Chapter 3 #2
In her letter, Tesni had promised that the King wouldn’t be anywhere near the castle or grounds when I arrived, but I trust Tesni’s promises as much as I trust the local drunk to abstain from a pint at the tavern.
I barely fight the urge to glance over my shoulder, as if the bastard might be lurking in some darkened corner, waiting to attack.
Let him try, I think with a savagery that surprises me.
My hatred for the King is almost as strong as my hatred for my sister, but really, he owed me nothing.
I was his ward, nothing more. Tesni, on the other hand. ..
Tesni’s eyes darken at the mention of the King.
“He’s away on kingdom business.” She sounds bitter.
I keep my expression blank, but I am curious about this hostility.
King Barony had made Tesni’s life practically perfect.
She was fawned over as a Gifted and protected by the King’s wealth and status.
Even as far south as Helios, there was talk of Lyanna’s stunning Gifted.
The Flame of Lyanna. The Burning Beauty.
The Fire Bitch. Tesni was infamous, though she hadn’t exactly endeared herself to the people of Lyanna or any other kingdom—she was rumored to be cold and arrogant, refusing to lift a finger to help anyone unless she (or more accurately, King Barony) was paid handsomely for it.
But pay they did. Her Gifts of fire came in great use across the north when deep winter can bring twenty feet of snow over the course of one night, and her ability to raze cadres to ash had been instrumental in helping Barony to keep his throne when there was an uprising several years back.
I never quite gathered the reason for the uprising in the gossip about the tavern from sailors and peddlers.
Some claimed other kingdoms thought to take over Lyanna, others that Lyanna’s own people rose up against their king.
But why would they do that? Lyanna was one of the most prosperous in all of Hypathia thanks to its gold mines.
No matter the reason for it, all of the stories of that fight ended the same: Tesni burning them where they stood and leaving nothing but smoking embers behind.
I can’t imagine such destruction, but I have no doubt that Tesni felt no guilt for what she’d done, all those lives lost. Her power had only grown over the years, and I have to admit that she’s… formidable.
Well, so am I. And a Gifted can bleed just like anyone else…
I merely nod and sip my wine. It’s sweet, but there’s a tangy undercurrent that I don’t enjoy.
I know it’s probably obscenely expensive as everything in Barony’s palace is, but perhaps that’s why I don’t enjoy it.
The refined pallet I’d had for the first twelve years of my life living within this castle and being fed delicacies for every meal, only the finest meats and cheeses and fruits brought from all over the continent and shipped from the surrounding islands, had been lost long ago.
Out on my own with not a coin to my name, I’d had to resort to eating out of trash bins to avoid starvation.
I’d even made meals of worms and grubs when I’d been hiding within the woods along the roads, stomach cramping horribly from hunger.
I’d sobbed for hours the first time I’d killed a hare in my desperate desire for meat—and had nearly vomited up my spoils afterwards.
“How did you find me?” I ask, unable to keep the question at bay any longer.
Her lips curl into a smug smile. “I’d been studying the books in the library on alchemy for years before you…
left.” Left. As if that’s what I fucking did.
Just decided to take a nice little stroll through the continent.
I clench my jaw but hold my tongue, my desire to know the story outweighing my fury.
Barely. “I knew that blood could be instrumental in myriad things, so when we saw the aftermath in the grand entrance, I collected what I knew to be yours and kept it, just in case…”
I inhale sharply and take another sip of wine, clenching the goblet so tightly I feel the crystal creak beneath my fingers.
“I brought one of Barony’s alchemists into my confidences and he was able to use old, nearly forgotten ways to track you using your blood.”
I frown. “Barony’s alchemists?”
She blinks and for a moment I can tell that she’s said something she didn’t mean to, but she recovers quickly, putting on that perfect mask and waving it away.
“He’s had a team of them for ages, working on all manner of things: ways to manipulate and replicate the gold stores, that kind of thing.” She gives me an admonishing look then. “You don’t remember? The building near the conservatory?”
My brow furrows as I try to recall ever seeing this place or these people, not having any memories of such a thing, but I start to get a headache and decide it’s better to avoid thoughts of the past altogether.
