The Queen's Mage

Chapter 150: Casus Belli

Hagen found her exactly where he expected.

She had not left the queen’s office since council adjourned.

Daravan had.

Veryya had.

Three scribes, two messengers, Harrek, and one increasingly bewildered treasury clerk had all gone in and out carrying drafts, reports, and sealed correspondence.

Allandra had remained.

The office door stood open.

Not because she was inviting interruption.

Because queens did not hide.

Hagen knocked against the frame anyway.

She did not look up.

”Come in.”

The room looked as though diplomacy had exploded.

Letters lay spread across the desk in careful piles. Trade agreements with Aurenne. Border maps. Copies of the eastern treaties. A half-written response to Lyehira sat abandoned beneath another page entirely covered in Veryya’s meticulous corrections.

A fire burned low despite the warmth of the afternoon.

Allandra sat behind the desk, sleeves rolled once past her wrists. She looked tired.

She also looked as though she had decided tiredness was beneath notice.

Hagen closed the door behind him. ”How is she?”

That, finally, made Allandra look up.

There was no surprise in her face.

Only calculation.

”Mara says Lia has seen her.”

”Lia?”

”Precaution.”

Hagen nodded once. ”And?”

Allandra’s eyes returned to the document before her.

”She asked for quiet.”

Not she is resting.

Not she is well.

Only: She asked for quiet.

Interesting.

He crossed to the desk. ”I’ve reviewed the treaties.”

”I imagined you would.”

”The situation is worse than I first thought.”

”I know.”

”No,” Hagen said quietly. ”I don’t believe you do.”

Her quill stopped.

Silence settled between them.

Outside the windows, somewhere in the palace gardens, someone laughed.

It sounded strangely out of place.

Hagen folded his hands behind his back. ”Until this morning, Serali was politically inconvenient.”

Allandra said nothing.

”Now she is the acknowledged daughter of an enemy sovereign.”

Still nothing.

”He has asserted a blood claim.”

”I was present.”

”He has established a diplomatic pretext.”

”I heard the letter.”

”He has announced to every court that cares to listen that Avalusia possesses someone he considers his.”

The quill was perfectly still.

Hagen took another step.

”If this escalates, and I believe it will, we are no longer discussing an appointment.”

He looked directly at her.

”We are discussing a possible casus belli.”

The words hung between them.

Allandra finally set the quill down. ”I am aware.”

”I don’t think you are.”

Her eyes lifted.

Green.

Bright.

Too bright.

”You are thinking as Serali’s queen.”

”I am.”

”You must also think as Avalusia’s.”

”I am.”

”No.”

He drew a careful breath. ”I think you’ve convinced yourself those are the same thing.”

The room became very quiet.

Hagen chose his next words carefully. ”There may be another option.”

She waited.

”Aurenne.”

One eyebrow moved.

”Queen Celestine.”

Nothing else.

”She is trusted by both crowns.”

Barely.

”She owes us several favors.”

True.

”If Serali accepted sanctuary there, voluntarily—”

Allandra’s expression did not change.

Hagen continued. ”She would not be in Avalusia.”

”No.”

”She would not be in Lyehira.”

”No.”

”Vulmar loses the argument that she is being held.”

”No.”

”Avalusia is no longer directly sheltering the claimed daughter of an enemy king.”

”No.”

”It buys time.”

”No.”

”It reduces the chance of war.”

”No.”

Each answer came before he had finished speaking.

Not considered. Immediate. Personal.

Hagen frowned. ”Allandra—”

”No.”

She stood.

Too quickly.

The chair slid backward across the floor.

”I will not send her away.”

The words struck the room like drawn steel.

Hagen stared. He had expected resistance. He had not expected certainty.

”Temporary sanctuary is not surrender.”

”No.”

”It protects her.”

”She is protected.”

”For now.”

”She is protected.”

The fire in the hearth surged.

Not dramatically.

Enough that Hagen noticed.

Enough that shadows shifted across the walls.

He looked toward it instinctively.

When he looked back—

The Mantle had begun to glow.

Not brightly.

Gold gathered across her shoulders and collarbone like sunrise trapped beneath ice.

Heat spread through the room. The candles along the shelves burned taller. One flared hard enough to spill wax over its brass holder.

Hagen went still.

Allandra hadn’t noticed.

Or worse—

She had.

And could not stop it.

He spoke more quietly. ”If Vulmar marches—”

”Then he marches.”

”If the council fractures—”

”Then we hold it together.”

”If our allies hesitate—”

”We convince them.”

”If Serali herself asks to go?”

That stopped her.

Only for a heartbeat.

