This is a forgery.”
“I find myself relishing a walk,” he answered, then placed his free hand on the arm linked with his, Before the crowd could react, Athena kicked Royce in the back of the knees, then was on him in a flash, pulling off his ring. “It wasn’t me,” Royce shrieked. “I swear it, Keris! I’ve done nothing!”
Keris ignored his brother, holding up the ring to compare it to the wax impression. It was a perfect match. He handed both to Sarhina, who nodded in confirmation. “This was the ring that sealed the forged letter ordering the city guard out of Vencia,” she shouted. “Not the ring of your king! We have been betrayed!”
The mob of women stirred, the rising tension rendering the air unbreathable, a single word echoing through the masses. Traitor.
Lestara had a hand pressed to her mouth. “I didn’t know,” she said. “I knew he hated you, but not in my darkest nightmares did I believe he’d betray Maridrina.”
“She’s lying,” Royce shrieked. “I am loyal! Please!”
The mob was pressing toward them, the women without weapons bending to pick up rocks,
expressions feral.
“My God, Keris,” Lestara cried out. “Why didn’t you execute him when you had the chance? You might have saved us all!”
If he hadn’t been so angry, Keris might have admired her perseverance.
“Executing my idiot brother would not have spared us,” Keris shouted above the noise of the Lestara’s whole body stiffened; then she jerked away from him. “What are you talking about? I was crowd, “because it would not have stopped you from conspiring with Petra Anaphora in a twisted plot to make yourself queen!”
His words rippled over the mob, shocked silence following in their wake.
“Lies!” Lestara snarled. “Desperate lies! While you were gone, I watched over Vencia. I am the Savior of the People.”
“Tell that to the dead,” he said, and when she refused to look at the corpses, he caught her by the hair and forced her to her knees. “Look at them. Look at the people who died because their lives were worth less than your desire to be queen.”
bore a wax seal, the other on cheap scrap. One glance at them confirmed everything that he’d come to
“I didn’t do anything!” Lestara said between her teeth. “I’m innocent!”
Keris laughed, knowing he sounded like his father and not caring. “There is nothing innocent about you, Lestara. But if you confess, perhaps I’ll show mercy.” Then he shoved her.
Lestara toppled forward, falling to land on her knees on the pile of bodies. She screamed in horror as her hands sank into rotting flesh, the pile shifting and moving beneath her weight.
“Did you know,” he said, letting go of Lestara’s arm to face Royce, “that each signet ring gifted to a
“Confess your treason and I’ll let you out,” he said, watching as she crawled to the sides of the pit and tried to climb out. But the women in the mob surrounding them had been the ones with the shovels, and they’d dug deep.
“I’m innocent! Please, Keris. Please, you know I’m loyal,” she howled. “You know I love you.”
Keris glanced down at his brother, who was on the ground beneath Athena’s booted foot. “Ah, yes.
Keris smiled at him, feeling strangely calm despite being as close to death as he’d ever been. “Did How better to show your love than to conspire with my enemies and then jump into bed with my brother.”
“I’ve conspired with no one.” Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she looked to the mob. “He said he didn’t want me. Broke my heart and left me alone. What would you have done?”
“I doubt any of them would have picked up a pen to conspire with Petra Anaphora.” Keris rocked
“Yes, one of the benefits of hiding in a library is that I learn things,” Keris said. “The pattern of the on his heels, his calmness gone, rage having taken its place. “But that’s what you did. When I refused to make you queen, you tormented my little sister until she gave you my plans; then you sent the information to Petra. Forged a letter with orders that would leave Vencia ripe for the taking.” Bending down, he met her gaze. “Petra got what she wanted, but given that I still live and breathe, it appears you did not.”
“That’s not true! Why would I conspire to destroy Vencia and then provide warning that the Valcottans intended to attack?”
“So that you would be named Savior of the People?” Keris brushed dust off one of his sleeves, then gave Royce a long look. “Thereby making yourself a valuable ally to the man next in line to the throne just in case your bedroom skills weren’t incentive enough.”
The mob of women stirred, the rising tension rendering the air unbreathable, a single word echoing Royce paled. “Lestara, is this true?”
“It’s not true! He’s lying because he needs a scapegoat!”
said. “I knew he hated you, but not in
Their conversation was repeated back through the mob, the same accusations and denials over and over, but Keris kept his eyes on his brother. “Didn’t you question why one of our father’s wives just happened to receive critical intelligence about Petra’s changed battle plan just in time to evacuate?”
“She said her father has spies. That they give her information.”
“You really believe that Cardiff ’s spies discovered information that ours failed to learn?”
Royce appeared ready to be sick in the dirt. “Sarhina has the spy report. She can show it to you.”
Keris regarded the second document Athena had given him. It was written in the language used in northern Cardiff, so he could only read some of it, but in truth, the language didn’t matter.
The handwriting did.
“Petra wrote this herself,” he said, handing it to Sarhina. “I’ve seen her writing before, though there are others who can confirm if you choose not to believe me.”
“A forgery!” Lestara shouted.
“Why would one of your father’s spies forge Petra’s writing in a report to you?”
Lestara didn’t speak, but it was far from silent. The mob was in the thousands, perhaps in the tens of thousands, the camps full of the survivors having emptied to come hear the explanation of why their hair and forced her to her knees. “Look at them. Look at the people who died because their lives werehome was ash and rubble.
And they were angry.
“You’re a traitor, Lestara.” And Petra had wanted Keris to know how she’d gotten to him. Had wanted him to know that it was his choices and missteps that had allowed her to strike this blow. “All those dead beneath your feet are your victims, but so are the living.” He gestured at the crowd, which was full of furious faces, marriage knives that had never known an edge until now drawn from their sheaths, the steel glittering. “Perhaps I should allow them revenge.”
All the color drained from Lestara’s face, but she shouted, “I have done nothing. I am loyal to Maridrina!”
“Enough, Lestara. Confess the truth, and I’ll consider mercy. Continue this farce, and I’ll listen to your confession as your victims pull you to pieces.”
Picking up a shovel, he scooped up dirt from the pile and tossed it at her face. As he did, Keris was suddenly struck with a memory of Raina. Of how she’d told him that there was honor in
shoveling cow shit in the bridge because it demonstrated loyalty and a willingness to do what it took.
It felt like a lifetime ago that he’d laughed at the idea, yet now he wondered, if he filled enough graves, if he might earn back the trust of his people. He tossed another shovel full of dirt at her, clumps sticking in her long hair. “Confess, Lestara.”
The crowd was seething, screaming for blood, demanding their vengeance. “Keris,” Sarhina
muttered, “we won’t be able to stop them.”