“I nearly died that night. I was in an inn near the Irai Oasis. Ronan’s camp was stationed along the river, and my people had joined his forces. Aurelian’s assassins found my servants first. He never had much skill with quiet killing. One of them, my dear Hestia, screamed, and I stole away out the window before theyarrived. I watched for a time from a nearby palm grove. They carried away Hestia’s body, and I realized they believed it to be my own. We were of a similar complexion and build. I couldn’t risk being recognized in Ronan’s camp, so I made my way south on foot.”
It’s strange hearing Ronan’s name in this context. And even stranger when I realize he was only eighteen when this happened. “Why south?” I ask. The Machair Plains hadn’t been scoured yet then. If she had been able to go around Ronan’s camp, she could have been back in our territory in a few days.
“Because Father and I were in Minar,” says Adria, shaking her head at my ignorance. “She was trying to get back to us.”
“I thought it would be simple. But Adria’s legions were engaged to the northeast against Aurelian’s, and your father was out at sea with that Adama woman fighting his navy. I tried for the harbor, but I was caught trying to steal a dinghy. A Brakkari slaver, a fellow shadow-born out to profit off of Selara’s misery.”
That makes no sense. “Brakkar doesn’t have slaves.”
“Oh, sweet Sylvara. You’re as innocent as ever.” She reaches across the table and strokes my hand, and the gesture is so calming, and my heart is so broken for her, I nearly forget every doubt I have. “Everywhere has slaves. It may not be legal, but wherever someone has power over others, there will always be slavery. I was bought and sold in the black markets of Solia. It took seven years for me to escape the mines. Then two years for me to secure enough money for passage back here. And another year almost for me to find someone who could get me to where I needed to be.”
Let me guess. “Felix March?”
She nods. “He trades in Solia, and he has a mouth as big as his ego. He managed to let slip that he’d met you in a tavern where I was running an operation. He was smart enough not to use your names, but I realized who he was talking about and what youwere planning. It took a bit of…negotiation to get him to trust me. I told him to find a way to get word to you that I was coming, but clearly, he chose not to do so. I’m sure he was trying to find a way to profit off of the information.”
Forget punching. I’m going to gut that slimy bastard if we ever get out of here. “So you came back here to help Adria,” I say, cautiously twisting the ring Ronan gave me.
“I came back here to return to all of you. I thought you would be together; that’s how Felix had made it sound. Gods, I was proud of you when I heard what you had done. It was an extraordinary plan. By the time we set out, Faros had fallen. I thought I would be greeting you all at the palace. My family, reunited at last, Vahlo save your father’s soul.” Her eyes—my eyes in her face—turn to ice as she looks at me. “Tell me, Sylvara. Is that Calia’s ring on your finger?”
I tuck my hand beneath the table like a child with a stolen toy. “Mother, I—”
She pushes her chair back, the wood scraping the stone of the floor so loudly it makes me jump. She grips its arms, but she does not rise. “Do not lie to me, Sylvara.” Her tone is exactly the same as Seth when he says it. “I knew Calia for years. Is that her ring on your left hand?”
Adria turns to look at me for the first time since we returned. “Youmarriedhim?”
I ignore her, looking only at my mother. I have to make her understand. It’s my only chance. “Mother, please. We found your journals. I know you saw the connection between us. Ronan isn’t like his father. He’s different. If you had been here, if we could have tried to make things right—”
“Ronankilledyour father. You can’t imagine how I felt when I heard it. The news was so hard to come by in the mines. I didn’t know for months what had happened to your brother and sister.I prayed every day for their protection. He killed yourfather, Sylvara. My Lysander. How could you?”
I eye Seth nervously, silently begging him not to say anything.
“It isn’t like you think,” he begins, and all of the color drains from my face.
Please don’t do this.
Seth shakes his head, turning from me to Mother, his beloved Mother, and in this moment, I hate him more than I’ve ever hated anyone. “It was a duel, Mother. Father requested it. They fought up on that hilltop.” He looks at me, his face unreadable. I seethe in response. “And Father lost. It was a fair fight, a fair loss.”
I keep my own expression neutral, mirroring his, but inside, I’m screaming with gratitude. Maybe after everything we’ve been through, I can truly count on Seth.
“You’re so fucking naïve. I’ve never believed that. General Sullius never returned. We can never know that. Unless you learned it from yourlover.” Adria spits the word like it’s made of acid. “Mother, he’s as lost as she is. You were right.”
Mother turns to Seth now, regarding him with the same coldness. Seth flinches under her gaze. “They tell me Ronan took that Orsa of his as a guard, and that you were found living with him?”
“In the same house,” Seth says, his ears going red. “Notwithhim. Not like that.”
“You shared a house with an Orsa, and we’re supposed to be grateful that you weren’t fucking him?”
Seth and I look at each other, shocked to hear the words from our mother’s mouth.
Adria pulls herself up, her back stretching with sanctimonious anger. “Gods, they’re still children. Look at them blushing like they’ve been caught with their hands in the sweetsbasket. You both betrayed us. Your family, your people. If I had my way, I’d put your heads on spikes tonight.”
Mother stands finally, and we all stand up with her. “I must confess, I had hoped you sister was wrong about you, Sylvara. I understood her anger, but I had hoped there was some explanation for it. Maybe you had realized a flaw in her plans and had made some of your own. Maybe you had taken after me and learned to keep things secret for the greater good, even when it hurt you to do so. Or maybe he had taken you against your will. Maybe you were a prisoner, like I was.
“And Seth, I believed for some time that you were too. We spent months trying to find you. We scoured Selara and Nithyria. We even had Felix searching Brakkar. I was terrified you’d ended up somewhere like I did. I didn’t believe it when they found you. I swore they were mistaken, that someone had disguised themselves as you, that you must have been in chains.
“But now I see the truth. And yet I still cannot let you go. You are my children.” Her voice catches, and when she lifts her hand to her cheek to wipe away a tear, I begin to cry as well. “You cannot imagine what I have done to return to you. I will not give up on you so easily.”
“Mother,” says Seth miserably, a tear in the corner of his eye. “Please. I’ve missed you so much. It doesn’t have to be like this. You know another war is coming. There’s still time. We can negotiate; you have us now, and Ronan will do anything to get her back—”