Pain crossed her face so quickly another person might have missed it.

Hagen did not.

”If she asks,” Allandra said, each word measured now, ”I will help her pack.”

There.

Reason again.

Choice.

Consent.

He recognized those.

Then she looked directly at him.

”But I will not send her away because Vulmar decided to remember he has a daughter.”

The candles flared again.

Brighter this time. Golden light spilled across the desk.

For one impossible heartbeat, Hagen could almost imagine the room itself answering her.

He felt something unfamiliar settle low in his stomach.

Not fear.

Concern.

This...

wasn’t like her.

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She was frightened.

Truly frightened.

Enough that the Mantle itself had become restless.

And she was making decisions while standing inside that fear.

Hagen’s thoughts rearranged themselves.

Not because he believed she was wrong about Serali.

Because he was no longer certain she could distinguish where Serali ended and Avalusia began.

That thought horrified him.

More than the letter.

More than Vulmar.

More than the prospect of war.

Because if Allandra lost that distinction...

Who, exactly, would tell the Queen no?

The room cooled.

The Mantle’s light faded.

Allandra closed her eyes for one slow breath.

When she opened them again, she looked every inch the queen.

”I appreciate the suggestion,” she said quietly.

”I know.”

”I will not consider it.”

”I gathered as much.”

Silence.

Hagen looked at his sister for a long moment.

Then he bowed. Not because he agreed.

Because she was still his queen.

”As you wish, Majesty.”

She inclined her head.

He turned toward the door.

His hand found the latch. ”Allandra.”

”...Yes?”

”I hope I’m wrong.”

”So do I.”

He left.

The door closed softly behind him.

As he walked away, he found himself thinking, not for the first time since the Mantle chose his sister, that there had been someone else for it to choose.

The thought was impossible.

Disloyal.

And gone almost as soon as it appeared.

But it had appeared.

And Hagen, who trusted his own instincts more than was always wise, could not quite forget that the candles had answered her anger before she had spoken it aloud.

The door closed behind Hagen.

Silence settled over the office.

Allandra remained standing.

For a long moment, she did not move at all.

Then the breath she had been holding escaped her in a rush.

She caught the edge of the desk before she realized she had reached for it.

The room was too warm.

No.

She was making it too warm.

The candles burned high again, their flames stretching toward the ceiling. Gold flickered beneath the Mantle at her throat, answering a heartbeat she no longer seemed capable of slowing.

She closed her eyes.

Breathe.

In.

Out.

Nothing happened.

Her pulse only climbed higher.

Hagen’s words echoed through the room with unbearable clarity.

Send her away.

It reduces the chance of war.

It protects her.

The thought landed somewhere deep inside her and became something irrational.

No.

No.

If Serali left—

Her breath caught so sharply it hurt.

The office disappeared.

For one terrifying instant she was standing in an empty corridor again.

Not this palace.

The palace she had imagined.

A place where Serali’s rooms stood open and untouched.

No books stacked beside the hearth.

No ridiculous card box.

No shawl left over the chair because Mara had given up pretending Serali would remember it herself.

Just...

absence.

The image struck with such force that magic surged through her before thought could stop it.

Every candle in the room flared.

Golden light burst across the office.

The fire in the hearth roared high enough that sparks leapt against the grate.

The Mantle blazed like captured sunrise.

Allandra bent forward, both hands braced on the desk.

No.

Not because Serali would leave.

Because she would choose.

If Serali decided Aurenne was safer...

If Serali decided Avalusia had become too dangerous...

If Serali decided loving Allandra cost too much...

She would go.

And Allandra—

Allandra would help her pack.

The realization hollowed her out.

Of course she would.

She had promised herself from the beginning.

No cages.

No obligations disguised as love.

No staying because the queen wished it.

Choice.

Always choice.

Even if the choice broke her.

Her vision blurred.

The office seemed suddenly too small, the walls pressing inward as if every stone expected something of her she could no longer give.

She could feel the bond beneath her ribs.

Not open.

Not closed.

Waiting.

She wanted—

Gods.

She wanted to reach for it.

Just once.

Not to pull.

Not to ask.

Only to know.

To know Serali was still there.

Still breathing.

Still—

Her hand lifted instinctively toward the signet ring.

Halfway.

Then stopped.

The movement hung in the air.

No.

Serali had asked for quiet.

Serali had asked for time.

Those words meant something.

Not because they were convenient.

Because they were hers.

Allandra slowly lowered her hand.

”I can wait,” she whispered.

The words sounded unconvinced.

She tried again.

”I can.”

The Mantle’s light flickered.

The flames shrank by degrees.

