Chapter 63 Aren
Aren
“Look at this,” Aren said, pointing at the illustration in the book he was holding. “It’s a horse. They are horrible creatures but not nearly as bad as camels. Camels kick and bite and spit. The worst of them is a camel in Maridrina named Jack.”
Delia reached for the page and caught it with her tiny fist, forcing him to gently extract it. “You can’t rip your books. Your uncle Keris thinks you can do no wrong and he’ll blame me. He’s already referred to me as an enemy of the written word for burning my library down.”
In typical infant fashion, his daughter cared nothing about the abuses her father suffered at her uncle’s hand and Delia shrieked in protest at being denied the book. Aren gave her a silver rattle, which she promptly hurled to the floor.
“I appreciate a girl who knows what she wants.”
Starting at Ahnna’s voice, Aren looked up to find his sister leaning against the doorframe, and a band of emotion tightened around his chest so fiercely that he could barely breathe.
Ahnna was covered in bruises and scrapes, her right arm in a splint, and her body so thin she looked like a wraith, but she was here.
His sister was alive.
“Fatherhood looks good on you, brother,” she remarked. “You appear ready to settle down into middle age and get soft while the younger generation runs about having adventures.”
“I literally just came from the battlefield. And I’d like to remind you that you and I are the exact same age.”
“I know.” Ahnna grinned. “But I’m not the one sitting on a sofa with a drink explaining to a baby the risks of associating with a camel named Jack.”
“If you’d met Jack, you’d understand.”
His twin laughed, then came into the room and walked the length of the shelves. “Where did you get the new library?”
“Where do you think?”
She huffed. “Keris. He does understand that you can’t eat a book, yes?”
“I won’t pretend to understand what that man thinks.”
Ahnna trailed her finger down the spines, but then pulled out a volume and flipped through the pages. “On the merits of using bronze rather than copper for small coinage. Sounds fascinating.”
“Keris has eclectic tastes.”
“Katarina told us Keris is in Verwyrd. Other than being manipulated by Alexandra, what’s his reason for risking Lestara’s wrath?”
“Officially, to be an intermediary between Harendell and Ithicana. Unofficially, he’s my spy, although you’re correct that he’s not going to be pleased to learn that Alexandra outwitted him.”
“Alexandra makes the Magpie look like a bumbling idiot, and compared with Petra, she’s alarmingly sane.
” Ahnna was quiet for a long moment as she stared blindly at the pages of the book.
“Yet I think her greatest attribute is that she’s profoundly patient.
Thirty years, Aren. James’s whole life, she’s known the truth about Siobhan and the threat it posed to her and her children, but she bided her time until now. ”
“I underestimated her,” he admitted. “Edward was the one person I was confident she would not cross, but here we are.”
“Here we are,” Ahnna repeated, then crossed the room to sit on the sofa next to him. “May I hold her?”
Delia scrunched up her face in protest as he lifted her off his chest and settled her in the crook of Ahnna’s arm, eyeing the splint. “Is that broken?”
“It’s more or less healed. Carlo broke it when he caught us to prove a point, and James insists I keep it splinted.
” She handed Delia the book on coinage, his daughter instantly ripping out pages, cooing in delight at the noise.
Ahnna lowered her lips to Delia’s ear and whispered, “I’ll burn the evidence later so that Keris never knows. ”
“He’ll do inventory,” Aren muttered. “Keris is like a goddamned librarian. And he drinks all my best wine.” He sighed. “But he’s in the thick of it for our sake.”
“What about Zarrah?”
A flood of frustrated anger surged through him.
“Entirely silent. She hasn’t responded to any of my letters, and the Valcottan merchants trading at Southwatch say that she’s been out of public view.
Lots of chatter about conflict between her and Keris, but Valcotta is also said to have wasting disease in their herds.
They’ve had to do significant culling, which has had the impact you might imagine. ”
“None of this sounds like Zarrah.” Ahnna frowned. “What about Sarhina?”
“She’s rendered herself borderline powerless.
I got into it with a few of Maridrina’s elected representatives, and they’ve made it clear their interest is the resumption of trade on the bridge, not Ithicana’s autonomy.
