“Because she did!” Zarrah pulled a spear from Saam’s grip. “She sent me here as bait for the rebels and their commander.” There wasn’t time to explain this. There wasn’t time to explain her aunt’s madness to them when Keris was walking toward death. “Bermin set a trap within a trap, and on my honor, he plans to kill him. We need to go. We need to get him back. We need to fight!”
“Fuck.” Aren spun away from her, gripping the sides of his head as he kicked a rock, sending it spinning. “Goddamn it, Keris!”
“Gather everyone.” Zarrah caught hold of Daria’s arm, pulling the woman close. “We’ll attack Kian from the rear. But we need to move now!”
Daria didn’t move.
Zarrah spun in a circle, realizing that everyone was looking anywhere but at her. They weren’t going to help her. “Aren …”
“I don’t want to leave him,” the King of Ithicana said. “But this isn’t a fight we can win. Even if we defeat Kian’s men, Bermin has the island’s entire garrison with him.” Aren let out a shaky breath.
“Keris knew the risks, Zarrah. Knew that there was every chance he’d be killed, but he chose to do it anyway. Not just for you, but for everyone here. Don’t let his sacrifice be in vain.”
A scream of rage tore from her lips, and Zarrah dropped to her knees, slamming her fists on the ground.
“Zarrah, listen.” Daria knelt in front of her. “Bermin has nearly emptied the guard towers and brought the soldiers to the cliff facing the beach. This is our chance to get across the channel. Keris has bought a chance for all of us to be freed.”
At the cost of his life.
“You told me it was over between you two.” There was desperation in Daria’s eyes. “That he wouldn’t let you be who you needed to be.”
Daria spoke the truth, yet faced with his death, Zarrah saw now that her claims had been fueled by her aunt’s poisonous words.
“How is he worth risking the chance for you to liberate all of Valcotta from tyranny? He’s given us a chance at peace—don’t throw it away!”
“Peace is a dance,” Zarrah said. “It only works when both nations dance to the same music, and without Keris, Maridrina will keep dancing to the drums of war. He needs to live!”
Daria took a step back, shaking her head, and Zarrah saw that freedom was worth too much to her to take the risk. That the Endless War was a distant threat to be dealt with another day, not something to guide her hand.
That Daria was afraid.
Yet it was Aren who broke the silence. “You would defy your Empress?”
Zarrah stared at him in confusion as he surveyed the rebels with disdain. “You claim to fight in Zarrah’s name as the rightful Empress of Valcotta, but she has called you to arms, and you turn your backs?” He scoffed. “Seems to me you fight only for yourselves, and in Ithicana, we have a word for that. It isn’t honor.”
Rightful Empress?
“He won’t risk crossing Petra,” Aren said. “He’ll take him prisoner, which gives us time to get him Then Aren’s eyes fixed on hers. “To rule is to lead, Imperial Majesty. Don’t let your first and last act be to lead them to certain death.”
She had no time to question why Aren had referred to her as such, not with Keris’s life on the line.
Answers would be had after they got out of this alive.
Zarrah swallowed, panic warring with a lifetime of military training. Daria and Aren were right.
To attack Kian from the rear would only be delaying Keris’s death, not sparing him.
Turning in a slow circle, she let her mind drift, taking in all the variables and considering her enemy, whom she knew better than anyone here. Then she faced her army. “This,” she said, “is what we are going to do.”
“I don’t want to leave him,” the King of Ithicana said. “But this isn’t a fight we can win. Even if we
Rightful Empress?
Then Aren’s eyes fixed on hers. “To rule is to lead, Imperial Majesty. Don’t let your first and last act be to lead them to certain death.”
She had no time to question why Aren had referred to her as such, not with Keris’s life on the line.
Answers would be had after they got out of this alive.
Zarrah swallowed, panic warring with a lifetime of military training. Daria and Aren were right.
To attack Kian from the rear would only be delaying Keris’s death, not sparing him.
Turning in a slow circle, she let her mind drift, taking in all the variables and considering her enemy, whom she knew better than anyone here. Then she faced her army. “This,” she said, “is what we are going to do.”
KERIS’S EYES FOCUSED on the tip of the arrow, fear pouring over him like ice water, chilling him to the core. Not only because he was facing his final moments of life, but because the
distraction he’d planned to allow everyone else to escape would be far, far too short-lived.
Think.
Bermin was a talker. A braggart. If he could draw this moment out even for a few minutes longer, it could be enough for everyone to escape the prison, if not the island itself. “What will your mother say when she learns you killed me and left me to rot in obscurity? Petra doesn’t seem the sort to respond favorably to any disruption of her plans, and putting an arrow through my heart just doesn’t smack of one of her strategies.”
The Valcottan prince laughed, the tip of the arrow shaking. “Because it isn’t my mother’s, Your Grace. It’s my strategy.”
Keris stiffened. He’d believed it was Petra across the gameboard from him, which meant he’d been playing the wrong enemy.
Time for a change of tactic.
Leaning back, Keris laughed. “You don’t take a shit without your mother’s permission, Bermin. Do you really expect me to believe you aren’t a pawn in her greater scheme? And allow me to remind you—pawns that don’t play their roles are swiftly disposed of.”
Even across the channel of water between them, Keris could feel Bermin’s simmer of rage. Feel the fury that only the truth could provoke. But to his credit, Bermin kept it in check.
“Her scheme is still in play.” Bermin held his arms wide, bow in one hand and arrow in the other.
“For it was not your capture she sought, but that of the rebel commander. She knew he wouldn’t be able to resist Zarrah’s plight and would swoop in for the rescue, only to be slaughtered by her waiting navy. You”—he laughed—“were not even a factor because my mother never once considered that you’d come for Zarrah.”
Keris went still, Bermin’s words twisting in his mind. It didn’t make sense. Serin’s revelation of his relationship with Zarrah was what had caused Petra to incarcerate her niece here, so why wouldn’t she have thought he would come?
“Looking for the logic?” Barking out another laugh, Bermin lowered the bow to his side. “You will look forever because you are attempting to understand the mind of a madwoman.” He took a step closer to the edge of the cliff. “She can’t stand that you stole Zarrah’s affection from her because she needs to be beloved by all. She needs Zarrah to come back to her, to love her, to worship her, and in order for her to believe that possible, you needed to become the heartless Veliant who manipulated her precious niece to achieve your own ends. Not just in Zarrah’s eyes, but in her own. She convinced herself that you were a demon, and demons don’t come to rescue those they’ve used.”
Every word Bermin said sank into his soul, but Keris didn’t allow himself to consider the
implications of a madwoman ruling an empire. All that mattered was keeping Bermin talking. Buying more time. “But you knew I’d come?”