No longer certain that anything had changed at all.
Though in truth, he barely cared. Only went through the motions of rule, his mind consumed with waking nightmares of what the Empress would do when she learned the truth. He’d wanted to shut the gates to the city. To lock everyone inside until he figured out a way to stop Serin’s messengers.
Except he’d known it had been too late.
Serin had set the wheels in motion long before his plunge to his death, likely the moment he’d learned Keris’s father was dead. And not the fastest ship nor the fleetest horse could take Keris to Pyrinat in time to save Zarrah from the truth.
So instead, he forced himself to push forward. To begin negotiations with Ithicana for the return of Maridrinian prisoners. Set things to right in every possible way, because the moment the spies brought word of her fate, he was done. There were some hurts that no heart could endure, least of all his.
Serin’s flock acted swiftly, though whether it was a blessing or a curse, Keris wasn’t certain.
“News from Valcotta,” Dax said, handing Keris a folded piece of paper, then leaving the room.
Keris sucked in a deep breath, then leaned back in his chair and drained his glass while he stared at the paper he’d set on his desk. Slowly, he extracted a knife, the edge glittering sharp, and set it next to the paper.
Please let it have been quick, he silently prayed. Please don’t let her have suffered.
Then he unfolded the paper, his eyes skipping over the words. Saw that Zarrah had attacked the Empress for reasons that had not been disclosed. Yet rather than a report of her execution, he saw something that turned his blood cold.
Zarrah Anaphora has been sent to Devil’s Island.
“No. No no no.”
Devil’s Island was Valcotta’s harshest prison. A small, rocky island in the cold waters of the deep south where only the worst of the nation’s criminals were sent. Men and women so vile that it was said hell itself had spit them out and refused to take them back again.
And the Empress had delivered Zarrah to them.
Keris stood up, his glass falling from his hands to crash against the floor, but he barely noticed.
He had to get her out.
Except Devil’s Island was impenetrable, the only route in a single dock, the rest of the island cliffs surrounded by frigid and violent seas. Valcottan vessels constantly patrolled the perimeter, with archers armed and ready to shoot anyone who made it into the water.
No one, no one, had ever escaped.
Think, Keris, he silently screamed at himself. Think of a way to do this.
His eyes landed on the letter stating the terms Aren had set for Keris retrieving his imprisoned soldiers. And next to it, a spy’s report that had come via the Harendellians that Aren had declared Lara the rightful queen of Ithicana.
An impenetrable island. An impossible task.
He strode to the door, flinging it open. “Make arrangements for a ship. I want to sail on the next tide.”
Dax lifted one eyebrow. “And where, Your Grace, are you planning to sail?”
Keris turned, looking out the tower window to the sea and the distant misty haze cloaking Ithicana. “We sail to Eranahl Island.”
He wouldn’t stop until he’d done everything in his power to free Zarrah. He didn’t care if all of Maridrina turned on him if it meant liberating her from the worst place on earth.
“Eranahl, Your Grace? You think it wise to enter Ithicana?”
It definitely wasn’t wise. Might even be fatal. But he couldn’t rescue Zarrah without help.
Which meant it was time for a conversation with his sister.
The story continues in book 4 of the Bridge Kingdom series! Title and cover reveal coming soon!
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