“And Firenze has the mightiest warriors of all realms. They do not need us. Not really.”

My husband’s head nodded on the pillow.

I got closer to him. “But we must go home. Our people must see in all that is happening across Triton, that you and I feel they are what they are. Our priority. And in so doing, we can send men to discover if this Rising has somehow taken hold on our own shores. Airen is but a day’s sail away. Sky Bay, I do not know. Three days? Four?”

“Five,” he informed me.

I nodded shortly. “Thus, if Cassius needs you, you can be there.” I slid a hand up his chest and rested it at the base of his neck. “You can leave some men for True, but the war he must wage is not about swords, lances and cavalry. And you can leave behind some of our ships to patrol their rivers, guard their ports. This way, you can share your support for True and his people. Mars does not need it. Send ships to open up Sky Bay, if by some slim chance they have it blockaded. And we can go home with Cassius knowing you will personally come to his aid and can be there in a short amount of time if this is needed.”

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” he whispered.

I blinked into his face.

And I did so understanding why he’d seemed distracted earlier.

“You were testing me?” I asked dangerously.

He grinned. “Not as such. I’d come to much the same conclusion. However, I intended to stay with Cassius while sending you home with some of my men to see to our people. Now, I agree it’s best for us both to go home, at least for a time.”

“But mostly, you were testing me,” I noted, still dangerously.

His lips were quirking with amusement as his hands slid up my back. “My Ha-Lah.”

“A woman lost her life today, Aramus. A woman. A wife. A mother. A queen. She lost it in this wretched web being woven around all of us. And you play games?”

“Yes, baby, if you must call it that,” he said softly. “Because you are my woman, my wife and my queen. I had no mother alive to help you learn your role. You are proud and you are fierce, and I believe to my soul you were born to be queen. But that doesn’t mean you cannot learn all the ways there are to be a good one.”

I did not like that this answer was also a good one.

Aramus rolled me to my back, pressing into me and looming over me.

“I have often failed at being a good king. I will fail again, even if I strive not to. I have definitely failed at being a good husband, and I will do what I can not to repeat these mistakes or make others. But I fear, being human, I will fail again. What I know, through it all, as your king and your husband, is that I will need you at my side not hesitant, not worried about what your opinion might bring. Honest. Open. Sharing. Guiding. In the short period of time we have been true husband and wife, or moving in that direction, I have learned one thing for certain about you, Ha-Lah. Would you like to know what that is?”