Yaseema
“You gave away your position forher?”
The voice was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. The woman was livid though, her shout echoing around me.
An angry response was given, the words low and biting—thatvoice I knew. I felt it on my skin, in my chest, as if it were a part of my own consciousness.
Kiyan.
As soon as I thought of him, waves of memories came back to me—the kiss, the soldiers in the forest, the Viceroy breaking my legs.
But when I brought awareness back to my body, I realized I wasn’t in agony like I had been with the Viceroy. Instead, my entire body was numb, the sensation dull.
There was pain there still, but it was much less than I expected. I groaned, attempting to move my legs, but they were bound to something.
“Shhhh,” a soft female voice whispered in my ear, different from the other two. “Rest now.”
But as calming as the voice was, panic rose in my chest at being tied up. If I was tied somewhere, the Viceroy could get to me again. I thrashed, pushing against my restraints, my vision still black and blurred.
“Help me with her,” that same voice called.
“You’re safe,” Kiyan whispered in my ear. “You’re safe.”
He stroked my arm, whispering the words over and over again. Eventually I slipped back into darkness, the feeling of his fingertips still brushing against my skin.
I woke again, and this time light filtered through my room.
No, not a room, but a tent.
I sat up, but it was too quick and sent my head spinning.
“Careful, you shouldn’t move that fast, not with everything in your system. I’ve had to heal your bones after the Viceroy broke them. It wasn’t an easy feat and I had to dose you with multiple potions to assist our life magic.”
I glanced between my fingers to see a woman a little older than me standing beside my bed. She had long light brown hair that curled at the ends and fell at her waist. Her face was kind and patient. I’d never seen her before, but her expression set me at ease immediately.
I lifted my hand to see I was in a large tent, less grand than the tents when we’d traveled with the Viceroy, but still fairly substantial. I wondered if the same magic of twigs and leaves created this.
It was homey, with a plush plum-colored embroidered rug and a small desk scattered with papers and books, as well as a pot of steeping tea set on it. I swallowed, realizing how parched I was, how raw my throat had become from all my screaming.
Screaming when the Viceroy had tortured me.
Tears began to burn at the corner of my eyes, and a sense of panic took hold of me once more.
“Where am I?” I croaked, trying to tamp down the rising anxiety in my chest.
I cast my mind back to what I could remember. The last thing I recalled was being in the forest, nearly at the River, with the crown in my skirts.
The Viceroy discovering me. Torturing Ramishah.
My bones snapping, the empty expression in his eyes.
I shuddered, my gaze flicking back to the woman beside my bed and then down at my legs. I managed to push myself up on my elbows and lifted the smooth cotton sheet that was covering me.
My legs were wrapped in some sort of brace made of tree branches and strips of cloth. A thick yellow paste that smelled of turmeric was slathered over them.
“It wasn’t easy to repair so many broken bones, especially ones broken by the Viceroy’s magic.” Her voice was kind, but I still clutched the bedsheet in my hands, trying to still my shaking. The memory of the burning pain in my legs flashed through me.
“You didn’t answer my question,” I gritted out, hysteria causing my voice to raise higher. I wasn’t in the dungeons, nor in my room in the palace. But that didn’t mean the Viceroy wasn’t nearby.
