. The problem was, I didn't know who had enough soldiers to make the effort.