They’ll throw us to the wolves for the sake of Harendellian beef.
Sarhina has sway with them, but she won’t risk her people for personal interests. ”
“Having endured Alexandra and Katarina, there is something to be said for a queen who puts her people first, even if it is not in our interests. Maridrina needed a ruler like Sarhina.” Ahnna adjusted Delia on her lap, watching her niece continue to shred pieces of paper.
“We’ve got weather coming in. The next storm will be a big one. ”
Thunder from the squall currently over Midwatch boomed, and Delia jerked in surprise and then began to cry. Aren reached for her, but Ahnna tucked the baby closer, cooing and calming Delia’s tears.
“I always forget how good you are with children.”
“Lots of practice. I lost count of how many I helped Nana deliver before you liberated me and put me in command of Southwatch.”
“You’re welcome.”
Ahnna smiled, stroking Delia’s dark hair. “She’s perfect. I’ve thought about her a lot since she was born. Wondered what she might be like. Feared for her when I learned how bad things were. Katarina…she…” His sister gave a sharp shake of her head. “Never mind.”
It was easy for him to imagine the sort of threats that Amarid’s queen might have voiced. What sort of threats Edward had voiced. “What happened to you, Ahnna? It feels like a lifetime since you fled Verwyrd, but all you and James told us was about Alexandra and Katarina’s schemes.”
His sister was quiet, but he didn’t miss how the pulse in her throat beat faster as though she was reliving a nightmare. “I don’t want to talk about most of it.” Then she gave him a half smile, meeting his gaze. “Katarina put us in the Furnace, which was where we were for much of it.”
Aren’s stomach hollowed, because he’d spent time in Riomar and knew all about the horrors of the infamous prison. The idea that it hadn’t been the worst thing his twin had endured to get back to Ithicana made him feel sick. “How did you manage to escape?”
“The cells are crusted with decades worth of piss. Using that, a bit of trickery, and a lot of luck, I made a bomb.”
“A piss bomb…” A laugh tore from his lips, because of course Ahnna had figured that out. She’d always been the cleverer one, especially with making bombs. But then a thought occurred to him. “Katarina has to assume that you and James came here.”
“She’ll certainly assume we tried.” Ahnna looked up as more thunder boomed overhead. “But the Tempest Seas sink many ships, and the vessel we were in was not fit for storms.”
“Any Ithicanian worth her salt can ride a raft with a handkerchief for a sail through the worst of storms, and you’re Ithicanian to your core.”
Ahnna’s slight smile fell away, and her bottom lip trembled until she bit down on it. It struck Aren that his twin was hanging on to composure by a thread.
What happened to her? Fury filled him that she’d had to endure all of this.
Fury at Alexandra, Katarina, and everyone else who’d harmed Ahnna, but also at himself.
He’d been harsh with her when they’d spoken in Verwyrd, putting her in a terrible position and showing not an ounce of empathy for what she’d felt.
Ahnna slowly looked up at him, her hazel eyes liquid with tears. “Thank you for letting me come home.”
Aren’s eyes burned, and he scrubbed a hand across them to push away tears that she’d feared he might turn on her. “Always.” He slung an arm around her shoulders, and his sister leaned against his shoulder.
There were so many things Aren wanted to say, but he couldn’t articulate them even to himself.
The clearest feeling was the profound sense of relief he felt having his twin at his back again, because with Ahnna here, it felt like Ithicana might have a fighting chance of survival.
Yet all he said was, “It’s good to have you here. ”
“It’s good to be home.” She picked up a handful of torn paper and tossed it in the air, Delia smiling as it floated to the floor. “You and James can stand on the bridge top and see who can piss the farthest if you must, but it’s important to me that you try to get along with him.”
“He hasn’t tried very hard to get along with me in any of the instances I’ve been in his presence.” Aren picked up his drink and swallowed a large mouthful. “I’ve never met a man so willing to pick a fight.”
“James would do anything for me.” She twirled a lock of Delia’s dark hair around her finger, his daughter drifting in the direction of sleep. “Even stand up to you.”
