Chapter 38 Ahnna
Ahnna
“Taryn!” Ahnna screamed her cousin’s name. “Taryn! Bronwyn!”
But over the wind and the gulls and the cursed marching band, her shouts were drowned out.
Ahnna lifted her hand as high as her restraints would allow to wave, and a rush of adrenaline filled her as her cousin’s eyes latched upon her.
Yet Taryn only frowned in confusion, and when Carlo affably waved back, so too did Taryn and Bronwyn.
Because all they saw was a peculiar noblewoman with wild hair and cosmetics, not Ahnna. Not James.
Katarina lifted a hand and waved. A horrifying moment ensued with them all staring at one another, and then Carlo gestured down the path. Taryn and Bronwyn carried on with him, all three laughing and smiling.
“It was most fortuitous that members of my dark guild were nearby when James so viciously arrested Lady Taryn,” Katarina said.
“They were able to slay the guards watching over her and flee, using Amarid’s channels to escape Harendell.
When Bronwyn arrived so desperate to save her love, I was able to ease her heart with the knowledge that Taryn was already safe and on her way to Riomar.
Taryn was distrustful of me at first, which was no surprise given the history between our nations, but gratitude goes a very long way.
Once there is a break in the storms, I have promised to dispatch both women back to Ithicana on my swiftest ship, one capable of evading the Harendellians, and I will ask for nothing in return other than that Aren agree to a meeting. ”
Tears poured down Ahnna’s face, floating over the waxy makeup and splattering against the balcony stone. Taryn was no fool. She knew the nature of Amarid and its queen. Had fought Amaridian raiders countless times, and there wasn’t a chance she’d forgotten that Katarina had aided Silas.
None of which Ahnna spoke aloud, and yet Katarina said, “Taryn might not have been amenable if James had not acted as he did. Barging into her sanctum in the conservatory, destroying the dream she’d finally achieved, and tearing her away from the Veliant princess she loves so dearly.
The mind is a funny thing, Ahnna, because somehow, all the resentment and hate Taryn once held for Amarid and Maridrina is now fixated upon Harendell—James, most especially.
When I deliver her to Aren, everything Taryn says, everything Taryn does, will center upon her need to destroy that which she hates most. If you think that she will not stoop to allying with an old enemy to do it, you are mistaken. ”
Ice pooled in Ahnna’s stomach that her cousin was being so cruelly manipulated. But she could not deny that the manipulation was masterful in its understanding of Taryn’s psyche, and Bronwyn did not have enough experience with Katarina to see through her schemes.
Then, out of the corner of her eye, Ahnna saw James move.
With Katarina’s forearm trapped where it was linked through his, James tried to throw himself over the balcony so as to drag the old queen with him. Katarina screeched, her nails digging deep into Ahnna’s arm, holding on just long enough for the dark guild soldiers to yank James back.
Katarina staggered into Ahnna, off balance. Ahnna dropped low and hooked her shoulder under the old woman’s bony ass, lifting.
The queen screamed, but before Ahnna could fling her into the moat below, the wardens were on her. The man caught hold of Katarina even as the woman jabbed Ahnna with a sharp needle.
Almost instantly, the world began to spin. Around and around, and Ahnna fell to her knees. Slumped on her side, the sky above swirling blue and white, her ears filled with the incessant noise of the marching band. Not unconscious, but unable to move.
“Ahnna!” James was shouting her name, the guards cursing as they struggled to contain him. Then he fell silent, no doubt to the same narcotic.
Above her, Katarina’s awful face appeared, lip bleeding where it had been cut on the jewels adorning her teeth.
“Poison has always been my favorite weapon.” The queen’s black eyes glittered with malice.
“Aren fears armies and swords. He fears starvation and disease. But when he falls, choking on his own blood and surrounded by the corpses of his people, the fear he feels as his heart beats its last will be of me.”