One by one, the candles settled back into ordinary fire.

The room cooled.

Not completely.

Enough.

Allandra drew one careful breath.

Then another.

The panic did not disappear.

It merely loosened its grip enough for thought to return.

Daravan had been right.

The letter had not undone the morning.

Vulmar wanted her to believe it had.

He wanted every decision she made from now on to be born from fear instead of love.

She would not give him that.

Not today.

Not ever.

Her breathing steadied another fraction.

She reached for the nearest sheet of paper.

The diplomatic reply.

The blank space beneath the opening address waited patiently.

Her hand still trembled as she picked up the pen.

But it obeyed her.

That would have to be enough.

For now.

Chapter 151: Greenhouse Dinner

Allandra stood in Everly’s sitting room while Lessa laid out the child’s dinner gown and tried not to look as if she had been warned by every nurse in the palace that the princess was in a mood.

Everly herself stood in the center of the rug with her arms crossed, wearing one stocking, no shoes, and the expression of a monarch facing treaty violations.

“Can Serali come to dinner?” she asked.

Allandra’s hand tightened around the ribbon she had been holding.

She had tied and untied the same ribbon three times since leaving her office.

Hagen’s words had followed her all the way to the nursery.

You have convinced yourself those are the same thing.

Serali’s queen.

Avalusia’s.

“No.”

The word came out too sharp.

Lessa paused by the wardrobe.

Everly went very still.

Allandra heard the tone a heartbeat after she used it and hated herself immediately.

Not because no was wrong.

Because this no had not been only for Everly.

It had been for the council chamber. For Vulmar’s letter. For the black seal. For the word daughter. For the way Serali had looked walking out between Verya and Marielle, pale enough that Allandra’s hands had ached with restraint.

It had been for the fact that Allandra wanted Serali at dinner so badly she did not trust the wanting.

It had also been for Hagen.

For the terrible possibility that wanting Serali near had already begun to alter her judgment.

That somewhere inside the day’s fear she had stopped knowing where the queen ended and the woman began.

She hated the thought.

She hated even more that it had come from someone who loved her enough to say it.

Everly’s chin lifted. “Why?”

“Not tonight.”

“That is not a why.”

“No,” Allandra said carefully. “It is an answer.”

Everly’s eyes narrowed.

Dangerous. That was Everly’s negotiating face. She had inherited it from Allandra, unfortunately, and improved upon it by being four.

“We agreed,” Everly said, “that Serali could come to some breakfasts.”

“Yes.”

“We did not agree how often dinners are.”

Allandra blinked.

Lessa’s mouth pressed shut.

Everly continued, gathering momentum with visible satisfaction. “So maybe dinners are more often than breakfasts. Or maybe dinners are different. Or maybe Serali can come to dinner because she did not come to lunch.”

Allandra closed her eyes for one brief second.

Verya, she thought, would be proud.

Or horrified.

Possibly both.

“Everly.”

“Some breakfasts does not mean no dinners.”

“I know.”

“So she can come.”

“Not tonight.”

Everly’s lower lip trembled.

Not with grief.

With outrage.

Allandra recognized the difference because she had once been very small and very furious too, though no one had been foolish enough to describe it as adorable within her hearing.

Everly drew in a breath.

Lessa shifted subtly closer to the table, as if preparing for structural damage.

Allandra looked at her daughter and saw the tantrum forming: the set shoulders, the wet brightness in the eyes, the stubborn planting of feet into the rug. Everly was deciding whether the injustice warranted collapse.

She was four.

She had been remarkably patient for much of the day, though she did not know it. Adults had moved strangely around her. Allandra had missed luncheon. Daravan had appeared twice and said nothing interesting. Lessa had deflected three questions about why Serali had not answered the spider follow-up card yet. The entire palace had taken on the brittle silence that adults thought children did not hear.

Everly heard.

Of course she heard.

And now she wanted the person she had named friend to appear at dinner and make the world orderly again.

Allandra wanted that too.

That was the worst part.

“Little sun,” Allandra said, softer.

Everly’s eyes filled more.

“No,” she said. “Do not little sun me.”

Lessa made a quiet, strangled sound and turned toward the wardrobe.

Allandra sat on the edge of the low nursery chair, lowering herself to Everly’s height. “Serali is tired tonight.”

“Did she say that?”

A blade of a question.

Allandra paused.

No, Serali had not. Serali had said very little after council, and not to Allandra. Mara had sent word that the Royal Mage was in her rooms, that Lia had been informed, and that no visitors had yet been requested.

She could still hear herself telling Hagen: I will not send her away.

Strange.

She would not send Serali away.

