Chapter Forty-Four #3
More death. More violence. Ronan was completely right. It’s never going to end. “Brakkar is our ally. I’m sorry for what happened to you, but how can you think it entitles you to all of their lands? There are other ways to stop the people who hurt you.”
Adria looks at me and then at Mother. “I told you she would need persuading.”
“So be it. See if the others have arrived yet, will you?”
My blood runs cold as Adria goes to the door.
Mother approaches me, her bony hands tightening around my wrists.
“You may not like it, but you are staying here, and you will repay the debt you owe this family. You will make up for what you’ve made your sister suffer.
You can tell us what we need to know the easy way, or we can bleed it out of you.
Your decision.” She looks over my shoulder at Seth, who I feel approaching me, ready to defend me. “And that goes for you as well.”
Adria returns then, pushing two hooded figures into the room. She throws them to the floor and then yanks the hoods off their heads.
Larus and Octavia.
Adria shakes her head. “I should have known. No one recognized them, but I should have known.”
Larus blinks, his eyes adjusting to the candlelight in the room. “Sylvie?” he asks, looking at my mother. Then he leaps back in shock. “Diana. My gods. You’re alive.”
“Hello again, Larus. I wish we were meeting again under different circumstances. You were always Lysander’s favorite.”
“Diana, please.” Larus struggles against the ropes binding him, pulling himself into a sitting position. “You know I’ve always been loyal to this family. I tried to protect them. When I realized they were on different sides, I tried to save them both. I swear it.”
“I believe you,” says Mother. She strokes his cheek in a way that makes my skin crawl. “But in the end, you chose. And you chose wrong.”
“Well, Sylvie,” says Adria, coming alongside Mother. “I imagine you can guess how this is going to go. Tell us what Ronan is planning, all of it, and we’ll let them live. Refuse, and they die.”
“Don’t do it, Sylvie,” says Octavia urgently. “Don’t tell them a goddamn thing.”
“It will change nothing,” says Larus. “She can tell you every location of every legion in this world, and it won’t change a thing.
We got the elixirs. You’ve lost. Use Sylvie to negotiate your surrender, and Ronan will be lenient with you.
She’s everything to him.” He’s trying to protect me even now.
Mother laughs cruelly. “It would be a shame if that were true, but it isn’t. Sylvara, you know what you need to do. And Seth, you’ll be our confirmation that she isn’t lying. If you tell us something different, we’ll know we can’t believe you.”
Seth and I look at each other, and I know we’re both thinking the same thing.
We’re fucked.
There’s no way we can tell the same lie, and there’s no way we can tell them the truth. Ronan is already going to be at a disadvantage if they have even a small number of anti-magic elixirs. We can’t afford to lose any of the advantages we have.
But I can’t let Larus die. Larus, the father who was there for me when no one else was. Larus, the man who risked everything to save me from the people he was sworn to serve.
Larus, the man who raised me.
If I tell them what I know, it could hurt Ronan’s chances, but he’s an excellent military leader. He’ll find a way to overcome it. I believe in him.
But if I don’t, Larus will die, and Octavia, a woman of uncommonly generous spirit, who had no history with us, but who has helped us at every opportunity, will die as well.
I won’t let that happen.
“I’ll tell you everything. Everything you want to know.” Larus and Octavia continue protesting, but they stop when they hear the finality in my voice. “Seth, don’t lie. Just tell them everything you know. It’s the only way.”
I can only hope it’s enough.
Seth is led from the room as Adria uncovers the map.
I move the markers to where they ought to be, but I do manage one lie, and it’s a pretty major one: I under count them by about half.
Although Seth has been involved with the strategy, I know he’s out of date on the Brakkari legion planning, having slept through a recent meeting.
He won’t know where those soldiers will be deployed, and hopefully, he’ll have the sense not to mention them.
For the first time ever, I thank the gods for Seth being, well, Seth.
Adria removes the markers once more, and then she allows me to watch as Seth puts them nearly exactly where I did. I breathe a sigh of relief as he moves the last of the Minar legions in place without a single mention of Brakkar.
We’ve done it. We’ve managed to give them enough to go on. Let them assume the Brakkari legions are among these numbers. Let them underestimate the support Ronan has among the refugee Selarans and the Orsa. They have always underestimated him, just like they’ve underestimated me.
And, I realize as my mother draws her knife, just like I’ve underestimated them.
I barely have time to scream, “No!” before she drives her knife into Larus’s chest, striking him right through the heart.