He'd signed all the same papers the evening of the Queen's announcement, as if all of the preparations had to happen again. It had all fallen together too easily for such short notice, and Alluin had gone looking for reasons why.

"You've always known she doesn't want you as her heir," Alluin said, when Dain stared moodily at his scotch for too long. "Maybe it shouldn't be surprising that she might be trying to find a way to bring death to your door."

"I suppose I grew used to the thought that she feared what the gods might do to her for such an evasion of her punishment," Dain said at last. He swirled his scotch, sighed, and took a sip. "I've always known she meant to place me into danger when she instigated the war with Raven Court, but it was hardly a direct attack. It's not as if she sent a messenger to the Raven King with the secrets of the armies, so that a company of archers could be placed with care to fill me with arrows."

"She wasn't in the field," Alluin pointed out. "She didn't have access to such things, and even if she did, it's not as if she knew what you were capable of then. None of us did."

Tension drifted into Dain's form, but he took a deep breath and exhaled, driving it away. "And I suppose you think she had something to do with the assassination attempt, as well."

"I can't say so with certainty, but it doesn't seem like a far shot," he replied with a one-shouldered shrug. "There are ways to kill even you when you're in the field, and you're not known for being shy about being on the front lines. Any enemy facing you now knows to treat you like an army of your own."

"Why would the Court of Mercy want that, though?" I asked, piping up out of curiosity. "Or Raven Court, for that matter?" It had itched at me for a long time, given that the Courts were things unto themselves. Why go to war over land when the land was inherently part of a Court?

"Courts can be born and die like any other living thing," Dain said, planting a kiss onto my hair. "If you destroy a palace, the Court dies, and the surrounding Courts grow to fill the area. If your people are in the empty land, you gain more territory."

"If you can get yourself made the heir, you gain it all," Alluin added casually. "Stag Court is wealthy and populous, and the Court of Mercy is diffuse and rugged. Claiming our land might be worth the risk of facing the Beast of Phazikai on the field of battle."

Dain snorted. "King Omahice has no relation to my mother. Even if his armies killed me, the next heir wouldn't be him."

"Unless your mother gave him her blood," our friend replied, in the same calm tones.