Chapter 55: I Never Miss
The next morning, Esme and Eveyr were quietly enjoying their morning tea when the dining room doors swung open. Vespera stepped inside, grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl without even bothering to greet first.
"Are we leaving today, Eveyr?" Vespera asked between her bites and shot a dismissive glance at Esme drinking tea. "Or do we have to wait for the Duchess to finish her morning tea party?"
"Vespera, enough," Eveyr shouted. "Leave."
Vespera scoffed and tossed the half eaten apple on the table.
"I’ll be in the war room," she said and left.
"I apologize on her behalf," Eveyr said, looking worried. "I promise she won’t talk to you like this again."
"It’s fine," Esme replied with a smile though she was burning with fury from inside. "It looks like you two are very close...since she calls you by your name."
Eveyr nodded.
"She is my most trusted and loyal commander," Eveyr said. "We both have saved each other countless number of times on battlefields. I know she seems rude and arrogant...but she is fair and judges people only by what they can contribute to the north."
"I see," Esme replied as she set down her teacup.
But his explanation wasn’t enough to calm her. She was angry, frustrated and irritated. Vespera was provoking her unnecessarily and she wasn’t going to take it anymore.
After breakfast, Eveyr kissed her forehead and walked towards the war room. Esme retreated to her room and dismissed the maids working there.
She opened her wardrobe and wore a black gown with a high slit. Then she walked to her vanity and covered her neck and wrists with the most beautiful and expensive diamonds she had.
Let me show you what a woman in a dress and jewellery can do.
She smirked and walked to the war room. As soon as she reached the doors, the guards opened them without a word.
Inside, Eveyr and Vespera were leaning over a map spread on the central table with markers to show troop movements.
Eveyr immediately looked up the moment she entered. The second he saw her, his eyes softened taking in the breathtaking sight of his wife.
Vespera, however, rolled her eyes.
"We are working on the eastern mountain passes, Duchess," Vespera said, not even bothering to lift her head from the map. "I’m afraid there are no seamstresses or jewellers to discuss here. Let us work...please."
Esme smiled and walked towards the table, ignoring Vespera’s words. She stood beside Eveyr and looked at the map.
"You are routing your primary supply lines through the Alvic Gorge," Esme said using her knowledge of the kingdom’s geography from the novel. "It’s a bottleneck. The gorge walls are steep and unstable. Julian’s mages will wait for you to enter, trigger an avalanche, and bury your guards alive."
"Our scouts swept the ridges of that gorge yesterday," Vespera argued. "There is no hostile presence there. Besides, those mages can’t survive the freezing night temperatures at that altitude."
"They don’t need to survive the night," Esme replied as she put her finger on the mountain’s edge. "They are mages, Commander. They don’t need tents to survive. And Julian doesn’t care if they freeze to death as long as they take you down."
Vespera had no response because Esme was right.
"Furthermore, you are sending three thousand soldiers which will require roughly fifty supply wagons of grain. It has been raining in the east three days ago. It will slow your wagons and cost you time and lives."
Esme then picked up the marker and put it on a different path.
"If you route through the Pine Valley instead, it might add two days to in your journey, but the thick tree canopy will provide you cover against both aerial scouting and seismic triggers."
Beside her, Eveyr stood in silence, staring at Esme and hopelessly captivated by her logic.
Vespera, on the other hand, stared at the map to find a loophole in her idea but couldn’t.
"How do you know about the eastern geography?" Vespera asked. "You might memorize logistics well, Duchess, but war isn’t fought on paper."
"Maybe...but I know that an army marches on its stomach, and you were about to walk yours right into a grave," Esme shot back, holding Vespera’s gaze without flinching.
Vespera laughed mockingly and drew a hunting dagger from her belt and slammed it on the table, right next to Esme’s hand.
"I didn’t want to say this since you’re Duchess...but you’ve got a sharp tongue," Vespera muttered. "I’ll give you that. But words don’t hold the north. Actions do. Care to show that?"
Vespera gestured to an archery target hanging on the far wall of the room.
"Pin the target on that wall, or never return to the war room."
The second the blade slammed near Esme’s hand, Eveyr’s magic erupted.
"Vespera, you cannot threaten her. I’ve been lenient with you but that doesn’t mean you have the right to disrespect her," Eveyr said as shadows crawled towards Vespera’s boots before Eveyr reined them back.
"I’m not threatening her, my lord," Vespera replied calmly. "I’m testing her whether she deserves to stand in the war room."
Esme put her palm against Eveyr’s heaving chest to calm him.
"It’s fine, Eveyr," Esme said softly. "I can manage her."
"No, it’s not," Eveyr replied. "You don’t have to do this. I..."
"I want to do this," Esme cut him off. "This is my chance to prove to everyone I’m not just a weak woman hiding behind you."
She then looked at the dagger stuck on the table. Slowly, she wrapped her fingers around the hilt and pulled the dagger out from the table. The dagger was much heavier than the ones she had used in the Bloodwood. But she wasn’t going to give up.
She turned and looked straight into the eyes of Vespera. Then with lightning speed, she threw the dagger. It hit the table with a loud sound. The dagger pinned the loose end of Vespera’s sleeve of Vespera’s armour to the map.
Vespera gasped and yanked her arm, but the dagger didn’t move.
"I don’t play games, Commander," she said, brushing off her hands. "But I never miss."
