But I believe I am where I am best suited, and I believe I do good work for my kingdom. I barely sleep, but I have found I am good at these things, Aurora. At strategizing, at working hard, at getting people to compromise. You must figure out what you can do best with the skill you have, and then tell everyone else that that is what you are meant to do. If you are convincing enough, they will believe you.”
Orla was watching Aurora carefully. “I put little stock in rumors,” she continued. “Gossip is my son’s distasteful domain. But there are whispers that you have magic. I do not believe they are baseless superstition. Am I right?”
Something about Orla’s bluntness compelled Aurora to trust her, at least in this. “Yes,” she said. “I have some magic. Although I do not understand it.”
“And that may be for the best. You can’t rely on magic when making plans.” Orla tapped her fingers against the desk. “Here is the truth about magic, Aurora. It makes people weak. They do not study, they do not strive, because they expect magic to save them. And when that magic fails . . . well. You have seen what Alyssinia has become. What it was, even in your own time. A backward little kingdom, unable to survive. I do not see how magic will help.”
But Orla was wrong, in that at least. Magic was the only chance that Aurora had. It might not work by itself, perhaps, but she had seen what magic could do, how it had torn her own life apart. If one person had magic and the other did not, the person with magic would be the one to succeed.
“You do not believe me,” Orla said. “That is the Alyssinia in you, I suppose. But consider this, then. Consider what happened to your kingdom in your absence. Even after your curse, they were complacent. They had mountains, and they had the memory of magic, so they had no proper defenses, no city walls, no advancements, nothing to protect them when Falreach attacked.”
“But they survived.”
“Yes,” Orla said. “They survived. Because my kingdom helped them. Alyssinia was our neighbor and trade partner, not Falreach, and it had more to offer us. They could promise aid in return if we ever ran into difficulty. They could give us access to the sleeping princess, in case her true love came from our kingdom. The kingdom would have fallen without Vanhelm’s aid. That was not something we wanted.”
Aurora had seen a similar opinion in the diplomatic documents Finnegan had shown her. “So you saved my kingdom,” she said carefully. “Is that why John and Iris are nervous of you now? They think you’re waiting for the debt to be repaid?”
“Not precisely. You must know that the years after the war were not good for Alyssinia. Drought and famine, kings changing as rapidly as the seasons, and each ruler more distant from the royal bloodline . . . and then Falreach attacked again. And once again, Vanhelm offered assistance, for one simple price. We wished to be included in the line to the Alyssinian throne. My mother would marry the current king’s son. The children were four and seven at the time, but a treaty was drawn up, and we saved them once again.”
“But the marriage didn’t happen?”
“No, it did not. We had not foreseen that dragons would return. They destroyed our kingdom, and while we struggled to rebuild, Alyssinia denied us aid. They claimed they were still too weak themselves. And then when the old king of Alyssinia died, a council of nobles disinherited his son, staged a coup of their own, and threw Vanhelm aside. Considering the state Vanhelm was in, we could hardly retaliate. Both kingdoms had to fight to survive . . . but Vanhelm has always been the stronger side of the sea, and while Alyssinia grew weaker, we recovered. So now Alyssinia fears that we will pursue revenge. That we want our promised throne.”
“And do you?” Aurora said. “Do you want the throne?”
“Revenge is a waste of energy,” Orla said. “We have more productive things to be doing than fighting over fifty-year-old slights. I renewed the trade treaties between the two kingdoms myself, when I became queen. Finnegan would have the chance to wake you, although he was only one year old when we made the agreement, and eventually we decided that young Princess Isabelle would marry him when she was grown. We