“Best that our prince explain,” she said. “It was Aerax who thought of it—and because our councilors can add their own thoughts if he is the one to tell you.”
All looked to him.
Aerax shrugged. “The island will sink if none of Varrin’s snow-haired descendants stand upon it. If the Destroyer and his army had crossed the King’s Walk, the snow-hairs would only need to abandon the island to kill him.”
A fire lit in Kelir’s gaze. “What of the people on the island?”
“If even half evacuated the island when we heard of his approach, those who remained could escape by boat under cover of night. The Destroyer could not know that no one was left except one of the royals—for one must remain.”
His eyes narrowed. “Would you?”
“I would.”
“Hold, hold!” Lady Junica broke in, her expression filled with horror. “You speak as if this plan is a true option.”
Brows raised, Kelir glanced back. “Is it not?”
“Of course it is not! You speak of destroying Koth!” Her disbelieving gaze moved to Aerax. “How could you even conceive of such a thing?”
“Easily.” And gladly, for Aerax could fulfill his purpose even as he killed the Destroyer.
She seemed taken utterly aback. “Full glad I am now that you do not wish to be king. I knew you despised our home, but never did I think you could speak so casually of sinking it.”
One day, Aerax would do more than speak of sinking the island. But not yet. “Then take your ease. Already I have spoken to my uncle of practicing evacuations,” Aerax said flatly. For the only way he would fulfill his purpose was if Koth was emptied. Yet his hope to clear the island during those practices had been denied. “He claimed that such plans were unnecessary, because Varrin’s power would protect the island from the Destroyer once again.”
“So he will,” said Lady Junica fiercely. “And I will not see all that our people have accomplished sink into the basin. Why bother to fight the Destroyer, when we will destroy our home ourselves?”
Was that a true question? For it made no sense to him. “You would trade the lives of thousands of soldiers and warriors and Kothans, so that you can save a rock?”
“The island is not only a rock,” Degg said, frowning at both Aerax and Lady Junica. “And these arguments matter not at all. A trap is useless if the Destroyer knows it is there.”
“Unless the trap contains a lure that the Destroyer cannot resist. But what even is it that he wants?” Tyzen shook his head. “He only destroys before continuing on. Is that what he enjoys—the pain, the horror? What does he search for, or does he even search for anything? I have never heard that anyone knows what his purpose is. He conquers realms but doesn’t stay to rule them. Though now that he has been around the world, perhaps he finally returns to take a crown. He tasked my father to find a bride for him.”
Aerax frowned. That had been a full generation past. “He intended to return to the western realms even then?”
“Who can know?” Tyzen lifted his hands. “Perhaps he has tasked a thousand men to find him a thousand brides, and his next march around the world will be one marriage after another as he fathers a thousand children. Who knows anything of his true intentions?”
“I care nothing of what his intentions are,” said Ardyl, who was not so many paces ahead now, as she and Lizzan had slowed their horses as if better to listen to the argument behind them. “All that matters is that we kill him.”
“How can that be all that matters?” said Lady Junica. “If we destroy all that we are while fighting him, then how is what we do any different?”
Ardyl frowned at her, and seemed about to answer before her gaze shifted to Kelir. Mouth tightening, she faced forward again.
“Every realm that joins the alliance will make sacrifices,” Kelir said to Lady Junica.
“So they will,” she agreed. “As would Koth. But even if you lay waste to all of Krimathe, the forests can regrow. Buildings can be restored. But how can you unsink an island?”
“Perhaps Varrin would,” Aerax said dryly.
Lady Junica threw him another angry, baffled glance—as if she could not understand how he might speak of it all so easily.