But she also could not go to her.

“She had a difficult day,” Allandra said.

Everly’s face changed.

Not enough to end the argument.

Enough to complicate it.

“Because of council?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Were people foolish?”

“Yes.”

“How foolish?”

“Very.”

Everly’s eyes narrowed again, now with protective interest. “Was it Lord Merrow?”

Allandra almost smiled despite herself. “Not only Lord Merrow.”

“Usually it is.”

“Frequently.”

Everly looked toward the door, as if considering whether she could march to Serali’s rooms and demand names.

Allandra rose quickly before the idea developed roots. “Serali needs quiet.”

“I can be quiet.”

Lessa made the mistake of breathing.

Everly turned on her. “I can.”

“Of course, Your Highness,” Lessa said, with the courage of a woman under fire.

Everly turned back to Allandra. “I can be quiet at dinner.”

“You cannot.”

“I can try.”

“You can try tomorrow.”

The lip trembled again.

This time with real hurt beneath the anger.

“Why not tonight?”

Because Serali was named property in front of the council this morning.

Because your friend is an enemy king’s daughter, and you cannot know that yet.

Because I love her, and I do not know how to stand in the same room as her tonight without making the whole palace understand I would burn treaties for the chance to take her hand.

Because you are four, and you are already making places for people without knowing that adults may turn those places into battlegrounds.

Allandra said, “Because tonight I have decided no.”

Everly stared at her.

The room held its breath.

Then Everly’s face crumpled into fury.

Not tears yet.

Worse: preparation.

Her fists closed. Her shoulders rose. Her mouth opened.

The door behind Allandra opened first.

“Ah,” Hagen said from the threshold. “Excellent. I have arrived at the brink of constitutional crisis.”

Everly’s mouth shut.

Allandra turned.

Her brother stood in the doorway wearing an amber dinner coat and an expression of mild interest, as if he had not almost certainly been hovering nearby after being warned by Lessa, Daravan, or his own deeply irritating instincts.

An hour ago she had wanted to throw him out of her office.

Now she had never been so relieved to see him.

Families were profoundly inconvenient.

This, too, seemed unfair.

“Hagen,” she said.

“Sister.” His eyes moved from Allandra to Everly, assessing the scene at once: the single stocking, the bare foot, the rigid posture, Lessa’s controlled panic, Allandra’s exhaustion. “Princess.”

Everly sniffed. “Uncle Hagen.”

“Are we shouting?”

“No.”

“Preparing to shout?”

Everly considered lying.

Then, with great dignity, said, “Maybe.”

Hagen nodded gravely. “Wise to prepare.”

Allandra gave him a look.

He ignored it with practiced elegance and came into the room. “Before the shouting begins, I have a proposal.”

Everly’s suspicion sharpened. “What proposal?”

“A special dinner.”

Her eyes narrowed. “With Serali?”

Allandra’s stomach twisted.

Hagen did not miss the way she went still.

“No,” he said, with enough confidence that Everly did not immediately reject him. “With me.”

Everly looked unimpressed.

Hagen placed a hand over his heart. “Wounding, but I shall continue.”

“What kind of special dinner?”

“In the greenhouse.”

Everly’s posture shifted.

Not surrender.

Interest.

Lessa closed her eyes in silent gratitude.

“The greenhouse?” Everly asked.

“The small winter greenhouse. Not the large one with Lady Marielle’s unfortunate pipe experiment.”

Everly’s eyes widened. “The one with the orange trees?”

“The very same.”

“At night?”

“At dinner.”

“Dinner is at night.”

“Then yes.”

Everly looked at Allandra.

Allandra kept her face neutral with heroic effort.

The greenhouse was warm, enclosed, close enough to the nursery to be safe, unusual enough to be thrilling, and far enough from Serali’s rooms to redirect the child’s attention.

Hagen was either being helpful or strategically insufferable.

Possibly both.

Everly’s outrage warred visibly with curiosity. “What food?”

Hagen looked to Lessa. “What food can be moved to the greenhouse without causing diplomatic collapse?”

Lessa recovered with impressive speed. “Soup, roasted apples, small rolls, and custard, Your Highness.”

Everly’s eyes narrowed further. “Custard is dessert.”

“Yes,” Hagen said. “That is one of its virtues.”

“Mother only lets me have one dessert.”

“Tragic.”

“Can greenhouse dinner have two?”

Allandra opened her mouth.

Hagen spoke first. “Greenhouse dinner can have one official dessert and one orange, personally selected from a tree.”

Everly froze.

Lessa looked as if she might ascend.

Allandra stared at her brother.

Hagen did not look at her.

