Chapter Twenty-Seven

Morning negotiations were so tedious I was happy when we broke for lunch. After lunch we were back in the negotiations room to continue the boring arguing back and forth. This time I seemed to be the topic of conversation.

"Are you satisfied after speaking with my wife that she wasn't forced into anything? Can we stop this charade of separating us?" Aidan asked. I instinctively sucked in and held my breath.

"There is no charade – she was abducted on her wedding day. The separation is necessary to ensure she isn't under undue influence-" Thebes responded.

"You're out of line!" Aidan shouted and stood up.

"Aidan." I said and grabbed the hem of his shirt. "This really isn't necessary."

"Of course it is. You're keeping me from my wife for no reason." He said sternly.

"It's space for her to clear her head and decide what she wants without any pressure or threats or-"

"Threats? You think I would threaten my wife?" Now Aidan was yelling.

"No one knows what happens between a husband and a wife when they're alone. It's just a precaution and as your wife said, it's temporary."

"It's a small sacrifice for peace." I whisper to Aidan.

"This is just a stunt to exert control." Aidan scoffed.

"It's to ensure the safety of one of my citizens." Thebes said.

"She's a citizen of Britania now." Aidan said.

"She will always be a citizen of Cordona. And she will always be welcome there."

Aidan had started gritting his teeth, he seemed ready to explode.

"Gentlemen," I said and cleared my throat, "my life isn't nearly as important as the thousands of others that have been affected by the war."

"All my citizens are important-" Thebes started but Aidan cut him off.

"She's no longer-"

"What I meant gentlemen, is that there are more pressing issues that we need to work through first. The terms of our peace negotiations should come first." I say.

"She has a point…she may turn out to be a decent Queen after all."

"What are-" Aidan said but I grabbed his hand and squeezed.

"He's goading you." I whispered.

Aidan cleared his throat and took a deep breath.

"Let's continue where we left off this morning." He said and sat down. "Citizen relocation."

"We would like to put forth a time limit for prior citizens returning to Cordona." Thebes said.

"For what reason? You don't want your people returning?" Aidan asked.

"Of course we do but keeping our borders open indefinitely would leave us vulnerable."

"What do you propose then?" Aidan asked.

"A two-week window should suffice."

"Two weeks? To make a life altering decision, pack up everything you own, and make it to the border?" Aidan scoffed.

"What if it were announced with a months advanced notice to give people the time they needed to decide and prepare?" I asked.

"That would be better." Aidan grumbled.

"I would be amenable to that condition…we're in the heart of the rainy season, we should wait until it ends to announce the window the borders will be open. It's dangerous to travel when it could flood at a moments notice." Thebes said.

"Britania needs its citizens to rebuild, you would delay our progress?" Aidan asked in an annoyed tone.

"By a few months at most."

"That is unacceptable."

"What if we split the difference? Announce in one months' time? Towards the end of the season the risk of flooding is significantly reduced." I said.

"Fine." Aidan grumbled.

"That is acceptable." Thebes said.

"What is the next matter?"

"Prisoners." The Corondan advisor, Victor Brown, said.

"Yes." Aidan said and rubbed his temples. "Of which we have substantially more of your men than you have of ours."

"Your point being?"

"It doesn't seem like a fair trade."

"We have substantially more of your prior citizens than you have of ours – that should make it an even trade."

"Still – I would insist we exchange the same number of prisoners at the first exchange and after the terms of the peace deal has been met we will release the remaining prisoners at the border." Aidan said.

"That is completely unacceptable! You would ask us to release all our hostages while you held on to dozens of our men?" Thebes asked.

"I said 'the same number', it need not be all your prisoners, you can pick the number."

"This is preposterous!" Thebes said and jolted up out of his seat. "We either release all our hostages at the same time or there is no deal."

"What if we gave you a show of good faith?" I blurted out.

"Ari." Aidan said.

"Go on." Thebes said tentatively.

"We each release the names of the hostages in our care. You can set the number of hostages we release and we can each pick the names of those we want released." I said.

"I can agree to that." Thebes said and sighed. "But I need a break. We can reconvene again after 15 minutes or so."

"Agreed." Aidan said as he stood up, I followed suit. Thebes nodded, then he and his advisor left.

"Give us some time alone Windsor." Aidan said.

"Of course Your Majesty." His advisor bowed then left. Then we were alone and the silence filled the room.