"But how? I saw...." Roland turned to Titania. The Provider had been in Klain. This prisoner had obviously been kept here for months, at least. Who was in Klain, and how was the Provider here in front of him?
"You saw a Rhone soldier brilliantly disguised by myself, put in place by Prince Duncan a year ago. I'm shocked he wouldn't tell you such an important thing. I trust you implicitly." She looked on him with pity over not having the trust of his own father.
"A year ago... why then?" Roland was shocked things hadn't gone far worse for Klain in the intervening time with a Rhone soldier partially at the helm of the city. Then again, the spy had likely substantially weakened the city behind the scenes, more than anyone in Klain would know before it was too late.
"This sniveling creature you see before us tried to retract his loyalty during a meeting with Prince Duncan outside the city. I could not allow that. These plans have been many years in the making, since long before you were born. I am patient, you see, but not for much longer. We are so close, Derek! We can retake everything that once belonged to our people, and have a grand and glorious rule once again." Her eyes sparkled with a terrible glee.
"But you think my father..." Roland trailed off, taking note of the Provider's pleading eyes. The tied-up man still had a spark of defiance in him. Roland wondered what caused the man to ultimately back out of his treachery.
"He is my son, and I love him as my own life," Titania's eyes misted over dramatically, "but in a sense, all the people of Rhone are my children, and I must weigh their lives as well. Without someone to rule mightily, they will crumble into the darkness we escaped from. You father, I fear, is not up to the task."
"Why do you say so?" Roland suspected it was Duncan's lack of complete obedience to his mother, not anything to do with his leadership skills, that formed Titania's analysis.
"Never mind," she shook her head, "I want you to love and respect him, as a son should love and respect his father, but I thought it prudent to let you be on your guard against his deceptions."
"Thank you for the admonition, Your Majesty," Roland bowed slightly. "I will take it under advisement."
The Queen's mouth flattened and she snapped her fingers again, opening a door back to the wood they had come from. Roland resisted the urge to cast a look over his shoulder at the pitiful true Provider as they turned away.
He wanted to promise with his eyes to rescue the man as soon as he was able. To assure him that his daughter, for now, was safe and well as far as Roland knew. But Titania would doubtlessly notice, and that would not bode well for either of the men.
So Roland swallowed his regret and walked through the door with Titania, back to his world, to a soft bed where he would rest in the lamplight and wake to continue training for the looming war.
___________________
The morning dawned with Roland already out in the training circle with Duncan. Despite the late night, both had risen early with a nervous energy. Today they were training with the curved swords that served as the Rhone's preferred backup weapon in case the spear was broken, lost in combat, or rendered impractical by enclosed space or other circumstances.
It was less natural for Roland than the spear had been, and not as similar as he had hoped to the straight swords the Klain used. He struggled, and eventually his father decided that they would set them aside and continue to focus on the spear. There was no reasonable expectation that Roland's sword skills would be good enough to be of any use by the time they began the war.
It had been decided they would march the next day, and make their way partially in the Darkness and partially in the normal world. Scouts would run ahead, slip into the Darkness, and light bonfires to lead the army on the correct path through the parallel world. That way the primary force would be able to move unseen by any of Klain's soldiers. Even if the scouts were spotted, the army's numbers would be vastly underestimated.
Roland felt a large amount of trepidation about the invasion. Rhone had been successfully picking off the small villages and burning them. Klain was unable to effectively track and deter them, which made this method of warfare an ideal strategy for slowly weakening Klain's strong enemy.
A head-on attack made no sense. Even with magic on Rhone's side, there was a disparity of troop size, especially when it came to attacking the city directly. A siege required an enormous amount of territory coverage and resources to maintain, and Klain had spent hundreds of years thoroughly preparing for that potential eventuality. It was a daunting task to even hold a siege, let alone raze the city as Titania desired.
From an outside perspective, it would be like trying to open a walnut by throwing sand at it. Roland knew that there must be a lot of strategy at play that he wasn't privy to, and it worried him. The spies within Klain, who knew what chaos they could wreak? And the fake Provider, how much had he weakened the city? What magic did Titania possess that he could not even fathom?
These questions ate at him as he engaged in yet another spar with Duncan.
"You're distracted!" His father reproached him after a fierce strike.
"Yes," Roland admitted, wiping his brow.
"Distraction is death in battle." Duncan glared at his son, who stared back unapologetically until the older man sighed and put the spear down. "What is it?"
"What happened last night with her Majesty?" Roland asked softly. After thinking about it, he decided something must have changed in Duncan's and Titania's relationship to drive her to undermine her own son so thoroughly in front of him.
Duncan did not reply, but spun on his heel and walked away quickly. Roland lurched forward to follow him, not stopping to question whether he should or not. If he was being dismissed, wouldn't Duncan have said as much?
When they left the camp and reached into the trees, Duncan finally stopped and turned to look at his son. "What did she say to you?"
"She said you were keeping secrets from me. She doesn't want me to trust you." Roland saw no logic in trying to out-manipulate the manipulators, and instead went straight for the truth.
Duncan stared into his son's eyes for a moment and nodded. "She's right. If you want to achieve her goals, you shouldn't trust me."
"Are your goals different?" Roland asked.
"My goal is what is best for Rhone. Her goal is the greatest and most glorious rule."
"Those differ?" Roland had to make sure he fully understood what his father was saying before he could lay his cards on the table.
"They might. They don't have to, but they could come to be at odds, depending on what she is willing to sacrifice for her own glory." Duncan's mouth formed a flat line. "I will tell you she cannot be trusted. She has told you I cannot be trusted. Your decision is your own, but if you side with her, you would lie to me anyway. Asking you is therefore useless."
"Would you trust me?" Roland's eyebrows drew close together. He was being told who to trust, but no one expressed trust in him as of yet. Well, Titania had, but Roland didn't believe her for a moment.
"You avoided that hellcat Titania tried to use to trap you," Duncan admitted, "that's an excellent start."
"Thank you for your help in that," Roland shuddered.
"It was for my own good. If you'd fallen for it and given Titania a new heir to raise in her own likeness, we would both be as good as dead."
"If you're so confident she's intending to kill one or both of us..." Roland wasn't sure how to ask the question.
"Why don't I just go ahead and kill her first?" Duncan's eyebrows rose. "I'm surprised it took you this long to ask. Even if I could do it in a way that couldn't be traced back to me, I'm not sure she's capable of dying."
Roland stared at his father, blinking in confusion. What did that mean?
"Her magic. She can do things even I'm not aware of. There is healing, and of course the tea that keeps her young. I can't be absolutely sure she hasn't found some way to make herself borderline immortal. If I tried to kill her and failed, it would tear the nation apart."
"So you're just going to play along with her until she kills you?"
"I'm working on it. In my younger days there was a brief revolt and a failed attempt on her life which aroused my suspicions, but I can't find a way around it yet." Duncan sighed. "All I can do for now is continue working on a way to help the people, with or without her."
"And you think that involves the absolute desolation of Klain?" Roland hoped his father wasn't on board with this part of Titania's plan.
"I see no way around that part of Titania's designs. The halflings' prophecy on how to break the curse seems clear to all who follow her."