Chapter 10 · free to read
It had been asleep for four generations. It woke the way a creditor wakes: pleased, and already counting.
The bargain had never been the price of the wars. The wars were the price of the bargain. It had been feeding the border for a century to keep the heirs coming.
Somebody had to say no to it out loud. Two brothers had been raised not to. The prince had been raised for nothing else.
He had spent his life keeping the cold in. He put every year of it into a single blade and gave it away all at once.
Artwork and narration generated with AI.