“One orange?” Everly asked.

“One. Chosen by you, cut by me, judged by both.”

Everly’s tantrum hesitated at the edge of the cliff, considered the orange tree, and began retreating.

“With a knife?” she asked.

“With a small knife.”

“Can I hold it?”

“No.”

“Can I point?”

“Yes.”

“Can I name the orange first?”

“If the orange consents.”

Everly brightened. “How do oranges consent?”

“With dignity.”

She turned to Allandra. “Can I go?”

Allandra took a breath.

“Yes.”

Everly studied her face, perhaps remembering the earlier no and testing whether this yes was real.

“With Uncle Hagen?”

“Yes.”

“In the greenhouse?”

“Yes.”

“With one official dessert and one orange?”

“Yes.”

Everly considered. “Can Serali come tomorrow?”

Allandra’s throat tightened.

Hagen’s gaze flicked to her.

Their eyes met for only a heartbeat.

No apology.

No retreat.

Only a quiet agreement that the argument between them still existed, and could wait until Everly no longer needed either of them.

Lessa looked down.

“Perhaps,” Allandra said. “If Serali wishes to.”

Everly accepted this, though not happily. “She will wish to.”

“She may.”

“She will.”

Hagen held out one hand. “Princess, before your mother begins arguing grammar with you, shall we inspect the oranges?”

Everly looked at his hand.

Then at Allandra.

Then back.

She took it.

“I am still upset,” she announced.

“Of course,” Hagen said. “One should never abandon upset too quickly. It becomes lonely.”

Everly nodded as if this made perfect sense.

Allandra stood.

Everly came closer and hugged her around the waist quickly, almost angrily.

Allandra bent and kissed the top of her head.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you too,” Everly muttered. “But you said no.”

“Yes.”

Everly stepped back, face solemn. “I will think about that.”

“I expect you will.”

Hagen coughed.

Allandra glared at him.

He looked angelic.

Everly turned to Lessa. “I need my other stocking.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The room came alive again around the logistics of greenhouse dinner. Lessa produced shoes. Everly submitted to a second ribbon only after Hagen solemnly asked whether greenhouse royalty required symmetrical hair. She agreed it did. A footman was summoned. A message sent to the kitchens. Lessa murmured quiet instructions to the nurse who would accompany them at a discreet distance.

Allandra stood slightly aside, watching her daughter’s storm redirect into purpose.

She felt hollow with gratitude.

Not only because Hagen had prevented the tantrum.

Because he had understood why Allandra could not yield.

Serali could not become Everly’s comfort tonight. A child’s love could be innocent, possessive, and fierce; and still become one more hand reaching for a woman who had spent the day being claimed.

Hagen looked up from helping Everly choose between two cloaks.

For once, he did not smile.

Allandra mouthed, Thank you.

His brows rose, startled by the sincerity. Then something in his face eased.

Their argument had not vanished. He still believed Allandra was letting fear and love distort one another. She still resented him for naming the possibility when she had been raw enough to bleed from it.

But he had seen what she needed now and helped without requiring resolution first.

He inclined his head.

At last Everly was dressed, shod, ribboned, and ready to march upon the greenhouse.

At the door, she looked back.

“Mama?”

“Yes?”

“If Serali is sad, you should give her my orange.”

Allandra went still.

Hagen’s face softened.

“That is kind,” Allandra said.

Everly shrugged, uncomfortable with the size of her own feeling. “She can have half.”

“Half, then.”

“But not the named half.”

“Of course not.”

Satisfied, Everly took Hagen’s hand and swept into the corridor, Lessa, a nurse, and one footman trailing behind.

Hagen remained in the doorway.

“I will keep her occupied for an hour.”

Gratitude came too quickly to hide. “Hagen.”

“I know.”

He glanced down the corridor, where Everly was asking whether oranges could be tried for crimes.

Then he looked back.

“Go carefully.”

Not go to her.

Not stay away.

Go carefully.

For all his sins, Hagen sometimes found the exact line.

“I will.”

He followed Everly.

Allandra remained in the sitting room.

The silence was not peace.

It was space.

Tonight, she had denied her daughter. She had not gone to Serali the instant she wanted to. The palace was full of doors she could not force open without proving Vulmar right in some new and terrible way.

She hated all of it.

But Serali’s no had to remain possible.

So did Everly’s disappointment.

So did Allandra’s fear.

She straightened and smoothed the front of her gown.

Then she went to find Daravan.

If she was going to ask whether Serali would see her, she would do it properly.

Not as a queen summoning comfort.

Not as a lover demanding reassurance.

As a woman knocking on a door that might remain closed.