She could feel their unease, and Zarrah didn’t blame them for it. She was a stranger to them. Worse
“I had to choose between taking you and continuing your mother’s fight. It could not be both, for taking you would have drawn Petra’s eyes down upon the rebellion before it had the strength to
withstand her. We’d have been crushed, and for all her faults, Petra treated you as though you were her own. I thought you’d be safe with her—”
The commander alone seemed unconcerned. “You are not a figurehead, Empress, but you must earn
“You left me with my mother’s murderer!” Zarrah shouted. “With your wife’s murderer!”
Confusion flashed in her father’s eyes. “Silas Veliant—”
“Swung the blade. But it was the Usurper who revealed to the Magpie that my mother and I were unprotected and near the border. Knowing what I do now, it wasn’t just my mother that the Usurper intended Silas to kill.”
Color drained from her father’s face, and he slowly dropped to his knees, pressing his forehead to the ground.
then?” He ran a hand over his shaved head. “I had hoped that you would, but perhaps that was foolish Pity softened Zarrah’s anger, for her father had believed the lie just like everyone else. “It was you she was supposed to meet in that villa, wasn’t it? I’ve always wondered why she risked traveling so near the border without a guard, but it was because she planned to meet you.”
“Yes. I was delayed.” The word croaked from his lips, drops of melted snow running down his cheeks as he lifted his head. “And if you think that hasn’t weighed upon my soul every day since, you are mistaken. Every day I curse that delay, for without it, Aryana might still live. But we came on the heels of Petra’s force, and we had to hold back to prevent discovery.” Tears joined the melting snow.
“I had to watch Petra’s soldiers lift your mother’s body down. Watch them put her on the ground and
… and make her whole.”
“If you saw that, it means you watched her take me,” she said. “You knew that my mother was dead, and you allowed the Usurper to take me to Pyrinat. Why?”
“We hadn’t the numbers to defeat her and take you by force.” His throat moved as he swallowed.
“Your mother believed it critical for her to be in Pyrinat. To live under the eye of the people, secure friendships with those in power, because we’d need those relationships when the day came to move against her sister. I … I hoped that you would pick up where she’d left off.”
It hurt, but she’d suffered worse betrayal. That, or she was beginning to grow accustomed to it; Zarrah wasn’t certain. Only that this revelation didn’t rattle her in the way learning her aunt had arranged her mother’s murder had.
“On my honor, Zarrah, I had no knowledge of Petra’s involvement. We had no reason to believe that she suspected our plans to take back the crown, for Aryana played her part as a submissive sister well. For all she’d usurped her, Petra behaved as though she loved Aryana. I thought she was safe, thought you were safe. If I had known, I’d have risked everything to take you then.”
remained. He said, “I never thought anyone would make my father seem a lesser evil, Commander, but An echo of her conversation with Aren on the ship filled Zarrah’s head. There are moments in life where one stands at a crossroads, and each path leads to a future so wildly different from the other that it seems impossible they stemmed from the same place. Most of the time, the ripples of those choices touch only a few. But sometimes a choice is made, and the ripples are not ripples at all but rather tsunamis that tear across the world, altering everything in their path.
Where would she stand now, if not for the choice her father had made? How different would her
“What of after her death?” Zarrah’s horse snorted and pranced beneath her, sensing her agitation, solife be? Would fate still have guided her path to cross with Keris’s, or would they always have stood she slipped off and allowed it to trot away. “You left me to be raised by the enemy, to be the victim of under different stars? Would she be the same woman as she was now?
her lies and manipulation, to be used in an unrighteous war. You let her turn me into a monster even as No, she silently decided. I would not.
Clearing her throat, Zarrah said, “As much as the truth hurts my heart, I’m glad you chose as you did.”
Shock filled her father’s eyes. “Why?”
“The choice you made put me on the path I needed to take to become a woman capable of taking on the Usurper. I know her better than anyone alive. Her strategies, how she thinks, and what she wants.”
Reaching down a hand, she waited for her father to take it and then drew him to his feet. “Because of your choice to leave me with her, no one in Pyrinat will question my identity or breeding, though it will be your word against hers about my grandfather’s decision to name my mother as heir.”
Her father cleared his throat. “Ephraim was no fool. There were two copies of the proclamation signed by him. One Petra destroyed. I have the other.”
Her heart skipped, and Zarrah realized that part of her had wondered whether it had been a fabrication. But a signed proclamation … that was proof.
Giving a slow nod, she started toward the waiting soldiers. “You gave your word to my mother that you’d build her an army. Have you fulfilled that promise?”
“I have. And even now, more flock to our banners.”
“Good.” She led him toward the waiting soldiers, taking the reins of her horse back from one of them and mounting, so that all might see. All might hear. Because there was a point she needed to make to every one of them. “For long years you have prepared for this moment, gathering the strength needed to stand against the Usurper. At dawn, we will march on Pyrinat to rip the crown from the Usurper’s head!”
Silence.
“Where are the shouts of enthusiasm?” she demanded, heeling her horse and meandering through the gathered soldiers. “You have dedicated yourself to the fight to remove the Usurper from the
“If you saw that, it means you watched her take me,” she said. “You knew that my mother was dead,throne. Have stood against her tyranny. Have suffered in your fight to liberate Valcotta from a warmonger. And now you have all that you need. An army. A leader. A just cause. The time to strike is now, yet you hesitate? Why?”
Zarrah scanned their faces, watching them look anywhere but at her, their jaws tight with shame and frustration. “I’ll tell you why!” she shouted when not one of them answered. “It is because even with all that, it is not enough! The Usurper commands an army tens of thousands strong, a fleet unrivaled on the southern seas, and coffers as deep as the oceans themselves. To go head-to-head with her now would see every last one of us dead on the ground.” She waited a breath. “When will we have the strength we need? In five years? Ten? Twenty?” No one spoke. “Someone answer the question!”
Silence.
that she suspected our plans to take back the crown, for Aryana played her part as a submissive sister Zarrah chose that moment to round her horse on her father. “The answer is never. We cannot fight her alone, so it is fortunate that I arrive with the truest ally that I have ever known.”
“An ally that makes promises he cannot hope to hold, Empress,” her father said as all eyes went to Keris. “I do not doubt his loyalty to you, but Maridrina does not share it. They will not fight for where one stands at a crossroads, and each path leads to a future so wildly different from the other Valcotta.”
It was a dream that verged on madness that such a thing were possible, but it had been such dreams is made, and the ripples are not ripples at all but that had brought them through every trial and delivered them to this moment. Conviction boiled up from her heart. “If Keris says he will do it, then it will be done. He’s proven that to me time and again, and I do not doubt him now.”