The words came haltingly. It felt as if I was lying on fragile ice above a deep, black lake and every word was another blow with a hammer. “We captured lots of Garmanian weapons when we won the war,” I said. “But…” I shook my head. It couldn’t be true. If it was true, that meant…. “No,” I said. “No.”

Garrett and I stared at each other, the implications running through our heads. Then, very slowly, Garrett picked up the phone and passed it to me. “Call the military,” he said in that deep, Texas rumble. “Find out where they store captured weapons.”

My whole body had gone cold, my skin clammy with fear. I didn’t want to follow this idea any further. But….

Garrett took my hand in his big, warm one. I looked up at him and he nodded. Wherever this led, he’d be with me.

I dialed. It was midnight, but in the army there’s always someone on duty. I got a series of supervisors out of bed, gradually going up through the ranks until I found someone who had the answers. “We do still keep Garmanian weapons in storage, for training purposes,” I was told. “But as to exactly what and how much... unfortunately, Your Majesty, that information is classified.”

“Not to your Queen, it’s not,” I said sternly.

I could almost hear him gulp. Then the tapping of computer keys. “Incendiary mortar rounds…” he muttered.

I held my breath.

“No, Your Majesty,” he said. “We don’t have any of those.”

I let out a long sigh and leaned against Garrett for support. I was a mess of emotions: embarrassment, that we’d been wrong. Relief, that we had been. And despair that I hadn’t found some last minute way out: we were going to war. I politely thanked the officer and apologized for being terse with him.

“That’s quite alright, Your Majesty.” I could hear that he’d relaxed. “Pity you didn’t call a few weeks ago. Our records show we had fifty-two of those rounds then. But they were all signed out for a training exercise.”

I jerked upright. “On whose authority?”

“General Novak.”

I hung up the phone. Garrett and I stared at each other as ice water sluiced through my body. “Novak wants a war,” I whispered. “He never wanted the first one to finish. He thought we should have gone ahead and wiped them out. It was only my father who stopped him.”

“But how would he get in touch with Silvas Lukin?” asked Garrett. “He’s Garmanian, he’s the enemy.”

My mind was racing. “Lukin was a war criminal. He was in a special military prison right here in Lakovia... until he escaped.”

Garrett caught on immediately. He was a lot smarter than he thought. “And as head of the military, General Novak could visit Lukin in prison. The son of a bitch. He offered Lukin his freedom in return for helping to restart the war.”

“Lukin agreed, Novak arranged the escape, gave Lukin captured Garmanian weapons and told him to put his old squad back together.” My stomach lurched. “And then he sent them after me and my father.”

I didn’t want to believe it, but it made perfect sense. Lukin and his squad would assassinate my father and me and Novak would step into the power vacuum. With the royal family assassinated by Garmania, the public would be baying for blood. They’d want war. And once we were victorious, Novak would keep the war going until he’d destroyed Garmania: every building, every child. The plan was elegant and perfect. And it would have worked, if Garrett hadn’t been there to save me on the plane. He’d ordered Lukin to keep trying to kill me... and meanwhile, he’d convinced me to start the war.

I wanted to be sick. I’d completely bought the story he’d sold me about Garmania wanting to invade us. I’d been terrified we were going to lose. Now I was terrified we were going to win. Garmania was innocent: they’d been nothing but peaceful and now we were going to wipe them out: that would be the legacy of my reign.

I could hardly believe that the man I’d trusted so completely had betrayed me. What convinced me was that, in his mind, he was being loyal. Loyal to his country. To him, my father and I were the traitors for making peace. “We have to stop him,” I croaked.

“That’s going to be hard,” said Garrett. “He’s got troops all over the city... and in the palace.”

I put my face in my hands, fighting the urge to scream. “I’m an idiot. I let him put troops on the streets! He’s halfway to seizing power already!”

“We’re going to need help,” said Garrett.

He was right. We couldn’t just accuse the General, not when he was surrounded by gun-toting troops. He might just take the final step and order them to shoot me, clearing the final obstacle from his path. For the same reason, I couldn’t just stop the war, not until I’d removed him. “Aleksander,” I said at last. “He’ll be able to help.” I dialed him.

Aleksander listened silently as I told him what we’d found out. “Novak has troops everywhere,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Meet me at the dam. We can work out a plan there.”

I hung up, jumped off the bed and started scrambling into my clothes. Then I cursed as the clock tower struck two. We had less than eight hours to stop the General... and stop the war.