“And why did Barony believe I was dead?” I remember the words sending shivers up my spine when I’d read them in that first ominous letter she’d sent. Barony believes you to be dead, thanks to me.
“Because we showed him your body, of course.” I blanch at that and it only makes her smile.
“He was relentless in his search for you, and it was taking attention from me. So, I made it stop.” She shrugs as if this makes perfect sense and it strikes me how truly spoiled and petulant and fucking heartless she’s become.
Always has been, I suppose. “We found a beggar girl that no one would miss. She was on the brink of death anyway, so really, we were doing her a favor, in the end.” My stomach roils and I look at the monster that was my sister, completely aghast. “We altered her appearance to look enough like you that Barony would never know the difference and that was the end of the search. Very few knew you existed at all, it turns out—Barony kept us cooped up inside these grounds for a reason. He wanted no one to know what he had in his possession lest they try to take it. Well, at least until one of us was powerful enough to put fear into his enemies and coin into his pocket, that is. He only told King Morthan about us at all because he needed more troops to bolster his army and Enola was willing to give them in exchange for a Gifted. Plus, they were of some relation. Third or fourth cousins, perhaps, I can’t recall the particulars. ”
It takes me a few moments before I can speak again.
“So, you…you killed an innocent girl and somehow made her look like me?”
She tilts her head, brow furrowing as if she can’t understand my indignation.
“Yes. It was the simplest way to end the search and let you live your life far, far away from here and for me to become what I was meant to become. You should be thanking me, really.”
“Why not just kill me?” I spit. She studies me for a moment before answering, and that cool calculation flashes in her eyes once more.
“I know you think I’m heartless, but I don’t want you dead, Thea. You’re still my twin.”
I get the feeling that there’s more to that sentence that she’s not saying, but before I can press, the door opens and a man enters.
He’s young and good looking enough, though I would call his features a bit bland.
Brown hair, brown eyes, average height, average build.
He isn’t ugly, but he’s not anyone I would look at twice.
I prefer men who are a bit more…rough-hewn.
Men who have a rugged air about them. Men who look like they can fight off bandits or dragons alike, drain a tankard of ale, and snatch me against them for a deep kiss afterwards before carting me off to the bedroom over their shoulder.
I like rough palms and rougher cheeks. This man looks as if he’s never done any work for himself in his life.
If he’s ever raised a hand, it was only to ring a bell for a servant.
“Thea, this is Hastings, the King’s High Advisor.” That explains the soft look of him. The man nods in greeting.
“I trust you had a good journey?”
“It was…pleasant enough,” I say, lips curling ever so slightly at the memories in Randolph’s cabin. Hastings blinks as he studies me.
“Great Makers, even with the differing hair and eyes, the resemblance between you is uncanny,” he says, looking between me and Tesni, his eyes alight with excitement. I press my lips into a hard line in response. Tesni smiles and gestures towards my now empty goblet.
“Another?” she asks, taking another sip of her own wine.
I nod. The unease of not knowing why the fuck I’m here grows with every second that passes.
Maybe more wine will help calm my rattling nerves.
Tesni is at least doing me the honor of pretending she can’t force me to cooperate with whatever she’s requesting—or so she thinks, anyway.
She may have leverage over me, but I decided on the journey here that if I have to kill my sister to be rid of her shadow over my life, I will.
I’m prepared to do what needs to be done.
I’m…eighty percent sure I could go through with it.
“Please, allow me,” Hastings says, taking my goblet with a small bow.
Tesni holds hers out to him as well in a haughty way that just screams princess.
She isn’t one, technically, but she may as well be growing up here and with Barony having no children and never marrying.
Hastings refills them both from the carafe and hands them back to each of us, a genial smile to me, a doting one to Tesni.
She smiles back, her features softening for a moment.
Does she…care for him? He steps away, moving to stoke the fire in the hearth.
I take another long sip of wine to give me what Math calls liquid bravery.
“Why am I here, Tesni? What’s so important that you demanded I come?”