“I told you, brother!” Darren’s voice whipped out and struck his brother’s accusation in a rage. “Ryiah would never betray us!”
“If you can’t keep that temper in check, I will have you tossed out of this chamber!” Blayne snapped. “Gods all know your beautiful betrothed can do no wrong. Any fool can see the way you look at her. But I am not blinded by love, Darren, and I am asking her a question. As her king. It would do you well to remember your place.”
“It would do you well to remember she tried to save our father!” Darren shouted. “Ryiah tried to save Wren! She was attacked in Mahj! You tell me I am blinded by love, but she would be the last person in the world to betray the Crown, and it would do you well to remember I answer to you as your Black Mage, not a servant.”
“ONE MORE WORD, BROTHER.” Blayne’s voice boomed across the room. “ONE MORE WORD AND I WILL HAVE YOU THROWN IN THE DUNGEONS TOO. I AM YOUR KING, AND YOU WILL NOT SPEAK TO ME LIKE THAT AGAIN.”
Darren wrapped his arms around my waist. He didn’t say another word, but his stance was a statement of its own. I shivered in his arms and prayed the brothers’ fight had kept Blayne from noticing my lie.
“I say we string the rebel up like the lowborn scum he is—” Mira’s eyes made a not-so-obvious slant toward my own, daring me to counter her claim. “And then feed him hot coals. One at a time. It has been a while since the people saw a traitor choke on his own deceit. If I recall, the screams are something unlike any other. While they last.”
Darren’s arms and the look in Blayne’s eyes were all that kept me from tearing her apart, limb-by-limb. Fingernails dug into the palm of my hands, and I imagined it was her skin instead.
“Please,” my voice came out a croak. “Let me talk to Derrick first. You don’t know anything about the rebels. M-maybe he has information—”
“Which we will get after a couple hours of torture,” Mira drawled.
“How would you know?” I countered. She was so eager to get to my brother, and a part of me knew it was for the sins of my past. “All the other rebels have never succumbed to questioning, they chose death or found ways to take their life—”
“And maybe they haven’t been questioned by me.”
“Maybe it’s time to try something else.” I slipped out of Darren’s hold to fall to my knees in front of his brother.
“Ryiah—” Darren tried to protest but I shook my head.
If I had to beg, I would. “Please.” My head shot up to look at the king. Please don’t be your father. “H-he’s so young. Derrick didn’t know…If he confesses to his crime? I-if I can get him to tell you who they are, where they are…”
“Go on.”
“If h-he does all that…Can you spare my little brother’s life?” I emphasized the term, hoping to draw on Blayne’s relationship to his own.
The king folded his arms, his steel gaze unwavering. “For you, Ryiah, three days. If you can get your brother to confess, if you can get him to give my men the information you claim, I will consider it payment for his life.”
“Thank you. Oh gods, thank—”
“But, Ryiah,” Blayne’s voice was sharp. “I give Mira permission to start her methods the second day.”
My heart hammered against my ribs, and Darren knelt down to help me stand, shooting a glower at his brother. “You don’t have to scare her,” he snapped. “Ryiah’s brother isn’t a bad person. Whatever fool decision he made, he’s young. She’ll get him to talk.”
“You’d be surprised what kind of villain can reside under a person’s skin.” Blayne’s tone was curt. “Or have you forgotten our father so soon?”
“Derrick is hardly—”
“Anybody is capable of anything.” The king’s gaze flitted to mine and then back to his brother. His expression was dark. “It would do the two of you well to remember that. Do not let your love for anyone blind you from the truth. Those are the ones we stand to lose the most, when they betray us.”
****
Mira and Darren led me through a series of halls, following a torch-lit corridor, passing stone stairs and rusted gates and all sorts of foul smells, before we finally reached the end. Through a narrow tunnel we came across a final set of doors bound by iron bars and a set of two guards in King’s Regiment garb.
The palace dungeons.
“She’s not going in alone!” Mira snarled. “She could be plotting his escape!”
“Do you not trust your own mages against one shackled soldier?” Darren gave the woman a hard look. “The rebels never responded to an inquisitor. Ryiah’s brother will be less willing to talk with anyone looming over their conversation.”
“It isn’t right—”
“Mira.” The prince swore. “I am not happy about finding a rebel in our midst, either, but there is nowhere that boy can escape. As your superior, and your prince, I am asking you to stand down.”