“Stop, Rayne,” Caelan muttered. He shuffled over to the couch and dropped onto it, placing his face into his hands.
“What do you mean?”
Caelan sighed and lifted his face to stare at Rayne. “I know you. You’re trying to figure out how you could have done things differently if only you had been able to see the future.” Caelan shook his head and dropped his gaze to the floor. “It doesn’t work that way. She tied your hands before you left Stormbreak. She made her plans, put me out of harm’s way, and rolled the dice.”
Rayne turned toward one of the windows even though the blinds blocked his views and quickly blinked away the unexpected swell of tears. He couldn’t speak around the lump in his throat. He hadn’t expected Caelan to forgive him so easily. Rayne had hesitated on such an oath when so much of his allegiance was to the young man.
“If we had stayed,” Drayce started slowly, his voice low and rough, “we’d probably all be dead now, and the Empire would still have the Godstone. The people of Erya would have no hope at all.”
Caelan’s brow wrinkled as he looked at his friend. “They have a lot of hope now?”
“You’re still alive, even if they don’t know it yet. We’re still alive. I mean, it’s not like we’re just going to give up, right? We’re not going to spend the rest of our lives hiding in this town.”
Rayne cleared his throat and felt the first inkling of a smile as he turned to face the group, grateful for Drayce’s fierce words. “By the gods, I never thought I’d say this,” Rayne drawled, “but Drayce is right.”
“Screw you!” Drayce flipped Rayne off, but he ruined his indignation by winking.
“He’s right.” Caelan pushed himself into a fully upright position, his shoulders back and his head high. The effort to pull himself together was visibly painful, but Rayne couldn’t have been prouder of his determination. Maybe Caelan was more ready for the throne than he gave himself credit for. “What are our options?”
Eno folded his arms over his chest and spread his stance. “We immediately return to Erya and Stormbreak.” He jutted out his chin and glared right at Rayne as if he fully expected him to argue.
Caelan sighed and shook his head. “And what? The four of us fight the entire Empire army, steal the stone, and kick them out of the kingdom before I take the throne?”
“What about the Erya army?” Eno shot back.
“What about them? They didn’t do much to save my mother. Who’s to say they’re still standing?” Caelan snapped.
“The fact is,” Rayne said, raising his voice to stop them from shouting over each other, “we don’t know what the status of the Erya military is. We don’t know the current state of the interior of the capital. We have no real intelligence right now. If we were to return now, we would be returning completely blind. The only information we have available is what we gather from news reports, and we don’t know how much of that is Empire propaganda.”
Caelan narrowed his gaze on Rayne. “It sounds like you have another suggestion.”
“Another option is to continue on to Sirelis. Caspagir has their own army and spies. We may be able to acquire more reliable information from Caspagir than we could if we headed straight into Erya.”
Drayce shook his head. “And what if Caspagir is more willing to form an alliance with the Empire now that Erya has lost her queen and the Godstone? Caelan walks in and they could grab him, handing him directly over to the Empire. They’d either kill him or turn Erya into another puppet like Uris-Oladul.”
“True, but if Queen Amara sent Caelan to Caspagir for his own safety, I’m more inclined to believe that Caspagir is a likely source of help rather than a threat,” Rayne replied. “But we can’t completely rule out the chance of betrayal.”
“I agree with Rayne,” Eno murmured. “If the queen sent Caelan out of Stormbreak to keep him away from the Empire, she wouldn’t have sent him to a place she thought would be a threat.”
Caelan scratched his head, his brow furrowing. “Which makes it interesting that she chose Caspagir over Ilon, a country with whom we have an active alliance.”
“We can speculate on the queen’s motives later. Right now, we have one advantage. The world thinks Caelan is dead. We need to use that advantage for as long as we can.” Rayne looked down at the prince and frowned. He had a feeling that such an edge wasn’t going to last. “I have a contact within the Caspagir castle. A reliable, trustworthy source. I think he would be able to give me some valuable information without me needing to reveal that Cael is still alive.”
Rayne’s stomach twisted at the idea of speaking to him again. He’d thought they might be able to make the trip without seeing him completely. Or at the very least, avoiding a solo confrontation. Not that he thought there would be much in the way of an argument. More awkwardness and tangled old feelings he’d prefer not to relive.