Free Infinity by Andria Buchanan

she shifted from foot to foot, not meeting my eyes. “You need to come.”
    “That’s not all, is it?” I asked, my stomach filling with dread.
    “Allie.” Her shoulders slumped.
    “It wasn’t just the Forest of Ananth,” Mercedes said, her voice low. It wasn’t a question, and my heart clenched. “Bavasama’s troops, they didn’t just raid the border at the Forest of Ananth. That’s why the members of the War Council all came so quickly to Allie’s summons. Bavasama’s army didn’t just stop with us. They invaded somewhere else…. Didn’t they?”
    “You need to come now,” Kitsuna said, her voice hollow.

Chapter Seven
    In the ten minutes it took for me to get to the throne room from the back garden, the palace had filled with people. It sounded like a dozen high school pep rallies being blared through fifty-foot speakers at the same time.
    “Everyone, please!” Rhys yelled over the screaming and the arguing and the general noise pouring out of the room. “Let’s all just settle down and talk about this!”
    “There were ravens over Meridoc. They were carrying fire wizards. Meridoc is burning, and you want us to be calm?” Lady Arianna, steward of the Veldt, snapped, her face red and her normally sleek, blond hair standing up in tufts all over her head.
    “The desert near Caradocia has ogres amassed on their borders,” Melchiam, the Rache of the Firas, said, his maroon robes rumpled and his long black hair hanging loose against his shoulders instead of tied back like it normally was. “We’ve had to strike our camps and go in search of water elsewhere. Lands we’ve held since the First Rose are no longer in our control.”
    “We can address all of this—” John of Leavenwald began from near the throne.
    “Shut up!” I yelled, letting my voice carry across the room as I swept out of the main doorway and through the rapidly parting crowd, trying to project my faux queenly confidence. I made my way to the huge, intricately worked throne. “All of you. That’s an order. I need all of you to just shut up for five minutes.”
    “Your Majesty—” one of the men started and tried to reach for my arm. Instead of letting him grab me, I picked up my pace and kept moving.
    “No bowing.” I stalked up the three steps to my throne and turned to plop down on it. “You all know how I feel about the bowing that takes place around here. We get nothing done if you spend the next half an hour bowing and ‘if you please, Your Majesty’ -ing me. Now, someone— someone calm —tell me what we know. Where have there been attacks?”
    Everyone looked at me, and then the room filled with a flood of noise. They’d decided to talk at once, and instead of listening to one another and going from there, they talked over one another.
    “Wait.” I held my hands up in front of me. “Stop. Stop all of you. We won’t get anywhere like this. So, first, Rhys, have you heard anything from the troops we have stationed at the White Mountains?”
    “There have been attacks all along the border. Our troops fought back where they could, but we only have a small force there, since we’re supposed to be at peace with Bathune now. They could only do so much.”
    “Call them back to the palace,” I said. “We need to re-form the entire army. Volunteers and professional soldiers both.”
    “I issued orders this afternoon for troops to come to the palace,” Rhys said.
    “And how is that going?” I asked.
    “Thirty thousand men are on their way to Neris to pledge their swords to the Golden Rose and the Rose Throne of Nerissette. Every noble family has sworn their troops to our use. Between the noble armies and the village militias, almost every able-bodied man in Nerissette will march with us,” he said.
    “How long until they arrive?”
    “They should all be here within two days. Most of the nobles brought their troops with them, and we’re sending dragons to ferry the volunteers who live farther away. By