Something in his sister’s tone suggested that her words meant more than they seemed to on the surface, and Aren immediately felt defensive. “What’s that supposed to mean? People stand up to me all the time.”
“Not for me, they don’t.”
“Lara—”
“She’s different, so don’t even try using her as an example.” Ahnna’s body had gone rigid. “This has nothing to do with her, so don’t go down that path.”
Aren had no idea what Ahnna was talking about, and seeming to sense that, she huffed out a breath of frustration and said, “No one has ever taken my side over yours.”
Despite knowing that it was the wrong thing to do, Aren scoffed. “This is childish. Can we have one moment when you aren’t picking a fight about some imagined grievance? Don’t we have bigger issues?”
“Don’t trivialize me!” she snarled, but then winced and soothed Delia before drawing in a deep breath.
“I have been your shadow my entire life, Aren. I have had your back, done what needed doing, and held Ithicana together when you could not. I never begrudged my role. Never wanted more, because you were my brother. The heir to Ithicana and then my king, and I felt pride in my loyalty to you. But from a young age, I knew that you mattered more to everyone. I came first for no one.”
Aren’s lips parted to say that she’d come first for him, but then stopped, remembering the moment when that had dramatically changed.
When Ahnna had confronted him about bringing Lara to Maridrina and then accidentally knocked Lara off the bridge.
How instead of being reasonable, he’d lashed out and told Ahnna he didn’t want to see her face again.
How he’d refused to have anything to do with her until military matters demanded that he must, and then immediately done his best to continue avoiding her.
All because his sister had questioned his actions with Lara.
Even if Lara had been wholly innocent, Ahnna, as the commander of Southwatch, had been in the right to call him out, and yet no one other than Lara herself had said a word in Ahnna’s defense. No one. Not. Once.
Not even Jor.
Not even Nana.
“People treated me like I wasn’t a person but an extension of you,” she whispered, stroking the now-sleeping Delia’s hair.
“Which meant anything anyone ever did or said to me was done with a mind for how you might respond. No one wanted to upset you. No one wanted to make you angry. Everyone wanted to make you happy. So everyone kept a buffer of distance with me, and if that buffer was crossed in a way you might take issue with, it didn’t matter how I felt.
All they’d ever do is beg me not to tell you. ”
“Ahnna—”
“Don’t.” She rubbed at her eyes, voice choked. “Don’t apologize, because it’s not your fault. It’s a function of who we are in this world, and I don’t blame you for it. I only want you to understand why James risking your anger—risking your cutting his throat—for my sake matters so much.”
Aren blew out a breath from between his teeth, not entirely certain how to feel about everything she’d said. “Does he have attributes other than a willingness to fistfight me, or was that all it took to win your heart?”
Ahnna gave a choked laugh. “Have you seen him?”
“His good looks hold no weight with me. I have heard he’s a good fighter, though. Many medals for valor, which is more important than pretty eyes.”
Ahnna gave an amused snort, but then her eyes grew distant. “When I am with him, I feel like I am finally whole.”
Aren’s chest tightened with a swell of unexpected emotion, because he’d never heard his sister speak like that about anyone.
Never seen that expression on her face. If it was James who made Ahnna feel like this, then Aren would do his best to like the man.
Even if he was an arrogant Harendellian prick.
“Where is she?” Nana’s familiar voice filtered through the house, and Aren felt an overwhelming urge to find somewhere to hide.
Knowing that their grandmother would be in a mood after everything that had happened, Aren scrambled to his feet. “Speaking of James, I think I’ll find the man in question and see about getting to know him better. Don’t move. You should never wake a sleeping baby.”
Ahnna glared at him. “Coward.”
He grinned at her, then swiftly strode out the door of the library. Nana was half running down the hallway, and he lifted a hand in greeting and then turned to escape, nearly slamming directly into James.
“If you value your life,” he said before the prince could speak, “come with me.”
James eyed the approaching force of nature, and while he might have been willing to fistfight a king to be with Ahnna, apparently that bravery did not extend to getting in the path of Nana. “All right.”